A new restaurant for gourmet artisanal pizza just opened its doors in Toronto

Pizza is super popular in Toronto, and now the city has one more source for it with the opening of a cool new gourmet restaurant for artisanal pies.

Nice Slice has now opened in a trendy, cute neighbourhood in Toronto, slinging pies that take things way beyond your average cheese and pepperoni pizza.

Their menu is simple, with the sophistication save for the actual offerings themselves: Nice Slice serves whole pizza pies and pizza by the slice, along with classy wines and beer that’s intended to complement the food.

Nice Slice does serve cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza, and they also serve a classic Hawaiian pizza that kicks things up a notch compared to your average pizzeria with roasted pineapple and double smoked bacon. They also serve a traditional red pie with red sauce, sliced garlic, parmesan cheese and olive oil.

The twists begin with a new take on pepperoni and cheese pizzas: in addition to getting them with a base of red sauce at Nice Slice, you can also get these pizzas with a vodka-based sauce as the foundation.

Here’s where things get interesting: they’ve also got their own creation on the menu that sticks to Italian traditions while reinventing things just a little bit. A sausage and long hots pizza at Nice Slice is topped with red sauce, mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage, long hot peppers and hot honey for even more added zing.

But wait, there’s more. Nice Slice’s menu thinks even more outside of the box when it comes to their zaatar pie. It feels like a take on a manakeesh or other Middle Eastern flatbread pie, which is often topped with the zaatar spice blend that’s popular in that region. Their zaatar pie combines these influences with Italian inspiration, topped with zaatar sauce, mozzarella cheese, pesto, olives, ricotta and pomegranate molasses.

Nice Slice actually also makes their own homemade dips. There’s a creamy garlic and hot honey for now, but they’re also at work on an extra hot ghost honey.

“Thank you so much to my incredible team who learned how to do what we do on the fly with poise and passion,” reads a social media post from Nice Slice announcing they had soft opened just a few days ago.

“Thank you to all my friends and family who have shown me so much love and support in getting this thing off the ground. Thanks to the Harbord village community for welcoming me to the neighbourhood!”

Nice Slice is now open at 196 Borden St.

1. Nice Slice