Toronto man's side hustle making calzones leads to new restaurant gig
A Toronto man has quit his job to pursue his side gig of creating some of the cheesiest, steamiest calzones the city's ever seen full time.
Longtime server and bartender, Neil Foerster, began the journey that would one day lead to his calzone business, Cal's Zone, during pandemic lockdowns, making pizza every Friday night at home.
"Every week I'd make dough, sometimes starting as early as Tuesday, and every Friday we'd eat pizza," Neil writes in a Facebook post about the business.
"One Friday I opted to try out calzones instead of pizza," Neil writes, "and that was a life altering choice."
From there, Neil began creating calzones for friends and family before starting to do pop-ups at local businesses and breweries like Left Field Brewery and The Sidekick — naming the business after a beloved family cat, Cal.
You can expect traditional pizza flavours to be calzone-ified at Cal's, like pepperoni and Hawaiian, but some of Neil's best work can be found in his out-of-the-box options, like a Big Mac calzone made in collaboration with The Wren, Neil's former place of work.
Now, after two years of pop-ups, Cal's Zone has officially settled on a permanent location — taking over the kitchen space at Leslieville' s Radical Road Brewing.
"Calzones and great beer," Neil writes. "There's not a better combo."
You'll now be able to try a Cal's Zone calzone (try saying that ten times,) at Radical Road on Thursdays between 4 and 9 p.m. and Friday to Sunday between noon and 9 p.m.
