Toronto pizzeria closes down only physical location
A Toronto pizza place that opened to much fanfare has closed down their only devoted physical location after just under two years.
Chicago, New York, Naples, Rome; all cities that call to mind their own unique styles of pizza, whether specializing in paper-thin crusts or blasphemous concoctions where the cheese goes under the sauce (sorry, Chicago).
For Sara McCulloch and Ryan Silber, however, it was Detroit's take on the permanently-popular Italian treat that stole their hearts and prompted them to create Oswald's Pizza.
Created, originally, as a pandemic project while their catering company, Encore, slowed down due to lockdowns, head chef, McCulloch, got to work experimenting with the regional pizza style, settling on a unique (and to die for, if I do say so myself,) format that used focaccia as a crust.
After operating out of North York for a couple of years, McCulloch and Silber took it up a notch in 2023, opening the venture's first-ever brick and mortar location in Chefs Hall, immediately taking the curated food hall and pizzaholics around the city by storm.
It was a short and sweet run for Oswald's, though, as Chef's Hall recently took to their Instagram to bid farewell to the pizzeria, announcing that its location in the food hall has officially closed its doors (metaphorically, of course, because it didn't actually have any).
"Sad to see you go, @oswaldspizza," the caption reads. "You’ve turned every bite into a little slice of happiness."
"From cheesy goodness to saucy perfection, you’ve given us more than just full stomachs — you’ve left us with some seriously tasty memories."
Silber tells blogTO that, although Oswald's has said goodbye to the Chefs Hall space, this is far from the end for the pizzeria.
Oswald's fans are still able to get their hands on the Detroit-style pies through Encore Catering (which, I might add, is one of Toronto's best catering companies,) weekly, and, Silber adds, there are already plans in place for the pizza business to host and attend pop-ups in the near future.
As far as brick-and-mortar locations go, while there's nothing set in stone, Silber says fans will likely be able to pick up the pizza at a physical location in the future — you'll just have to stay tuned to find out when that is.
On the bright side, this means that there's an opening for a new spot at Chefs Hall and I, for one, can't wait to see what it'll be.
Chef's Hall is located at 111 Richmond West, and houses 15 different food and drink concepts, including outposts of Grandma Loves You and Pokito.
Fareen Karim
