People in Toronto are obsessing over secretive new pizza shop that keeps selling out
A Toronto ghost kitchen churning out Detroit-style pizzas has been the talk of the Junction for the past month, but its story actually starts about two decades ago.
When Profound Pizza founder, Colin Breen, was laid off from his corporate job working for a major grocery store chain in 2024, his friend, Digs Dorfman, founder of The Sweet Potato in the Junction, asked Breen what he could do next if there were no risks associated.
"I thought about what I was passionate about, what I was good at, and what I like to do, and I'd been making these Detroit-style pizzas at home for a few years," Breen tells blogTO.
"I'd also started getting into making my bread and using sourdough, natural yeast, and all that. I'd been growing tomatoes in my garden, buying San Marzano tomatoes from markets, and doing, you know, 100 litres of tomato sauce canning. So I kind of, I kind of thought, okay, yeah, I think I want to cook."
The pair first met back in Breen's university days, when Dorfman was running an organic produce market in High Park. Introduced by a mutual friend, Breen began helping out at the market, eventually becoming the manager.
Dorfman later went on to open The Sweet Potato in 2008, and Breen, upon earning a degree in English, almost immediately landed a corporate position he kept for more than a decade before getting laid off.
But, for Breen, all roads seemingly lead back to The Sweet Potato.
He expressed his interest in starting a Detroit-style pizza business, and Dorfman instantly offered up The Sweet Potato's commercial kitchen.
A few weeks later, with ample help from Dorfman and Breen's friends Ben, who helps out in the kitchen, and Jess, who runs the business's social media, Profound Pizza was born.
Despite only officially opening for business in early March 2026, Profound Pizza is already a local phenomenon, selling out nearly every day. The business sells out so often, in fact, that Breen had to close down for a week within the first month to order more pans to boost production.
"We've put together this amazing concept that has just had a tremendous response from the community, like, absolutely unbelievable, way more than we ever would have expected," Breen says.
But that very response also poses the greatest challenge that Profound Pizza currently faces, he tells blogTO.
"Our biggest challenge right now is honestly keeping up with the demand. We sold out again last night, because we are sort of limited by the number of Detroit pizza pans that we have," he explains.
"So basically, the plan is now to put any bit of money that's coming in towards scaling up our operation took a lot quicker than we thought we were going to, and hopefully be able to not sell out by nine o'clock every night."
The hype is understandable. Though Detroit-style pizza already boasts some major players in the city (I'm looking at you, Descendant and Slowhand), they're relatively few and far between, and particularly so around the Junction.
There's also the fact of Breen's incomparable 48-hour fermented dough, the real star of the show, which is later topped with the likes of slow-cooked pork and pineapple (The Almighty Al Pastor); artichokes, butter-infused thyme garlic mushrooms and sauteed basil and spinach (Plato's Garden); or simply a hefty smattering of pepperoni.
Though Profound pies are unique, they're not ostentatious, which is a philosophy Breen borrows from one of his earliest culinary heroes, Gordon Ramsay.
"His whole thing is big flavour but simple ingredients [and] simple presentation, and that's really what I try and go for," he says.
"I think that's epitomized in something like our Al Pastor, where it's pretty basic, you know, just pork and pineapple and some peppers, but we cook the pork for 24 hours, use a tonne of spices, get it really super tender. We cook the pineapple in butter and Scotch bonnet chilli powder to really make it pop."
For now, Breen shares that his main focus is on scaling his operation out of The Sweet Potato to ensure everyone who wants a taste of Profound Pizza can get it, but he admits that, with the level of enthusiasm he's been met with so far, it's hard not to dream about the heights the business could soar to.
"I really am excited about hopefully opening up a brick and mortar in the area at some point, contributing to the local community in the same way that Dorfman has: really setting up what is really a community hub," he says.
But that's a ways away. For now, you can get your hands on Profound Pizza for delivery through Uber Eats or for pick-up with pre-orders through the business' website Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. until 11 p.m., or sell out. Whichever comes first.
@profound.pizza/Instagram
