Three friends, one oven, and a conviction that Toronto deserved better pizza. We opened in 2018 — the oven hasn't changed; everything else grew around it.
St. Clair Hearth & Panzerotti Co. started with Ana, Luca and Ben — a sommelier, a Neapolitan baker and an island farmer who tiled our oven by hand with stone imported from Campania. We'd argued for years about what pizza on Ontario should taste like. So we stopped arguing and signed a lease at 1284 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, ON M6E 1B9, Canada.
Most pizza shops use commercial yeast that doubles dough in under two hours. We keep a wild island starter in a glass jar by the oven. It needs 48 hours to be ready. That patience is what gives our crust its open crumb and its flavour — and why it sits in your stomach more like proper bread than like cardboard.
Our oven was imported from Naples in 2019 and runs on seasoned black cherry and maple from the Manitoulin. No gas ring, no electric backup. Luca learned to read the flame in Naples and that's how we still bake: stoke before service, fire until close. The dome holds around 480°C. At that heat a pizza cooks in 8 minutes — the crust blisters without the centre drying out.
We don't ship frozen. We don't bake in a conveyor oven and label it "wood-fired." We don't have a kids' menu (happy to make any pie mild). And we don't try to outgrow one oven — when we sell out, we sell out.
We're at 1284 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto, ON M6E 1B9, Canada. Hours: Mon–Thu 11:00 AM – 11:00 PM · Fri–Sat 11:00 AM – 1:00 AM · Sun 12:00 PM – 10:00 PM. Small dine-in, delivery across Toronto and pickup. Call +1 (416) 654-8819 any time we're open.