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Food review
By Delaney Hart
Pizza might be my favourite food, in close competition with ice cream. You can put anything on a pizza.
The scene is largely regional, and the pizza in Banff leans artisanal. No matter where you go, the pizza is a little Neapolitan, but lacking authenticity. I don’t know of anyone attempting deep dish, or Detroit-style, or using their Nona’s recipe.
The qualifications are simple: crust, sauce, toppings. The best pizzas come out of a wood-fired oven, with charred crust and bubbling cheese.
My hometown is allegedly the birthplace of the Hawaiian pizza, and I pay homage by ordering them regularly. I love chilli on my pizza, meat, good cheese, basil, a vibrant sauce, and a simple dough.
After nearly a year living in Banff, here is where I recommend ordering my favourite comfort food.
UNA Pizza
o UNA, from Calgary, sits in the stretch of restaurants that are locally owned. Its philosophy is thoughtful, with house-made ingredients and an experimental menu. The food at UNA is good and must be appreciated for the vibrancy. The Roasted Cauliflower, cooked in brown butter and served with tahini crème fraiche. One of the best restauranteurs I know told me that you should judge a restaurant by the vegetables and the bread. The starters menu is sophisticated and soulful. Featuring medjool dates, burrata, and a ‘Community Love Feature Plate’, UNA is a winner before even getting to the pizza.
o They cook their pies on stone, which gives an artisanal crunch to the bottom. My favourite is the Sweet + Spicy Prosciutto: sauce, prosciutto, chorizo, mozzarella, banana peppers, honey, and arugula. This pizza doesn’t mess with a good thing. In fact, it combines lots of good things together.
o For those with less of a sweet tooth, the menu features classics like the Margherita and a 4-Maggi (Four Cheese). They have vegetarian options, pepperoni, and a variety of sauces. You could easily bring a family here, and everyone would leave happy.
o Go to UNA for pizza when you want to do something different. Whoever is running this operation is trying something new, seemingly with an emphasis on community and creativity.
The Bear Street Tavern
o Tav has my favourite pizza in Banff right now: The Big Bird.
o Fluffy, chewy crust topped with pesto-marinated chicken, bacon, spinach, red onions, goat cheese, and mozzarella. This isn’t the kind of pizza you order when you’re on a diet. This pizza is legit, generous with the toppings and liberal with the cheese. The pesto-marinated chicken punches with flavour. I could write about this pizza all day.
o Special shout-out to The Canadian. I lean sweet over savoury, and this salty-sweet combination of bacon and maple syrup is something that I can eat right up. Of all the bacon-maple-syrup pizzas in Banff, this one is the best.
o The Godfather is their most popular pizza, I hear. Prosciutto, confit garlic, herbed panko, truffle oil, Grana Padano (a Northern-Italian cheese), mozzarella, and arugula. It’s certainly their pizza that’s trying the hardest. I do like it, but it wasn’t made for me.
o Their menu isn’t anything crazy. The combinations make sense, and you can tell that someone had fun putting it together. I’m not the first to say this about The Tavern, but you should eat there.
Lupo
o It is cheesy-fake-Italian in a good way.
o Sometimes they have a DJ, sometimes they run the best happy-hour menu in town, and every time they make you feel right at home. It isn’t pretentious, which is exactly how a good Italian restaurant should be. I’ve seen salt-and-pepper shakers on the table at restaurants in Italy, so I don’t think it’s tacky when a restaurant embraces innovation to provide a better experience. They are modern, classic, classy, kitschy, fun, and warm, all at the same time.
o The pizza is good.
o I had my first Neapolitan pizza in Italy when I was sixteen, and if I close my eyes, I can still see it. It was a Diavola.
o Lupo is as close as it gets in Banff. It isn’t the same. Of course. We’re in the Rocky Mountains. Everything from the water-softness in the dough to the tomatoes in the sauce matters when making pizza the Italian way, and Lupo does a phenomenal job of providing a consistently wonderful product. It’s classic, it’s simple, it’s fresh, it’s delicious.
Carlito’s – My late-night pizza choice
o The restaurants close early, so you’re limited for options if pizza is your choice of late-night snack.
o I can only describe their product as Canadian pizza. It’s got thick, chewy dough, and toppings piled high. The grease really comes through, and eating an entire Carlito’s pizza will necessitate a nap. Perfect. It’s late at night, anyway.
o They deliver.
You can build your own. Carlito’s is one to choose.
Farm & Fire
o Known for its breakfast, F&F sits inside the Elk and Avenue hotel on Banff Avenue.
o There is something about this pizza.
o While it is delicious out of the oven, the pizza from Farm doesn’t sit well. That’s okay, you should eat it right away. Why wait to try some of Chef’s most creative combinations? When I worked there, a slice of the Fig & Brie could make any cloudy day shine.
o Go to Farm because they’re doing something different in that kitchen. They’re having fun. Best of all, the kitchen works together to make the Feature Pizzas. Some of the stuff they have come up with would impress any pizza-lover. Ask your server what they thought of today.
Finally, I give a nod to Three Bears.
o Their dough is reverse ice water fermented. This process slows down the activation of the yeast during fermentation. Who cares, right? There is of course, the fact that this dough is delicious.
o The pizza menu is simple and greasy. Oh no, what a problem.
o They have cheese bombs and mushroom pies, a reliable Hawaiian and \ chilli crisps with a kick. They aren’t trying to win any pizza awards here, and that’s fair enough. There are probably more important things to be doing.
Pizza, while simple and popular, goes way back. We’ve been sharing pies, eating slices from a hole-in-the-wall, and experimenting with toppings since Ancient Greece. Do yourself a favour and skip the frozen stuff that tastes like cardboard. Pizza is one worth eating at a restaurant.