Story and Photos by Adrian Lysenko
If you’re in the Shuniah neighbourhood on a Friday or Saturday afternoon, don’t be surprised if you smell wood fire, fresh bagels, and pizza. Go through the garage on 5 Leys street and you’ll stumble upon Home Slice Bakery. With a large clay oven in the backyard, customers can watch their orders bake as they wait.
“All of our products are baked in our handmade wood fired oven,” says Lindsay Martin, co-owner of the business. “Our specialty pies [pizzas] feature local ingredients and locally inspired themes.”
Home Slice serves fresh from the oven signature pizzas with tongue-in-cheek names like the “Curry Hard” made with curry sauce, shrimp, roasted cauliflower, crispy spinach, and cilantro, or the “Local Meatza” made with Cornell farm bacon, Rainy River Elk salami, and Bogdala’s smoked ham. For veggie lovers, there’s the “Lettuce Turnip the Beetza” made with organic candied beets, turnip, arugula, roasted garlic, pickled onions, and chèvre (goat cheese). Or you could always go for the poppy or sesame seed bagels.
“We are currently the only place in town making Montreal style wood fired bagels,” Martin states.
Having been open since October, Martin says the feedback they’ve gotten so far from customers has been great. “We are super pumped to have received such amazing support and so much excitement from our community,” she says. “Our customers have been especially excited about our bagels and very curious about the making of the oven itself. We built it ourselves and have had tons of fun sharing the process.”
For more information, visit Home Slice Bakery at 5 Leys Street, 472-0181 or find them on Facebook.