It is quite something to watch your neighbourhood change before your eyes. Seeing old places close and replaced with newer businesses that come in, changing the type of services and shops that are available close to home. In Pointe St-Charles, as more professionals move into the area, we are seeing more and more new options open up and with some serious backing behind them. One of the most recent is Fugazzi Pizza. Located on Centre street across from Knox and close to the Nordelec building, Fugazzi is from the Barroco group – owners of Barroco, Foiegwa and the Atwater Cocktail Club.
Fugazzi took over the old Irish pub that was once there and completely changed it into a weird homage to the 90s and kitsch. Lots of bright colours, neons and jagged shapes all over the walls and decor. I was partial to the wall with an old VCR and tube TV under an multicolour shark. Paired with the 90s music playing over top, it is weird but yet it works in the space.
Food-wise, Fugazzi is going for Italian with a focus on Neapolitan style pizza. Our first appetizer was the citrus salad with fennel, pistachios and bottarga. An interesting available option that doesn’t quite fit the vibe of the restaurant but one that was quite enjoyable. Very subtle and light – very fresh and citrusy. A good start for sure.
Our other appetizer was homemade mozzarella sticks served with tomato sauce and horseradish. Honestly, probably the best I have had in years. Very flavourful with a wonderfully thick and crunchy outer coating. The use of horseradish to pair with the tomato dipping sauce was interesting and pretty good – provided some strong heat, if you desired, with the creaminess of the cheese stick.
As main courses, since Fugazzi is supposed to be a pizza place, we decided to go with a couple of their pizzas. In classic Napolitean style, they are individual-sized pizzas although you can order larger ones for take-out. My friend went with the One Night in Paris – tomato, ham, olives, gruyere, button mushrooms, egg – and I went with the Wu Tang Killa Bees – tomato, calabrese, honey, thyme oil, mozzarella. Great names by the way. There are more and more Napolitean-style pizzas being served in the city so we can start to compare nicely between them. In this case, the pizzas were fine but not the best we had have. The crust had the right thickness and chew you look for but frankly both were too charred underneath for our liking and that impacted the taste. Ingredients were plentiful but nothing really wowed us. This is a solid idea of a pizza but not one I will be running for.
We also tried to go up to the cocktail bar they build upstairs afterwards – Milky Way – but at 8:45 on a Thursday, there was already a wait list! Not quite something I am used to in my neighbourhood and frankly not really a great thing either but it speaks to the hype that exists around this opening. I am happy to have a pizzeria like this near home for the variety it provides. It is not a run-to for me but as someone who wants to see more businesses succeed in my neighbourhood, I hope they continue to work on becoming a better and better pizzeria.
Cheers!
Fugazzi Pizza
1886 Centre
438 522 7499
Ramblings from the Complex Mind of a 30 Something 