While days continue to grow shorter, December just got a little brighter with the news that General Assembly Pizza’s flagship Adelaide Street restaurant is open for dining after a nine-month hiatus.
The reopening is more than a mere reboot. During its lengthy hibernation, GA's downtown HQ has received major upgrades including a redesigned dining space, revamped menu and the launch of an eclectic General Store.
When it first launched in late 2017, General Assembly quickly distinguished itself from the rest of Toronto’s premium pizzarati pack. You could self-serve your own Ontario wines and craft beer, along with cocktails, on tap. Tipping was severely frowned upon. More crucially, as a result of 800 to 850 °F-oven temperatures that reduced cooking time to a mere two minutes, wait times for the personalized pies never dipped into the double digits.
There were also the pizzas themselves. Owner and CEO Ali Khan Lalani -- who cut his entrepreneurial teeth as owner of a Swiss Chalet franchise in Guelph at the tender age of 25 -- joined culinary forces with powerhouse pizza consultant Anthony Flaco (Roberta’s in Brooklyn) and GA Head Chef Calle Elliott-Armstrong (Village Pizza and Terroni).
Together, they devised a menu of made-to-order 10-inch pies that ran the gamut from classic (Mila Margherita, King Shroom) to creative (the Don Diego ingeniously channels a Mexican taco with sweet chorizo, pungent jalapeno and refreshing pops of cilantro and lime). A supporting cast of small sharing plates and signature chef salads rounded out the offerings.
The brainstorming paid off. By 2020, GA had ascended to the firmament of Toronto’s top ranked pizzas. Then, in March, came the pandemic, and the closure of the Adelaide Street restaurant. GA was fortunate to have a thriving take-out trade, but Lalani immediately feared the business wouldn’t survive long on deliveries alone.
Within two days of closure, pivoting at lightning speed, he and a reduced staff of six launched do-it-yourself GA Pizza Kits. Two months -- and 500 trial pizzas -- later, Lalani pivoted even further: he began selling flash-frozen GA pizzas to retailers and consumers via a globally pioneering e-commerce pizza subscription service throughout the GTA.
Initially, GA’s frozen pizzas were being produced and packaged at 331 Adelaide, which had been rapidly converted into a makeshift test kitchen and assembly line. However, as sales exploded, Lalani began looking around for a proper manufacturing facility.
The injection of $13 million into the enterprise allowed him to move pizza production to Vaughan. Lalani then took advantage of the sea of changes already underway to revamp and reinvent AG’s flagship address.
"The original General Assembly restaurant was pretty special, and we didn't want to change it just for the sake of doing so," explained Lalani. "We revisited every touchpoint in the restaurant with a hyperfocus on heightening the guest experience, from the table settings to Toronto's first heated pizza counter purpose-built for takeout orders."
The resulting space combines the industrial chic of perforated metals, softened by lots of warm wooden accents and pops of bright colour. Seating is a literal high-low mix of casual benches and long-legged chairs.
The menu has also been refreshed. In addition to old favourites, chef de cuisine Nicholas Morra (Chantecler, La Banane) has been flexing his creative muscles in sustainable new directions. Among the most intriguing new pizzas is the plant-based New Wave, with NUMU mozzarella and pumpkin seed parmesan, and the meat-free Kush Queen, featuring kale, shishito and pistachios. Continuing in the same eco-conscious vein, dessert includes plant-based Honey’s Ice Cream, which owes its rich, creamy base to a cashew-and-coconut cream.
The biggest novelty, however, is the inauguration of the General Store, an artfully arranged bodega-style space whose constantly rotating wares are hand-picked by GA’s chefs and staff.
In addition to the obvious frozen pizzas, GA fans with pizzaiolo ambitions of their own can grab rare but essential pizza-centric pantry items, including Bianco di Napoli organic tomatoes, Newfoundland Sea Salt, and Mission Chinese chili oil. There are also beverages, small-batch, local artisanal condiments and unique vintage housewares curated by Black Dot Shops, not to mention some GA wearables, including some stylish tee-shirts.
“The General Store will be an evolving experience,” promises Morra. “It will be different every time you come, as our chefs encounter exciting new products and makers. We know our guests are as passionate about food as we are, and this is a way for us to share rare finds we really love for them to enjoy at home.”
General Assembly Pizza is open daily from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 10:00pm, located at 331 Adelaide Street West.
