8Mile Detroit Style Pizza built its way to becoming one of the city's top spots to visit for Detroit-style pizza. Luckily, if you live in the west end of Toronto, getting your pizza fix from them will become a lot easier.
Currently, in soft opening mode, you can find them at 122 Atlantic Avenue in Liberty Village with their full pizza line-up and a variety of drinks on hand.
A favourite pizza spot of Arkells lead singer Max Kerman, 8Mile Detroit Style Pizza is already feeling the love in the neighbourhood thanks to the Canadian band's recent concert in the area.
"It was really cool last weekend; the Arkells had a concert and Max is one of our big original customers; he's always coming in all the time at [the] Charles [location], so it was kinda cool," says owner David Azzi. "We had a lot of patrons come in before the concert saying they were going to see the Arkells and we were pumping them up; it was awesome."
With their original location being at 9 Charles Street in downtown Toronto, the push to go west was largely inspired by them taking note of how most of their clientele resides on the west end of the city and were struggling to place orders with them on third-party apps, due to inconsistent delivery ranges.
First opening as a pizza concept during the pandemic, replacing their former Mediterranean restaurant, Ooshee Oven, the group acknowledges their prominence in Toronto's food scene due to their pandemic pivot but notes their struggles in grasping onto financial success through it all.
"We gained a lot of popularity throughout covid and fortunately, we were able to keep our doors open; it was scary at the time," says owner David Azzi. "What really hurt us actually was just having takeout at Yonge and Bloor. Most of our deliveries and sales came through Uber Eats and DoorDash and third-party delivery channels and it's just really hard to make any type of money as a restaurant doing this."
The decision to move closer to where they're most in demand is also motivated by the lack of certainty surrounding the pandemic. The restaurant group wanted to ensure they had ample patio seating to welcome guests on, something their original location lacks. This way, they hope to be able to invite more customers into the store, as opposed to just relying on takeout to reach them.
"It's very frustrating because you see your brand gain popularity, but you're not benefitting from the popularity. Those third-party apps are bleeding you dry and we've just been able to keep our doors open, keep our staff on staff and it's frustrating cause you work so hard."
A 35 seat patio and bigger kitchen space also opens up the opportunity to be more flexible in their offerings, with the goal of slowly working towards adding more to the menu. Look forward to the addition of items that will complement their pizzas like wings, sandwiches, fries and an even more extensive line-up of salads.
Having a liquor license now also enables them to carry local craft beers, specifically from Burdock Brewery, Halo Brewery and Collective Arts Brewery and get creative with cocktails.
Currently, in soft launch mode, 8Mile Detroit Style Pizza is open for walk-ins Tuesday to Friday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. They're serving up only pizza and drinks for now but will slowly be expanding their menu along with their hours once they roll into the fall, so be sure to stay tuned by keeping up with them on Instagram.
