Saints Island Pies is serving up some of Toronto’s most unique Detroit-style pizzas––a chewy, rectangular thick-crust pie––with their own Filipino twist.
The concept of Saints’ island-themed pies came from co-owner and chef Sean Santos, who created it a few years ago for a friend’s art show. Santos revisited the island pie idea when him and Chuck Ortiz, a friend he grew up with, reconnected.
“This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” said Ortiz, who also runs a creative studio focused around food and hospitality.
Chuck Ortiz (left) and Sean Santos (right) sit in the dining room of their restaurant Saints Island Pies in Brockton Village.
What started out as a kitchen creation blossomed into a pop-up originally dubbed ‘Pabalos’, and began operating out of the popular Wallflower in the summer of 2020. When the local watering hole eventually closed its doors in the fall, it was succeeded by the ambitious Saints almost immediately.
Although the restaurant landscape in Toronto has taken a massive hit this past year, Ortiz and Santos still believed operating as a full-time restaurant would be doable, even with the current limitations around the food industry.
“I don’t think we would have gotten this space if it wasn’t for COVID,” said Ortiz, who mentioned an impassable deal they were offered to take the space over.
Formerly the popular watering-hole Wallflower, the Saints Island Pies storefront sits on Dundas Street West.
Santos says although many restaurants have continued to suffer throughout the pandemic, with many closing down as a result, he is still seeing a rise in new businesses that are taking advantage of the “unfortunate opportunities” that come with opening in a pandemic.
“Delivery lends well to pizza,” says Santos. “We didn’t have to make a big transition in terms of our style of service, because we were already kind of doing it anyways.”
Chuck Ortiz (left) and Sean Santos (right) stand in the dining room of Saints Island Pies restaurant in Brockton Village.
For the Saints duo, they still look forward to welcoming guests when they are allowed. Apart from serving delicious food, restaurants provide an experience to the customer as well. With a space as vibrant as the Saints space, Ortiz and Santos are planning for new ideas for the business’ future.
“We are creative people, so we’d still like to have different events here and collaborations, and still work as a pop-up in a sense,” says Santos. “Whether it be a whole different concept in the restaurant or bringing in a guest chef, we’re still open to those ideas.”
For now, the two are excited to be serving up their island pies and operating their own restaurant. Customers can get pies topped with Filipino ingredients, emulating the beauty of Filipino cooking that balances sweet, salty and sour.
At the forefront of their special pies is the ‘Bespren Longapizza’, which is a large deep dish pie topped with a fried egg and longanisa sausage––a sweet Filipino sausage. The term “bespren” jesters the term “best friend” in a Tagalog accent, and is one of the many quirks at Saints that fuses Filipino-Canadian culture with the restaurant’s identity.
Another example is their sides menu, titled “Sidetings”, which refers to popular Toronto vernacular, and showcases small side dishes that Saints prepares to pair with their coveted pies.
Saints Island Pies is located at 1665 Dundas Street West in Brockton Village.
