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| - After a great experience at GEMA, I got another hankering for a pizza the following weekend. I got some friends together and planned to head back for a second try when I discovered that they were closed for summer vacation. Darn..... well we still had a desire for pizza, so where to go? Thinking about places nearby, I had a flash and remembered Pizzeria Magpie, located across the street from Chez Serge bar in Mile End. One of those places I have had on my never-ending list for a while but kept forgetting about. We drove up hoping they had room for 4 on a Saturday night and luckily for us, they did.
First thing I noticed walking in was the overall look and vibe. A small intimate space overall with the open window in the front to give a little terrasse feel, low lighting, a beautiful dark bar on the side, the blackboard menus and the ceramic-tiled pizza oven visible to all - Magpie gives off a relaxed cafe/bar feel but with enough intimacy to be a solid date place and enough "edge" to be a cool place to bring friends for a happy hour or late evening meal. Loved it completely - this place goes on the possible date locations list (whenever the heck that ever happens again... but that's a story for another day).
For starters, we grabbed some of their cocktails to get the evening started. My friends selected the Pimm's Cup and the Magpie Caesar. The Pimm's Cup, served with some mint and cucumber, had exactly the kind of citrus and spice flavours you look for. Very refreshing. As for the Caesar, it certainly looked impressive - especially with the steak spice used on the lip of the glass, however I hate Caesars so I didn't try it. My friend certainly enjoyed it though. In my case, I went for the Dark and Stormy - dark spiced rum mixed with the house made ginger soda. Very nice balance between the sweet rum and the ginger.
Before the pizzas came, I just had to order some oysters. On this evening, Magpie had 3 varieties - Conway Royals, Gooseberry Bay and Tresor and I asked for the mix of all three. Served with fresh horseradish, lemon and lime wedges, a mignonette and some hot sauce, the oysters were all of good size and shucked perfectly. Nice start to the meal.
But really, the key here is the pizza...Magpie is a pizzeria after all. There are 9 regular pizzas available as well as a special of the day. Since we were four people, we decided to order four different ones and share them in order to try as many as we could. Before we address the topping options, let's talk dough - the foundation of the whole thing. Magpie, using that beautiful wood oven over in the corner, do it pretty well. Had I not been to GEMA about a week prior, I may have said it was best in Montreal. After that experience, I would say it is very good but just a level below the best. The crust has a good levity and chewiness to it with a decent crispiness on the bottom, however to get the crunch, we end up having some burnt spots on the pizzas. I wouldn't have had an issue with it before but if we are going to compare the best pizza joints in Montreal, we are now at that point...
Anyway, the first one up was the special of the day - a gravlax pizza with onions, tomatoes and dill. A very creative option - the gravlax itself was delicious and quite plentiful on the pizza. The fresh dill, tomatoes and onions work well with gravlax normally so of course it would work on a pizza. Loved the overall quantity of topping as well. An excellent out-of-box option which in my opinion is worth keeping around as a regular option.
Next up was the goat cheese pizza with pancetta, arugula, basil and tomato sauce. Great combination of the creamy goat cheese with the salty rich pancetta to elevate this one past the traditional Margherita. Excellent pizza.
The third one was the prosciutto pizza with arugula, cherry tomatoes, bocconcini and tomato sauce. Another solid pizza - any pizza with prosciutto is good by me - although personally I felt that there was way too much arugula over top of this pizza which kinda made it overly peppered.
The final pizza was the Bianca - with roasted garlic, spicy capicollo, cherry tomatoes, bocconcini and herbs. This is one spicy pizza - a little too much for my liking personally. I was quite surprised at just how much the capicollo overpowered everything else on this pizza. I also would have enjoyed a bit more cheese on this one. Good but my least favourite of the four easily.
Pizzeria Magpie is a solid entry in the Montreal pizza scene - and by far the best in Mile End in my eyes. The cocktail and oyster combo with the relaxed and intimate atmosphere make it a perfect place for a quick bite or drink before a larger meal - and that is without taking the pizzas into consideration. They also do weekend brunch now which intrigues me tremendously. Not my first choice for a pizza but close enough - both in quality and in location - for me to definitely be back in the near future.
Cheers!
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