Torontonians will travel for good pizza, but we're not just talking about eastenders braving the wild west of Ossington in search of the perfect crust. Some of the best pies are being fired up in an oven 1.5 hours outside of Toronto. Renowned chef Tony Bish — a Le Cordon Bleu–trained chef who's made appearances on shows like The Next Iron Chef and MasterChef — opened the doors to Tony's Sourdough Pizzeria in Elora on June 6, and his rustic pies are already selling out.
Bish uses a family sourdough starter passed down from his grandmother. The result is a chewy, tangy crust blistered in 90 seconds in a scorching wood-burning oven. Bish previously wowed Bangkok with a long-fermented, New York–style crust that landed on the World’s 50 Top Pizza list — but here, he's all in on sourdough.
“I’m bringing everything I’ve learned around the world back to a single wood-burning Pavesi oven in Elora that we specially imported from Italy,” says Bish, who has worked in top kitchens in Hong Kong, Brisbane, Bangkok and Phuket.
Downsizing from Bangkok’s chaos to Elora’s storybook charm (with a population under 10,000) hasn’t slowed him down. To keep quality sky-high, Bish caps production at 100 pies a day — each one hand-stretched, sauced, and topped by the chef himself. It’s why they call him “the pie guy.”
“This place isn’t just about pizza, it’s about dough, process, family and purpose," says Bish. "We aim to utilize incredible local Elora ingredients all over the menu. We’re honouring the pizza classics — and I’m also excited to reveal distinct flavour combinations to my pies that we’ll rotate to continue surprising guests.”
The menu is short, but every option slaps. The Umami is a vegetarian knockout, loaded with fior di latte, gruyère, smoked local mushrooms and veggie demi-glace — a serious rival to some of Toronto’s cult faves.
Bish's farm-to-table ethos can be seen in The Farmboi, which channels a full farmhouse breakfast on a pie. The creamy base of smoked fior di latte mozzarella is decorated with local Elora ingredients like free-run egg, veal sausage, roasted fennel, potato and dill oil.
To round it out, there’s a Panzanella salad with torn sourdough (naturally) and “The Don” meatball that lives rent-free in our heads. There's even a nod to Bish’s Bangkok chapter with a Thai-style milk tea.
In a city where it takes an hour to drive across town, we’ll happily go the extra mile (or 120) for Tony Bish’s artisanal sourdough slices.
45 Mill St W Unit 9, Elora; tonyssourdoughpizzeria.com
