Seared hot. Shredded by hand. Worth the wait.

The name

Every great slice shop comes down to two things: heat and hands.

Sear is the heat. It is dough hitting a steel as hot as the oven goes, the rim puffing up and blistering, the underside picking up dark freckles. It is pepperoni curling into little cups and charring at the edges. It is cheese pressed against the wall of a Detroit pan until it turns into a crisp, caramelized crown. It is a cutlet gone golden and crackly.

Shred is the hands. It is pork roasted low and slow with garlic and fennel until it gives, then pulled apart by hand for the pie that carries our name. It is Pecorino grated over a pie like snow and basil torn, never chopped. It is every round stretched by hand.

The & is the part you never see: the days in between. Dough that rests cold for days before anyone stretches it. Sauces made for your order in the days before you pick it up. That is why we ask for three days, and it is why the first bite tastes like it took a while.

Sear & Shred. Real heat, real hands, and the time it takes.

Where we came from

Sear & Shred started in Toronto as a healthy meal kitchen. It was a preorder kitchen then and it still is: everything weighed, every week planned, every order made for the person who placed it.

Then came the trial and error. We cooked, we tested, we watched what people shared and saved, and we read everything we could get our hands on. It all pointed the same way: flavour. The kind you find in a corner slice shop, a red-sauce kitchen, a deli that has been doing one thing right for a long time.

So we turned the flame up. We kept the name, because it already said what a pizzeria does. We kept the habits too: weigh everything, plan ahead, never rush the food. What changed is the goal. It is the flavour now, all of it.

The family table

Four names on our menu belong to our own table: Thalia, Edgar, Sandi and Oliver. Oliver is our best friend and he is a dog, so to be clear: his dessert is for people. The dishes that carry their names are our way of keeping the family at the table every day.

• Thalia's Sunday Best Spaghetti For Thalia, the owner's wife.
• Thalia's Pretty in Pink Gnocchi For Thalia, the owner's wife.
• Mama Sandi's Sweet Heat For Sandi, the owner's mom.
• Mama Sandi's Roast Chicken For Sandi, the owner's mom.
• Papa Edgar's Salmon Oreganata For Edgar, the owner's dad.
• Ollie's Strawberry Cheesecake Pizza For Ollie, the owner's best friend.
• Mama Sandi's Mother's Day Pie For Sandi, the owner's mom.
• Papa Edgar's Father's Day Table For Edgar, the owner's dad.

The three days

Why we ask for the time, day by day: how it works.