Stay Gold Pizza

Nov 11 Update:

Stay Gold reached out to me to confirm that the pizzas I had received were not up to their standards and asked for an opportunity to correct the situation. I had suspected in my original review that a busy Saturday night at this fairly new spot was the main reason my pizzas were too cooked the first time around - and I mentioned I could see lots of potential.

I arranged a re-do of our pizzas at their convenience for pick-up, and I’m happy to report the pizza was considerably better! This time my cheese came with a drizzle of sauce on top (in addition to what was below the cheese) which was appreciated as it seemed it may have been a little light on sauce without it. The bottom was golden brown and as a result, I found the dough to have a little more moisture that I missed the first time around. We both agreed that the second day, the pizza was even better when reheated in the oven. It gave a little extra crisp on the bottom and it was awesome!

I’ll leave the original review as it does mention my thoughts on the individual components of the pizza, besides what I’ve mentioned above. I am happy to report they definitely increased their score with the second go. Definitely give them a shot, it’s unique as far as Ottawa pizza goes!

I've rated Stay Gold six out of eight slices.

Original Review:

I recently found out there’s a new pizza slinger in town making Detroit-style pizzas. That’s not something I’ve had a lot of so when my husband demanded we try Stay Gold Pizza, I didn’t put up a fight. Stay Gold first arrived on Instagram in early October and they seem to operate out of the Standard, a pub on Elgin. 

Detroit pizza is very similar to what we know as pan pizza - or at least Stay Gold’s iteration of it is. Their version is a square 9” x 9” pizza cut into four slices, with cheese all the way to the edges which crisps up all along the crust. 

To be honest the ordering process is flawed and frustrating. The site says you can order online for pick-up and delivery. But once we went through the process of ordering, delivery was not listed as an option and it just said our pizza would be ready for pick-up in an hour. That was not a problem, so when we saw it around 4:45 pm, we ordered right away so we could pick it up and be home by 6:00 pm. We arrived around 5:40 pm and I waited in the car while my husband ran in to pick it up. As it was a) gorgeous out, and b) the first day that restaurants could re-open after the modified stage 2 ended, the place was pretty busy for COVID times at least.

We didn’t receive any phone call or email saying it was ready, so all we knew was to go to the Standard. He said he first waited for about 5 minutes while various waitstaff passed him by. Like I said, all of Elgin was positively hopping. When he finally flagged someone down, she said she’d check on the pizza but left him hanging for another 10 minutes. When they finally gave him our order, about 1.25 hours after initially ordering, they were piping hot. We suspect pre-ordering was pointless and they likely fired up those pizzas once we arrived to collect them. 

Once we got them home, the pizzas were still warm. I had ordered a plain cheese and he had ordered the pepperoni. They mention on their site that you can request the pizza be made with extra sauce since that style of pizza is light on the sauce. I opted to stick with the regular amount, but ordered a cup of marinara on the side just in case. 

Upon first look, I was disappointed to see my pizza was overdone, while the pepperoni one looked a lot better. It was not overly cheesy, but as I learned with my last pizza, this is entirely fine. The cheesy bits that line the crust were very browned - borderline burnt. While the pepperoni pizza looked better at first glance, once he had a bite my husband realized the bottom was burnt, even more so than my well-done pizza.

When chowing down, the first thing I could taste was the herbs in the sauce. I didn’t find it was too light on sauce, it was the perfect amount. I don’t think it was sauced all the way to the crust though, so I did appreciate the dipping cup for that purpose. While the sauce and cheese were nice, the dough was dry and tough, especially in the half of the pizza that was more burnt. 

It had some things going for it, but I didn’t find this to be a great pie. I mentioned it was a busy night, so I could cut them some slack for quality control - but they did have over an hour and still managed to burn it. I could see this pizza earning at least a few more points if it was cooked properly.

Both pizzas were $18 each and dipping sauces were $2. We both ate 3 of 4 slices since it’s a doughy pizza, but if I were hungrier I could easily polish off the whole thing. It’s not as good of a price for its size as most takeout-style pizza, but it’s on par with sit-down places like Rabbit Hole or Crust and Crate. 

I've rated Stay Gold four and a half out of eight slices. 

Leave a comment with your opinion, or your thoughts on Stay Gold, and let me know where I should hit up next!

Ciao,

Pizza Lover