City Pizza Challenge
As I have written before, City Pizza has been one of my go-to pandemic foods. As a supposed vegetarian it is not good that I buy pizza with slices of pepperoni on them, but I am nothing if not hypocritical.
I was at City Pizza once when I foolishly picked up one of their flyers. On the back of the flyer was a listing of 10 City Pizza locations -- 2 in Cambridge, 3 in Kitchener, 1 in Waterloo, 2 in Guelph, 1 in Burlington, and 1 in Brantford. There was also a Stratford location listed as "coming soon". This list was interesting to me since there weren't that many locations, and they were frequent cycling destinations for me. I decided to take up the "City Pizza Challenge" -- purchasing one slice of pizza from each of the 10 locations. If I had visited the location already, I counted it as visited. Otherwise I would have to make a trip to the location.
I completed that challenge this week, and just in time too. I picked up the latest flyer, and now there is a location in Hamilton listed as "coming soon". I doubt I will seek that one out. In fact I have been eating at City Pizza less and less.
Why go through this exercise? Partially it was an excuse to eat pizza. Partially it was an excuse to go on bike trips. Partially it was an excuse to compare locations. Partially it was curiosity about how a capitalist enterprise expands. Mostly it reflects that I am an unemployed burden on society desperately looking for structure in my life.
City Pizza locations tend to be located in the outskirts of town, in depressed areas or the realms of big box stores. The sites were fairly uniform but not completely consistent. I liked some more than others. Here is an approximate ranking of locations from best to worst.
Guelph, 35 Harvard Road: This is just past the University of Guelph. Here's the thing about Guelph: it is really nice. This is in a strip mall plaza, but Stone Road is a big box store area, and even the big box stores are not as ugly in Guelph as they are everywhere else. At a bus shelter outside the strip mall plaza, there was an advertisement for City Pizza advertising $1.19 slices, which was no longer true. I got a cheese slice here, which was a nice surprise.
Burlington, 4055 New St: This was on the east side of Burlington, in an area I had not travelled before. It was noteworthy for being the most distant location, but not much else. It was in a strip mall with a grocery store, but unlike other locations I believe this was close to a school, in a suburban area.
Kitchener, 1400 Weber St E: If I have a "home location", this is it. It is near the Goodwill and my credit union, and also on a route I frequently travel when returning from cycling trips. It is okay. I am worried because the staff recognise me there. They rarely have slices of plain cheese pizza, but almost always are stocked with pepperoni slices. I would not call this area of the city nice, but it is also not the outskirts of the city any more (it is between downtown and Fairway Mall).
Guelph, 20 Woodlawn Rd E: This is on the north side of Guelph, in a box store commercial area. I often pass by Woodlawn Road as I cycle to Guelph via Maryhill, so this one was not difficult to find. There was not much noteworthy about it other than the fact that it was across the street from a trail that led to a series of parks. Guelph has such a great set of interconnected parks.
Stratford, 925 Ontario St: Surprise! The last time I cycled to Stratford I discovered that this City Pizza location is open, and is right along my route into town. It is in a strip mall in box store land, at the outskirts of town. It has the weirdest layout, being super narrow. The people in the store clearly thought I was trouble (probably homeless) when I entered, but they sold me a slice anyways.
Brantford, 39 King George Rd: King George Road is a main artery of Brantford, but this is in an older part of town. It is an old retail area that must have been built somewhere between the 1960s and 1980s, and has that rundown small-town feel. It was only a couple of kilometres outside downtown, which seemed unusual. Overall I think I prefer the rundown small-town architecture to big box stores.
Waterloo, 628 King St N: This is by the Home Depot north of Conestoga Mall. I have had a cheese slice here a few times, which is a positive. Sometimes when I return from St Jacob's I get pizza at this location, but not frequently -- the routes to get back to Kitchener are not great. Either you have to take King St (which is definitely not one of my favourite roads) or you take the roads behind Home Depot and Conestoga Mall (Bathurst to Davenport to Lexington), which is okay except that Lexington is gross. I have also travelled Bathurst to Bridge Street, which is a nicer route but farther out of the way.
Kitchener, 1170 Fischer-Hallman Road: This is another frequent stop for me, since it is near the corner of Fischer-Hallman and Bleams Road, which I frequently take when going to New Hamburg or Stratford. I do not like the location that much (the area is suburban hell made worse with roundabouts) and often they have not had cheese or pepperoni slices for sale. They also charge me $1.60 per slice instead of $1.50, when other locations continued to charge me $1.50.
Cambridge, 75 Dundas Street: The funny story here is that this is the reason I got sideswiped by a car back in
- I noticed the City Pizza off of Main Street in Cambridge while heading to Carlisle, and decided to take a route back to visit that location for no good reason. It was on my way back into town that I was sideswiped by the car, and that had a lot to do with me being on Main St/Old Beverley Road. I was in a fair amount of discomfort and could not move my left arm without pain, but ended up getting a slice anyways, because (a) I had made the trip and paid for it with my health, and (b) I wanted a few minutes to stop and figure out how I was getting home. I believe this was the first location where I noticed the $1.25 price increase. I have bad associations about that area of town these days.
Cambridge, 580 Hespeler Road: Ugh. Hespeler Road is such a disaster. It is nothing but strip mall after ugly strip mall. It is so disheartening. To my surprise, I saw some people walking on the sidewalks there, but clearly they were outliers. The only saving grace in that part of town is the Dumfries Conservation Area. I never want to visit that City Pizza location again.
Kitchener, 851 Fischer-Hallman Road: This is north of Victoria, where Glasgow Road begins. It is by my least favorite location. I have been there three or four times over the years and not once have they had cheese or pepperoni slices in stock. They did not have any this time either, so I bought some other expensive slice, picked off the meaty parts, and vowed never to patronise it again.
There are other smallish pizza franchises in existence (Pyramid Pizza comes to mind) but I have no inclination to repeat this challenge with another brand. It was an interesting exercise but now it is done.