In recent years, a surge in pizza restaurants in Niverville has become fodder for many a “Pizzaville” and “Niverville pizza cartel” joke.
But when the Niverville Chamber of Commerce decided to host a week-long event and call it Niverville Pizza Wars, satire quickly turned to celebration as restaurants and foodies alike embraced the competitive pie-flipping challenge.
In the end, two champions arose from the pizza oven smoke.
Chicken Chef’s Honey Blaze pizza entry is enjoying the well-deserved distinction of “best tasting” pizza.
Santa Lucia, with their unique Nighthawk creation, reigns supreme in the “most creative” department.
Bre-Ann Boulet is the executive director for the NCoC and the event’s organizer. According to Boulet, this first ever Niverville Pizza War was a resounding success with 114 participants in the total voting pool.
Coming in a very close third, she says, was Hespeler’s Cookhouse and Tavern with their FFG entry (Fantastic Fig and Goat). All three of these restaurants developed new pizza flavour combinations especially for this event.
The final two contestants included Domino’s Pizza with their take on a Philly cheesesteak sandwich called Irresistible Oven Baked Bread Sticks.
Pizza Pizza stepped up with two pizza entries, one for each category. These included the Hawaiian Strombo and Gourmet Creamy Mushroom Florentine.
Two Pizza War voters were also lucky winners at the end. Their names were pulled in a random draw for five $25 gift certificates redeemable at all the participating restaurants.
Boulet says that every restaurant in the community received personalized invitations to participate in the event about a month prior.
“[The idea] wasn’t a hard sell for the restaurants,” Boulet says. “There were restaurants that couldn’t participate this year but really want to participate next year.”
Boulet utilized the Chamber’s contact list and local social media pages to help get the community pumped up for the event, held from May 3–10. It was no accident that the Pizza War week coincided with the community garage sale weekend.
As luck would have it, a tournament being held at the CRRC brought hundreds more into the community that weekend.
All in all, Boulet says, every one of the participating restaurants put forward some really amazing pizza creations. She was mildly surprised at the popularity of one particular pizza ingredient.
“There seemed to be an overwhelming theme of honey between [the top] three [participants],” says Boulet.
During the week of the event, Boulet sampled every pizza offering. In the end, she’s not altogether surprised at Chicken Chef’s win.
“I’m craving that pizza again,” Boulet says of the Honey Blaze entry. “It was sweet and tangy, but it wasn’t spicy, which I was a little worried about with the banana peppers. It had just such rich flavouring.”
Operation Niverville Pizza War 2025 is already in talks. Next year, she hopes restaurant competitors from around the whole region choose to take part.
Laura Mulvena, owner of Niverville Chicken Chef, is thrilled with the win. She’s also excited that her pizza entry was so well received.
“We wanted something completely different, so we tested a few of our toppings with the hot honey,” Mulvena says. “A lot of restaurants are starting to use hot honey on different items, so we just thought pairing it with a pizza would be good.”
Eventually, salami, hot banana peppers, and two kinds of cheeses, including goat cheese, made the cut. Upon being tested on the staff and a variety of customers, it was an instant hit.
“Everyone that tried it really loved it,” says Mulvena. “Even Chicken Chef as a chain is starting to rethink the way they look at [artisanal] pizza.”
Honey Blaze pizza will remain on their menu, Mulvena says. In the coming weeks, she hopes to incorporate hot honey into other menu items as well, such as the hot honey chicken burger and hot honey wings. This spicy confection is even good with ice cream, she adds.
“I hope [the Chamber] does more of this because it brings people in and gets the community talking and we get to showcase our [food],” Mulvena concludes.
For Dean Delorme, co-owner of Santa Lucia Pizza, the win is equally sweet. To create the Nighthawk pizza, he solicited feedback from staff and customers. Once they believed they had a winner, neighbouring businesses got to weigh in as taste testers.
“At the end of the day, we decided to go with our famous barbecue sauce with a boneless dry rib chopped up and some lemon pepper, banana peppers, and pineapple and a drizzle of our electric honey,” says Delorme. “That was a fantastic idea.”
As for the pizza entry’s name, Delorme admits he’s a proud fan of the community’s hometown MJHL team.
For Santa Lucia Niverville, the week would have been a terrific success even if they hadn’t won.
“We sold hundreds of pizzas [that week],” says Delorme. “We also sold it by the slice and we had people coming in from the garage sales. Being out all day long, they came in here and grabbed a slice of pizza and a pop for five bucks.”
The Nighthawk pizza will remain on Santa Lucia’s local menu for foodies to enjoy.
“I loved the whole idea [of a pizza war] and I love that a lot of people decided to participate,” Delorme says. “Hopefully, next time around we get a few more pizza restaurants and get everyone involved.”
