Pembroke, Ont. pizzeria receives national recognition
Joe Ward has been perfecting his pizza craft for decades.
Now, Joe's Family Pizzeria in Pembroke, Ont. is being recognized outside of the Ottawa Valley.
"We actually won second best pizzeria in Canada by Canadian Pizza Magazine, so shout out to them, we appreciate it," says Ward, president and CEO of the local pizzeria. The restaurant received that award in May, but that is just the tip of the slice.
This month, Joe's was named to have the best take-home pizza kit in Canada by Canadian Pizza Magazine.
"There's other products out there and we came up with our own, and it's our product," says Ward's wife Natacha, owner of Joe's Family Pizzeria. "It's something that we put our heart and soul into."
The restaurant has been making the pizza kits for years, but the popularity took off during the pandemic, with the kits now available in 30 different grocery stores across eastern Ontario and Quebec.
"A lot of pizza kit products, you have to make your own dough," says Joe. "This, the dough is ready for you to go. You can toss it up in the air and stretch it and have fun with the kids. Especially through the pandemic it was a family experience."
The owners says there is no secret to the ingredients behind the award winning pizza kits, just the house-made dough, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. They say it's the extra love and care baked in that makes the difference.
"I like to say it starts in the heart. It's the service, it's the family, this is home, and it goes from there," says Natacha. "Then of course it has to be the dough and lots of cheese and everything."
"Everybody loves the pizza, everybody locally loves the pizza, but now we can share that love with people outside of Pembroke and Petawawa," adds Joe.
On top of the previously mentioned awards, Joe's also touts to have the best pizza in all of the valley.
With the best pizzeria named by Canadian Pizza Magazine located in Slave Lake, Alta., Ward says they can say with confident reasoning that makes them the best pizza around.
Ward credits the personal touch that is still available to those who stop into the restaurant to pick up their order.
"People want to know the people making their food, they want to know the owners," says the lifelong pizza maker. "They don't want to come in and hear '6-43!'. They want to chat with you; they don't want to just hear an order number."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.