Never one to waste an opportunity, I stopped in at C & C Pizza Factory (25 Main St. N.) on the way out of Chesterville.
It’s in an older building but something about the rustic-chic signage and the built-in wooden seating called out to me.
The seating would come in handy as the heavy rain began with a tornado warning in tow.
C&C Pizza vegetarian and naptime pizzas. Ralf Joneikies/Ottawa Lookout
Once in a while, when you blindly take a chance on an eatery, you get lucky. The owner told me he had previously held a Mr. Mozzarella franchise. The experience with pizza making showed.
Here at least, you had someone constructing a pie with the “toppings” on TOP of the cheese. I’ve never understood the popularity of those venues that bury meats and veggies under the cheese.
In these cases, the ingredients get steamed and with moisture locked in, it necessitates the need for a thicker crust, which is seldom cooked through.
At C&C the crusts were not thin, but neither were they thick and doughy. They were cooked through and retained a crisp underside that provided a nice crunch.
The vegetarian benefitted from the addition of green olives, which added bursts of salty goodness and impressively, the vegetables were at optimal freshness.
Their Naptime pizza (pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, sausage, ham, green olives, bacon, hot peppers) says it all in the name. Despite the long list of ingredients, nothing felt overdone. It was a delicious and juicy pie that I would order again.
As nice a surprise as this was, it was not the final destination and we would find ourselves driving into a brewing storm.
