Kensington Market's beloved Neapolitan pizza — Via Mercanti brings proper Neapolitan pizza-making to Kensington Market with a menu of traditional pies and a wine list focused on southern Italian producers. The brick building setting, the arancini, and the 'nduja pizza are neighbourhood staples.
Neighbourhood: Kensington Market · Address: 188 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON · Hours: Mon–Tue 4:00 – 9:00 PM | Wed 12:00 – 9:00 PM | Thu–Sun 12:00 – 10:00 PM · Price Range: $$ · Phone: (416) 598-2222 · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Via Mercanti is the neighborhood spot for true Neapolitan pizza—think leopard-spotted crusts, fresh mozzarella, and a relaxed, brick-walled space that feels like a proper Italian tavern. The southern Italian wine list and standout arancini make it worth the walk from Spadina.
Unlike Toronto’s flashier pizza chains, Via Mercanti sticks to DOP-certified methods and ingredients—right down to the San Marzano tomatoes and flour they use. Their ‘nduja pizza and creamy house-made arancini are borderline local celebrity dishes, and the Kensington Market setting keeps things unpretentious and lively.
Toronto's natural wine-focused Italian restaurants have produced a new kind of pizza destination — operations where the wine list is as thoughtfully curated as the dough, and where 'nduja (the Calabrian spreadable salami made with ground pork, fat, and Calabrian chili) makes its appearance as the definitive pizza topping for the natural wine crowd. 'Nduja melts on the hot pizza surface, releasing its bright orange oil and chili heat across the entire pie in a way that no other salami does — the flavour is rich, spicy, and slightly fermented.
Arancini (Sicilian fried rice balls, filled with ragu, mozzarella, or peas and encased in a breadcrumb crust) are the appropriate starter in a southern Italian pizza context — the fried exterior must be crisp without greasiness (indicating proper oil temperature), the rice interior must be bound with the right amount of soffritto (a base of carrot, onion, and celery) to hold its shape without dryness, and the filling must be generous.
Natural wine (wine made without synthetic additives, with minimal or no added sulfites, and typically with lower-intervention winemaking) has developed its own Toronto restaurant scene distinct from the conventional wine list — the orange wines, cloudy pét-nats, and gamay-based reds of the natural wine movement pair well with the fermented, acidic, and complex flavours of 'nduja and wood-fired pizza. Several Toronto Italian restaurants now build their lists almost exclusively from natural producers.
The pairing of 'nduja pizza with a light, chillable red wine (Gamay, Dolcetto, young Barbera) achieves a balance between the pizza's heat and fat and the wine's acidity and low tannin. The arancini's fried character works with the pét-nat's effervescence.
'Nduja is a Calabrian spreadable salami — ground pork fat and meat mixed with Calabrian chili pepper, fermented and cured. On pizza, the heat of the oven melts it completely, releasing its spiced fat across the entire surface. The flavour is rich, spicy, and slightly funky — ideal for natural wine pairing.
Natural wine is made with minimal intervention — no synthetic additives, minimal or no added sulfites, and organic or biodynamic farming. The style tends toward more expressive, sometimes cloudy, sometimes fizzy wines. Its acidity and complexity pairs well with the fermented, funky flavours of proper Italian pizza.
Arancini are Sicilian fried rice balls — the exterior must be dry and crisp (not greasy), the rice interior should hold together without being gummy, and the filling (ragu, mozzarella, peas) should be generous. Greasy arancini indicate oil that wasn't hot enough; dry arancini indicate too much time out of the oil.
Several Toronto Italian restaurants have built natural wine programs alongside serious pizza — ask specifically about the wine list when booking. Restaurants on Ossington, in the Junction, and in Leslieville tend to have the most thoughtfully curated natural wine lists with pizza.
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