Bitondo’s Pizzeria is a no-nonsense thin-slice pizza joint in Toronto’s Little Italy. The outside is a classic College Street character house while the inside features a few bright orange and beige plastic chairs, sixties-era ceramic tile, Italian soccer pictures, and a Ms. PacMan arcade game. It hasn’t changed in years, thankfully.

The menu is short and the pizza is straightforwardly simple and delicious. The pizza tastes, as one reviewer notes, “like it grew up out of the ground or came off a tree as “pizza.”

I painted it on a late winter-darkening afternoon in the manner of Tom Tompson’s “Jack Pine”, which is a favorite painting of the recipient. You can see the red underpainting, dark blue shadowed neighborhood houses, and even an actual pine tree off to the side. The effect is of a glowy favorite neighborhood place full of warm ovens and tasty smells that welcome you in after a long day of work and study.

Bitondo’s Pizzeria
Acrylic on canvas, 16″ x 12″
Summer, 2013
Located at: Private Collection