Industry Apizza: New Haven–style pizza in Vancouver
Hello pizza lovers 🍕! This month, I was invited to try a new Haven-style pizza from Industry Apizza on Commercial Drive.
What is Haven-style pizza, you ask 🤔? I had the same question. The answer from Wikipedia:
New Haven-style pizza is a style of thin-crust, coal-fired Neapolitan pizza common in and around New Haven, Connecticut. Locally known as apizza, it originated in 1925 at the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and is now served in many other pizza restaurants in the area
I am a big fan of thin crust pizzas (I prefer thin crust over thick crust) so I was excited to check Industry Apizza out. By the way, the Apizza is pronounced “ah-beetz” and not literally “Ah pizza” 🤓.
Here was our experience.
Industry Apizza
2360 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 4B7
The vibe
Industry Apizza is actually located inside St. Augustine’s on Commercial Drive, so it can kind of be hidden as there is no signage outside that says “Industry Apizza”.
The inside is pretty spacious and a well lit sports bar vibe. Almost all the tables were bar height with bar stools and there are TVs everywhere. Some of you know I am not a big fan of bar seating because I am a short girlie 😞 but since I was wearing sneakers today, it was fine.
You can actually see Industry Apizza and their pizza ovens inside (and the place smells really good). In addition to all the pizzas you can order from Industry Apizza’s menu, you also can order from St. Augustine’s regular menu, which features over 60 beers on tap and other food items 🍻.
Food and drinks review
Disclaimer: We received $100 credit towards our food and drinks.
Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity. This is everything we ordered to share between 4 people.
Cocktails ($12+)
Even though St. Augustine’s has such a great beer selection, I usually avoid drinking beer due to my skin condition (psoriasis). I was happy to order from their cocktail list though!
We each got 1 cocktail:
- Dark & stormy ($12)
- Old fashioned ($13)
- Whiskey sour ($13)
- Caesar ($15)
Cocktails came out quickly and were garnished with more detail than I thought a gastropub would.
Clam and corn chowder ($16)
No one can stop my husband from ordering a chowder when he sees one on the menu. So we order 2 of these clam and corn chowders (cup is $9 and bowl is $16).
The chowder was creamy with fresh clams, roasted corn, bacon, carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes. Overall – it was a yummy and heartwarming bowl of soup.
Calamari ($15)
The second appetizer we share is the calamari. It is seasoned with citrus salt and pepper, scallions, pickled onions and a side of tzatziki sauce.
The calamari was fried well and a decent portion – yummy! The tzatziki sauce was also quite refreshing and light.
Yam fries ($11)
For our last appie to share from St. Augustine’s menu are the yam fries. A simple snack seasoned with sea salt and served with a smoked garlic aioli.
Again, the yam fries were fried well – nice and crispy and the portion size is pretty large for $11.
Italian stallion ($33)
Industry Apizza has a lot of pizzas to choose from but we asked which ones are the most popular and from that list, we just went with the most expensive red and white pizza 😅. The pizzas all come as one-size 16″ with a thin crust and fire-charred New Haven style.
For our red-sauce pizza, we went with the Italian Stallion! It comes with pepperoni, house made fennel sausage, two rivers bacon, mushrooms, cherry peppers, and hot honey.
First of all, I was pretty shocked at the size of the pizza 😳. The bar table does not have a lot of room but they had this pizza stand so we could have the pizza above all our other food.
The Italian Stallion is like the meatlovers special – it has a ton of protein and different meats with a yummy tomato sauce. I liked all the different meats like the crunchy bacon and the savoury sausage and pepperoni. I also like the hot honey – I feel like that is very trendy right now in foods – but I wish I tasted a little more of it.
And I really liked the thin crust – it still had structural integrity and the toppings and cheese didn’t just all slide off when I grabbed a slice.
Classic white clam (MP – $38)
For our white pizza, we were very intrigued by the white clam pizza 🦪. On the menu, it says market price (MP) and on the day we dined here, our server told us it was $38, making it probably the most expensive pizza on the menu.
Well my husband loves to order the most expensive thing on a menu 💀 so we order the white clam pizza and I am so glad we did 🤩!
This pizza is topped with fresh shucked clams, parsley and lemon. It tastes more cheesy than the Italian Stallion and was a great pairing for the clams. I have never tried pizza with clams on it before so I didn’t know what to expect. I could actually see and taste the clams too and they brought a strong seafood flavour to the pizza.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
We had a delicious and very filling dinner at Industry Apizza. For our total bill and after the $100 credit, we still paid around $70 for everything we ordered, including the drinks.
For 4 people, the 2 pizzas would definitely have been enough food because they were huge! We all had a few slices to take home for lunch the next day. Most of the pizzas range from $20-30 (aside from the ones we ordered).
Out of the two pizzas we ordered, 3/4 of us preferred the white clam pizza over the Italian Stallion pizza, but both were delicious.
Again, I loved the thin crust. I find it even more thin than Neopolitan or New York styled pizza, although some parts of the crust were a bit too charred.
All the other appetizers were also yummy – I would order the yam fries again and the clam chowder passed my husband’s standards.
I think Industry Apizza is a great addition to the pizza scene in Vancouver and perfect for those who like thin crust pizzas like me!
Sincerely, Loewe