Dante's Pizza fans

[WTF]

just an FYI for any Dante's Pizza fans on here

Dante Paoletti (the founder of the original Dante's) has opened a new place called "Paoletti's Pizzeria" literally across the street from "Dante's"

Paoletti’s Pizzeria
18 - 8700 Dufferin St.
Vaughn, ON

Tel: (905) 761-1115

Dante's is across the street at 8707 Dufferin

the new place is only takeout and delivery and small in scale vs the upscale restaurant and bar across the street

short history
Dante's opened a small place on Baythorn Ave in Thornhill in the mid 70s....awesome food and a menu that never ever changed for decades....the place was legendary
In the early 2000s they moved and tried to go bigger with a fancy restaurant and bar at 8707 Dufferin St. in Vaughn....and ran into financial problems.
The place was taken over by some corporation and Dante was basically a hired employee at that point.
While the pizza stayed pretty much unchanged they started to ditch things off the original food menu and replace them with fancier shit that cost more while they made the portions smaller.
About a year go they fired Dante.

So....the Paoletti family gave the corporation a big fuck you and opened a new place across the street and it's very evident that their going back to their roots

ordered from them last night....the same pie I always have from Dante's....it was spectacular...like it always has been....and was delivered to my door (and I'm quite a ways away) in 42 minutes on a Friday night....arived at 715pm.....and the pie was $5 cheaper than the last one I ordered from Dante's (so the driver got a really nice tip)

the menu....looks like they just reprinted the original Dante's menu from the Baythorn days...fucking awesome....so next weeked we're going for the Gnocci with shrimp and tomato sauce and a large Italian salad (yes...that incredible Italian salad that the upscale place ditched from the menu 2 years ago)....and after that....steak sangwiches of course

I beleive the game plan is to go back to what made them.....when they'd have 20 delivery guys on call Th-Sun and massive portions of the tastiest food delivered to your door fast and hot....nothing fancy...just delicious

give em a whirl

[jibbijib]

Kudos to Dante for stickin it to the man. Will make a note to support the family by stuffing myself senseless with their food.

Thanks Tim!

[CON VERT]

Love Dante' too bad they don't do Ajax ! but good to hear that the pie hasn't changed either !

[ZR]

Have felt for some time that the pies had dropped a notch of two below their normal insanely delicious, explains things.
When the diet allows for a cheat dinner, for sure gonna order one from there.
Thanks for the heads up Tim.

[ZR]

http://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/gta/2015/01/11/pizza_war_in_vaughan_between_rival_restaurants/paoletti_and_staff.jpg.size.xxlarge.letterbox.jpg

No battle cry rang out across Dufferin St.; no formal declaration to herald their return.

But word is spreading.

Dante Paoletti and his brothers are back.

The long-promised pizza war is on.

“We’ve been eating with these guys forever,” said Jamie Grant, digging into some saucy Italian sandwiches at Paoletti’s Pizzeria on Tuesday with his 10-year-old son, Dylan.

“I don’t think we’ll head over there ever again.”

“Over there” is across Dufferin St., at Dante’s Pizza Vino Pasta, the successor shop to the business Paoletti and his family founded in 1976. Last March, Paoletti was let go as manager of his old restaurant by the company that bought it out of receivership and opened its current Vaughan location in 2009. At the time, in an interview with the Star, Paoletti characterized his ouster as a betrayal (http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/03/24/dantes_pizza_war_burbles_in_thornhill_after_busine ss_founder_gets_axed.html), and vowed to return with a new pizza joint “as close as possible” to his former location in a brick strip-mall just north of Dufferin St. and Highway 407.

“I’m not laying down for this,” Paoletti said last year. “I’m going to fight them with everything I have.”

<iframe id="fsk_frame_splitbox" name="fsk_frame_splitbox" src="http://api.freeskreen.com/splitbox/client?pid=52&sid=undefined&confId=27&maxWidth=542&trackerId=VyD80eCA4sv7RO2BaBBKgW9nwskF8n&flc=news&slc=gta&pos=1295%3B3828#fsk_splitbox" frameborder="0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 542px; height: 0px; background: transparent;"></iframe>
True to his word, Paoletti’s Pizzeria opened its doors without fanfare on Dec. 16, just a few hundred metres from the rival restaurant that still bears his name in wispy cursive block letters.

“It’s funny that it’s right across the street,” said Sylvia Ichelson, who dropped in at Paoletti’s on Tuesday afternoon for lunch, after hearing on Facebook that they’d opened a new restaurant.

“We’ve been loyal customers for a long time,” added Sylvia’s husband, Mike. “We’re excited that he’s back.”

Paoletti, 62, declined to speak with the Star on the record for this story because he said there are outstanding legal issues with Dante’s Pizza Vino Pasta and the company that owns it, CDDC Hospitality Group.

Managers at the restaurant did not return requests for comment Tuesday, and CDDC Hospitality’s director of operations, Don Di Fronzo, also declined to speak at length on the matter.

“Everything’s fine for us,” Di Fronzo said when reached on the phone Tuesday.

“I have no knowledge of his pizzeria. I have no concern about his pizzeria. We don’t get involved with him.”

Paoletti immigrated to Canada from Abruzzo, Italy, as a young boy in 1959, and started Dante’s Pizza 17 years later at the corner of Yonge St. and Bay Thorn Dr. in nearby Thornhill. With the recipes and skill of his mother, Loreta, Paoletti took to making gourmet pizza, pasta, lasagna and sandwiches and running the business with his brothers Marcello, Diego, Tony and Rico.

With liabilities exceeding $2.2 million, their restaurant went bankrupt in 2006, according to government records. (When interviewed last year, Paoletti blamed this on soaring renovation costs.) CDDC Hospitality then bought the business out of receivership and brought Paoletti back as manager of the new Dufferin St. location in 2009.

Last March, Di Fronzo contested Paoletti’s claims that he was unfairly turfed, and told the Star his departure was a welcome change in management that is routine in the restaurant industry.

Regardless of what went down, for the Paoletti loyalists visiting the new restaurant Tuesday, the return of a favourite eatery was a welcome happening.

“The taste was all Dante and his brothers,” said Grant, pointing to the milk-fed white veal in his son’s sandwich and praising the pepperoni on a nearby pizza slice.

“Anybody familiar with (the original) Dante’s will gravitate toward this place.”

On the other side of Dufferin St., in the plaza outside Dante’s Pizza Vino Pasta, Jerome Starr shrugged at Paoletti’s claim that he was pushed out of his former business. Starr has eaten at the restaurant for years, and said he’s noticed no change in quality since Paoletti left last March.

“Their food is fresh and the quality is good,” he said. “I know it.”

Moments later, Kevin Walsh and a co-worker finished their meal and prepared to leave the restaurant, which is set up with a dining area, tile walls and marble-topped front counter.

“It was good pizza,” he said, unaware of the rising competition between neighbouring pizzerias. He did recall eating at the original Dante’s location when Paoletti still worked there.

Walsh turned west to look across the street, where Paoletti and his family are hoping to lure more customers and solidify their comeback.

“We’ll have to try out the one over there,” he said.

[Quicksilver]

I can remember many happy evenings with friends spent munching on a Dante's pizza and their amazing Italian salads.
My wife's best friend was their part time bookkeeper, and there were times when she got paid in Pizzas and salads instead of money. We'd often get a late evening call to drop by her place "for a snack", only to find voluminous portions of fabulous pie.
When the the new upscale restaurant opened, I was ecstatic, but as with many restaurants, quality and feel took a nose dive.
Next time i'm in the area I'll stop in to the "place across the street"

[ZR]

Tried a pie from their new location tonight, average at best (as compared to what they are famous for).
Not at all what I was expecting. :(

[Mystified]

i got terrible heart burn from their pie..and it was soaked in grease..ill never go back their quality has definitly taken a sharp nose dive

[WTF]

Tried a pie from their new location tonight, average at best (as compared to what they are famous for).
Not at all what I was expecting. :(

sorry to hear that

I'm still working on leftovers here and it's wicked good

[Darkhorse]

Interesting. 8700 Dufferin is literally a major city block from my house.

I never liked the Dante's Pizza, but I can tell you this, the "Italian Fiesta" was wicked. it's basically a bunch of meat, sauce and cheese thrown into a container, they gave you a choice of pasta or potato wedges to go with it. One order of this handily serves two people for under $20.

My neighbours love Dante's and would spend $80 on a pizza. I never liked it.

The new Dante's was always so busy that it wasn't worth waiting for.

I'll try the new place, but it's a shame things went this way, if he sold his business he would have been paid out and if the new owners are compromising his principles I guess it comes down to what makes money. The area of upper Thornhill where this is I'm sure can support both businesses. The Plaza where Dante's is there is another resto that I don't understand how it survives, not enough traffic at all, second attempt in that spot.

[The Innovation Store]

Dante's closed permanently on September 1, 2016. Locked out by Creditors. I drove by today.

[ZR]

Not at all surprised. A shame how it went from (in my eyes) the very best in pizza to anything but. We've tried "the pizza across the street", disappointed each and every time, will not be returning.