Pizza time @ Tennessy Willems

Haha! As I said I was going to be making more blog posts, who knew it would literally be the day after I made that post. For today’s adventure I met up with my good friends Jesse and Felix to head off to a new pizza joint in town, the joint is called Tennessy Willems: The Wood Oven Pizza Joint. This is actually going to be the first time in a few months since I’ve had pizza of any sort; the tastes of New Haven still linger in my mouth. Jesse had also prompted me a bit about this place; he told me that the chef used to work in Toronto at Librettos (a place I will have to go to when I visit Toronto in Feb.). As we walked towards the pizza joint I was getting quite excited to be having pizza done the same style as Pasqualino Oliveri our old Chef at The Grand did. That wasn’t the only thing that I was quite excited about; I was excited about the fact that they also offered duck confit pizza (I love love love love love duck, especially duck confit!). Walking into the restaurant the first feel I got was that it’s pretty cozy looking, the very first thing you see is the pizza oven, and it has a seating capacity of 27. We take a seat and right away we got our server with our water and menus, she gives us a few minutes and we make our orders, I ordered the Duck Confit Pizza, Jesse and Felix ordered the Margherita Pizza. Right after having our orders taken down it took roughly 10 minutes for the pizzas to arrive. Right away the first thing we did was check the crust, lifted it to check if it was going to hold its shape and we also looked at the bottom of the crust to see how the color was. The pizza lived up to its name and the crust was great, it had a nice crunch, held its shape and was slightly burned a bit, it’s a wood oven pizza of course there will be some parts with a bit of burnt. My pizza the Duck Confit Pizza was pretty good, the onions gave it a nice sweet taste, the truffle oil helped give it a more of a distinct flavor, I couldn’t really taste the cheese all that much. Over all I would order the pizza again except for the fact that it was a bit dry, since there wasn’t really any sauce other than the oil. I understand from past experience that tomato sauce does not go well with duck confit on a pizza, I’ve yet to figure out what kind of sauce would fit a duck confit pizza although maybe adding a bit more cheese would have helped give it a bit more moisture. Judging by Jesse and Felix’s reactions to their pizza I’d say they were satisfied by it. I’m willing to come back and try it again hopefully with the friend we forgot to bring along, Pat! For sure we’ll remember to call you next time we go for the zaaaa. Overall I’d say the layout is quite cozy, the menu is clean crisp simple, the pizza is great and the service is awesome. For anyone out in Ottawa looking for satisfying pizza I would suggest you go down to Tennessy Willems and have yourself a pizza!


Tennessy Willems website



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What Tennessy Willems has to offer, this is taken directly from their menu

I posted this incase anyone can't read the picture of the menu clearly

APPETIZERS

CHEESE BOARD
3 local cheeses, house-made cranberry-pear chutney, spiced almonds and homemade flatbread ... $10

MACKEREL PLATE
Whalesbone Smoked Mackerel, apple beet slaw, lemon Crème Fraiche with homemade fresh toasted bread ... $10

CHARCUTERIE
House-made Terrine, local derived sausage and cured meat garnished with pickles and mustard ... $10

BC SPOT PRAWNS
Sustainably farmed BC prawns in brown butter with lemon, capers, parsley and shallots ... $10

SALADS

HOUSE SALAD
Arugula served with wood oven roasted mushrooms and fresh parmesan in a Maple and Sherry vinaigrette ... $9

WARM BEET SALAD
Local C'est Bon goat cheese, apple vinaigrette, pickles fennel and tarragon ... $10

CAESAR
Romain lettuce, double-smoked bacon, fresh Parmesan and wood oven toasted croutons in a lemon, Dijon and garlic dressing ... $9

WOOD OVEN PIZZA

MARGHERITA
Fire-roasted tomato sauce, fresh Mozzarella and basil ... $10

THE ELMDALE
Fire-roasted tomato sauce, spicy Italian salami, mushrooms, roasted red peppers and fresh Mozzarella ... $14

HELEN's
Baby spinach, fresh Parmesan, C'est Bon goat cheese, and oven roasted pine-nuts, squeezed with fresh lemon ... $14

GREEK PIZZA
Basil pesto, oven roasted red peppers, Calamata olives and feta ... $16

WILD BOAR
Local wild Boar sausage, carmelized apple, sage, garlic and sharp Cheddar ... $18

DUCK CONFIT
Carmelized onion, white Truffle oil, Riopelle and duck confit ... $18

SOPRESSATA
Fire-roasted tomato sauce, fresh Mozzarella, red onion and Sopressata salami ... $15

FOUR SEASONS
Fire-roasted tomato sauce, fresh Mozzarella, Cremini mushrooms, artichokes, Calamata olives and Capicola ham ... $15

THE CHORIZO
Olive oil, carmelized onion, Chorizo sausage and local C'est Bon goat cheese ... $16

BIANCO
Pear, walnuts, smoked prosciutto, fresh Mozzarella and Gorgonzola ... $16

MAINS

Pan seared FLAT IRON STEAK with roasted fingerling potato wedges and chili dipping sauce ... $18

Roasted, line-caught HALIBUT FILET on a bed of navy beans, grape tomatoes, Oyster mushrooms, and double-smoked bacon with a lemon butter sauce ... $18

House-made LASAGNE with arugula béchamel, C'est Bon goat cheese, fire-roasted tomato sauce, and fresh Parmesan ... $15

SPAGHETTI with organic beef meatballs ... $15

DESSERTS

CRÉME CARAMEL ... $7

LEMON TORTE ... $7

CHOCOLATE MARQUIS Mmmmm... $7

The menu, read above if you can't read whats on the menu from the picture clearly


Tennessy Willems building!


Margherita Pizza


Duck Confit Pizza