Chef Puts a Stop to Griffintown Pizza Restaurant

Daniel Krystal's plan to introduce New York-style pizza to Montreal will have to wait. "When New York-style pizza is done right, it can be better than most of the places out there that are calling themselves Neapolitan today," the chef stated when his Griffintown venture, an homage, of sorts, to Greenwich Village standby Joe's Pizza, was first announced late last year.

Krystal, who last made pizzas at Magpie Amherst, Macchina, and Artigiani, recently disclosed that his partner in the proposed pizzeria slated for Notre-Dame Ouest proved unreliable. "I had been effectively ready to open since [November] but we needed a contract or partnership agreement to be set up. After months of waiting for these simple things and long gaps of silence, I decided that I did not want to open a business with someone without a legal agreement to fall back on." As a result, the restaurant has been deep-sixed. In the interim, Krystal still has big pizzaiolo dreams.