It’s a two-fisted, square-shaped, greasy-cheesy piece of goodness that has become an official symbol of Saskatchewan’s capital city.
It’s Regina-style pizza.
It’s Greek, it’s good and, as a bonus, it gets under the crust of the CFL team that Saskatchewan fans love to hate.
The pie has been a staple in Regina dating back about a half century when, in 1970, Greek immigrant brothers George, Gus, John and Tony Kolitsas opened their first Houston Pizza restaurant on Hill Avenue.
It’s known by its thickness: a base of fluffy dough heaped with a healthy portion of tomato sauce, vegetables and deli meat before being topped with a pile of cheese.
Jim Baiton, owner of Tumblers Pizza, says the pies should be baked until golden brown and served in square pieces to keep the filling from falling out.
It’s not as thick as Chicago deep-dish, nor is it wide and pliable as the pies in New York City.
Baiton’s employees crank out hundreds each week to be shipped frozen to various grocery stores in the province. They’re also baked fresh for pick up and local delivery.
“(This style of pizza) started in Regina,” Baiton said in a recent interview.
“Regina is the Bible for that.”
Baiton said the Kolitsas brothers created the signature pie to go against the grain.
“Everyone was doing (thinner crust) pizzas at the time,” Baiton said.
Pizza sauce is in Baiton’s DNA. He got his start in the industry when he was 14. He skipped church one day with his brothers to go work for Houston Pizza.
It’s where he learned how to make pies the Regina way.
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Baiton later left Houston Pizza and became a franchisee of Western Pizza — another restaurant chain that has made Regina-style pizza for decades — before opening his own shop, Tumblers Pizza, in 1979.
He said the Regina pie has its detractors, those who think it’s too cumbersome, too soggy.
“A lot of people, when they first see it, they go, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’” Baiton said. “You need two hands to bring it up to your mouth and bite it.”
Over at Western Pizza, Regina-style runs in the family. Spiro Bonis, company’s president, said his father is a first cousin of the Kolitsas brothers.
He said the pizza’s thickness may have to do with Greek culture, with grandmothers and mothers making sure families are well fed.
Saskatchewan’s roots in agriculture, along with its cold winters, may also be part of it, he added.
“You need hearty meals, you need to keep everybody warm and fed,” Bonis said.
Regina’s best kept secret is now scaling up.
Tourism Regina, the city’s booster agency, recently launched new merchandise, including key chains and T-shirts, displaying the four-sided pizza slice.
Teale Orban, the agency’s director of destination stewardship, said the pizza is a natural fit.
“If you’re from Regina, you just know it. It’s kind of like it’s born and bred into you,” Orban said.
“We were really just brainstorming ideas. And in one conversation, it came up that, ‘Hey, we should really get behind Regina-style pizza.’”
One group not getting behind Regina pizza is Winnipeg’s CFL team. The Blue Bombers are longtime rivals of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
On Sunday in Regina, the two teams start their annual Labour Day weekend back-to-back clash, culminating in next week’s so-called Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg.
The Bombers recently went on social media to trash talk Regina’s signature dish.
“It’s like someone took a three-week old lasagna and slapped it on a piece of dough,” the team said.
Asked about the comment this week, Riders head coach Corey Mace shook his head.
“I don’t know how you hate a pizza,” he said.
Baiton, meanwhile, said from where he sits, Regina pizza is the great cheesy goodwill ambassador.
“I served five people from Manitoba yesterday.”
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