Popular Gatineau pizzeria burns.

Last week, I wrote about the loss of three popular cafes in Ottawa.  Today, I’m writing about the unexpected loss of another popular restaurant.  Naples Pizza, which for 50 years had served what many called the best pizza on both sides of the Ottawa River in the National Capital Region, was destroyed in a fire Tuesday night.

The location on Rue Montcalm in the Hull sector of Gatineau was a bit of a throwback.  The décor resembled the 1970’s and so did the menu, which made me like the place even more.  It reminded me of other similar restaurants I’d visited in the past.  Tommy’s in Trenton Ontario, The Northway in nearby Belleville, and the now gone Golden Barrel in Listowel.  The staff at Naples Pizza were always friendly.  They were the sort of people who remembered repeat customers like me.  Its places like these that are defining part of a community.  Watertown New York has its venerable old Crystal Restaurant which was threatened with closure a couple of years ago but prevailed.  Brockville Ontario has Tait’s Bakery which closed last year after over a century but recently re-opened to the relief of local residents.  The town where I grew up has Diana Sweets, it hasn’t missed a day of business in nearly 90 years.

I discovered Naples Pizza when I lived in the surrounding neighbourhood.  It became one of my favourite places to go with visiting family and friends.  The food was great, yet simple and unpretentious.  It was not the sort of place self-titled “foodies” would have gone to or had much good to say about, but it was a friendly and comforting place to eat.  I already find myself wishing I could have a few slices of their “Mike Special” or the veal parmesan entrée.  Their sugar pie—an unofficial national dessert of Quebec, was among the best I’d ever tasted as it was completely homemade and bore no resemblance to the factory-made desserts most restaurants serve.

Naples Pizza and I both had similar reasons for being in Gatineau.  Their website says the business started back in 1965 when two brothers from London Ontario visited Ottawa and Gatineau.  They liked the place so much that they decided to stay and open the restaurant, which originally just had six tables.  On many evenings until the fire, customers often found themselves waiting 20 minutes for a table because even the much larger restaurant was usually at capacity.  I arrived in Gatineau in 2011 from a small town near London and also thought the city across the river from Ottawa would be a good place to live too.

It is still not clear if Naples Pizza will re-open at its current location or anywhere nearby.  I hope the residents of the apartments above the building on Rue Montcalm can easily find new homes and that the staff of the restaurant can find new jobs.  Seeing and experiencing the loss of a home or job is never fun, and neither is losing a popular part of the local community.