Delicious things are happening at Mile End’s newest pizzeria, Magpie, located on Maguire just off St-Laurent. With a traditional menu of wood oven-fired, Napoli-style pizza, Magpie offers a fantastic solution to your Sunday night, easy-dining pizza craving.

Wooden tables, large windows, simple rustic décor and brown-paper, placemat menus warmly welcome customers in off the chilly sidewalk; chefs visibly spin dough high into the air behind a tiled wood oven, reminding diners that they will be receiving the freshest of the fresh. The menu consists of charming and surprisingly hefty appetizers, including breadsticks with dip and artichoke hearts, and well-dressed Romaine salad. When it comes to the eight assorted pizzas, the fluffy and crispy-edged crusts (that admittedly do sag a bit in the middle, but in a just-make-a-pizza-roll-out-of-it kind of way) are complemented by an abundance of classic Italian toppings: olives, basil, Italian sausage, mushrooms, roasted red pepper (and much more) are among the choices. All with fresh and light tomato sauce topped with mozzarella, goat cheese or bocconcini. Just stop. I’m drooling.

Pizza’s vary between $11 and $17 and are generally meant as single-person servings; however, following my visit with a friend, I came home with an entire Margherita pizza (and two breadsticks) doggy-bagged. Magpie also has an unexpectedly wide range of wines and beers available, in addition to a small (but very tempting) dessert menu.

Magpie is open six days a week (closed on Mondays), with additional lunch hours available on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

For reservations, call 514-507-2900.

~ Tyler Yank