Pizzeria pizza is waiting in your oven.
When Shane and Erin Burrows started Jimmy Chews (primo - pizza) back in December 2020, they knew what some of the key ingredients for their success were going to be.
Nestled into a handy, sidewalk-accessible location at 55 Mulcaster St., in downtown Barrie, their busy take-out spot belies the empty and mysterious skyscraper looming above them across from city hall.
“The location is great for us because it’s really convenient for our customers to park right in front, run in and get their pizza and go,” Erin tells BarrieToday, adding the dine-in experience was never part of the plan.
There are a deliciously overwhelming number of different styles of Jimmy Chews pizza.
Such as…
There’s the Bad Lucy: garlic-dill ranch sauce, mozzarella, red onion, Tuscan chicken and spicy dill pickle.
Then there is the Rocket Ham specialty pie: fresh mozzarella, Jimmy's fresh pizza sauce and prosciutto topped with arugula, shaved parmesan and cherry tomatoes.
Or The Duff: Ezzo pepperoni, house-cured bacon, parmesan, cremini mushrooms, green castelvetrano olives and a honey drizzle.
Oh yeah!
“We really pride ourselves on the freshness and the homemade ingredients,” says Burrows.
“All of our dips are made in-house. Our dough is made every day. Our pineapples are fresh, we don’t use canned. We cut up our own ham. We do our own chicken wings. We make our own bacon for our caesar salads and we do our own croutons,” she adds.
“It stands out from the rest and you can really taste it. We don’t do fancy boxes or advertising. We put that money into the product.”
And that product can take an unusual route to get to your plate at home.
As in, from your oven to your table.
“We also have something called half-baked and uncut (sounds like an album from the ’70s) so you’re finishing it off in the oven at home,” Burrows says. “We have customers who go to their cottages or where ever on the weekends. They pick it up here, keep it refrigerated and throw it in the oven and in five minutes you’ve got a Jimmy Chews pizza.
“It’s like you just picked it up hot from the store. The product is awesome and it doesn’t matter where you are.”
If you don’t want to pick up your pie, it has to get to your house some how.
“The one thing I’m really a stickler for is we have our own drivers,” says Burrows.
“We don’t go through third-party drivers. Our drivers are independent of us. They work for their tips during the delivery and we can control the timing better. They take that extra step and the extra care to make sure the pizza doesn’t arrive like an accordion.”
Folks in south-end Barrie may soon have a Jimmy Chews closer to home.
“We really want to pinpoint a second location in the south end,” Burrows says. “Right now, it’s so far for us to deliver down that way.
“But our name is getting (around) and we need to open a new location down there. We could service Friday Harbour and the Yonge/Mapleview area as well. So we’re very excited about that.”
She describes the business as a family thing.
“My husband and I and my old partner from Painter’s Hall, Ben Dean — who has stayed with us — saw the potential of having a great pizza place. We’ve been working together for seven or eight years now.”
The community of restaurants, the mom and pop shops and the self-owned businesses have really come together as a tight community, Burrows says.
“The support has always showed throughout everything and our biggest supporters are the other restaurateurs.”
