A few years ago, when Sean Santos was asked to create food for an art exhibit, he thought, why not showcase Filipino dishes by serving them on pizza instead of rice? Santos was pleased with the combination. And in the summer of 2020, with his cooking job on hold during the initial stages of the pandemic, he resurrected the idea for a pop-up with longtime friend Chuck Ortiz. Their two-day event rolled into a second weekend, then another, for three months, until they were signing the lease for a restaurant location, a recently closed space with about 1,000 square feet. By October they had opened Saints Island Pies, a showcase for Detroit-style deep dish pizzas topped with items like sisig, egg, and arugula, or pesto with chicken adobo.
Saints Island Pies' Longanisa, a pizza inspired by the Filipino breakfast of garlic fried rice, longanisa sausage, and fried egg. Photo: Courtesy of Saints Island Pies
What was it like opening a restaurant in a pandemic?
It was exciting yet scary. As a pop-up, we didn’t have a ton of overhead. We bootstrapped everything. When we realized we were going to take over this restaurant, that’s when it got a bit scarier. We realized we need to hire people, to do it five days a week and be on Uber and all these different platforms. It’s still fun. But it quickly [went from being] this fun, spontaneous thing [to] a business. We’re already maxing out our capacity. The restaurant wasn’t built for pumping out pizzas. Do we get a second location, a commissary kitchen to help us produce more?
You must have gotten a deal on the rent.
We wouldn’t have been able to afford the location if not for the pandemic. It closed down because of the pandemic. All these things in Toronto are becoming available because of the pandemic. And small companies like us have been able to swoop in at a dirt-cheap price. Because people need to fill these spots.
The food of The Philippines has a reputation for being sweet, salty, and fatty. Most Filipino cuisine I’ve eaten has lived up to that. Until I was served a bowl of arroz caldo (similar to congee) and someone brought me spiced vinegar that was like the missing link in the profile of the dish. What is the role of garnishes, and specifically acidity, in Filipino cuisine?
It’s a huge part. A lot of our food is very similar to a Spanish palate. Maybe because of the occupation. So much of our food tends to be so salty and rich with fat. For example, if you do a pork adobo stew, there’s so much fat from pork belly. The vinegar plays a huge part in cutting that fat. Another big dish in the Filipino community is crispy pata, a fried pork hock. And that is served with atchara, which is basically a pickled vegetable: papaya, cabbage, carrots. It’s very tart. It goes really well with the fried items. Like crispy pata or lechon kawali, which is deep-fried pork belly. So vinegar is that balancing act.
How does that top-note of acidity relate to your pizzas?
We’re not trying to do authentic food but to create flavors that are very reminiscent of Filipino cuisine. One of our biggest sellers, we call it best friend longanisa. It’s based on Filipino breakfast: garlic fried rice, longanisa (like a sweeter chorizo), topped with a fried egg. And on the side, you’d have tomatoes with a spicy vinegar. So again, the salty, sweet, and savory together. For one of our pies, we took that influence and we use a tomato sauce with Asian flavors: coconut cream and a bit of lemongrass. Then we top it with our in-house longanisa, crispy garlic, and a fried egg. And we have a spicy, lemongrass tomato sauce on the side, that kind of helps balance it out.
Saints Island Pies also offers a variety of beverages, including Filipino-inspired cocktails like the boozy halo-halo. Photo: Saints Island Pies
Is pizza the perfect vessel to present any cuisine to an unfamiliar audience?
Absolutely. The possibilities are endless. We’re talking about collaborations with chefs from different islands. We have a good friend who is Jamaican, friends that are Japanese.
What makes pizza such an adaptable vehicle for these culinary traditions?
Filipino food is the base of where we started. We picked a brand and name that spoke to us as Filipino Canadians. We were both born in Canada, but we represent this food. Our demographic is 70 to 80% non-Filipino. Pizza is beloved by everyone. The fact that we have been able to feed Filipino food to people who otherwise wouldn’t know our cuisine is really exciting for us. We pay homage to the Italian food because that’s where it originated. We’re inspired by it. We don’t want to bastardize the cuisine. But we feel like we’re able to create something that we love and respect and bring it to this new level. It’s a way to merge our two experiences.