REGINA - Playful trash talk ahead of the annual Labour Day Classic that will pit Winnipeg against Saskatchewan has left a bad taste in the mouths of some Roughriders fans.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers stirred up old drama this week when they issued a statement on Facebook about the team’s distaste for a Saskatchewan delicacy, Regina-style pizza.
“It’s awful and our opinion will never change,” the post read.
Regina-style pizza is generally defined by its thickness and generous amounts of meat and cheese.
The Blue Bombers first went on record saying “Regina-style pizza is terrible,” back in 2023.
This week’s statement doubled down on the comments, comparing a slice of the pizza to three-week old lasagna that someone slapped onto a piece of dough.
“Finally, after three long years of reflection, we’d like to say it didn’t change anything. It’s still terrible,” the post read.
The words did not sit well with Jim Kolitsas, whose father and uncles invented the iconic dish for their restaurant more than 50 years ago.
“Winnipeg must be saying that because they are nervous about the game and going to lose on Sunday,” Kolitsas said.
The Origin Story
There are four key elements to their Regina-style pizza, Kolitsas said.
It starts with fresh dough lathered with tangy tomato sauce then layered with a generous amount of meat. It ends with a mound of mozzarella cheese covering all the toppings and then baked until the dough is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
The thickness of each slice is a defining characteristic.
But Kolitsas believes the most distinctive innovation is placing the cheese on top to allow the mozzarella to caramelize.
“It just tastes good and that is why it became so popular,” Kolitsas said.
“We have seen it copied all across the province.”
The Kolitsas brothers originally from Greece first cooked up the idea of Regina-style pizza in 1970 when they opened up Houston Pizza in the city.
Before that, Kolitsas said pizza in the city was largely thin, light on flavour and lacked character.
“Pizza was not very popular then and if it was around, it was a different style,” he said.
A fan favourite
These days, Regina-style pizza is synonymous with the Labour Day Classic, resulting in a surge of orders for Houston Pizza on game day.
Several other restaurants in the city have adopted the pizza style.
Western Pizza has been serving up the Regina dish since 1976.
The restaurant has four booths inside Mosaic Stadium – home of the Saskatchewan Roughriders – that sell Regina-style pizza by the slice at every game.
“We know we have the best pizza in Regina,” Western Pizza manager Mike Maroudis said.
“It is Saskatchewan pizza. Alberta and Manitoba do not have our style.”
Each restaurant in the city has its own variation of the Regina-style pizza. >> Each restaurant where? Chains of Houston pizza? Or in the prairies? (I’m talking about any pizza restaurant in Regina that serves this kind of pizza)
At Western Pizza, Maroudis says “lots of meats and lots of cheese” define the hearty pizza.
“It is almost like a deep dish,” he said.
Fans from both sides of the football feud seem to enjoy it, according to Maroudis.
Not only do their restaurants feed an influx of Winnipeg fans over the long weekend, Maroudis says Western Pizza typically gets a pizza order from the Blue Bombers after every Labour Day Classic.
“They love our pizza,” Maroudis said. “We know that for a fact.”
