Cowabunga Pizzeria

A pizza topped with pineapple, popcorn chicken, roasted peanuts, toasted sesame, and scallions sits on the same menu as the Classic Cheese with marinara, mozzarella blend, fior di latte, and oregano, and Cowabunga Pizzeria treats both with the same seriousness. The Upper Wellington pizzeria, in Hamilton's Concession Street neighbourhood, opened in 2020 and runs as a takeout shop with service from three to nine in the evening every day of the week. Phones come on at eleven in the morning, which gives a Hamilton table a four-hour window to call a pickup in before the oven starts working.

The classic side of the order — Classic Cheese, Pepperoni with double cup-and-char pepperoni in mild or beef, and "Our Marg" Margherita with sun-dried tomato puree, basil, jalapeno pesto, and Parmigiano — is built on the same dough, a mozzarella blend with fior di latte, and a marinara base. The house pies are where the kitchen takes wider swings. 1Up Truffle Honey carries truffle cream, mozzarella, fior di latte, honey, Maldon salt, white truffle oil, and Parmigiano Reggiano. The Cowabunga pie holds pineapple, popcorn chicken, the house Cowabunga sauce, roasted peanuts, toasted sesame, and scallions. GG Garlicky Greens stays vegetarian on garlic oil, roasted garlic, charred broccoli, kale, lemon oil, jalapeno pesto, and Parmigiano. Six dipping sauces — Garlic, Jalapeno Ranch, Truffle Parm, Marinara, Sara's Spicy Honey, and Truffle Hot — line up alongside the pies and extend a pie order into a fuller meal.

Two reads come off the pizza list together. The first is that the kitchen is disciplined on fundamentals — fior di latte under a marinara base, oregano on the cheese pie, cup-and-char pepperoni in the rolled-rim style — and industry pizza coverage has singled out the cheese slice for its category. The second is that with the fundamentals settled, the kitchen is willing to push the topping conversation farther than most pizza menus reach: truffle cream and Maldon salt on one pie, popcorn chicken and roasted peanuts on the next, both on the same dough. Few Hamilton pizzerias commit this confidently to the riff without losing the pie underneath, which is why a Hamilton crowd that knows pizza keeps coming back to the Upper Wellington shop.

The shape of the pizzeria is built around takeout. The pizza menu runs as a takeout list, evening service runs three to nine every day of the week, and phones open four hours before the oven so a planned pickup gets ahead of the dinner rush. Pies come in two sizes — a fourteen-inch medium cut into six and an eighteen-inch large cut into eight, with the larger one positioned for two to four people — which makes sizing a group order a single decision rather than a back-and-forth. The sides round out the box: Garlic Knots tossed in garlic butter and Parmigiano with marinara or vodka for dipping, 1UP Fries that turn truffled waffle fries into a Parm-and-vinegar-salt side with the Truffle Parm dip, and two flavours of boneless Bunga Bites — the Cowabunga build with pineapple, sesame, peanuts, and chives, or the Lemon Pepper Hot+ with pickled jalapenos and honey. Vegan substitutions are noted on the pizza and appetizer pages, and the kitchen states clearly that it handles peanuts and sesame, which makes the call easy for diners with those allergies.

A Hamilton table calling in for the first time usually starts with the Classic Cheese — the cleanest read on the dough, the sauce, and the cheese balance — and then adds one of the house pies for contrast: 1Up if the order leans toward truffle and honey, Cowabunga if it leans toward pineapple, peanuts, and the playful end of the kitchen. Garlic Knots and a couple of dips travel with the box; the Bunga Bites cover the table that wants something other than pie. The pizzeria sits up on Hamilton's mountain in the Concession Street neighbourhood, and the order that comes out of it has stayed worth calling for years now.