Bricks & Barley

The building on Four Mile Creek Road used to sell gasoline. A group of Virgil families gutted the old service station and rebuilt it into a hundred-and-forty-nine-seat pub with an open-concept pizza kitchen, a full bar, a stage, and a two-thousand-square-foot patio — a place built for the neighbourhood rather than the tour-bus trade that fills much of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Bricks & Barley opened in 2019 with a plain ambition: somewhere locals could bring a family and a table of friends without paying wine-country prices for the privilege. The woodfired oven anchors the kitchen, but the menu fans out far past pizza — nineteen wood-fired pies share the lineup with wings, burgers, fish and chips, and a full pub spread.

The pizza list is where the kitchen shows off. The Burrata Cup and Char builds a tomato base with cup-and-char pepperoni, drops a full burrata in the centre, and finishes the whole thing with a honey drizzle; the Wild and Blue runs garlic oil, blue cheese, wild mushrooms, caramelized onion, and truffle oil; the Arugula-Prosciutto leans bright and salty under a balsamic glaze. The range runs all the way down to a straight Margherita and a Dill-icious built on pickles, mozzarella, and a ranch drizzle for the table that wants something stranger. There is even a Big Mac pizza and a Pierogi pizza, the second stacking sliced potato, bacon, caramelized onion, and sour cream on an asiago base — proof the oven is willing to chase a craving rather than a tradition.