Spark Beer & Pizza

Spark Beer ages sours and Belgian-style beers in oak foeders for months at a stretch — its Delima quad rests eighteen months in oak before it is poured — which is not what most people expect from a place that also runs a serious pizza kitchen. Spark is both, on purpose. Andrea Gormley and John Sproull built it around an electric brewhouse on Somerset Street West, in the heart of Ottawa's Chinatown, and handed the kitchen the same long view they gave the beer. The pizza is no afterthought to keep drinkers in their seats; it is its own program, made with as much intent as the barrels working behind the bar.

The pizzas are ten-inch rounds on house-made dough fermented a full twenty-four hours, hand-stretched and finished, more often than not, with Grana Padano and Vietnamese parsley. The Number One Pizza in Heaven is the one to know: cup-and-char pepperoni and pickled jalapenos under Korean chili flakes, a drizzle of honey, and that herb finish. Genius of Love carries a sausage made to Spark's own spice blend by Valley Sausage Co.; Skankin' Pickle stacks garlic butter, crisp dill pickles, and fresh dill; Shroom With a View leans on a mushroom medley and a secret umami seasoning for the table that skips meat. The East Coast Donair and the garlic fingers, both served with house donair sauce, nod hard to the Maritimes. On the beer side the range is wide — How About Italy?, a dry-hopped Italian pilsner; the hazy, dank Ominous Whooshing IPA; the featherweight Canadian Dreams pilsner; and Voices Carry, a deep-red sour conditioned on blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry. Even dessert pulls from the cellar: stout brownies built on Spark's own Black as Midnight.