RUSTIC GOODNESS

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 Both Hands Wood-Fired Pizzeria & Bakery is a combination of a  traditional Italian pizzeria and a restaurant/bakery, bringing together local Northwestern Ontario products and people. All of our delicious rustic breads and pizzas are baked in our hand-built wood-fired brick oven. Cooking with fire at high heat allows us make great thin crust  pizzas, and we do it all right in front of you. 

The brick oven also allows us to bake high-hydration dough at high  temperatures to achieve bread with a thin, chewy crust with the moisture  sealed in so that the loaves are preserved without additional  additives. 

Our sourdough and whole grain breads are made with organic flours or flour that is grown and milled locally.  Our breads  contain no dairy, no added fats or oils, and no sugar – pretty much just  flour, water and salt.  Most of our doughs, including pizza crust, are made from a natural leaven or sourdough, instead of conventional yeast. 

Our pizzas feature high quality classic Italian toppings, and we try to get as many  ingredients as possible from local producers.  When we can’t, we seek  out the highest quality products from local shops and suppliers. 

We welcome pick-up only right now. But when we open back up for dine-in, you can enjoy our cozy  atmosphere with handcrafted furniture and the warmth of the wood-fired  oven. 

 It all began in 1999 during a long, cold winter in  Northern  Manitoba. Derek Lucchese started experimenting with baking bread and  realized that he was dedicated to making natural whole grain, sourdough  bread. After moving to the countryside near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Derek  continued to refine his baking skills. He took an oven building class  from the legendary Alan Scott at the North House Folk School in Grand  Marais, Minnesota; built a commercial oven and began Both Hands Bread.  For ten years, Derek sold his signature bread at the Thunder Bay Country  Market, eventually building a portable wood-fired pizza oven and adding  pizzas to his offerings. As an advocate of the baking process and a  promoter of great food, Derek began building ovens for others and  teaching baking and oven building workshops.  In 2014, Both Hands moved to its permanent location on the corner of Park and Algoma.

 Our dreams are big.  We are a for-profit business that feels a strong social and environmental responsibility--those truths can be difficult to reconcile sometimes.  But, that is who we are and what we are about.  We want to continue to grow as a business that makes good quality food, that supports our local producers, that supports other local businesses, that makes good food more accessible to folks from different circumstances, attracts skilled and committed staff and offers them fair wages, supports a healthy and sustainable work/family balance for us (and our staff), and provides us with a living wage.  We know it sounds like we want it all, (and maybe we do).   But we’re going to keep dreaming big, and working hard at offering great food and at being a business that folks want to support.