What Happened to Massimo's After Restaurant Makeover? (Toronto, ON)

Restaurant Makeover (HGTV Canada / Food Network Canada) featured Massimo's, a late-night Toronto pizzeria, in an episode that aired on 2008-04-14. According to the Rotten Tomatoes episode description, co-owner Tony was working to keep his father's dream and legacy alive. Wikipedia's Restaurant Makeover table credits chef Massimo Capra and designer Brenda Bent with the episode. A BlogTO restaurant page describes the shop as a popular late-night pizzeria known for hot slices. No source that was found describes what the chef and designer changed in the menu, decor or staffing during the rescue, or how the relaunch went.

The shop's later history is better documented than the episode. NOW Toronto reported on 2009-08-11 that the building at College and Robert streets had been badly damaged in a fire about two weekends earlier and was boarded up, and that Massimo's would reopen at 1130 Queen West in a former tanning salon. A BlogTO article filed under 2009-09 in its web address dated the kitchen fire to July 2009. It said the new Queen Street West shop, a few doors from the Drake Hotel, would be larger, with the slice selection growing from three or four varieties to eight, and that co-owner Tony DeBartolo planned to go back to the sauce recipe his father used when he opened the original shop in the late 1970s.

A BlogTO restaurant page for Vinny Massimo's Pizza & Pasta, undated, says DeBartolo moved the business south to Queen and Dovercourt and renamed it, and that the new location opened after a few weeks of renovations; the page carries a now-closed label. Wikipedia's table notes that new locations on Queen West and on College were renamed Vinny Massimo's and closed around winter 2014. A Google Places listing for Vinny Massimo's Pizza & Pasta at 1130 Queen St W, retrieved on 2026-10-19, was marked permanently closed.

The address shown with this entry is the Queen Street West successor location. The episode-era shop was at College and Robert streets; no street number for it was confirmed.