A new Newmarket pizza place, Walk 4 Pizza, aims to fill a food gap in the community.
On top of the various pizzas on offer, the restaurant has a number of Desi food items like chicken biryani, shawarma, samosas and pakora on its menu.
Owner Fared Abro said he wanted to open Walk 4 Pizza because he said there was a lack of total halal restaurants despite the large Muslim community in town. He said he wanted to close that gap.
The menu also allows Abro to inject his own culture into the cuisine. He and his family are from Pakistan and worked in the food industry there, so they are well experienced when it comes to the restaurant business.
They came to Canada one-and-a-half years ago and now live in Bradford. Abro's wife, Mahvash, son Umar and cousin Waqas Warrich work with him.
As for the unique name of the business, Abro said it is because the location, which is 350 Davis Dr. (between Lorne Avenue and Niagara Street), which is very "walkable" and easy to access.
"You can walk here and take the pizza," he said.
At the grand opening event on Wednesday, Sept. 28, Umar said there was a second meaning to the name and that it was play off of Waqas, which sounds similar to walk, and Farded, which sounds like four, plus pizza.
The opening celebration was attended by Mayor John Taylor, Deputy Mayor Tom Vegh, Ward 5 Councillor Bob Kwapis, and members of York Regional Police. Both Kwapis and Vegh said they worked in pizzerias when they were younger and took the opening as an opportunity to revisit their dough tossing skills.
While Taylor has never worked in a pizza restaurant himself, he still got involved, putting a pie in the oven before everyone went outside for the ribbon cutting.
Abro said business has been good with lots of customers coming in. He said people in the community have been nice and added that "all over Canada, people are very friendly, very lovely people.”
He said he has goals of expanding Walk 4 Pizza all over the Toronto area and wants to open more locations, the next one in Barrie.
“First ,we’re going to start one franchise in Barrie, then we want to go to Mississauga,” he said.
The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday, from 10 a.m. to midnight, Friday to Saturday, and from noon to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
Editor's note: This article previously stated that Waqas Warrich was a business partner, however, he is not. The story has been updated.
