Shake Shack is teaming up with Pizzeria Badiali on three new menu items
The collaboration launches April 6, but you may want to get in line now
When two of the city’s most thirsted-after brands decide to have a meet-cute in the kitchen, you don’t walk to the lineup—you sprint.
Following its chic Mimi Chinese collaboration last year, Shake Shack is continuing its “we love local” tour by partnering with the west end’s cult favourite Pizzeria Badiali.
Related: Toronto NIMBYs are coming for your favourite pizzeria
The limited-edition menu—which will be available at the Yonge and Dundas, Union Station, Yorkdale Shopping Centre, and Yonge and Eglinton Shake Shack locations from April 6 to 19—is a three-part harmony of neighbourhood slice shop meets New York red-sauce spot.
First up is the Spicy Vodka Chicken Parm sandwich, a crispy chicken breast layered over a hot pepper mix and topped with Badiali’s spicy vodka rosé sauce, aged parmesan, sliced mozzarella and fresh basil, all on a toasted potato bun.
For Ryan Baddeley, Badiali’s chef and co-owner, the centrepiece had to be their signature vodka sauce (which also made an appearance in a limited-edition flavour of Miss Vickie’s chips). It’s a classic American Italian recipe that stars slow-cooked tomatoes, onion, garlic and cream—Badiali’s version actually ditches the vodka. To keep things authentic, the Badiali crew is doing the prep themselves, so you’re getting the exact same DNA found at their Argyle and Dovercourt mothership.
Related: What’s on the menu at Shake Shack’s first Canadian outpost
Then there are the Pizza Fries, Shake Shack’s crinkle-cut taters dusted in Badiali’s pizza seasoning (garlic, oregano, tomato powder, a hit of parm) and served with their creamy peperoncini dip.
And the grand finale: a Brio Chinotto milkshake, which blends the bittersweet Etobicoke-made soda with Shake Shack’s frozen vanilla custard. “Brio is Toronto—you can’t get it anywhere else,” says Baddeley. “I grew up drinking it at every local pizzeria, and we serve a lot of it at ours. This was a great way to add something that’s both Badiali and very, very Toronto.”
Leah Rumack has worked as the deputy editor of Today’s Parent and the features director of Fashion and has contributed as a writer to a long list of Canadian brands including Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, Chatelaine, Elle Canada, Zoomer, the National Post, EnRoute and Re:porter. Her work focuses on travel, food, pop culture, beauty and fashion.
