Pizza to go? Nova Scotian in New York gets long-distance delivery

COVID-19 has made it difficult for people to travel across international borders, but pizza can.

Erica Caines, originally from Truro, N.S., has been living state-side for the past three years, and in New York City since September. 

Her family is still in Nova Scotia along with her favourite chain pizza restaurant. 

Greco Pizza is headquartered in Caines's hometown. The business proclaims itself the "number one pizza delivery chain in Atlantic Canada" on its website.

Caines told CBC's Maritime Noon that the chain's pizza is her favourite because of its sweet sauce.

She said she'd been craving the taste while living in partial lockdown in her apartment in Queens, so she asked her dad, who knows a Greco franchise owner, to ask for the secret recipe.

"They liked the story so they figured they'd send me a pizza," Caines said of the family friends.

Last week, she received two portions of half-cooked pizza dough, pizza sauce, donair meat and donair sauce in the mail. The pizza shop owners also sent Greco pizza boxes, to add to the authenticity of Caines's dining experience.

So far, Caines has made one pizza, adding some of her own flair to the shipped ingredients to create a pepperoni, cheese and vegetable pizza.

"It tasted almost like the real thing," she said.

Caines shared the meal with her boyfriend, who had previously never had Greco pizza.

"I was hyping it up a lot so he had some high expectations but I guess it lived up to the hype," she said, adding that he "really liked it."

Caines said she's had a hankering for another staple of the Canadian chain restaurant scene, Tim Hortons — but only "a little bit."