Prime Minister Justin Trudeau often gets a rousing welcome just about anywhere he goes.

But in Antigonish Tuesday, he was even more popular because he got some pizza for the team travelling with him.

Not just any pizza, it was from The Wheel, and in Antigonish, it’s the favourite hometown pizza that’s popular with locals and missed dearly by St. Francis Xavier University students after they move away.

Central Nova Liberal MP Sean Fraser tweeted a photo of Trudeau, outside The Wheel Pizza and Sub Shop.

“When I was a student at St. F.X, I lived just across the parking lot from The Wheel,” Fraser said. “It’s a fixture not only for the university though, but for the town. And when you have a special guest coming, you want them to get a flavour, no pun intended, of the community that they're visiting.”

The Wheel has been a pizza fixture in Antigonish for decades for locals and university students – who are the shop's best customers.

“And they just keep coming back,” said Cathy Novak, The Wheel’s manager and cook.“Even after they’ve graduated, done their four years or five years, whichever it might be. They come back and it’s always the talk about The Wheel, The Wheel, getting back to Antigonish and having a slice of pizza.”

There's no spicy brown sauce like in neighbouring Pictou County. The Wheel is all about fresh ingredients.

“Everything here is made from scratch,” says Novak. “Our dough, our sauce. We use top-notch cheese. It's just an all-around great pizza.”

The Wheel wall of fame is lined with pictures from around the globe of people and pizza boxes - soldiers in Afghanistan, international landmarks, even a shot of owner Mike Hassin with the Stanley Cup.

“The prime minister coming here yesterday was just like icing on the cake for all of us,” said Novak. “You know, it was a real feel-good day for us.”

For many, sharing a slice brings back memories about how long they've been eating Wheel pizza.

“My parents were St. F.X. grads, so I’ve been eating Wheel pizza for as long as I can remember,” said Lauren Agnew. “Every summer, we'd make a trip out here just for the pizza.”

The question now is, how long it will take before the prime minister ends up on the wall of fame?

“That picture will definitely be going up on a spot in here,” Novak said. “We will make room for him.”

No one knows what the prime minister thought about the pizza, but Fraser says one indication might be how quickly Trudeau comes back to The Wheel.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.