Pizza Heaven In a Dive Bar: Black Thorn 

Next on the top 10 St. Louis Pizza Places 

Pizza Claus Visits Black Thorn Pub

Stlpizzaguy gives Black Thorn Pub his P of Approval.

"Brendan your pizza is ready," comes the sound on the intercom in a small and crowded neighborhood bar on the corner Wyoming and Spring Street in Tower Grove. The year is 2010, during my first trip to Black Thorn and that announcement is music to my ears, as it is nearly 8:30 p.m. and I have been waiting for two hours for pizza. Although the wait was taxing and frustrating, the deep-dish and me formed a special pizza bond that night. While most of the city was crazy about Pi Pizza, I was telling everyone about Black Thorn.

Black Thorn is a no frills experience, but include the pizza and you will leave satisfied. Black Thorn is a vestige of an older times when a neighborhood bar was located smack dab in the middle of residential housing, not in a strip mall. A couple 1970’s Busch beer lamps line the bar. The bar area is on the left side of the establishment, with the dining area on the other side. The dining area walls are covered in chalk and marker writing from customers in the distant past.  Since they only have room to make a couple pizzas at a time with their ovens, please be prepared to spend a couple of hours unless you call ahead and place your order.

A slice of Black Thorn is a layered Chicago-style pizza with the bottom crust, cheese and toppings in the middle, then top crust and more cheese and toppings.

The interior of Black Thorn is a no frills experience with chalk writing on the walls and eclectic bar decor.

THE PIZZA DETAILS

I'd describe the pizza here as a stuft pizza with a exterior lining of mozzarella and toppings with more mozzarella and toppings inside it. Their Chicago-style pizza is 3-4 inches high. One trip here and your stomach feels like it's gained five pounds but it's also consumed some of the best pizza in St. Louis.

THE CRUST: The bottom is thick crust, crispy and sturdy enough to hold many toppings. It is much thicker than Pi Pizza crust on the bottom. The toppings come on top of the pizza, and are also packed inside stuft with cheese all the way around type pizza. 

The inside of the pizza is also loaded with toppings

THE TOPPINGS: I taste so much cheese, the toppings are loaded on top, and layered in the cheesy middle between the top and bottom crust.

THE SAUCE: This is the spiciest tomato sauce on my top 10 list, and frankly that I have ever tasted. It is a dark red, burgundy colored sauce. Even though it is spicy and has a kick, it is not unbearable and also is a good contrast with the mozzarella cheese on overload.

OTHER TIPS for eating at Black Thorn:

1. Call Ahead: Chicago-Style Pizzas take almost an hour to cook.

2. Be prepared to spend the evening here if you do not call ahead. If you find yourself waiting for your pizza, you can play pinball, darts, or shuffleboard. 
3. Do not eat too much here. My record is three pieces of a large pizza, and this is the only place on the top 10 where I can only eat three pieces. I was put in a pizza coma and fell asleep easily a couple hours later. 

Although the appearances of Black Thorn are a dive bar, eat this cheesy, spicy pizza brick and you'll be transported to pizza heaven.  

2016 Stlpizzaguy Year-End Wrap Up

I want to end this year with a bang, with a special Christmas themed post. It’s been a great year for Stlpizzaguy, with more than 5,000 visitors to my little pizza site. I am truly humbled. My last post for 2016 is Black Thorn Pub, a place I first discovered during my 1L year of Law School with my roommate Aaron Moores and other members of the SLU Law Softball League which played at Tower Grove Park.

Next year I will finish my top 10 list and start visiting requested pizza places from blog viewers around the St. Louis area. So far on my list to visit are Faraci Pizza and Felix's Pizza.

Motivation For Starting A Pizza Blog

Probably the best thing about moving to the St. Louis City in 2010 was the opening of a whole new world of undiscovered restaurants. In  the St. Louis area there is a city/county divide that people do not often cross when visiting restaurants. Most people who have not lived in the city haven’t visited Black Thorn, while most who live in the city haven’t been to Ya Ya’s Euro Bistro, a favorite of Chesterfield residents. A huge reason I started the Stlpizzaguy was to get people out of their neighborhood, into other neighborhoods in search of better tasting pizza. I would like to thank my fiance Adria who really motivated me to start the blog and first thought of Stlpizzaguy. I'd also like to thank my sister Krista who helped by giving me a signature P of Approval. 

In Case You Missed it

Here are some posts that will educate you on St. Louis-style pizza, and also about the new fast-casual pizza taking over the area.

Guide to Provel cheese:
http://stlpizzaguy.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-best-guide-to-provel-cheese-part-1.html

What makes St. Louis-style Pizza
http://stlpizzaguy.blogspot.com/2016/03/now-you-can-tell-your-out-of-town.html


The Great Pizza Debate, my post on fast-casual pizza
http://stlpizzaguy.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-great-pizza-debate-has-technology.html

Onward With The Top 10: Pi Pizza

Onward With The Top 10: Pi Pizza

Even Obama knows our St. Louis pizzas are the best!

Stlpizzaguy gives Pi his "P of Approval"

In this heated and divisive election, go the bipartisan route and cast your vote for pizza. Remember early in my pizza blogging days I cited that 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza in the last month? Well even the health-food loving President Barack Obama loves my next favorite on the top 10: Pi Pizza. For starters, I have visited Pi more than 30 times and celebrated three birthdays here. I’m really unveiling a huge pizza secret by telling you about arguably the number one place on the St. Louis pizza scene.  But it’s election time and with all the stress and bickering by our two political parties, it is a timely post to find something that can bring us together: Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza.

I’m not going to lie. I may not like Chicago baseball teams, but I prefer Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza almost any day over thin-crust St. Louis-style. Of course, a time and a place exist for both. There’s just something masculine and a male empowering satisfaction involved in eating a thick, saucy, deep-dish piece of pizza that the cracker-thin crust just can’t give me. Eating Chicago-style makes me feel like a man mainly because eating a piece of Chicago-style is a challenging task that makes you feel full very quickly. However, going for a run the day after eating deep-dish is like running with bricks in your stomach--so I don’t recommend that.

Stlpizzaguy first discovered Pi in 2010 when a law professor mentioned it before she began her lecture. It was mesmerizing the town at the time because their food truck traveled around Barnes Jewish Hospital and the Forest Park creating a lot of buzz. Then they started getting big and expanding. Their first two Pi Locations were in  the University City Loop and Kirkwood. Then Pi expanded to Central West End, Washington Ave., and then a carry out location in the Ballwin area.

Pi is the only pizza place in St. Louis to my knowledge that has been visited and celebrated by a sitting President. Barack Obama enjoyed Pi so much that Pi even opened a location in Washington DC where they serve local St. Louis beers like Schlafly.

It is important to note that Pi pizza is great with or without the fanfare surrounding it. Some restaurants get their break from celebrity and television publicity, but their performance in the following years to sustain that endorsement and keep their quality high is what counts.  

When you walk in to Pi, the first thing you notice is that they are a symbol and not a name. Their black and white logo shines proudly before you as you walk in the restaurant. Most of their restaurants are pretty dimly lit, and has a romantic ambiance, making this one of the few pizza places where you can take your wife or girlfriend and actually have a romantic dinner. Of course every trip to a pizza place is romantic for me because I love pizza. Stlpizzaguy also had his first date with my fiancee Dr. Adria Jerkovich at Pi Pizza. Overall, Pi is pizza tailored more for adults, but you will see some kids at the Kirkwood location.

Dr. Adria Jerkovich, more affectionately known as the goddess of pizza, and cover girl for Stlpizzaguy fliers around town, smiles with a Southside Classico Pizza at the Pi Central West End location. 

The Pizza Details:

A slice of Pi

Yukai Chen, friend of Stlpizzaguy and China native says that Pi is his favorite pizza in St. Louis. Chen gives Pi his "P of Approval."

THE CRUST: CORNMEAL, CORNMEAL, CORNMEAL. Pi is unique because they add a large amount of cornmeal to the dough. The cornmeal makes the crust a little crunchy and more flavorful in a healthier way than adding lots of butter. The crust is firm enough to hold the impressive amount of cheese, toppings, and sauce. Unlike other types of deep-dish, you can pick up a slice of Pi and eat it pretty easily with your hands. Other more traditional types of Chicago-style make eating a slice a task like eating a pizza casserole because the crust is more flimsy and overloaded with toppings.

THE CHEESE: Pi uses mozzarella cheese.

THE SAUCE: sweet, with a few chunky bits of tomato, with parmesan and oregano sprinkled on top of the sauce. The sauce here is put on top, which is good for me because I don’t usually eat mushrooms on my pizza, or olives, but if I can’t see them I eat them.

Stlpizzaguy’s choice pizza at Pi is the Southside Classico deep-dish with mozzarella, Berkshire pork sausage, mushrooms, green bell peppers and onions. One surprising thing about Pi is given their love for vegan, gluten-free and fresh ingredients, they do not have any nutrition facts available for their pizzas. Just remember to eat pizza for your pleasure, not your health. 

The only drawback is the price (22.95 for a large deep-dish Southside Classico.) However, you are probably making an investment for two meals. Their deep-dish pizza is usually enough for two people with normal eating habits to have for lunch the next day. 

MORE ABOUT PI: Pi Pizza is named for the math equation and for the 314 St. Louis area code. They are known for their locally-sourced fresh ingredients, making their meatballs from scratch for their meatball pizza called the Kirkwood. Pi started marketing their pizzas with a Pi food truck back in early 2010 and claims to have the first new generation food truck in the St. Louis area. President Barack Obama ordered a delivery for Pi Pizza during a campaign stop in 2008. One of Obama’s campaign assistants, Reggie Love put Obama on the telephone and told the owner of Pi that it was the best pizza he had ever tasted. In 2009, after Obama was elected, he invited Pi to make pizza for a lunch at the White House. The fact that Obama had Pi a year after the election shows that he genuinely liked the pizza here. Because of this publicity, and also for its popularity in St. Louis, waiting times at Pi are sometimes more than an hour. Stlpizzaguy admits he has waited an hour at Pi. In the spring of 2011, Pi opened a Washington DC location called the District of Pi, just a few blocks from the White House in the Penn Quarter. 

The Great Pizza Debate:

Has Technology Killed The Family Pizza Joint?

Review of Pie Five Pizza, Pieology, MOD Pizza

After much prodding and after seeing Pie Five, Pieology, and MOD Pizza pop up at nearly a dozen locations across the St. Louis area, Stlpizzaguy decided his blog would not be complete without addressing the newest pizza craze sweeping the country: fast-casual pizza. Thanks to advances in oven technology and the availability of locally sourced ingredients, these restaurant chains may become as ubiquitous as Walgreens. After all, pizza is America’s favorite food.

So what has changed that should make Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns, and even the local family pizza place worried?  Every single fast-casual pizza place credits new oven technology as the critical component to their business. Even as recent as 2010, no ovens existed that could cook a high-quality pizza quickly enough. Dough technology has also evolved so the new ovens keep proof time, blend, and protein content stabilized.

In 2015, the fast-casual industry rose by 11.5 percent, outpacing the remainder of the restaurant industry’s growth of 4.1 percent.  Business experts credit most of that growth to assembly line style, custom-built pizza. Three of the five fastest growing brands in the Top 500 Chain Restaurants were fast-casual pizza chains Blaze Pizza, MOD Pizza, and Pieology Pizzeria.

For a little history lesson on fast-casual pizza, Pie Five is considered a pioneer and the catalyst for the industry. Pie Five is owned by Rave Restaurant Group, who also owns Pizza Inn. In the summer of 2010, Pizza Inn was looking for ways to expand and former CEO Charlie Morrison proposed entering the fast-casual niche. The problem was no chain had been successful with fast-casual pizza.

TurboChef, a manufacturer of rapid-cook ovens, approached Pizza Inn with their conveyor oven that fully cooks a pizza in two minutes and delivers consistent results. The oven combines conveyor and convection technologies, including multiple fans that blow hot air at speeds up to 60 mph. Computer-controlled modules help direct the hot air flow toward a cover plate with holes, and the air flows out in jets, which is then balanced for even baking, browning and crisping. Pie Five's oven can reach a temperature of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Both MOD and Pieology use a stone oven that cooks pizzas at 800 degrees. 

After this short history lesson, I encourage you to try Pie Five, MOD Pizza and Pieology. The pizza quality at these chains is actually decent, but the Sistine Chapel was not painted in a day. I’m afraid pizza is like art, where the average person can easily confuse expensive pieces of art and well-done forgeries. Stlpizzaguy will lay out the case for these innovative new pizza places. Pizza lovers can decide for themselves whether they are the real deal or phony.

Pie Five Pizza (located in Chesterfield and Richmond Heights) 

Pie Five was a pleasant experience as my pizza was completed in 2½ minutes. The toppings on the 11-inch pizza for $6.99 were definitely fresh. Walking into Pie Five reminds me of walking into Subway, seeing all the toppings out in the black containers, you pick what you want, and your pizza is ready to go. Except that the first question they ask you at Pie Five is, “What type of crust do you want?” The dough is balled up and ready, but I could tell the lack in quality by the dough. I’m a big dough boy, and at the end of the day the freshness of the crust matters. On their pan pizza, you can taste the dough is not fresh, high quality stuff, but instead slightly spongy.  Pie Five offers thin, pan, and gluten-free crust. Because this is St. Louis, they also offer and advertise Provel cheese as an option. All Pie Five Pizzas are cooked using a combination conveyor/convection type oven, literally making the kitchen look like a mini-assembly line.

Famous St. Louisian Yogi Berra loves pizza as much as Stlpizzaguy. Pie Five uses this as wall decor. 

This is a pepperoni pan pizza from Pie Five.  

Pieology (Located in St. Charles, Creve Coeur, South County) 

My friend Tim Heimsoth lives at the Streets of St. Charles in an apartment, and he eats a 11.5 inch pizza for $8.45 at Pieology weekly. Pieology pizzas are cooked in a stone oven in less than 3 minutes. In my opinion they have the best crust of the three. If you walk in to order a pizza, you are easily able to see the nutrition facts on the menu. They also offer online ordering if you want to carry-out. Earlier this year, Panda Express bought a minority stake in Pieology to prove that orange chicken and pizza can be friends.  

Tim Heimsoth enjoys a chicken, bacon, and ranch pizza at Pieology.

My pizza from Pieology: sausage, pepperoni, and jalapenos. 

MOD Pizza (located in Ladue, Kirkwood, Ellisville, Cottleville, Wentzville, Lindenwood) 

MOD is an acronym for Made On Demand. For only $7.87 you get an 11-inch thin crust pizza with all the toppings you want and every other modification you might desire. Their pizzas are cooked in approximately three minutes in a stone oven that reaches 800-degrees Fahrenheit. They have a tasty hot buffalo sauce that is almost too spicy. Again, the toppings are fresh. Although the pizza is decent and the crust is crispy on the edges, the middle is almost too thin and spongy.  Some pizza lovers have been turned off by their extra-thin crust, but their robust expansion is saying otherwise. Also, they have a cool MOD Squad marketing campaign, and they encourage community involvement with pictures of employees volunteering at local charities on a wall at their location. Every year for one week they donate $1 from every pizza to a local charity of the employees choosing.

MOD Pizza uses a super-hot stone oven to cook their pizzas in approximately three minutes.  

I ordered a pepperoni, sauasage, and jalapeno pepper pizza from MOD. 

THE BOTTOM LINE ON FAST-CASUAL PIZZA

"In Stlpizzaguy’s world all types of pizza--fast-casual and old-fashioned slow pizza--can peacefully coexist."

PROS:

Customization: have it your way. No charge for extra or outrageous toppings. At some pizza places, the charge for extra toppings is steep. Toppings at all the places taste very fresh. Kids and adventurous people will especially like fast-casual pizza. 

They may actually make a pizza faster than Jimmy John’s makes a sub sandwich. The wait time at Pie Five was 2 and ½ minutes.

They would be great to have at airports. The ovens are small enough to fit in airport kiosks.

Great for a person on a short lunch break. When I worked at Omega Plumbing Company in college, we used to go to Imo’s when we only had 30 minutes for lunch. Most of our lunch time was wasted waiting for our pizzas to cook. With the fast-casual pizza place, you can spend more of your lunch time eating pizza and relaxing. 

Great place to take kids. Kids are often pickier about what type of pizza they like, and are forced to eat toppings their parents like. At the fast-casual pizza places, kids can get exactly what they want.

Lower calories. Generally, personal pizzas are lower-calorie and are a form of portion control. Pieology Pizzeria is smart in advertising their calorie content, and many pizzas there are below 800 calories.

CONS:

Slightly lower quality. The dough at these places is all balled up and ready to go. I noticed that the dough was spongy when I ordered Pie Five’s pan pizza and did not taste fresh. Other issues were a large bubble on one of my pieces at Mod Pizza. But overall, the quality is up there with the other pizza chains. It’s smart of Pieology and MOD to only offer thin-crust pizza, so you can’t taste the quality of the dough as much as you can taste the fresh toppings. And there is always the old aphorism: you get what you pay for. 

More automation, less labor intensive. Most of the fast-casual pizza places use an oven controlled largely by a computer. I like the idea that a human has some involvement in the creation of my pizza.

National chains, and franchised. Stlpizzaguy personally prefers local, non-chain restaurants. I am also worried that the fast-casual places may replace mom and pop, and other higher-end pizza places. But in Stlpizzaguy’s world, and we can only hope that in our world, all types of pizza can peacefully coexist. 

Coming up next, look out for my guide to different types of pizza ovens, a review of Mellow Mushroom, and of course more of Stlpizzaguy's top 10 pizzas in St. Louis.

TwinOak Wood-fired Pizza: 

Not Just Another Brick In The Wall On The Top 10

TwinOak wood-fired pizza is not just another brick in the wall on the St. Louis pizza scene. Their pies, 10-inches and cooked in a brick oven, is pizza at its finest. TwinOak won the Riverfront Time’s best thin-crust pizza award for 2016, but it has been on Stlpizzaguy’s top 10 list since 2012. TwinOak is my preferred place to go for a great pizza and smoked wings combination. Classmate David Castellucci and I discovered TwinOak during our law school pizza journey of more than 40 St. Louis pizzerias, and it immediately became an agreed upon favorite.

Established in 2011 by the Friederich family, TwinOak brought St. Louis its unique wood-fired fare. The father and two sons are almost always working at the restaurant, and offer a great pizza happy hour deal with half-off pizzas and beer from 3-5:30 p.m.

When customers enter the restaurant, they first see a putting green straight ahead and a hostess to challenge them to sink a 10-foot putt for free beer or pizza. To the left is the bar, with ample seating and a variegated draft beer selection.  As you walk past the bar, you see an open kitchen on your left, at the center of which is the brick oven with its rising flames and burning Missouri oak logs. The brick oven burns wood and gas at temperatures exceeding 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Brick ovens are almost universally recognized as the best way to cook pizza, as it sears in the flavors and tastes of the sauce, meat, and cheese. Keep walking straight and you are at the dining area.

Stlpizzaguy gives TwinOak wood-fired pizza his "P" of Approval. The pizza of his choice in the picture is the Italian Stallion, a mix of Italian sausages and vegetables.

Stlpizzaguy's sister Krista, the inspiration behind the "P" of Approval, poses with the When in Rome pizza. Stlpizzaguy personally believes that if you want a pizza with a mountain of lettuce you should just order a salad, but because Krista founded the "P" of Approval, she gets her picture in the blog whenever she wants. 

"My two favorites of their signature pizzas are the Meatier-ologist and Italian Stallion. One of my pizza mottos is: if there’s no meat, I don’t eat."

The Meatier-ologist has chorizo sausage, Italian sausage, andouille sausage, bacon, basil and mozzarella with tomato sauce. The Italian stallion includes Italian sausage, green bell pepper, caramelized onions and mozzarella with tomato sauce.

TwinOak’s tomato sauce is pretty sweet, too sweet for some customers, but fine by me. They use shredded mozzarella cheese on their pizzas. The pizzas are 10-inches, smaller and crispy on the end, courtesy of the wood-fired brick oven.  One of their pizzas is too much for one normal person with a normal appetite to finish, but too small for two people to share unless you get a pound of wings. So be smart and order two pizzas. Their toppings are generous and taste fresh.

One thing to watch out for at TwinOak: wood-fired pizza does slightly char the crust of the pizza at the bottom. The high-level of skill, attention, and diligence to cook with the brick oven leaves the operator little margin for error or else the pizza is overcooked. Typically this doesn’t happen, but if you dislike crispy crust that naturally comes with cooking in a brick oven you might want to skip TwinOak on your pizza journey. 

The place has my “P” of Approval because I can taste the fresh ingredients, my sister Krista and girlfriend Adria LOVE it, and because I love wood-fired pizza.

TwinOak is located at: 1201 Strassner Dr., Brentwood, MO 63144

Fortel's Pizza Den:
Mom and Pop Pizza Stands Test Of Time

As Stlpizzaguy's adventures drive him deeper into St. Louis County for lunch at the Fortel's Creve Coeur location on July 8, he tells his pizza confidants brother Evan and friend Matt Burke that Fortel's is in his top 10 list for sure, but really quite honestly it’s in his top three. Over the course of his life, Stlpizzaguy has consumed more than 100 of Fortel's pizzas. So it is possible that the repetition and regularity of pizza consumption at Fortel's has blinded his taste buds. But anyone with even a cursory knowledge about St. Louis pizza knows that Fortel's earns a rightful place in the top 10 list.

Stlpizzaguy giving the P of Approval with one of his favorite pizza brethren Matt Burke. Matt Burke's pizza claim to fame is for being a frequent diner of Pizza Hut Pizza. Growing up, his family ordered Pizza Hut at least 2-3 times every week for dinner. In high school we would have Pizza Hut EVERY Friday night when I visited to his house. Do not let looks deceive you, we finished both of these pizzas with a little help from my brother Evan.

As we order and eat a large and a medium pepperoni pizza, the taste is magical. With a liberal amount of tomato sauce and heavy amount of pepperoni, this pizza is a great greasy masterpiece. The taste of the crust is doughy, not a crispy cracker like crust so common with many St. Louis-style pizzas. 

"The pepperoni pizzas here are very greasy, which may turn some people off in this health-conscious age, but I still love it. Stlpizzaguy eats pizza for his sanity and pleasure, not for his health."

Fortel's Pizza was founded in 1981 by Bob and Jan Fortel. I first heard about them in the late 1990’s when Bob and Shelley Fortel appeared on KSDK Channel 5's “Show-Me St. Louis" showcasing a variety of pizzas. Bob Fortel was a pizza visionary, with his barbeque chicken pizza and other experiments with different pizza types way before it became trendy. My mother and I insisted on trying the pizza, so the entire family went to the Kirkwood location and have been regular customers of various Fortel's locations ever since. When I think of great pizza and where all my pizza memories are, most are found at Fortel's when my family went there on Sunday nights after church, after celebrating wins in high school baseball, after my law school graduation, or just to carry out.

The Pizza Details:

THE CHEESE: Mozzarella. You can tell the difference because it’s stringy when cutting off a piece, unlike Provel which can be cut perfectly.

SAUCE: A sweeter than normal tomato sauce that is always applied liberally to the dough.

CRUST: On the thick spectrum of thin-crust pizza. Doughy, not crispy, never overdone or overcooked.

Additionally, Fortel's uses fresh ingredients, fresh toppings, and their dough is made in the store every day. For thin-crust pizza, Fortel's and Imo’s are kings in St. Louis. If you like an alternative to the crispy, Provel cheese laden Imo’s, try the doughy, mozzarella cheese pizzas superbly made at Fortel's.

Serra’s Pizza: 
Old School Pizza In The New Age

For a family-run pizza place that takes you back in time and percolates pizza and memories, go to Serra's. The restaurant is about history, community, and family. Literally their entire family works at the restaurant, which is becoming very rare. On a Friday or Saturday night you will see three or four generations of family working: the owner Onofrio Serra supervising at his corner table, his son baking the pizzas in the kitchen, and daughter waiting tables. When you walk in, a sign outside says "We serve beer on Sundays." A 1980's Donkey Kong Machine and old-fashioned jukebox line the entryway. Serra's Pizza has served customers St. Louis-style pizza since 1970 and seems frozen in time. One thing is for sure: this old school pizza still tastes good in the new age!

Stlpizzaguy's sister Krista, the inspiration behind the "P" of Approval, stands outside Serra's Pizza, in anticipation of some great St. Louis-style pizza.

Pepperoni Pizza: the favorite of stlpizzaguy

Deluxe Pizza

"When people ask me this question, most frequently by Dr. George Jerkovich of Salina, Kansas, where do you get the BEST St. Louis-style pizza? The answer is Serra’s Pizza. It is textbook St. Louis-style."

Don’t Judge a book by it’s cover—hidden gem

But it wasn’t until a celebrity told my father about Serra's that I ate there after 12 years of living near Maryland Heights. Serra’s is located in a little shopping center with Tony’s Donuts and across the street from 7-11 on St. Charles Rock Rd.  Although our family frequently drove by Serra’s, we probably never entered because of the bland appearance of the restaurant tucked in a little corner strip mall. It took Kurt Warner to recommend Serra's to my dad as a GREAT place that we must try. Before he was a Superbowl winner, Kurt Warner lived near Mckelvey Elementary school and frequented Serra’s Pizza often. Of course after that conversation, we tried and loved Serra's Pizza ever since.

This brings me to remark that we should never judge a book by it cover, a restaurant by their exterior, or we will be missing out. Thanks to restaurant review companies like Yelp and my pizza blog, hole-in-the wall restaurants are easy to find if their food quality is good. But what if their customers aren’t the type of people log on to Yelp, or urban spoon like many of the trendier restaurants or to influence the Riverfront Times to write an article about them? Serra’s strength lies in old-fashioned word-of-mouth and occasionally even bakes pizza for the bands who play at the nearby Hollywood Casino amphitheater

Serra’s proudly makes their pizzas with Provel cheese, giving the pizza have a slightly creamier texture than mozzarella. The sauce is sweet but not overly sweet, and Serra’s claims, “the unique sweetness of our sauce has its origins from the kitchens of  Italy.” The crust is on the thicker spectrum of thin-crust pizza, with ¼ to ½ inch of crust on the edges. Their pizza is cooked in brick ovens to a medium amount, not overly crispy, and not too chewy either.

The Block siblings and their significant others give Serra's Pizza the "P" of Approval. From left to right: Patrick, Krista, Evan (too cool for the "P" of Approval), Adria (the inspiration behind the name of the blog stlpizzaguy), and stlpizzaguy.

Serra’s is especially a favorite of my brother Evan, who gets carry out, or visits with his friends from Parkway North High School to show them this hidden gem.

Anthonino's: Get it while it's HOT!

Sicilian Pizza, Beef Spiedini, and Toasted Ravioli. Anthonino's offers a variety of Italian and Greek dishes.

Anthonino’s Taverna on the Hill offers the best one-two combination punch of toasted ravioli and pizza in the St. Louis area. They had a stellar 2015, winning the Riverfront Times hotly contested best pizza and best toasted ravioli categories. Anthonino’s has been on my radar since 2012 thanks to Yelp but I never visited until the spring of 2015 because none of my friends had eaten there. Since last Spring, Stlpizzaguy attends this hot, affordable and trendy restaurant almost monthly. Now the secret is out in 2016, so expect to wait and an hour or longer on the weekends unless you have reservations.

Anthonino’s ingredients for success partially lie in their fresh, made in house marinara sauce. It’s a slightly thinner marinara and not overly sweet. I can taste the freshness while spreading the marina sauce on the toasted ravioli.  The handmade, jumbo-sized toasted ravioli are my personal favorite in St. Louis. But don't just take my word for this appetizer filled with ground beef, onion, garlic, and topped with ricotta and pecorino-romano cheese.

Their 14-inch pizzas are a mid-level thick hand-tossed crust. Anthonino's crust is more crispy on the edges than doughy and a large amount of marinara sauce is typically found near the crust of their pizzas.  The cheese is a provolone/mozzarella mix instead of Provel. I recognize the cheese is not Provel because their pizzas are stringy when cutting slices. Anthonino's includes the Italian meat Capocolla in several of their pizzas such as the Sicilian and four-meat pizzas. Capocolla is taken from either the shoulder or neck of a pig, so it is a type of Italian pork with a salty taste. My personal favorite at Anthoninos is the Sicilian, which has capocolla, pepperoni, roasted red peppers, and red onions. One knowledgeable waitress told me that the Sicilian is also their best-seller.

In June of 2012, Guy Fieri of the Food Network and host  Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives visited Anthonino's. Fieri tried the handmade Toasted Ravioli, house marinara, Dolmathes and Greek yogurt tzatziki. 

Anthonino’s lives up to all the hype. Stlpizzaguy took his friend Brian Andrew to Anthonino’s before a Blues game, but we ate our food so fast that we didn’t have time for pictures or the “P” of Approval. My parents Tom and Donna went for to Anthonino’s for their 36th wedding anniversary, and gave the “P” of Approval in my absence.

Tom and Donna enjoy a Deluxe Pizza and give their "P" of Approval

Now that hockey season is over, stlpizzaguy will return to regular pizza posts on his blog.

You can find Anthoninos near the southwest side of the Hill at:

2225 Macklind Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63110

To see Guy Fieri at Anthonino’s visit:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/anthoninos-tavern-0196673.html

Time for the Top 10: PW Pizza

The solar-powered PW Pizza is for the environmentally conscious, and it's not your father's pizza. Unlike pizza of yesteryear, PW Pizza sources their cheeses, vegetables, and meats locally in their quest for quality pizza. They even offer vegan, gluten free, and a honey wheat crust as options. The place is named after Paul and Wendy Hamilton of the Vin de Set and Eleven Eleven Mississippi restaurant magnate. 

Stlpizzaguy discovered PW Pizza in the Spring of 2013 while perusing Yelp reviews of downtown pizza places on Thursday afternoon in his Health Care Quality class. I remember this distinctively because the class was so darn boring. But the highlight of each week was going to a pizza place of every Thursday night with classmate David Castellucci.  Located in a sort of no-mans land on Chouteau, we finally arrive at PW and order some wings and pizza. The hot wings have a healthy twist to them. They aren't deep-fried, contain no sauce but have a strong Chipotle seasoning. 

We order our pizza--a half "Yo Pauly" and half "Big Balls" the first time. Big Balls is just how it sounds, PW's version of a meatball pizza with giant meatballs invading their somewhat thin, hand-tossed crust. Yo Pauly has volpi salami, hot capicola, sun-dried tomato, roasted garlic, pepperoncini.
On other visits, I order the Wolf pizza, my recommendation, which is topped with housemade fennel sausage, pepperoni, applewood-smoked bacon, carmelized onions, and cloves of garlic. 

"Maybe it's called the Wolf because if you put it in front of me I will WOLF it down!"

Stlpizzaguy (LEFT) with his sister Krista (RIGHT) the inspiration behind the "P" of Approval. Stlpizzaguy's choice pizza here is The Wolf, and Krista enjoyed the "healthy" hot wings to pair with the pizza.

PW is my first release of a top-10 pizza place because it introduced me to a new way of making and eating pizza. It expanded my horizons to crave pizza places that use fresh ingredients and combine meats in creative ways. Here, they slide their pies into wood-fired ovens, and cook the pizza at 800-degrees. Their crust is close to a Neapolitan-style pizza, hand kneaded and tossed. PW's cheese of choice is mozzarella.
All their pizzas are 12-inches, but PW douses on a crap ton of toppings that will leave you satisfied. Because of the wood-fired oven the crust is crispier than Dewey's. Because of the fresh ingredients, you get a sensory overload in your moth when you bite into their pizza. The toppings come alive and have greater richness. As fresh and local sourced ingredients for pizza in St. Louis was pretty rare in 2013, this place left an indelible mark on me. For a nice view of downtown, a great pizza/wings combo, and of course fresh ingredients go try out PW Pizza.

PW PIZZA IS LOCATED AT
2017 Chouteau
St. Louis Mo 63103

SHOUT OUTS:

Since the advent of this pizza blog, I've received many requests from friends for advice on where to eat pizza. A few friends have even taken me out and bought my pizza, in exchange for a trip to one of the places in my top 10. I must give a special shout out to the Saint Louis University Internal Medicine Residents, particularly Hina and Kush Mehta, who are avid followers of stlpizzaguy blog and have eaten at a couple of the St. Louis pizza places mentioned in the book Where to Eat Pizza. They  made the pledge to eat pizza at all of my forthcoming top 10 pizza places. I expect to release a pizza place into the top 10 every couple weeks. 

Another special shout out goes to Blake McGaugh and Olivia Nicholson. When I was planning this post, they asked for a great pizza place near the Soulard area and I suggested PW Pizza. Blake was kind enough to give PW Pizza his "P" of Approval. 

Blake Mcgaugh gives PW Pizza the "P" of Approval, will you?

Thank you fans for all the kind words. Feel free to make the pizza pledge to eat at all my top 10 pizza places, and you will get mentioned in my blog, along with photos you take. Other ideas coming down the pipe is a pizza poetry contest, with the winner getting a $25 gift certificate to my #1 pizza place. But that is all for a later date. Stay happy and remember, sometimes the key to a happier life is to eat more pizza.  

Refutation of Where To Eat Pizza

Daniel Young's Where to Eat Pizza is a very ambitious encyclopedia of pizza, but falls short of my expectations because of its failure to include St. Louis-style pizza and Provel cheese. Released in late March of 2016, the 526-page behemoth of a book devotes hardly a page to the best pizza places in St. Louis. Out of the abundance of great pizza places in St. Louis, the book lists only five, while also listing five pizza places in Omaha, Nebraska.

Are you kidding me? I actually got nervous when I read the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, which highlighted the release of this book. It appeared that someone else had already done stlpizzaguy's job by finding the best pizza places in the area.

"Have no fear, I am still the holder of many St. Louis pizza secrets not mentioned in Where to Eat Pizza."

Where To Eat Pizza is written by someone I could only dream to be someday: the aficionado of all aficionados when it comes to pizza: Daniel Young. He is the organizer of the London Pizza Festival, which is a yearly pizza tasting and competition featuring some of the best pizzas in Europe.

In order write this book, Mr. Young couldn't have possibly gone to every major U.S. city and ranked the pizza. I'm sure that if he did visit St. Louis, Young might have devoted a full chapter to St. Louis pizza and given Provel cheese and our local spots the credit they deserve. Instead, he employed regional food experts. Ian Froeb was chosen as the regional food expert for Missouri Pizza. Mr. Froeb is a very accomplished food critic in Missouri, and known for his 100 top St. Louis restaurants on stltoday.com. In the case of pizza, however, he misses the mark.

Out of the five St. Louis pizza places listed in the book on pages 408-409, only one of the five listed in the book are in my top 10.

According to Where To Eat Pizza, the BEST pizza places in St. Louis are:

• Pastaria
• Black Thorn Pub & Pizza
• La Pizza
• Pizzeoli
• Pizzeria Tivoli

All of these pizza places are certainly great, but then again it is rare that I meet a pizza that I don't like. My bone to pick is the lack of any St. Louis-style pizza places listed by the author. Pastaria is wood-fired Neopolitan, while Black Thorn is Chicago-style deep dish. La Pizza is a New York-style pizza, while Pizzeoli is Neapolitan, along with Pizzeria Tivoli. 

Maybe the Neapolitan Pizza mafia along with the Chicago-style Pizza mafia paid a visit to the author of the book. All jokes aside, if you want to find out my top-10 pizza places from someone born and raised in St. Louis, then stay tuned because my list coming soon.

The Best Guide to Provel Cheese Part 1

Love it or hate it, Provel cheese is king in St. Louis. Recent transplants to this area might not have much of an opinion on Chuck Berry or Charles Lindbergh, but I guarantee you transplants to St. Louis have strong feelings for Provel cheese.

The debate between the lovers and haters of Provel is usually separated by the St. Louis natives (who grew up with Provel cheese), and the transplants (who generally think it is nasty).

During my experience at St. Louis University, I had classmates from Virginia, Maine, Florida, and other various states. Some of the transplants had strong opinions (mostly negative) about Provel cheese. At the Greek Festival at St. Nicholas in the Central West End, my Virginian roommate Aaron Moores and I had a conversation with a very bitter woman from the east coast about living in St. Louis. She complained about her allergies and the extreme variation in temperatures. I proudly told her that we had been to Ted Drewes and Imo's Pizza. Then I said, "Speaking of Imo's Pizza, we are the home of the great Provel cheese." That statement led her to give a profanity ridden rant on "God-awful" Provel cheese and its terrible qualities. The woman said, "Provel is overly processed, tastes disgusting, I never eat it and it's one more thing in St. Louis that I hate."

Fortunately, not every person born outside of St. Louis dislikes Provel Cheese. My old roommate Aaron Moores accompanied me to Imo's Pizza a several times, and while he is not in love with Provel like I am, he enjoyed the pizza. The rest of his family, Russel and Missey Moores are also fans of St. Louis-style pizza. When they come back to visit, you can be certain they will eat at a St. Louis-style pizza place. Aaron says that most people who do not like Provel have a problem with its texture.

On the other hand, I observe people who are raised in St. Louis LOVE Provel cheese, putting it on salads, using it on sandwiches, even eating plain Imo's Provel string cheese, which is sold at local grocery stores like Schnucks.

If you click on the link below, you will see Viviano and Sons Italian Grocery ships Provel cheese to many happy customers from Pennsylvania, Idaho, Kansas, Indiana, Florida and Texas. No doubt the customers are most likely St. Louis natives who are pining for the privilege to come back to St. Louis and taste Provel's goodness.

http://www.shopviviano.com/products/Provel.html

Examples of other polarizing foods or ingredients:

I edited this picture to read Provel instead of Marmite. Are you a Provel lover or hater?

"Besides the obvious mushroom, olive, anchovies, kale, or other nasty vegetable, Peeps and Marmite stick out in my mind as having a similar Provel cheese polarizing effect on people."

Marmite is a sticky, dark brown food paste with a distinctively salty flavor. Their slogan is "Love it or hate it." The product was discovered in the early 1900's and is made out of concentrated brewer's yeast. Although it has a high salt content, it is also fortified with B vitamins and other healthy attributes. People typically use Marmite on toast for breakfast, in sandwiches at lunchtime, mixed in cocktails, and sometimes is eaten with cheese.

Picture of Peeps before I decided to eat them

Surprisingly, Peeps are a contentious Easter candy. I have eaten them almost every year since I have been born and they are a sign of Spring, that Easter and better times are here after brutal St. Louis winters. The divide in my family of five was strong, with two haters of Peeps, two lovers of Peeps and one neutral. I could go into greater detail about peeps, how I love to eat them, how I bite different parts off of each little chick I eat, and how they are healthier than most other kinds of Easter Candy. But I won't. The point is that with Peeps, like Marmite and Provel Cheese, you either love it or hate it.

My next post will have a more detailed look into the history of Provel cheese.

How to tell good pizza from bad? Give the P of approval!

The P of approval was dreamed up by me and my sister Krista as a way to signify great pizza. If you think this is a slightly ridiculous symbol, consider this: the French give a hearty burp as a sign to compliment the chef. Therefore, no one should be alarmed when a customer uses their hands to make the P sign of approval to the waiter. Eventually, if the P of approval catches on, restaurants will have have a picture of me, stlpizzaguy, giving the P of approval, and also get others to give the P of approval when their pizza meal is satisfying. If you decide to go to a pizza establishment and follow my lead, please send me a picture. Soon, I will have a user submitted photo gallery of great pizza.

My sister Krista, the originator of the "P of Approval"

Making the P of Approval at a mystery pizza restaurant, it is definitely on my top 10 list.

Lately on my pizza journey, I've been researching Provel cheese and am considering a road trip to Wisconsin to track down the origin of Provel. More Provel cheese oriented posts coming soon!!!

Welcome to St. Louis Pizza Blog

Coffee, Tea, or PIZZA

Pizza is my passion! I’ve been keeping a top 10 list of St. Louis Pizza places since the Fall of 2012 and created this blog to help the great people of St. Louis expand their pizza tastes. The purpose of this blog is to help St. Louis city and county residents appreciate pizza the way it ought to be appreciated. 

St. Louis is a great place to live. Most St. Louisans are passionate about their Cardinals, or their Blues. Our little known secret is both the abundance and quality of our pizza places. When it comes to pizza, I do not discriminate between thick and thin or St. Louis style pizza. I’m an equal opportunity pizza lover.

My requirements for a good pizza include

• Some type of meat (sausage, pepperoni, bacon, capicola)
• Good cheese
• Tomato sauce, I like to keep it traditional, no bbq pulled pork olive oil mixed with peanut butter and jelly.

Keep a lookout over the next few weeks for my top 10 list of St. Louis pizzas and special pizza facts.

MY SILLY PIZZA OBSESSION

This is a story of pizza's important role in life events.

During Memorial Day Weekend of 2014, my great friend David Castellucci made me the best man at his Miami wedding at the very last minute, and a big part of being the best man includes giving a speech to more than 300 people at the reception. Weddings are typically the bride's day, but I wanted to give the guests an insight into David's life. So I mentioned in my speech that were law school buddies and we also tried more than 50 St. Louis restaurants, with two-thirds of them pizza places. I went on to mention how much David loves deep-dish pizza. The third and final time I mentioned pizza in the speech was how it landed me my first job in the legal field.

Little did I know that mine and David's pizza trips were leading to anything besides expanding my waistline. I asked guests to travel back with me three months to February 2014 at a job interview I had with the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's office. The head prosecutor and his six assistants sit down at the table. I am a little bit intimidated at this time because of the amount of people in the room. And the first question, "tell us about yourself" had me pretty befuddled because how do you summarize all your years of your life in a pithy statement? I paused for what seemed like forever, until a friendly interviewer asked me, "so do you like pizza?" At this point in the interview, a gigantic smile came to my face because I now knew I could knock this question out of the park. Sharing my love for deep dish, and sharing my top five pizza places helped me get a job that day. It also helped that my interview was right before lunch on a Friday. Thank you pizza for being a great icebreaker in a job interview and great comic relief at a wedding.

"Not only did I mention pizza in the wedding speech once, twice, but THREE times thereby making a holy trinity of pizza. Even though some in the crowd were probably perturbed I wasted their precious time, I delivered a great speech about David and our weekly adventures to restaurants around Saint Louis University in our pursuit for great pizza."

However, not every story about pizza in my life is positive. One of the MOST common complaints ex-girlfriends have had against me is that I would only take them to pizza places.

Anyways, I am planning on serving pizza at my wedding some day. Does anyone have any thoughts? Feel free to share your pizza stories by commenting on this blog, and expect me to release a top 10 pizza place every two weeks. 

Now you can tell your out-of-town friends what EXACTLY makes a great St. Louis-style pizza, plus dazzle friends and family with amazing pizza facts.

• 93 percent of Americans have eaten pizza within the last month, thereby making PIZZA more American than Apple Pie or a Big Mac hamburger.
• Pizza originated in Naples, Italy.
• Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States.
• When do people order the most pizza? The most pizzas are ordered on SUPER BOWL Sunday.

St. Louis-Style Pizza

Every once in a blue moon friends tell me, you're the pizza dude, so what exactly differentiates St. Louis-style pizza from others. My basic, uninformed answer is the super-thin crust, combined with provel cheese and is cut into squares. Nothing is wrong with that answer, but let us get a little more specific so we can give our friends a good, thorough answer next time we are asked that question. We should know our pizza and be proud of our region, because sometimes the St. Louis-style comes under attack from out-of-towners and provel cheese haters.

THE LONG ANSWER:

The definitive characteristics of St. Louis-style pizza are a extremely thin crust made without yeast, the common use of Provel processed cheese, and pizzas cut into squares  instead of wedges.

• The thin, cracker-like crust is made without yeast. The crust is crispy and cannot be folded.
• As a result of its thin crust, St. Louis-style pizza can be layered deeply with many different toppings because of the sturdiness of the cracker-like crust.
• The pizza is cut into three or four inch squares. According to legend, Ed Imo, founder of Imo's pizza back in 1964, was a tile layer and possibly got inspiration from this type of work.

THE CHEESE: PROVEL

Provel cheese was developed by the St. Louis company Costa Grocery in the 1950s and is made in Wisconsin primarily for the St. Louis market. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch food critic Joe Bonwichstates that Provel was developed to meet perceived demand for a pizza cheese with a "clean bite": one that melts well but breaks off nicely when bitten. Provel is not legally labeled as simply cheese because it does not meet the moisture content required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Provel is instead considered a pasteurized processed cheese.

HOWEVER, it is although Provel is a hallmark of St. Louis-style pizza, two popular St. Louis pizza establishments DO NOT use Provel cheese: Fortels Pizza and Pappo's.

THE SAUCE:

The tomato sauce is often seasoned with more oregano than other pizza.  Some of the sauces have a greater sweetness to them than pizzas from other places in the U.S.

RECIPES TO MAKE YOUR OWN ST.LOUIS-STYLE PIZZA:

Just in case the plethora of pizza places in St. Louis would somehow all shut down, and you would be forced to make pizza yourself, here are two noteworthy recipes to make your own.

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/st-louis-style-pizza-recipe

http://www.food.com/recipe/imos-pizza-recipe-st-louis-style-pizza-380004