Mellow Mushroom

Newcomer makes top 5 St. Charles County Pizza List

With Mushy Mushy Good Pizza

Mellow Mushroom wants you to leave boring pizzas behind. As soon as you walk in the door the Cottleville, Missouri newcomer is anything but boring. Their pizza offerings range from the Holy Shitake (mushroom) Pizza to the Pacific Rim Pizza that combines ham, pineapple, and jalapeno flavors. If you want a plain cheese or pepperoni pizza, those are available too, but Mellow Mushroom is definitely for the adventuresome

In this Mellow Mushroom photo montage, you get a feel for the eclectic 1980's  murals on the walls, and throughout the restaurant, you also see some mushrooms (bottom right).

It's a pizza place that's so much more than a pizza place. And I'm happy to give it the "P" of Approval for their pizza, but I am also impressed by their unique ambiance. The 1980's themed Mellow Mushroom in Cottleville is a state of mind, a flash back to happy memories. Wonderful local artists covered the walls with murals. Diners can see Ozzie Smith in the middle of a backflip. On another wall above the kitchen, you can see the Back to the Future Delorian with the 88 mph license plate, or spy Geoffrey the Toy's R' Us Giraffe perched near the ceiling keeping watch over the restaurant.

Stlpizzaguy and sister Krista give the P of Approval for Mellow Mushroom. Pizzas pictured on the left: Half Pacific Rim, Half Meat Eater. Right: Holy Shitake Pizza with Steak.

THE PIZZA DETAILS

CRUST: "This place is for crust lovers. Their fresh, thick, filling, prominent crust is big enough and tasty enough to sell dipping sauce. For extra tastiness, their thick crust is basted with garlic butter and dusted with cornmeal before serving."

Mellow Mushroom touts their crust is always made with spring water imported from the Appalachian Mountains. All I know is that it tastes GOOD. 

CHEESE: Mozzarella, they use a special part-skim mozzarella cheese.

TOPPINGS: Their pizzas are absolutely loaded with toppings, no skimping here. The Pacific Rim Pizza has ham, bacon, caramelized onion, ham, and jalapenos. The Mighty Meaty has pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, ham, and applewood smoked bacon. 

Their Holy Shitake Pizza has an olive oil sauce with shiitake, button and portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, mozzarella and MontAmoré cheeses. The pizza is finished with a garlic aioli swirl and a spritz of black truffle oil. Garnished with fresh chives and shaved Parmesan. We added steak. I do not typically like Mushrooms, but I just pretended that it was all steak and all good. Seriously though, the Holy Shitake is one of their most popular pizzas. 

SAUCE: tangy, and slightly sweet.

OTHER TIPS AND OBSERVATIONS:

Their 13 specialty pizzas is one of the most expansive selection I have EVER seen. This is a great place for people who want to try crazy combinations, or like to have pineapple on their pizza. If you have problems deciding on a pizza, they also allow you to split it half and half.

Mellow Mushroom is a VERY large space. It is a Pizza Mecca that currently employs 80 people. I would not be surprised if their restaurant sits 300 people when they are at capacity. 

At really busy times, people should expect to be patient for their pizzas. Servers will tell customers if you are looking at a 45-minute wait once you order your pizza. Our pizza came to us on a Sunday night in less than 20-minutes after ordering, but I know that wait times can be longer.

I also enjoyed their partially open kitchen where you can see pizza makers kneading, tossing, throwing dough, and an assembly line of 5-7 people all working to make a pizza. 

Mellow Mushroom is located at 4716 Mid Rivers Mall Dr. in Cottleville, Mo. 
Special thanks to owners Ian and Tammi Hilton for the interview.

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STLPIZZAGUY reveals results of the Provel cheese survey

A few weeks ago I called a local St. Louis-style pizza place to order a pepperoni pizza and the employee asked if I would like my pizza with Provel or Mozzarella cheese. This previously unheard of question at a local St. Louis-style pizza place (Imo's) made me wonder, so I created a little survey.

The two main things I sought to measure were whether people liked Provel cheese and if they preferred mozzarella or Provel on St. Louis-style pizza. 

RESULTS OF THE PROVEL CHEESE SURVEY

Stlpizzaguy asked 50 people whether they liked Provel Cheese. 70 percent of people surveyed liked Provel Cheese. But only 66 percent of people surveyed preferred Provel cheese on their St. Louis-Style pizza. The other 1/3 preferred mozzarella.

Approximately 70 percent of the people who took the survey identified as St. Louis natives, identical to the amount that said they liked Provel Cheese. Coincidence?

One preference I did take into account is that many people like a Provel/Mozzarella Mix. Pasta House is one example of a restaurant that uses a mixture between the two cheeses. 

The survey had a few limits. There were not as many willing or opinionated participants as I thought, but among the haters of Provel, they were wordsmiths of high degree to match Shakespeare's hilarious descriptions.

Top 3 Funniest descriptions of Provel:

1. Eating provel cheese is akin to that high school science experiment where you melt styrofoam in acetone. Its slimy, gritty, unnatural, and if you let it sit too long, it hardens and ruins whatever its on.

2. Open-faced PVC pipe sandwich

3. Cheezwiz on cardboard

Top 3 positive descriptions of Provel: 

1. Perfection

2. Unique flavor versus stringy flat mozzarella. Combined with the thin crust, makes for a great dining experience.
3. It has an awesome creamy cheese taste you don't get with mozzarella.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED. 

*The Provel Cheese Survey had a total of 50 participants and is still an open survey on the blog. 

Thank you Cowboy Judge Show 

On March 31, Stlpizzaguy Appeared on ABC 30 TV COWBOY JUDGE SHOW along with the Stefanina's Wentzville owner and manager.

If you watch the embedded videos below, I discuss the origins of the pizza blog, the signature P of Approval, the uniqueness of St. Louis-style pizza and highlight a few of my favorite places.

I enjoyed collecting pizza boxes from Dewey's, Serra's, and Imo's. They are three places I highly recommend along with Stefanina's of course!

STLPIZZAGUY PROVEL CHEESE SURVEY

Does Provel cheese taste like plastic or is it the GREATEST processed cheese ever? 

A few weeks ago I called a local St. Louis-style pizza place to order a pepperoni pizza and the employee asked if I would like my pizza with Provel or Mozzarella cheese. Should this question even arise when ordering from pizza places that are known for using Provel cheese? Please give your opinion. Provel cheese: do you LOVE it or HATE it?

Create your own user feedback survey

Stefanina's Pizza

Stefanina’s: Queen of St. Louis-Style 

Launches beginning of top-five St. Charles Pizza Places

If Imo’s is the king and inventor of St. Louis-style pizza, Stefanina’s must be the queen and perfecter. The restaurant holds a special cheesy and gooey spot in the hearts of many St. Charles County residents.

Stefanina Roderick Vitale emigrated to the U.S. and St. Louis area from Sicily. As a young lady, she worked in a garment factory near the Hill. After seeing many of her friends open restaurants, she decided to open her own in St. Charles County. The first Stefanina's Pizzeria and Restaurant opened in O' Fallon in 1981. Many of her original recipes are still used today in the pizzas and the pasta dishes. Stefanina's makes its dough, sauce, and meatballs from scratch.

Now they've expanded to six locations. Stefanina's has kept ownership of the restaurants the hands of family and long-time employees. Family owned businesses are becoming rarer in today's age of the rise of fast-casual pizza chains, and other big pizza chains. Having family-owned pizza shops where the owners are working in the restaurant every week is important because you really know that they are personally invested in their pizza quality and the happiness of guests.

In 2018, Stefanina's won the best of St. Charles award. They nearly grabbed a spot in Stlpizzaguy's original top-10 list, but I wanted to reserve them as my first post in the St. Charles top-five.

This is the Stefanina's Special pizza. The pizza is topped with sausage, bacon, onion, hamburger, green pepper, pepperoni, black olives and mushrooms

Stlpizzaguy gives Stefanina's the P of Approval

THE PIZZA DETAILS

THE CHEESE: Provel. The mix of white cheddar, swiss and provolone cheeses. Provel also has a slightly smoky flavor by the addition of liquid smoke. The times I've had Stefanina's I've noticed their Provel is slightly creamier than Imo's.

THE SAUCE: Not a very saucy pizza, I taste more Provel with the sauce just an afterthought.

THE CRUST: Although just millimeters thicker than Imo's, it is noticeably thicker and just slightly crispy.

PIZZA SIZES: Pizzas range from 12-20 inches.

I enjoy Stefanina’s as a welcome change to Imo’s. Their Provel cheese seems slightly richer and creamer. The crust, although just millimeters thicker, is noticeably thicker and less cardboard crispy. The entire interplay of the cheese, the sauce, the crust, makes the pizza an St. Louis pizza lover’s dream.

Of course I enjoy a simple pepperoni pizza. But Stefanina's most popular pies are the Stef's Special, Five Meat, and Taco pizzas.

Stefanina's has locations in O' Fallon, Wentzville, Chesterfield, St. Peters, North St. Charles, and Winghaven.

Stlpizzaguy's favorite pizza is usually a plain pepperoni pizza or pepperoni and sausage. Above is a picture of Stefanina's sausage and pepperoni pizza. Notice the gooey texture of the Provel cheese. 

No pizza post about Stefanina’s and St. Louis style pizza would be complete without homage to St. Louis-style pizza. 

"If they serve pizza in heaven, it should be be St. Louis-style, and why not? You can eat MANY more pieces than Chicago style pizza, it makes you full a lot slower because of the thin crust. We might be the only place on earth that uses Provel cheese, but the MAGIC is in the Provel!"