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

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.