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!"

Union Loafers loafs its way to the final spot on the top 10

Union Loafers

Loafs its way to secure final spot on the top 10

In the summer of 2016,  I waited nearly two hours to try Union Loafers Pizza. At that time, they  limited their pizza nights to only one night per week: Wednesdays. The pizza was amazing, but can a place that focuses on things other than pizza occupy a spot on stlpizzaguy’s top 10 list? After eating here three times in one month in 2018, the answer is YES.

Union Loafers now serves their 18-inch, Roman-style pizzas Wednesday through Saturdays for dinner. They advertise as a cafe and bread bakery in the Botanical Heights neighborhood “serving naturally leavened breads modeled on old-world techniques.” But what brings in the crowds, hysteria, and packs their restaurant on the weekends is the pizza.

The 18' Sausage Pizza

Stlpizzaguy finally decided on Union Loafers to finish his top 10 St. Louis Pizzas. He is pictured here with sausage pizza. 

THE PIZZA DETAILS: 

Roman pizza is similar to Neapolitan style pizza, but it is considerably less regulated. Roman dough is generally made with flour, water, yeast, salt, and olive oil. The addition of olive oil is crucial because it allows the dough to be hand-stretched out wide and thin. Roman pizza dough often uses a tougher wheat as well, so the crust does not lose its chewiness.

CRUST: The crust is thin, but sturdy. The end-crust is prominent, charred and well-risen. The entire crust is baked darker than most pizzas. The pizza is well done, but not burnt. 

THE SAUCE: A sweet tomato sauce with very small tomato chunks.

CHEESE: Mozzarella cheese used somewhat sparingly, so that cheese does not overwhelm the pizza.

"These three elements added together  is really what makes Union loafers great: the large slices, the well-done crust, and the sweet, slightly chunky tomato sauce."

The owners of Union Loafers named their cafe after a classic Abbott and Costello routine. Bud Abbott has a new job baking bread and calls it "loafing." Costello mistakes "loafing" for being lazy, and he becomes more perplexed when he is told that he has to join a union in order to "loaf."

Besides the creative name, their pizza made with high hydration, naturally leavened bread, baked dark, makes for a very tasty pizza. Their cafe is minimalistic, yet modern. Edison light bulbs hang from the ceiling. The indoors seats a total of 50 people with a dimly lit bar that seats 16 people.

Their most popular pizzas on the menu are the pepperoni pizza and the spinach and bacon pizza.

A COUPLE TIPS:  Arrive with your dinner guests in agreement on their pizza selection. Union Loafers does not do half-and-half pizzas. Also, take advantage of the Nowait app to save some time.

Union Loafers is located at 1629 Tower Grove Ave. St. Louis Mo. 63110

SHOUT OUTS: I want to give a special shout out to the New Wentzvillian on Facebook who supported Stlpizzaguy in January by sharing his Imo's Pizza Post, propelling it to almost 10,000 views. 

Imo's Remains The Square Beyond Compare and secures the second-to-last spot in the top 10 list

Imo’s:

Remains the Square Beyond Compare

Secures a Spot in the Top 10

If there’s a conversation topic certain to ignite interest and differences of opinion among pizza lovers, one only needs to ask: what do you think of Imo’s pizza?

Photo Credit to Krista Fox

What does Stlpizzaguy think about Imo's?

Starting as a young boy, my brother and I would ride our bikes a couple miles on a hilly route to Imo’s off Olive in Creve Coeur. We saved and spent all of our hard-earned allowance and lawn-mowing money on Imo’s pizza and wings. At that time in the early 2000’s, we never ate Imo’s with any realization this pizza was maligned by many. It would have been difficult to know because those were days of life before Yelp and online food reviews. We grew up loving Imo's pizza.

Although I loved Imo's from boyhood, it did not make my initial top 10 list. I didn’t want give my P of Approval to a large corporation that had so many independently owned and operated franchises. Imo's has nearly 100 locations. The stores are all franchised—except for one off Hampton and Oakland, which remains a corporate store.

Most franchises are heavily concentrated in the St. Louis Metro area, but you can travel to Farmington, Cape Girardeau, Springfield, or even Overland Park, Kansas and find an Imo’s. I felt that sometimes those franchises tended to create greater variations in pizza quality from location to location.

I changed my mind and properly placed Imo's in my top 10 after my wedding day in October 2017. While getting ready at the Hyatt hotel in the morning, the groomsmen clamored to have Imo’s for lunch and scarfed down four extra-large pizzas in the hotel lobby. The pizza was consumed so quickly that one groomsman did not get a slice as he had to run to the bathroom and come back. After the wedding reception, Imo’s was all the rage again in the Hyatt hotel lobby. The out-of-town guests enjoyed the provel-laden pieces. Rumors swirled that all the pizza disappeared because I consumed an entire large pizza all by myself. It was a special day because I married my wonderful wife Adria, and I do not want to take any significance away from that milestone. But it also uniquely marked the first time I ordered Imo’s twice in one day. And if I enjoy their pizza enough to order it twice in one day, it deserves to be top 10. Imo's defines St. Louis-style pizza.

How Do You Judge Your Pizza?

Someone tried to interrupt me before I could eat my Imo's pizza. I was not happy. Photo by Krista Fox.

Being a pizza blogger can become complicated and time consuming. However, it can be easily simplified. I use three basic things to judge a pizza: the cheese, the dough, and the sauce. You can branch out and talk about the various oven types, ingredients, and whether someone cooks with the toppings under the cheese or over the cheese. I would guess that most around the country judge their pizza mainly on texture of the dough, whether it is deep dish, soft, or crispy.

"To my knowledge, ONLY St. Louis puts their cheese at the forefront, with the crust being an after-thought. And the cheese that Imo's is so famous for is their use of Provel."

In some ways Provel is like peaty scotch. The very unique thing that makes your product popular, is the thing that some people strongly dislike. I first learned about the divisiveness of Provel in law school through interacting with many non-St. Louisans. They did not prefer Imo’s but actually enjoyed making fun of it. Usually they disliked the taste and texture of Provel. Hearing that Provel is not really cheese was news to me. But because Provel has been with me all my life, I do not tolerate much back-talk about Imo's. Even pizza that you don’t prefer is better than no pizza at all!

THE PIZZA DETAILS: 

An Imo's pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and jalapeno peppers. Notice that the cheese is baked on top of the sausage and pepperoni, but the jalapenos are on top of the cheese. 

THE CHEESE: Provel is a processed cheese with a mix of white cheddar, swiss, and provolone cheeses. At room temperature it is softer and more gooey than other cheeses. When cooked it becomes golden-brown and marked in ways that regular mozzarella does not.  The cheese blend not only tastes different on pizza, but it is handy for easily cutting the pizza. Provel naturally stays on pizza and does not become stringy when pulling off a slice. 

THE CRUST: Paper-thin. The crust is not the center of attention here. Although the crust is usually not overly crispy, it is crispy and sturdy enough to hold mountains of toppings.

THE SAUCE: Normal tomato sauce, not spicy or anything to remark on, but liberally applied throughout the pizza to the very edge of the crust. 

THE OVEN: Imo's now uses conveyor ovens, which cook the pizza more consistently than a traditional deck oven.

OVERALL: Imo's is best served hot when you scarf down a piece and some of the Provel sticks to the roof of your mouth. The toppings also retain the heat well because most are placed under the cheese, but beware of a grease burn. Whenever someone from St. Louis tastes or thinks of an Imo's pizza, no matter where they are in the state or country, it reminds them of home.

Other facts and news about Imo's: 

• Their 2016 revenue of $131 million was an 11% increase from the prior year. Rising demand for Provel cheese sold at grocery stores and expansion into C-Stores in rural Missouri helped propel the growth.

• The company added a $200,000 machine that will shred 44-pound blocks of provel cheese 10 times faster than its current method using a grinder.

• Imo’s has a pizza shell and sauce making plant in Waterloo, IL.

• They are headquartered downtown of 17th and Delmar with warehouse spanning 72,000 square feet, offices, and retail space. They sell Imo's gear, and ship Imo's frozen pizzas on dry ice nationwide.

RETURN OF STLPIZZAGUY

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Brooklyn Pizza

An Oasis of Pizza Excellence in Mid-Missouri

On a lonely stretch of Highway 70 between St. Louis and Columbia, Brooklyn pizza in Fulton shines bright as a pizza oasis. I was on my way to court in Callaway County that afternoon, and was only planning on eating two pieces of pizza from purportedly the most authentic New York-style pizza outside of New York state. The pizza tasted so great, however, that I had four large pieces. Three of the pieces I consumed were the meatball pizza, which says a lot from stlpizzaguy whose favorite pizza is pepperoni.

When you enter to Brooklyn Pizza, everything your eye sees reminds you of red tomato sauce. The walls are all painted a bold red, with tables covered in red and white checkered tablecloths. Every poster lining the walls is a homage to either New York City or to Pizza. When you are inside Brooklyn Pizza, you are transported to a traditional New York pizza joint and forget you are in small town Mid-Missouri.

Brooklyn Pizza recently won the 2016 award for best pizza in rural Missouri by Rural Missouri Magazine. They also have a certificate of excellence from TripAdvisor. But how would they measure up against the great variety of St. Louis pizza places that I love and blog about?

They had a good chance because their unique New York-style niche is underrepresented in the Midwest. I only recommend one New York Style pizza place in St. Louis: La Pizza on Delmar.

When I met Brian Atkins, owner of Brooklyn Pizza, I found a man as passionate about making pizza as I am about eating pizza. His career in the pizza business spans four decades from his roots in Brooklyn, to managing Sbarro Pizza in Florida and Missouri. In October 2012, at the ripe age of 60 he opened Brookyln Pizza caddy-corner from the courthouse in Fulton, Missouri. Atkins says, “I’m in good health, I love making pizza. I go to the store at 4:30 a.m. to buy my meat and ingredients fresh each day."

You may wonder what makes a good, authentic New York-style pizza? Atkins told me three things are essential: the right thickness and taste of the dough, whole milk mozzarella, and last the bottom of the crust should be lightly brown and crispy. Put them together and viola. 

THE SAUCE: The sauce is a rich, hearty, and slightly sweet tomato sauce.

THE CHEESE: 100% whole milk mozzarella cheese gives the pizza it's New York flavor. The 100% whole milk mozzarella cheese also causes the New York-style pizza to be more greasy.

THE CRUST: Very crispy crust. The bottom of the crust was slightly brown. This is a hallmark of a properly cooked New York pie. 

TOPPINGS: The pepperoni were normal pepperoni but the homemade meatball slices were flavorful and a pleasurful to eat on pizza. Large, homemade meatballs are made every morning and cut into thin slices as a pizza topping.

MY RECOMMENDED PIZZA: Here I recommend the Meatball Pizza, which consists of sliced meatballs, with fresh garlic and parsley sprinkled on top. The garlic, meatballs and slightly sweet tomato sauce mesh well together in a unique and pleasureful way.

Happy eating and remember that any bad day can become a good day with great PIZZA. 

SPECIAL SHOUT OUT: 

To Stlpizzaguy superfan Joe Delmore who told me about Brooklyn Pizza.  Joe, a native New Yorker, told me that Brooklyn Pizza is just like many of the great pizza places in New York city, and hailed that it was the most authentic he has tasted outside of New York. Even with the rave reviews of Joe and a couple friends, I was skeptical because I’m stlpizzaguy—St. Louis pizza man proud and true. 

Other News For Pizza Lovers

OTHER NEWS FOR PIZZA LOVERS

This month I veered off my top 10 list to cover Randolfi's pizza. In the past five ears the St. Louis Pizza scene has experienced  Neapolitan pizza explosion that is loved and adored by diners and food critics.

Other top Neapolitan pizza places besides Randolfi's in St. Louis are:  Pastaria, Pizzeoli (vegetarian), and Pizzeria Tivoli.

Check out  February 2017 Sauce Magazine’s “The Pizza Issue.” 

Digital edition is available at: http://www.saucemagazine.com/issues.php?it=176&yy=2017

It covers in depth:

Mona’s Roman style pizza’s (started by Brendan Marsden who owned Modesto, it is an American-Italian place)

Pizzeoli: a vegetarian pizza place in Soulard. This was also recommended in the book Where to Eat Pizza. See blog post…. Where to eat pizza in st.louis

Melo’s Pizza

It touches on:

Felix’s Pizza Pub

Farotto’s

Monte Bello Pizzeria

Joanie’s Pizzeria

Pizza-A-Go-Go

Pirrone’s

Places Stlpizzaguy covers that are covered in the issue: Twinoak, Pi, Black Thorne. 

Also interesting is the profile Sauce does of Dogtown Pizza, which is an awesome, local, frozen pizza maker located in Dogtown. 

Check out SNL's skit Pizza Town

Randolfi's Makes Neapolitan Pizza Perfection

Randolfi's Makes Neapolitan Pizza Perfection

In the fall of 2010, I visited a pizza place called The Good Pie, located off Lindell Boulevard with my law school roommate Aaron Moores. It was across from the soccer field at St. Louis University. Little did I know that seven years later I would visit its offspring, Randolfi’s, in the Delmar Loop with a law-degree and as a distinguished food critic. 

Back then, with the limited pizza knowledge that I had, I failed to appreciate the thin, flimsy crust that I had to eat with a knife and fork. Now with my advances in pizza knowledge, I have a greater appreciation for this style of pizza and the true uniqueness of Randofi’s in the Loop.

The pizza here is Neapolitan-style, named after the city of Naples, Italy and is considered the most original and authentic style of pizza. Neapolitan-style pizza became famous in 1889 after Italian Queen Margherita visited Naples and enjoyed a pizza pie topped with white mozzarella cheese, red tomatoes and green basil. Coincidentally these are the colors of the Italian flag. Queen Margherita and Italians alike enjoyed this style of pizza for more than fifty years before it grew in popularity in the United States after World War II. 

Neapolitan-style pizza diverges from my more American taste in pizza, as I prefer pizza loaded with toppings of sausage and pepperoni. The Neapolitan pizza at Randofi’s does not center on the toppings but focuses on the specially sourced ingredients and the interplay of the dough, sauce, and olive oil. When tasting Neapolitan pizza for the first time, some people are caught off guard by the somewhat soupy center of the pizza, and that the middle isn't crisp. But Randofli's is worth it just to taste authentic Italian pizza.

Stlpizzaguy gives Randolfi's the "P" of Approval. Pepperoni is and always will be his favorite kind of pizza. 

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF NEAPOLITAN PIZZA:

Neapolitan Pizza is the most heavily regulated style of pizza. A true Neapolitan pizza has very strict standards disseminated by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) in an 11-page guide. Randolfi’s was the first St. Louis pizza restaurant to pursue VPN certification for true Neapolitan Pizza.

The person making the pizza at a Neapolitan pizza place is known as a pizzaiolo, which is Italian for pizza maker. They are much more highly trained than a pizza maker at other restaurants.

THE SAUCE: A true Neapolitan pizza place uses a specific sauce of hand-crushed San Marzano plum tomatoes, grown in the rich, volcanic soil near and around Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy. Authentic San Marzano tomatoes come to the U.S. in a can and will have an official DOP (Designation of Protected Origin).  The tomatoes are known for their sweet flavor, bright red color, and low acidity.

THE DOUGH: The pizza dough must be made with at least 80 percent highly refined Italian 00 flour and a long fermentation period, with the dough taking almost 8 hours to rise. Then the pizzaiolo takes the dough and flattens it into a circle with a thin middle, and a thicker border known as the cornicione.

THE CHEESE: Add buffalo mozzarella cheese and a precise baking method of 90 seconds or less at more than 800 degrees Fahrenheit in wood-fired oven and you’ll have yourself a great Neapolitan style pizza.

Besides the strict requirements for the ingredients, the unique domed pizza oven at Randolfi’s is critical for success. You can have the greatest ingredients in the world, but still fall short if you don’t have the proper equipment to bake the pizza. At Randolfi’s, their Ferrara domed wood-burning oven was built by hand in Naples and is THE big-name oven for all serious Neapolitan pizza places. The crown and the dome are made with hand-pressed bricks, while the oven’s floor is made from special clay from Italy’s Sorrento region. The oven is built to withstand heat up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit and is durable for more than 20 years.The cost of such an oven is around $13,000 to buy, and does not include shipping and importing. This oven enables Randolfi’s to cook their pizzas in 90 seconds or less. 

ATMOSPHERE AT RANDOLFI'S: Cozy, smaller family type of Italian restaurant that you might find in Italy, complete with red and white checkered table cloths. They have a large bar and an open kitchen, with a large wood-fired pizza oven.

RECOMMENDED PIZZAS: 1. The Pepperoni, which has mozzarella, San Marzano Tomato, chili flake, and pepperoni. 2. Randolfi, which has mozzarella, white bolognese, tomato, and oregano.

Taylor Hamilton, the pizzaiolo at Randofi's, was a very nice, approachable young man who sincerely cared that my pizzas were made perfectly and that I enjoyed them. As obsessive as I am about eating tasty pizza, he obsesses over making quality pizza. I was also greeted with great hospitality by Executive Chef Tommy Andrew. I thoroughly enjoyed Randolfi’s pizza and I make this the first place that is not on my top 10 list to have my P of Approval.

Randolfi's is located at 6665 Delmar Blvd. University City, Mo. 63130