The Pizza Files 2009 by the numbers.

The above collage shows 46 of the pizza's that I enjoyed so far this year, I still have one more day, who knows I may get one more in before the year is up.

According to Google Analytics The Pizza Files had
989 Visits
585 Absolute Unique Visitors
1837 Pageviews
1.86 Pageviews/visit
68.55% Bounce Rate
00:01:58 Average time on site
58.95% new visits

Visitors from 38 countries/territories

Traffic sources Of the 989 visits
6.88% Direct
51.77% Referring sites
41.35% Search Engines

The Top 4 Search Keywords:
pizza snobz - 26 visits
pizza files - 25 visits
costco food court pizza - 23 visits
costco food court menu - 11 visits

Single post with most pageviews
Costco Food Court Pizza with 108 page views.

For Browsers
Firefox - 54.8%
SeaMonkey - 0.10%

Gee'z way to many numbers, go eat some pizza already...

Chief Pizza Eater
GAW

Papi's Pizza, Subs and Ice Cream.

New to the St Louis pizza scene, Papi's Pizza opened for business earlier this year in Wildwood, MO and looks to be a locally owned and operated pizza joint.  Their menu includes Appetizers, Salads, Sandwich's, Brick Oven Pizza and Desserts (including 11 flavors of Ice Cream).  Their pizza's are hand tossed and come with Mozzarella cheese.  They have a good selection of toppings including: meatballs, red onions, artichoke and shrimp to name a few.  Aside from the standard Mozzarella you can also get cheddar, feta, Ricotta, Parmesan, and Provolone cheese's.

On this visit we started with a side salad with BBQ ranch dressing.  The salad consisted of Iceberg & Romain lettuce, spinach, mozzarella, tomatoes and onions.  It was a very good start to the meal.

The first pizza was a 12" cheese.  My fellow pizza eater (6 yr old daughter) found it so good that she refused to share a slice with me.  I was able to negotiate a single bite, but was not allowed to touch the slice with my hands.

We also got a 14" with pepperoni, meatball, ham and red onion.  The hand tossed crust was very good, it had a nice texture and did a good job holding up the rest of the ingredients.  The tip was just a little soft and the edge just a little crispy.  The toppings were all very good and generously applied.  I was especially happy to see meatballs and red onions on the menu.  The only check against was that the menu says red onions and I asked for red onions, but it looked like it came with onions of the white variety, it was hard to tell, not a deal breaker by any means.  I can also report that the left over pizza did very well in the toaster oven the next morning.

Overall I was very pleased with the food and service at Papi's, so if you find your self in Wildwood and have a craving for good pizza give them a try, heck don't wait until you until find your self there, make it a road trip.  I will return and on my next visit I'm getting a scoop of ice cream.  Papi's Pizza is located at 17209 New Collage Ave in Wildwood, MO. You can reach them at (636) 458-1313 or check out their web-site by clicking the title link.

Highly Recommended.

GAW

Cici's

That's right I'm pigging out at Cici's, and I even paid for it.  Maybe it was a couple of weeks ago, but I did have some good pizza Saturday that I will be telling you about soon.

GAW

Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays to all the pizza eaters.  May your Holiday pizza be the best.  FYI, it's a little known fact that Santa prefers a really good slice over cookies and milk.

GAW

Papa John's Pizza.

It wasn't my Money! I just want to set the record straight right from the beginning.  So how did I come about eating Papa John's Pizza you ask?  I performed manual labor for a relitive and was provided dinner in return, dinner being the pizza disscussed here.

If you have never heard of Papa John's Pizza then you must live under a rock with no TV, radio or newspapers. Papa John's is one of the Big Three Chain's, Domino's and Pizza Hut the other two.  "Papa" John Schnatter started making pizza's in 1983 in his dad's tavern.  A year later he opened the first Papa John's Pizza.  Today there are over 3,000 Papa John's Pizza Delivery and take-out restaurants around the world.

The Menu may very from one location to another, at the Papa John's in my neck of the woods you can get pizza in one of 3 crust:  original (hand tossed?), thin or perfect pan.  It looks like the normal cheese is mozzarella, but you can also order a 3-cheese blend.  Besides pizza they have calizones, bread sticks, chicken wings/strips, desserts and bottled soft drinks.

We had a order of spicy Buffalo chicken wings.  Other than they were reddish orange and come with blue cheese dressing I can't comment, I'm not much of a fan so I didn't sample them.

For Pizza we had three variety's, all on original crust, and each had Papa John's special touch, Garlic dipping sauce and a peppercini.  The first was cheese the second was sausage & mushroom, and the third was pepperoni, ham, beef and onions.  I sampled all three of the pizza's.  One thing they all had in common was the crust (I use the word loosely), although it was dark brown on the bottom, under the sauce there was 1/4 inch layer that was rather doughy, sort of like a steamed bun you get at a Dim Sum restaurant.  The crust, again I use the word loosly, is more like bread than a pizza crust.  The toppings were ok, the ground beef and sausage were seemed to be more uniform in shape and size than ground meat should be.  I must admit the most enjoyable part was dipping the crust in the garlic dipping sauce. 

So the big question is, Would I eat it again? Sure, on somebody else's dime.  There are to many mom and pop joints to spend my money at Papa John's Pizza.

Papa John's Pizza, for more information check out their web-site (click on the title link).  I'm not going to give you any address or phone numbers, if you really have to eat there you have to look it up your self

If somebody else is paying.

GAW

It's been forever...

It seems like it has been forever since I last had something file in the PizzaFiles.  I have had pizza a couple of times this month but it was a case of "if somebody else pays" both times leaving me a bit uninspired and struggling to commit them to the interwebs.  I will be eating somebody else's leftover pizza for supper tonight, maybe it will inspire...

I hope to put some time into the PizzaFiles and list some of the pizza and food blogs I read to your right. Look for them in the near future.

I will be having my 42nd annual holiday in about 2 months time and if anybody has a recommendation on a Pizza Joint leave me a comment.  I have one place in mind that I visited this past summer, but I could be swayed...

To paraphrase a another blogger I follow, "Blogging is a Monster that requires constant feeding".  I hope to start the feeding again soon, who knows I might even get off my lazy A## and finnish those "if somebody else pays" post's .

GAW

Shakespeare's Pizza.

Shakespeare's Pizza ,locally owned and operated, is located in Columbia, MO. Their web-site is a bit light on history, but it looks like they opened for business in 1973 in downtown Columbia. They currently have two locations, the original downtown and a new joint on the west side of town. The pizza for this review came from the original downtown location.
Their menu includes Salads, Other eats (cheese garlic bread, Brightons cookies and frozen pizza's) and Pizza. The pizza's come with a choice of wholewheat or white crust. The cheese of choice is Provolone, but you can also get pepper or Cheddar cheese. You also have a choice of toppings or Exotic toppings, but unlike many places there is no price increase for the exotic toppings.

We started with a Louie's salad. It wasn't the salad I wanted but it was the salad I ordered (when I ordered the food I was racing west on I-70 towards Columbia). I had wanted to order a dinner salad, but instead I asked for a House salad for four people. I'm not a big fan of spinach salad, certainly nothing wrong with it, just not what I wanted.

We ordered 2 large pizza's, both with white crust, the first half cheese (for my daughter) and half Canadian bacon and bacon (a favorite of my fellow pizza eater). The second had pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger and onions. The pizza's had a bit of a ride in the car, but were still very warm when we busted them out of the box's. The first things I noticed was a lot of corn meal on the bottom of the crust and how light it was, almost white. It was able to support it's own weight, that might be different straight out of the oven at the restaurant. The cheese and toppings were generously applied. Although I didn't realize until latter that they only used Provolone cheese, I did know something was different with cheese. As I recall the sauce was not remarkably sweet or spicy, and on the later my daughter would have made it known loud and clear. The sauce did a fine job of mediating between crust and toppings. I found all 3 pizza's quite good, and the leftovers did very well a couple of days later after spending some time in the toaster oven.

Overall I was very pleased with the food and service at Shakespeare's Pizza. I unknowingly picked Homecoming weekend to order from them, so when we arrived we found a line going around the building, luckily to go orders have a separate door. So if you go on a MU game night you should expect long lines and limited parking. Our pizza's were ready on-time and our salad come in a really nice reusable grocery bag.

The Pizza was very good and I would defiantly pay for it again. Shakespeare's Pizza is located at 9th & Elm Streets in Columbia, MO. You can reach them at (573) 449-2454, for more information check out their web-site (click on the title link).

Recommended.

GAW

Pizza Cat.

When I'm not wasting, er.. researching about pizza, motorcycles or one of my many other hobby's, I can often be found wasting time at Lolcats part of the icanhascheezburger network. On a recent day of under utilizing my potential I came across the photo below and felt I should share it with you my reader(s?).

Enjoy
GAW

P.S. If you like cats, dogs, walrus's, failures or any number of humours things you should check out the icanhascheezburger network.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Merrill's Pizza

Not Long ago I got the Call, "He's make'n em, how many?" I put in my normal order of three. So tonight we popped one in the oven. Not sure if it was because I haven't had one in a while, but it was even better than normal.

Fresh out of the oven, not even cut yet.

20 minutes later.

Click the title link to learn more about Merrill's Pizza.

GAW

What's for Breakfast?

Leftover pizza and a over easy fried egg.
Obviously dad made breakfast today.

Naturally Risen

The video speaks for it's self.

NATURALLY RISEN from michael evans on Vimeo.

Chuck E. Cheese's

Not long ago I found myself in Chuck E. Cheese's... No Really, I was there to celebrate my daughters 6th birthday, not just for the pizza. But I will take my pizza whenever and wherever I can get it, so here it is.

Chuck E. Cheese's is not a family owned local pizzeria. The story of Chuck E. Cheese's started back in May of 1977 when Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari & Pong opened the first location in San Jose, California. Today Chuck E. Cheese's is a leader in entertaining young children and damaging the hearing of their parents. You can even buy stock in Chuck E. Cheese's if you feel so inclined, there symbol is (CEC), it's going for $26 as I write this.

Chuck E. Cheese's offers 4 sizes of pizza with your choice of the following toppings: pepperoni, bacon, jalapenos, chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage, pineapple, black olives, red onions, Canadian bacon, green peppers and beef. I should also let you know that Canadian locations use soya beef and ham in place of beef and Canadian bacon. No kidding check out the MENU! How messed up it that? If you live in Canada you can't get Canadian bacon on your pizza! I really feel sorry for the poor Canadian customers. Back to our regularly scheduled post. They also offer several combo's including: Super Combo, All-Meat Combo, BBQ Chicken and Vegetarian. If you can't bring your self to eat the pizza they have wings, mozzarella sticks, breadsticks, french fries and a salad bar. The online menu also shows several sandwiches, but I don't recall seeing them at the location I visited.

For our party we had cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza, the kids pretty much cleaned up the cheese pizza leaving the pepperoni for the adults to pick over. The first thing I noticed was what looked like a coating of butter on the crust and pooled in some of the pepperoni's. When you handle the pizza your hands will come away with a coating of the stuff. Even the bottom looks like it was fried. As far as taste goes I really don't recall much about the pizza, it was eatable for sure as I eat a couple of pieces and I'm still around a month later. If it wasn't for the photos I took I wouldn't have been able to give you this much information as all I can really recall from our visit was the noise, kids screaming, machines clanging and the big rat him self singing (and we had the first party of the day at 10am). I do know that all the kids had a great time at Chuck E. Cheese's and none of them complained about the pizza.

We visited the Chuck E. Cheese's at 15913 Manchester Rd. in Ellisville, Missouri 63011, but I suspect it would be pretty much the same no matter what Chuck E. Cheese's you visit.

Recommended BUT

• Only if you have young children.
• Only if you have ear plugs.
  
• Only if it's a child's birthday.
• Only if it's not your kid so you don't have to pay for it.
  

GAW

P.S. I'm serious wear hearing protection.

Frank and Helen's, second time.

I visited Frank and Helen's about 4 months ago as part of The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge and did a full review at that time, so I will keep it short.

I got the call Sunday morning that the family was going to Frank and Helen's that evening to have Broasted Chicken, and did I want to go? Of course I wanted to go, but I wasn't going to have chicken. Out of the 11 family members only 3 of us didn't get chicken (it must be good to pass on pizza).

On This visit as before I started with the Casa (house salad) with the House Creamy Garlic dressing, and as before it was quite good. I did have them add some mozzarella cheese to the salad this time.

For Pizza I ordered a Medium Extra Thin crust (St. Louis Style) with the Signature Red sauce, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, meat balls and red onions. Just like my last visit the pizza was excellent. The ingredients were all fresh and tasted very good. The quantity of each ingredient was just right. Although the St. Louis style crust is not my favorite it did a good job of conveying the pizza from plate to mouth and added a crispness to the package.

On my June visit I noticed that they served Crown Candy Ice Cream after I had already eaten to much and had no room for dessert, this time I saved just a little space to share a scoop. My wife and I had a scoop of coffee ice cream. It was well worth saving the space. Some day I will make the trip to Crown Candy Kitchen and have a malt, but that will be another story.

So if you are craving some great pizza, Broasted chicken and ice cream you can't beat Frank and Helen's.

Frank and Helen's is located at 8111 Olive Street Rd in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 997-0666 or check out their web-site by clicking the title link.

Highly Recommended.

GAW

Costco food court Pizza

**Updated 11/16/09 See New information below**

Costco Food Court is not family owned, but is a clever way for the wholesale club giant to get a few more of your hard earned dollars on the way out of the building. If you have ever done any shopping at Costco you know that the food court is a necessity. After pushing your over sized cart around the warehouse filling it with the bulk sized items of life, you will need to fuel up before taking on the parking lot.

The Menu at the Food Court includes Pizza by the slice or whole pie in one of 3 variety's cheese, pepperoni and combo (pepperoni, sausage, onion, green peppers and olives). They also have hot dogs, Polish sausages, chicken bake?, churro (deep fried stick coated in sugar), frozen yogurt, frozen coffee drink, frozen fruit smoothie and fountain sodas.

I got a slice of Pepperoni pizza and a coke, my wife had a slice of combo pizza, the bill for everything was around $5.00. The pizza's are cooked on screens(holey pan?) in a automatic oven, in one side and out the other. All of the slices are of uniform size, they use a rather large metal cutting guide to insure it. My slice of pepperoni had quite a bit of oil on the surface and when i flipped it upside down on the paper plate for a photo some of the oil was soaked up by the plate. I recommend you give it the flip even if you aren't taking a photo. After the grease was blotted I didn't have much to write about. The crust was OK, lots of cheese & pepperoni and some tomato sauce stuck between. My wife's combo slice actually looked better, except for those pesky green peppers, she didn't share so I have nothing to say about it (and my daughter erased the photo from the camera so no photo either).

If you think about the amount of love that goes into a pizza like this, it's really not bad. Just think the person making the pizza's is probably the lowest on the seniority list and can think of nothing else but becoming a checker... or at least the checker's helper.

My Slice came from the Costco at 4200 Rusty Road St. Louis, Missouri 63128, but I suspect it would be pretty much the same no matter what Costco you visit.

Recommended BUT

• Only if you are already there.
• Only if your significant other refuses to let you stop at a real pizza joint on the way home.
• Only if you are about to pass out from low blood sugar, because your giant cart is over-filled.

GAW

P.S. If you are in a twist thinking "I got'a go and get a Costco membership now", hold your horses, you don't need a membership to get the pizza, but you should re-read my recommendation.

**Update** As of 11/16/09 my local Costco requires you to have a membership to visit the food court. I don't know if this is a permanent change or just for the holidays. You have been forewarned. GAW

Racanelli's Cucina, so good I did it again.

I know, I was just at Racanelli's Cucina in June(click to see), but the opportunity presented it's self. How could I say no to pizza? On this visit I had a Peppercorn Ranch Salad, which includes mixed greens, tomatoes, bacon, red onion, parmesan and grilled Foccacia. I believe they forgot the Foccacia, but I had more than I could eat anyway. The salad is a meal in it's self. If you want something smaller you will have to share it or get a House salad, the only one to come in a small size. When served there is the offer of fresh ground pepper, but it has plenty of pepper already. The Peppercorn Ranch salad was a great way to start the meal, and I wouldn't hesitate to order it on future visits.

On my previous visit I had the Margherita pizza. It had been so good that I was tempted to get it again, but then I wouldn't have had any thing new to write about except the salad and this isn't the Saladfiles.com. So this time I ordered the Action Jackson (say that 3 times really fast...). It has pepperoni, sausage, red onions and mozzarella cheese. As with all the pizza's here it only comes in a 12 inch thin hand tossed crust. I have to say up front, I'm not a big fan of Sausage on my pizza's and only order it on rare occasions (Why, you ask? Well my experience with sausage has run the gamut from quasi meat pellets to so many herbs & spices that you can taste nothing else). The sausage on the Action Jackson was pleasantly flavorful with out overpowering the rest of the pizza. It was a very good combination and I would gladly order it again, as long as it was the second or third pie.

I didn't get around to trying the "Johnny's Famous Pound cake Sandwich" on this visit, so It looks like I will be returning in the future.

Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar is located at 6655 Delmar Boulevard (the Loop) in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 727-8880, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge, a look back.

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge has been over for a couple of weeks now, and I've had some time to think about all 25 of those pies and the 17 pizza joints they came from. My plan was to hit 8 different pizza places in a 10 week period, but The Binge took on a life of it's own and I nearly doubled that goal.

I won't name all 17 pizza joints here, but will name a couple of the standouts.

Erio's Ristorante, some of the Best pizza I have ever had!

Frank and Helen's Pizzeria, making pizza since 1956. It was under my nose for years, but I just discovered it.

Napoli Pizza, one of my all time favorites was the first stop on the binge, but sadly closed it's doors for good a week later.

To see all of the pizza joints I visited follow this Link.

Will there be a 2010 Binge? If my wife and daughter go on a extended summer vacation and leave me at home you can count on it.

I need to thank all of the Pizza Eaters who helped me to eat and PAY for all of those pizza's.

GAW

The Binge Part 17, the LAST stop!

It is time to end the binge. I'm not sure how it came to be, but Fortel's Pizza Den is the last stop on The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

We celebrated the ending of the Binge with a large house salad (House dressing), a large pizza with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger and onion. Then to top it all off we had the Dessert pizza with apple Streusel.

The Pizza was better than I remembered from previous visits. It was a most excellent way to end the binge. More on Fortel's Pizza Den later.

GAW

The Binge Part 16, unplanned bonus.

The Dude calls the Man and it goes something like this;

Dude: "hey Man, Pizza?"
Man: "Dude, Blackthorn?"
Dude: "Man, Tonight!"

That's more or less how Blackthorn Pub became part 16 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

Today's pizza was a Chicago style deep dish with pepperoni, hamburger and onions. Where's the salad you ask? The Blackthorn has pizza, pizza or pizza, if you want something other than pizza you are in the wrong place.

To call the Blackthorn a dive bar is an under statement, but it does have pretty good pizza. You just got to know how to get served, luckily The Man lives close by and knows the rules. I go into more detail about the Blackthorn in the furture, so check back soon.

GAW

The Binge Part 15, unplanned bonus.

This post probably should have been Part 11, but I couldn't decide if it warranted inclusion in the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

Still recovering from my 8 day road trip, family call to ask if I would like to go out for dinner? Of course I do. Red Lobster was the destination, and to my surprise they had recently added Lobster Pizza to the appetizer menu. That's how Red Lobster became Part 15 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

I will not be posting a full review so I will give you some more detail here. The pizza uses a St. Louis style thin crust and langostino lobster meat, melted mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and sweet basil. Considering where it came from it was ok, but I won't be rushing back to Red Lobster anytime soon for Pizza. It falls in to the "If somebody else pays" category. Luckily I was mooching off of family and didn't pay...

GAW

The Binge Part 14, unplanned bonus.

I get a phone call on Thursday night from a co-worker telling me not to bring my lunch the next day, but do bring my camera cause we are going out...

Don't you just love The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge? It has truly taken on a life of it's own. Pizza comes to me now.

That's how Nick & Elena's Pizzeria became part 14 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

On the Menu, Nick & Elena's Special Salad with the House (Italian) and ranch dressing. For Pizza it was a large sausage, Canadian bacon and onion thin crust. Look for more details in the near future. GAW

The Binge Part 13.

Painting, oh how I hate painting. So I played the friends and family card. How do you repay friends and family for helping with home maintenance? Why pizza of course. That's how Caito's Sicilian Restaurant & Pizzeria became part 13 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

Today's menu started with, Bruschetta and Caito's House Salad with the House creamy Italian dressing. For pizza it was three, including the Caitos Special with pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, bacon, green pepper, mozzarella, provolone and romano cheese. Next was the Velozzi Margherita with virgin olive oil, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, fontina, romano and fresh basil. Last was the Spinjuine with mozzarella, provolone, a special spicy tomato meat sauce prepared with sausage, choice ground steak, sauteed onion, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella. The last pizza is my favorite, but you will have to wait for the full story.

GAW

The Binge Part 12, unplanned bonus.

The Binge is fast coming to a close, August 9th will be the last day.

After working on a project all day, I found myself hungry, without food and no energy left to cook. Plus I just didn't want to waste a weekend by not having pizza, but it had to be fairly close and some place I hadn't been to. That's how JJ Twigs became Part 12 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

On the menu was a House Salad with the House dressing (Italian Ranch) and a Double Decker pizza with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger and onions. Yes I said Double Decker, look closely at the photo above and you can see the two layers of pizza. You will have to wait for the review for more...

GAW

The Binge Part 11, unplanned bonus.

I get to work this morning and I'm told "It's Food Day". We're going out for lunch! The discussion about where to go starts around 2 hours prior to lunch, it can take awhile...

Today BBQ came up to the top pretty quick and Stumpy's House of BBQ stood above the rest. That was just fine with me, as it meant I could do both Pizza and BBQ... That's how Cecil Whittakers Pizzeria became Part 11 of the Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge.

On the menu today was a small pizza with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger, red onions and mozzarella cheese. On the BBQ side there was a Stumpy's Salad with pulled pork, ranch dressing and sweet BBQ sauce. If you are looking at the photos above your probably thinking I see the pizza and the salad, but what's in the third photo? Well, that my friends is an order of deep fried pickles. Not something I would ever order, but I will on the next visit. Dip the pickles in some ranch dressing or not and they were excellent. No Kidding.

Click on the Title link to see my review of Cecil Whittakers Pizzeria and Stumpy's House of BBQ.

GAW

The Binge Part 10, Road Trip Bonus.

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge Part 10! I'm two over budget. In Gunnison, CO today, the motel staff gave me 2 recommendations that were in walking distance, one a "cowboy bistro" and the second was Mario's Pizzeria & Ristorante. I actually went to the cowboy bistro (I'm in cowboy country after all), but they were closed. That's how I came to part 10.

I started with a Mario's famous 1/2 & 1/2 salad (half iceberg lettuce and half rotini pasta mixed with black olives, tomatoes and bell peppers and topped with mozzarella cheese and pepperroni), and for the main course I ordered a 11" pizza with pepperoni, Canadian Bacon, meatballs and onions.

You can follow my Road Trip progress at the links to the right.

GAW

The Binge Part 9, Road Trip Bonus.

I'm on the great Road Trip 2009 and recently found myself quite hungry and in Chama, NM. Just a 5 minute walk down the street was Feliciano's Home Run Pizza. That's how I came to Part 9 of The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge. Being in New Mexico There is only one topping you must get, and that is Green Chile's.

Feliciano's was a memorable part of my Road Trip, and speaking of Road Trip's check out my other sites to check on my travels and see a few of my photos.

GAW

Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar

Racanelli's Cucina on the Delmar Loop in University City is owned by John Racanelli who also owns all of the Racanelli's New York Pizzeria's. Racanelli's Cucina isn't just a fancy name on one of their Pizzeria's, it is a full service Italian restaurant with a completely different menu. They offer appetizers, salads, soups, pasta, burgers, grilled foccacia paninis, desserts and 12 inch stone oven pizza's. They all so have an extensive wine list.

I started off with a small house salad. It had mixed greens, tomato's, cucumber, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. I'm not big on "mixed greens", those two words can sometimes mean weeds in my book, but these weren't bad. The rest of the veggies were cut into small cubes. The salad was served with the dressing on it, but not tossed. Overall the salad was very good. I was hungry and started eating the salad before I remembered to photograph it, so no photos. My Fellow pizza eater ordered a Mediterranean Chopped salad, it had mixed greens, feta, kalamata olives, red onion pepperocini and house made vinaigrette.

In the 4 weeks prior to eating at Racanelli's Cucina I had pizza 7 times, so for pizza I ordered the Magherita, not the sort of thing I would normally order, but having had a lot of pizza I was open to something new. The Margherita is the classic pizza, just tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella. The hand tossed crust was very good, both crisp and chewy. The combination of tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella works great. I have had cheese pizza before and it's OK, but this no cheese pizza. The Margherita was surprisingly good, I believe the fresh mozzarella makes a big difference. I will definitely order it again. We had leftovers but I didn't store them properly and they got a bit dry, next time I will be a pig and not bring any home with me. My fellow pizza eater didn't get pizza!!! He was paying so he could get what he wanted. He got the Panini Portabella (roasted portabella, fresh mozzarella, spinach, roasted pepper and pesto). Even though it was pizza I did sample it and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It's differently not the kind of thing I would order, but I was glad my fellow pizza eater did.

There will be a next time. I was pleasantly surprised by Rananelli's Cucina, both the food and service were very good. I need to try the "Action Jackson" pepperoni, sausage and onion pizza. I also need to try the "Johnny's Famous Pound cake Sandwich" (house-made pound cake, chocolate hazelnut spread, strawberry jam, griddled and served with fresh whipped cream and powdered sugar) , it sound like a sugar rush.

Racanelli's Cucina Original Pizzeria & Bar is located at 6655 Delmar Boulevard (the Loop) in University City, MO. You can reach them at (314) 727-8880, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW

Erio's Ristorante

A co-worker has been telling me about Erio's Ristorante for some time, but they are only open for supper. Recently both of us were working the late shift and decided it was time to order from Erio's. Erio's Ristorante is family owned and opened for business in 1970 in Florissant, MO. They moved to St Peters in 1991. Their menu has all items you would expect at an Italian restaurant, appetizers, salads, pizza, steaks & veal, chicken & fish, pasta, sandwiches and desserts. Their hand tossed pizza's come in 12" and 14", for an extra charge you can get a thicker New York style crust. For cheese, you can choose between fresh mozzarella and provel cheese.

We started with a Erio's House Salad, it had Mixed fresh greens with artichokes, Italian Volpi salami, provel cheese, red onions, peppercinis, Sicilian green olives and Erio's House dressing (Italian vinaigrette). The salad was very good, but the salami was just a bit more than I needed. I would get the dinner salad next time, it's the same minus the salami.

For pizza we ordered a standard hand tossed large with pepperoni, hamburger, onion and yellow peppers. The crust was was similar to New York style, but of uniform thickness all the way across. The bottom had a fair bit of char (pizza lingo for the black bits on the bottom) but didn't taste burnt. The crust would droop a some when it was still hot, but was quite chewy. the pepperonis were sliced thin the way I like them, and the small nuggets of hamburger were lightly seasoned. Both the onions and yellow peppers fresh. Oh yeah there was sauce in there also. The combination worked well. I have to say that I was awestruck by the crust, it was exceptional!

Over all the food was great, the crust warrants a return trip alone. The Sicilian salad and the Pizza di Palermo are both on my list for the return visit. The downside of Erio's is that they are only open for dinner (4p.m. - 9p.m. later on weekends) and they don't deliver the delicious pizza. So if you find your self in St Peters after 4 p.m. you can't go wrong with Erio's.

Erio's Ristorante is located at 951 Jungermann Rd. in St. Peters, MO. You can reach them at (636) 928-0112, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW

Dewey's Pizza Part 2

It all started something like this:

The "Man" calls the "Dude" and asks the Dude if he wants to get some pizza? The Dude is all like "yeah man, cool". The next thing you know the Man and the Dude are at Dewey's.

I Reviewed Dewey's back in November 2008 so I will only talk about what the man and the dude had to eat. The Man went Greek and ordered a Greek salad and the Socrates' Revenge pizza (Olive oil, minced garlic, mozzarella-fontina blend, spinach, black olives, green olives, feta cheese, red onions and tomatoes). The Dude ordered a Peppercorn Ranch salad and the Southwest BBQ Chicken pizza (olive oil, smoked cheddar, mozzarella, black bean corn salsa, Amish chicken, roasted red peppers and BBQ sauce). I shall refrain fro the Dude and The Man for now. I had been eating a lot of pizza around the time of this review and I've eaten at Dewey's a number of times, so when I ordered I went out of my box some. The Socrates' Revenge was very good, I especially liked the olive oil instead of regular sauce. As much as I liked it I would probably max out with one or two slices. A small dose of olives go a l0ng way for me and the Socrates' Revenge is all about the olives. The Southwest BBQ Chicken pizza was also very good, not something I would routinely order, but very good for a change.

As with my previous visit to Dewey's the food was excellent. The pizza's both out side my norm were great and I would even order them again under similar circumstances. There are a couple of things about Dewey's though; 1. You will probably have to wait for a table when you go (20 minutes this visit for a table for 2 & 30+ on a previous visit with more people), guess if the pizza wasn't very good you wouldn't have to wait. Time, It's the price you pay for good pizza. 2. We had about 4 or 5 different people ask if we were ready to order. They do "Group Serve", were anybody can take your order and all tips are shared. I think we were taking a long time to decide and that's why we saw so many faces asking for our order. They were all quite friendly and attentive to our needs.

Dewey's Pizza is located at 124 N. Kirkwood Rd. Kirkwood, MO. You can reach them at (314) 821-7474, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW

The Binge Part 8, unplanned Bonus.

The Pizza Files 2009 Summer Binge has reached it's original goal of eight pizza joints, in a mere 4 weeks. My original plan was for 8 different pizza joints over a 10 week period, so I can only imagine what my final total will be.

My good friend and fellow pizza eater from last Thursdays Binge suggested that We sample one of the fine Pizzeria's on the Delmar Loop. Thursdays are good for both of us, That's Racanelli's Cucina Part 8.

GAW

G & D Pizzaria (part 2)

Three months ago I reviewed G & D Pizzaria, and stated I would be visiting them again, and it corresponds perfectly with the 2009 Pizza Files Summer Binge (part 5). I won't go into great detail about G&D in this post (see my previous post or G & D Pizzaria web-site), I'm just going to stick to what we ate.

We started with a single trip to the salad bar. Every thing was fresh, but your choices were limited for dressings, just the routine Kraft selections. On any future visits I will try the Greek Salad with the Homemade dressing.

For pizza, my fellow pizza eaters ordered a medium "Country Music" it has sausage, pepperoni, ham, ground beef, bacon and Canadian bacon. I ordered a medium with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, onions and Gyro [meat]. I don't often order sausage and/or bacon on my pizza so I was pleasantly surprised at how good the Country Music pizza was. The sausage and bacon were in just the right amount as were the rest of the ingredients. I would gladly order the Country Music again, maybe add some onions. G&D doesn't have meat balls but they do Gyro [meat], and in my book that equels Greek meatballs. The Gyro was good even if a bit oily. If I were to order my regular pizza again I would probably go with the ground beef, and order a Gyros pita sandwich for an appetizer. The sauce and crust on both pizza's were great. The crust had a crispy edge and was golden brown on the bottem. On my prevouis visit I hadn't noticed how they roll under the edge of the crust to give it a lip to hold the sauce (see photo).

G & D Pizzaria is still in a class all by it's self, and If you find your self hungry and in Columbia, MO it would be worth your time to visit them. G & D Pizzaria is located in the Crossroads West Shopping Center at the corner of W. Broadway and S. Stadium Blvd Columbia, MO. You can reach them at (573) 445-8336, for more information check out their web-site(click on the title link).

Highly Recommended.

GAW