Frankie Tocco's, April 2012

Frankie Tocco's

108 South Main Street, St Charles, MO 63301 (map link);
phone#; (636)947-7007 www.frankietoccos.com

Pizza Style: St Louis thin crust.
Oven type: Gas.
The Skinny:  Ask for mozzarella,  build your own can get pricey.
Price: $9.50 for a small cheese (12in) to $16.49 for large Tocco Special (16in).
Chief Pizza eater says:  Recommended BUT.


Frankie Tocco's was recommended to me about 2 or 3 years ago, but not until recently was I able to put myself at their door.  Frankie Tocco's, making pizza's since 2005, is located towards the north end of Main Street in historic St Charles, MO and is neighbors with quite a few excellent restaurants.  We arrived around 6 P.M. to find the main dining room completely full and several people waiting for tables.  Luckily they have a second dining room downstairs and there was only 2 pizza eaters, so our wait was short.

We started the meal with a large Frankie House Salad and two plates, it could have served 3 or 4.  It had Iceberg lettuce, spring mix, tomatoes, Provel cheese and pepperoncini.  We choose the House dressing a sweet red wine vinegarette.  It was very good, even the Provel cheese.  A salad is probably the one place that Provel cheese works really well in my opinion, keep it off my pizza, and throw it at a salad.

For pizza we ordered 2, both St Louis style Thin crust as thats all Frankie Tocco's makes.  The first being a small Margherita, it had extra virgin olive oil, fresh chopped garlic, mozzarella cheese and sliced tomatoes.  The second was a small pepperoni, hamburger, Canadian bacon and onion.  I also requested mozzarella cheese instead of the Provel.  I really enjoyed both pizza's especially the fact that they make and roll the dough there.  The hand made crust makes a difference.  I think my normal pizza (lots-o-meat and onions) works better on the thin crust than the Margherita.  But even with that said I would still order it again in the future.  We saved room for dessert so that meant I had leftover pizza for breakfast the next day and after a short visit with the toaster oven it was still very good.

For dessert we choose the Tiramisu and Spumoni.  Both were about the proper size to share between 2 pizza eaters or 3-4 dainty eaters.  Both were very good, the Spumoni being my favorite.

I really enjoyed the food and the service was very good, but I have one small nit-pick.  The build your own pizzas add up quickly, a small one topping is $10.25 plus $2.00 per topping there after.  That made my small 4 topping pizza $16.25 plus tax, that's $.24 less than a large Tocco Special (5 toppings).  Outside of that...  I had a great meal.

Recommended but... beware of the build your prices, the Tocco Special is by far the better deal.

The Chief Pizza eater.
GAW

CiCi's Pizza, March 2012

CiCi's Pizza

9745 Manchester Rd. Rock Hill, MO 63119 (map link);
Phone (314) 963-7200;  www.cicispizza.com/

Pizza Style:  Thick and thin.

Oven type:  Gas conveyor.

The Skinny:  Beware the Claw Machine.

Price: $25 for 1 adult and 3 kids (under 10) with drinks

Chief Pizza eater says:  Recommended BUT.

On a weekend not long ago I promised my young pizza eater that I would take her and a couple of her pizza eating friends out for lunch.  It's not always easy finding a pizza joint that is acceptable to both young and old,  CiCi's was acceptable to both parties.  

CiCi's probably wouldn't be my first choice if I was just getting pizza for myself, but I figured I should take advantage of the situation, so I did my best to try at least one slice of every pie on the buffet.  There was everything from cheese, pepperoni, ham & pineapple to veggie.  For crust there was your standard thin crust, similar to a Papa John's or Domino's, Thick crust (I would call it pan) and ultra thin and crispy.  After trying them all I came to the conclusion that the thick crust with olive oil, mozzarella and sausage, and the ultra thin crust pepperoni were the best.  At the end of the buffet is the dessert pizza... or dessert that is baked in the pizza oven, including: brownie, cinnamon roll and a pizza crust cheese cake (It was a little vague but I'm pretty sure it was cheese cake).  Of the three the cinnamon roll was by far the best, with the brownie coming in a close second.

There was also a very small salad bar and pasta bar before the pizza, but I didn't partake as I knew I would be eating way to much pizza.  The salad bar look plenty fresh, but I'm not sure how well the pasta would do sitting on the buffet.

Once everyone had their fill of pizza it was off to the Game Room (aka: Claw Machines).  For pizza eaters under 10 the claw machines have a unbelievably strong attraction.  If given the chance I'm sure they would have spent more on the machines than the pizza.

The pizza wasn't bad and the young pizza eaters all found something that they liked,  but beware the Claw Machines as they can quickly take the value out of meal.

 Recommended BUT, beware the Claw Machines.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Schlafly Bottleworks February 2012, Birthday Pizza.

It is that time of year when the Chief Pizza Eater gets to be another year older, rounder and shorter.  That means birthday pizza.

I had a couple of places in mind, but one was surrounded by the Mardi Gras celebration and the other I found out was no longer in business.  So after a bit of back and fourth I decided on Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, MO.

I have reported on Schlafly Bottleworks a couple of times in the past so I won't bore you with all the details.  As in the past the food and service was excellent.

I ordered a Bison, pepperoni and red onion pizza with the house blend cheese and on their hand tossed Pilsner dough crust and it was delicious.  (WARNING, non-pizza content!) Just to mix things up Mrs. Chief Pizza Eater ordered the Meatloaf.  I have tried unsuccessfully several times to order the Meatloaf only to be told, sorry we only serve it during supper, or sorry we have already sold out of the Meatloaf, etc.  So of course the day I want to order pizza they have plenty of meatloaf, it was also excellent.  For dessert the table of 11 mostly non-pizza eaters shared a Sticky Toffee Pudding.  There just isn't much better way to end a birthday meal that the Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Highly Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW.

Tony's Pizza Palace, Columbia, MO. January 2012.

Tony's Pizza Palace

17 North 5th Street, Columbia, MO 65201 (map link);
 phone#(573) 442-3188

Pizza Style: Greek
Oven type: Gas
The Skinny:  Another great Greek Pizza Joint in COMO.
Price: $16 Medium 4 topping Pizza.
Chief Pizza eater says: Recommended.

When ever I find my self in Columbia I try to find my way to a pizza joint, it doesn't always happen, but when it does I've yet to be disappointed.  This weekend was no different.

I had been told about Tony's Pizza Palace last year by an old friend and kept it in the back of my mind until I had the chance to get there.  Tony's doesn't have a web-site that I could find, but from what I gather they have been in business since 1968.  Originally they were located on Broadway, now they are on the corner of East Walnut and North 5th street.  The current location appeared to be clean but well used.

Tony's makes pizza with Greek Style crust, a thin crust usually cooked in a pain.  I ordered a medium pepperoni, Canadian bacon, hamburger and onion pizza to go.  About 15 minutes later I was heading out the door with a hot pizza, and the drive to where I was staying was torture The smell was driving me insanely hungry.  When I finally got the box open I found it similar to other Greek pizza joints in that the toppings were all under the cheese and there was a little fold on the edge of the crust.  It had and abundance of toppings and cheese.  There is a seasoning in either the sauce or hamburger that I just can't pinpoint that sets the pizza apart from what you would find in a more Italian orianted pizza joint.

All and all a great pizza.

Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

A'mis Italian Restaurant August 2011. Binge 2011 Stop 13

On stop 13 of the 2011 Binge, I once again found my self with a car full of non-pizza eaters.  That didn't stop last time and didn't stop me this time.  A'mis Italian Restaurant in Rock Hill was stop 13.

For starters we had a A'mis salad with the House dressing.  We were all quite hungry, so I completely for got to snap a photo.  I will tell you it was more than enough shared between 3 people, and could have served 4.  It was also quite good, especially the House dressing.

The Non-pizza eaters did the same thing they did last time, they didn't get pizza...

I did get pizza, a hand tossed crust with salami, hamburger and onions.  From the first bite to the last it was excellent.  Some day when I have more pizza eaters with me I'm going to try their Chicago Deep dish, next time.

Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Home Made Pizza July 2011. Binge 2011 Stop 11.

Home Made, yes the Chief made pizza!

Actually with some very good help he made bruschetta, antipasto, pizza and raspberry ice cream.

The olive oil, fresh mozzarella, pancetta and baby arugula was probably the best of the night.

Highly Recommended, if only you can get on the list.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Schlafly Bottleworks July 2011. Binge 2011 Stop 10.

For stop 10 of the Binge I found myself and a car load of non-pizza eaters at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, MO.

We started with a couple of appetizers, the Spent Grain Beer Bread and The Farmer's Platter.  Both were great, but the Beer Bread was excellent.  I could have made a meal just out of it.

The Non-Pizza eaters got... well not pizza. I ordered the Carnivore.  It had Bison, pepperoni, bacon, salsiccia, red sauce and the house blend cheese (mozzarella, smoked gouda, provolone, jack and chedder).  As with my previous visit it was excellent.

Once we all had our fill we did the obvious and ordered more food, a bowl of Dipity Gold Coast Chocolate Ice Cream.  It was very, very Chocolaty...

Highly Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Stefanina's July 2011. Binge 2011 Stop 9.

Fridays are days of weakness, or maybe I just like to celebrate the coming of the weekend.  I eat a lot of pizza on Fridays, and Stop nine happened to be on a Friday, so I found myself ordering from Stefanina's Pizzeria and Restaurant.

Stefanina's does St Louis Style Pizza, but you have the option of getting mozzarella cheese, and we did.  We started with a House salad and House Italian dressing.  For pizza we had a large half bacon and half pepperoni, ham, hamburger & onion.  It was all very good, even the bacon pizza.

There was plenty of leftovers and the next morning I found a great use for them, see my previous post.

Recommended But get the Mozzarella.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Little Caesars July 2011. The Binge 2011 stop 7.

Hello, my name is Chief Pizza Eater and I'm an addict...

It's taken me awhile to figure it out, but the Hot-N-Ready is kind of like crack for pizza addicts.  At $5 it has to be the least expensive pizza of it's size, it gives you instant satisfaction as soon as you bight in and it comes in varying qualities.

Fortunately for me my co-workers are enablers and the Little Caesars down the street from work does a pretty good $5 pizza.

Your pizza may vary.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Picasso's Pizza June 2011. The Binge 2011 stop 6.

A favorite, but I just can't seem to find my way there very often.  The family out of town and working just down the street, I couldn't help myself.

A House salad with the house dressing and a large pizza with pepperoni, meat balls and onions.  More than enough to feed my self and a second pizza eater.  We had enough left that two more pizza eaters would have gotton their fill, and only a shade over $20.  Plus the pizza and salad was great!

Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW.

Red-L Pizza June 2011. The Binge 2011 stop 5.

Just a small red dot on Google Maps.  With some arens to do after work I pulled up Google Maps, narrowed it down to the area I would be going and type pizza into the search box and a small red dot caught my eye.  I put the curser over it and it said "Red-L Pizza".  I had never heard of it, perfect.

I ordered a Red-L Caesar salad and for pizza I got 12" with pepperoni, meat loaf and onions.  The cheese was a House blend, and when asked I was told it was mozzarella and provolone cheeses.  The crust was of the thin St Louis Style.  The pizza and salad were both great.  I'll be back.

The Red-L you will notice from the photo is just that, a red L.  They are a carry out only joint, but they do have some outside seating, although it doesn't appear they have table service.  The Red-L can be a little hard to find the first time so keep that in mind.

Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

The Emperor's Palace June 2011. The Binge 2011 stop 4.

I'm a glutton for punishment.  I took one for the team on this one.  The family out voted me and we ended up at The Emperor's Palace, a very good place if you are blogging about Chinese Buffet joints...

Recommended But,  just don't eat the pizza.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Pizza World, May 2011. Binge 2011 stop 2.

The littlest pizza eater and I had worked up an appetite by visiting the St Louis Zoo and some of the local pawn shops (they are a little gritty compared to the TV pawn shops), so we decided to eat at Pizza World in Maplewood.

We ordered a Garden Salad with house dressing, when we should have ordered a Side Salad.  It was bigger than the two of us could eat.  It was good, would have been right for 4 people.

The littlest pizza eater got a small cheese pizza,  she wasn't to keen on sharing so it must have been pretty good.  I (The Chief) ordered a medium with Pepperoni, Italian Meatballs, Ham and onions.  It was excellent, go to love those meatballs.

Pizza World is a small chain, so check out the web-site (title link) and you might have one near by.  Great food and nice people,  I just gotta try and get there more than once every 3 years...

Recommended.

The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Bellacino's Pizza & Grinders, May 2011. Binge Stop 1.

The Binge 2011 has officially begun...er.. actually it began 3 weeks ago, but I'm just now getting  caught up on all my blogging.

Bellacino's Pizza & Grinders in St Charles was the chosen as the first stop on a whim.  We were hungry and it was across the parking lot from The Bass Pro shop, where we were checking out outdoorsy things.

We started with a small Greek salad and for pizza we had pepperoni, meatballs, ham and onions.  The pizza I was told is first cooked in a pan then finished off on the oven floor.  The crust is of  the thin variety, yet not as thin as a St Louis style, and is cut on the square.  The pizza was great.

Bellacino's is what I would call a regional chain with most locations in the mid-West and mid-Atlantic states.  If your interested check their web-site (title link) for a location.

Recommended.

Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas, May 2011

Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas

5046 Shaw Ave., St Louis, MO 63110 (map link);  (314) 771-4900 ;  http://www.guidosstl.com/

Pizza Style: St Louis thin crust

Oven type: Stone deck.

The Skinny:  Ask for Mozzarella and don't forget the Tapas!

Price: $7.50 small (9in) cheese to $20.95 family (16in) speciality pizza.

Chief Pizza eater says:  Recommended. 

We set out on Mothers day with a car load of mothers to get pizza, and nearly went hungry.  We went to joint after joint finding them all closed, that is until we thought of Guido's Pizzeria & Tapas on The Hill (St Louis's Italian neighborhood).  It turns out that a large number of restaurants are closed on Sunday's in the City of St Louis and The Hill is closed down tight with one exception, Guido's.  As they say "All's well that end's well".

Lesson:  if you aren't 100% sure, call ahead to find out the hours of operation.

Being the only place open on The Hill seating was scarce, so we chose to dine al fresco, which was perfect as it was a beautiful day.

Because not all of the pizza eaters are as dedicated as the Chief, we had quite the mix of food.  Things we had other than pizza included:  House Salad, Caprese Salad and Ensalad Mixta.  from the Tapas menu we had Gazpacho Madrileno, Croquetas Caseras (chicken), and Empanadillas (tuna).  By now you must realize Guido's is bilingual, a little Italian and a little Spanish.

For pizza Guido's offers traditional St. Louis style pizza, with the option to have mozzarella cheese instead of  provel.  We had a large with half cheese (for the youngest pizza eater) and half with pepperoni, salami, Canadian bacon and red onions.  We also chose mozzarella over the provel.  The pizza crust was very thin, crispy and cut on the square as one should expect from a St Louis style pie.  The pizza was very good, if not a little messy.  The inner squares are the messiest as the cheese has no anchor and tends to slide around.  My choice of toppings wasn't the greatest, no problems on Guido's part, just my combination.  I like salami on pizza's but  it doesn't work great with Canadian bacon in my book, next time I will pair it with something a little less salty.

Over all the food was very good, and worth a visit.  And if it's Sunday Guido's is your only option on The Hill.  Recommended any day of the week.

Recommended

Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Little Caesars, March 2011

I can't help myself...  My coworkers say "Were getting a Hot-N-Ready, you want one?"  I just can't say no...

I have to tell you the Little Caesars down the street from work puts out a pretty good pizza for $5.  I've heard about less than desirable results with the Hot-N-Ready, but the only complaint I've ever had was that they didn't get the pizza cut all the way through in a couple of spots.

I'll take a Hot-N-Ready any day over a fast food burger joint. Plus for $5 I can have left overs for lunch the next day.

Recommended, YMMV

Chief Pizza Eater

Stefanina's Pizzeria & Restaurant, March 2011

Free Pizza at work, Just about the best kind.  Stefanina's was the pizza of choice.  We had Pepperoni with Mozzarella cheese.  For a St Louis style pizza it was pretty good, I will defiantly be taking a more in-depth look at Stefanina's in the future.

For now Recommended But,  get Mozzarella cheese instead of Provel.

The Chief Pizza Eater.

Schlafly Bottleworks March 2011

Schlafly Bottleworks

7260 Southwest Ave. (map link);  (314) 241-BEER x2;  www.schlafly.com

Pizza Style: Hand tossed

Oven type: ??

The Skinny:  Great Pizza, but save room for Dessert.

Price: $8 plus $1 per topping

Chief Pizza eater says: Highly Recommended.

Late last year I posted a question in the Missouri section of CityProfile.com asking, whats your favorite pizza joint?  I've got a whole slew of responses, one being Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, MO.  So last week when the Mrs. Pizza Eater asked if I wanted to go out for lunch, I said I have just the place.

We arrived around 2 P.M. for a late lunch and we started with Ice tea and Chopped Salads.  The salad has romaine lettuce with red wine vinaigrette, Salemville bleu cheese, Volpi salami, pickled red onions, hard-boiled egg and kalamata olives.  The salad was excellent, I loved the pickled red onions.  


The Mrs. Pizza Eater choose to be a non-pizza eater and ordered the soup of the a Tomato Bisque.  It was rather good too, but not pizza.


For pizza Schlafly makes a Pilsner dough fresh daily,  they are a brewer first and pizza joint second.  Then you have a choice of sauces, cheese and toppings.  Your choice of sauce includes a tomato sauce or a smoked Gouda cream and garlic oil.  For cheese there is the House blend (Mozzarella, smoked Gouda, Provolone, Jack and Prairie Breeze), Mozzarella, Feta, goat or vegan mozzarella.  The topping list isn't huge, but it is interesting.  For example they don't have hamburger or beef, instead they have Bison.  It should also be noted that all pizza's are about 10 inches, filling a dinner plate.


For my pizza I ordered tomato sauce, House blend cheese, pepperoni, Bison, onions and roasted red peppers.  The pizza was very good.  The crust was fairly thick across the whole pie and cooked to give it a crispy crunch.  The toppings were all very good to, but I couldn't tell a big difference in the Bison verses fresh ground beef.  The House blend cheese probably has more Mozzarella than the other cheese's, at the table with the pizza still pretty hot the flavors melded together.  As it cooled you could start to taste the different flavors. I ended up with a couple of slices left over and they passed the breakfast test with flying colors,  nearly as good cold the next day.


I took pizza home because I had to save room for dessert.  The dessert menu is not large, but huge in quality. We ordered the Sticky Toffee Pudding.  Straight from the menu: Pudding in the Scottish sense – a very moist, dense cake. Served with warm caramel sauce and freshly whipped cream.  Let me just say this, You must save room for Dessert!  I have never had whipped cream this good before, ever!  Put it all to gather and it is Wicked good.


Schlafly Bottleworks is most defiantly worth a visit.  The service is great and if you are a beer connoisseur, they have you covered, you can even tour the brewery on certain days.  They also work at being green from sourcing ingredients locally to the building they are located in (recycled supermarket that had just been sitting empty).

Highly Recommended.

Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

Pizza Works, February 2011

It was a cold rainy night and I was spending the night alone in my childhood hometown.  What better way to cheer up, than have pizza from one of my favorites.

I have to say upfront, that I have some history with Pizza Works.  As an unruly teenager, my friends and I would go there and  create a mild ruckus just about every weekend.  Oh we would eat pizza also.  Once I got to be of driving age and needed gas money I applied for a job at Pizza Works and actually got hired.  The manager that hired me didn't normally work when we had caused trouble so didn't recognize me, hence the job.  I actually worked my way up to Assistant Manager...  Believe me when I say I have eaten a lot of Pizza Works pizza, the funny thing is I loved the pizza as a youngster and when I worked there. And I still love it today.  I could just keep going on about how Pizza Works affected my life, but I have gone on long enough, on to the pizza.

I ordered a medium BJ special on the regular crust (they also have pan pizza, thicker and more bread like).  If I'm not mistaken it was named after one of the owners, Bruce Johnson.  The BJ special has pepperoni, sausage, onions, mozzarella and a liberal shake of Parmesan cheese.  There is a method to the ingredients,  if you ordered a pizza with those toppings it would look and taste different.  It's all about the proper ratio of pepperoni and sausage.  The pizza was cooked to a light golden brown on the bottom and the edges of the pepperoni just starting to get crisp.  It also had a generous amount of cheese.  It was a most excellent pizza and brought back many good memory's.

There are 3 Pizza Works restaurants, but I have only been in the Moberly, MO location, but I'm sure the other two locations are just as good.  Back when I worked there the crew in Mexico, MO thought they were the best, but I know better.  The only thing that would have made the visit better is if I was sitting in the back booth with my friends having a ruckus good time...

Highly Recommended.
Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW

The Pasta House Co. February 2011

The Junior Pizza Eater wanted toasted rav's for supper, and in St Louis just about the best place to get them is The Pasta House Company.

I have eaten at the Pasta House many times over the years, but never have I had their pizza.  There were three of us, but only one pizza eater.  We started with some cheese sticks and a order of Artichoke and Spinach Dip Con Crostini.  Of course we also had the famous Pasta House Co. special salad.

For pizza I ordered a small (12in) with pepperoni, meatballs, onions and anchovies.  Yes anchovies, I though I would mix it up a little.  The first thing I noticed when the pizza showed up at the table was how many anchovies it had, I have never see that many on a single pizza, ever.  Either they are very generous with the anchovies or they had a tin that had been opened for a while and needed to use them up or throw them out, I think the later was the case.  The pizza was typical St Louis style pizza with thin crust and provel cheese.  The pizza was fine, a few less anchovies wouldn't have hurt, but in the end St Louis style is just not my thing.

I will no doubt eat at The Pasta House Co. in the future but I'll stick to the pasta next time, the Rigatoni Alla Carbonara is my favorite.  It's called The Pasta House Co. and not the The Pizza House Co. for a reason.

If somebody else is paying.
The Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW