3137 Olive Street Saint Louis, MO 63103 (map link); (614)289-9391; http://www.thegoodpie.com/
Pizza Style: Neapolitan.
Oven type: Wood.
The Skinny: Neapolitan Pizza in St Louis.
Price: $9.50 (marinara) to $16.50 (prosciutto arugula)
Chief Pizza eater says: Highly Recommended.
The Good Pie has been on my to do list for the past couple of years, but only just recently did I manage to try it. In celebration of our 12th wedding anniversary my wife suggested I choose a pizza place for dinner, and The Good Pie was it.
The Good Pie is not your typical family pizza joint, If you want a pepperoni and bacon pizza or a sausage and mushroom pizza with a pitcher of beer you might be disappointed. As the names says, The Good Pie is a "Pizzeria Napoletana", and myself being a Neapolitan Pizza neophyte I won't try to explain what goes into using that title, but will suggest you follow the link for a better idea. I will say that the pizza's are somewhat simple in that they have few toppings and cooked at very high temperatures in a wood fired oven. The menu has only 12 pizza's, including the daily special and the only additions or substitutions allowed are the addition of Buffalo Mozzarella or a large farm fresh egg.
On our visit my wife (and part-time pizza eater) stared with the White Anchovy Panzanella from the appetizers. It has a bed of greens (arugula?), croutons, olive oil, pesto and the white anchovy's. The white anchovy's are nothing like the brown, briny bits you find at the supermarket and on most anchovy pizza's with the exception that they are both fish. Don't get me wrong I like those brown briny bits, just in moderation. The white anchovy's had a mellow taste and the dish as a whole was very good. I ordered a Caesar Salad, it had romaine lettuce, Pecorino cheese and egg. The menu states also that the dressing is made with raw eggs (just so you know). I can't describe exactly what it was but, I believe my Caesar salad was the best I have ever had. On my next visit I will add the white anchovy. If they didn't serve pizza I would still return for the Caesar salad.
We ordered 2 pizza's the first was the Funghi, with roasted mushroom, taleggio (cheese), fresh mozzarella and herbs. The second was The Good Pie with tomato, buffalo mozzarella and basil (same as the Margherita with exception of the buffalo mozzarella). I believe both pies had a drizzle of olive oil. The pizza's were about 12 inches and were served un-cut, each came with a pizza wheel. Before I get any further, I should remind you that I know little or nothing about Neapolitan pizza other than what I may have read, so... As you can see from the photo above the crust on both pizza's had a nice char. After cut, both pizza's where very limp at the tip, kind of needed to be folded back on it's self to keep the topping from falling off. The Good Pie seemed to be a bit wet, I'm not sure if it was from the buffalo mozzarella or the tomato's, but even so I was quite good. In the future I would probably order the Margherita over The Good Pie, as I suspect it was the cheese adding the extra wetness. Although the Funghi needed to be folded up it didn't appear to have the same wetness going on as The Good Pie. The Funghi with it's extra cheese and roasted mushrooms was very different experience and also very good. The end crust (cornicione) was excellent all on it's own, so much so that I wish I had ordered the pizza bianca (fresh bread) to start the meal off, next time.
Although not pictured we did get dessert, an order of salted caramel gelato. When I ordered it our waitress response was "you know it's salted right?". That may have been meant to warn us, as it had a lot of salt, really, a lot of salt. I found it a interesting combination, but one I don't think I would try again.
Over all I had a very positive visit to The Good Pie, the food and service were both very good. As I wrote this review I kept coming back to the fact that I really don't know much about Neapolitan Pizza and that I really need second point of reference, so I give my recommendation with a little bit of trepidation. So until I can find a better Neapolitan pizza in St Louis, I Highly Recommend The Good Pie. If you know of another location for Neapolitan pizza let me know I'm interested.
Highly Recommended.
Chief Pizza Eater.
GAW
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