Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.

Whiskey and Soba 12/10/19 Whiskey and Soba 12/10/19

Wild Mushroom Agnolotti / Sidney Street Cafe

People are always like, “Spencer, you go out to eat all the time!”

The truth is: I don’t. I’m just like you—I only go out to restaurants 4 or 5 times a week.

Some nights—usually when I see Kevin Nashan’s adorable face on the ‘Gram—I’ll snag a seat at Sidney Street Café’s bar and just throw down an order of their wild mushroom agnolotti. No, it’s not too fancy for a weeknight dinner. The bar is there for a reason. No one will judge you and your jeggings—unless you don’t order the agnolotti. Then they’ll know you’re some kind of a-hole. An even more baller move would be to eat this, then walk over to Peacemaker and have even more food. They call that “The Full Spencer.” They also call it “excessive.”

Agnolotti, of course, is a pasta, typically filled with something delicious, but also sometimes something bad. But not this one! This one started out as their Pasta of the Day special nearly four years ago, and it turns out it was so special, it’s never going away. Just like me. Chef Bob Zugmaier fills a homemade pasta dough (Do I even need to say that? Does anyone reading this thing Sidney Street is buying premade pasta dough?) with a farce made from local mushroom and quark—an Eastern European fresh cheese—then finishes them in a pan with Chinese black vinegar, shirodashi, and a bit of butter. The pasta is then topped with crispy kale and pickled sour cherries.

The result is exactly why Sidney Street won a James Beard award. The pasta itself is wonderful with that creamy, earthy filling, but it's the pan sauce that makes this dish an absolute winner. Chinese black vinegar, a.k.a. black gold, is what you typically dip dumplings into. It’s the best vinegar. Go to Global Foods or Pan-Asia and buy some immediately. It serves as the sharp base, then it’s cut with the sweetness of the shirodashi, and ultimately mellowed by God’s greatest gift, butter. The dish is almost Vista Ramen-esque, straddling that line of Asian and European.

So…this pasta is good. You should eat it. Thanks for your time.

SIdneyStreet_Agnolotti (9 of 11).jpg — Wild Mushroom Agnolotti

black vinegar pan sauce, pickled sour cherries, crispy kale

Whiskey and Soba 2/6/19 Whiskey and Soba 2/6/19

brassWELL

What’s not to like about brassWELL? Gerard Craft took Brasserie’s Cinq à Sept happy hour menu and chef Joe Landis, put them in a light blue shipping container, and dropped them off at Rockwell Beer.

Now, Wednesday through Sunday, you can go to one of St. Louis’ newest breweries and drink freshly brewed beer while eating burgers, fries, and soft serve. What a life. It does get crazy crowded on the weekends, so keep that in mind—especially if you have kids in tow. Things should get a little less hectic once their huge patio is useable, but it’s winter and it’s gross out, so you’re stuck in the dining room.

The menu has its staples—beef burger, fries, chicken sandwich, veggie burger, beer brat—but you can expect specials and variations weekly, depending on what Joe is feeling. Scroll down for a menu breakdown.

Double Brasswell burger

*onions, American cheese, pickles, dijonnaise*
This is why you’re here. Brasserie’s famous burger, offered as a single, double, or bigger, if you’re an animal. It’s the perfect diner burger, and I love it.
The fries are the same ones you know and love from Brasserie and Taste, and they have a pump filled with aioli.

Fried chicken sandwich

*arugula, Crystal aioli*

Beer brat

sauerkraut, whole grain mustard

corndog

*corn, dog*
This is on the kids menu, but I refused to be shamed for eating it. It gives Peacemaker a run for its corndog money.

soft serve

Flavors change weekly, but I’ve never met a soft serve I didn’t like.

Beignets

Brasserie’s brunch beignets made their way to Brasswell, too. They’re served with whatever dipping sauce Joe feels like making—this lemon curd will be hard to top, though.

Whiskey and Soba 8/2/17 Whiskey and Soba 8/2/17

Grilled Mushrooms with Sesame

Most of my home cooking inspiration comes from meals I’ve had out at restaurants. That’s my favorite part of eating food made by talented chefs—that wow factor they manage to impart on simple ingredients.

Nate Hereford, chef of the now closed Niche restaurant, turned me on to Hen-of-the-woods (also known as maitake) mushrooms a few years back. Up until that point, I was barely ever eating mushrooms. Every recipe seemed to taste the same. He proved me wrong. So wrong. That mushroom, cooked in a chorizo-spiced butter, is still the greatest I’ve had.

It was a meal at Publico this fall that inspired the recipe below. Chef Brad Bardon grilled maitakes directly over the coals of the restaurant’s hearth, leaving the edges of the mushroom crispy and charred, but the inside tender. Bardon paired it with a spicy red chimichurri and creamy tortilla grits. I loved it, but wanted to make a less labor intensive version at home, because I’m lazy.

My version gets tahini instead of grits and a spicy red harissa instead of chimichurri. It’s simple as can be, but a welcome change to your standard sauteed mushroom dish.

The measurements aren’t precise on this—do what fits your tastes best. You can find Hen-of-the-woods/maitake mushrooms at most groceries these day. I typically buy mine at Whole Foods or one of the Asian groceries.

Grilled Mushrooms

harissa, tahini, sesame seeds

SERVES 4 OR 5 AS A SIDE

INGREDIENTS

1 lb Hen-of-the-woods (Maitake) mushrooms
Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper
Tahini (I prefer Soom)
Harissa (I prefer Mina)
Sesame Seeds
Sesame oil

METHOD

If you’re using a charcoal grill, which I prefer, get your fire started. I prefer all the coals to be on one half of the grill, so that side is extremely hot. If you’re using a gas grill, pre-heat it on high.

Pull or slice the mushroom into smaller portions, keeping the base intact. You are going to be grilling these, so you want to have something large enough that it won’t fall through the grate or burn completely. If you have a full maitake in front of you, compare to my photos.

Place the maitake wedges on a baking sheet and pour olive oil all over them, then flip them and do it again. You’re going to want to use more olive oil than you think is necessary to keep them moist; they soak it up like a sponge. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Once the grill is hot, put the mushrooms down. They only need to cook for 3-4 minutes per side. Expect flare ups because of the oil. If any threaten to char too much, move them to a less hot part of the grill.

Remove from the grill. Spoon tahini onto the plate, then put the mushrooms over. Dollop harissa on top. Drizzle with just a tiny bit of sesame oil, then finish with sesame seeds.

Spencer 9/5/16 Spencer 9/5/16

Kitchen Kulture

I can't recall if it was last winter or the winter before it when I first encountered Kitchen Kulture, but I remember it like it was yesterday: I was at the Tower Grove Winter Farmers Market, contemplating if I should attempt to eat the Rebel Roots caramel apples I had just purchased on my drive home, when I turned and saw their booth. I'd followed them on social media and seen their Sump lunch menus, but I'd never managed to actually eat their food. I wandered over and perused the menu, when chef/co-owner Mike Miller and co-owner Chris Meyer offered me a sample of their Mofu Tofu Saag Paneer. I'm pretty sure my response was something along the lines of, "Why is this so good?" I sampled everything they had to offer and left with pounds and pounds of Kitchen Kulture food. Soba noodle salad, Khao Soi curry, vinaigrettes, whatever. If they were selling it, I was buying it. Weekly Kitchen Kulture purchases became part of my life.

Flash forward to summer of 2016, and Kitchen Kulture (the restaurant is known as Kounter Kulture) has moved into the former Pint Size Bakery shop off Watson. You can still find them at the weekly TG Farmers Market, of course, but the take-out only restaurant, open Monday-Friday, 4:30-9:30pm, offers a totally different menu of food cooked to order.

If I'm passionate about any type of food, it's Asian food—a cuisine that continues to disappoint here in St. Louis. I've tried to explain it before, but there's this whole wide world of Asian food, ingredients, flavors, cooking techniques, etc. that just aren't being tapped into here. Mike Miller gets it. Seriously, no other chef in St. Louis has been able to grasp modern Asian flavors—particularly Southeast Asian and Japanese—like he has. And he's doing it using locally sourced produce.

On the lighter end of the spectrum, there are dishes like the White Peach and Pepper salad with a creamy miso vinaigrette and crunch coming from a sesame-togarashi brittle that shatters like sugary glass. The seasonal greens spring rolls, packed with rice noodles, cilantro, mint, and mango, come with a carrot-ginger sauce, and remind me of a meal I had just outside of the Angkor Wat temple complex in Cambodia.

A Mofu tofu green curry with summer vegetables and ramen noodles gives Reeds American Table a run for their money as far as authentic curry goes—a pungent curry paste, made from scratch, mixed with coconut milk, fish sauce, and all those other funky Thai flavors delivers a Muay Thai elbow to your tongue.

On the heartier side of the menu, there's a Korean BBQ chicken rice bowl that makes your Chipotle burrito bowl look like it's child-sized. Crunchy, spicy, and sweet, the bulgogi chicken combined with heirloom tomatoes, fresh avocado, and a lime-cilantro dressing doesn't disappoint.

People typically generalize Japanese food as healthy, but believe me, the Japanese love fried food just as much—if not more—than Americans. They just don't eat buckets of it. The ping-pong ball-sized shrimp and pork gyoza tossed in tsume—a sweet, seafoody sauce—are perfect. The braised beef gyudon bowl is equally delicious.

I could write a book on my love of okonomiyaki. These Japanese pancakes are tied with takoyaki (basically grenades made of pancake dough and octopus) for my favorite Japanese food. Kounter Kulture's is kind of like if an okonomiyaki knocked up a Korean jeon pancake. Or maybe a frittata. Possibly a Dutch Baby? It's basically a puffed up egg-based pancake stuffed with your choice of kimchi, bacon, squid, and/or mushrooms, then topped with a sweet bbq sauce and mayo. It will feed you for days.

But their buns...their buns are out of this world. If Kounter Kulture only sold buns, I'd still tell you it's one of my favorite places in St. Louis. Do you go for the pork with smoked onions, chile-mustard sauce, and jalapeno slaw? Or the tofu bun with sesame cabbage, homemade kewpie mayo, and Japanese BBQ sauce? It doesn't matter, as long as you also get the catfish bun.

If I make a "Top 10 Dishes of 2016" list, there's a 95% chance this will be own it. Togarashi-spiced catfish is fried until as crunchy as possible (without overcooking the fish!), then tucked into a bun with a shishito pepper and cherry tomato remoulade. This is one of those bites where if you don't like it, you're wrong.

Kounter Kulture st.louis beef gyudon bowl

Spencer 2/9/16 Spencer 2/9/16

Recipe: Beets & Mushrooms by Chef Nate Hereford

I am an obsessive watcher of Mind of a Chef, an avid reader of high-end cookbooks, and quite possibly a restaurant groupie. I'd rather sit at the Chef's Counter in a restaurant than the first row of a Cardinal's game. With that obsession comes a new addition to Whiskey And Soba: chef recipes. The best seat in town is at Niche's counter, watching executive chef Nate Hereford and his team effortlessly create edible art. Hereford's passion for continuous improvement and working with local ingredients is infectious. He's inspired me to forage for mushrooms around my yard, which has only resulted in a psychedelic experience once.

A few weeks back, after enjoying a beautiful beet dish, I told him how hard it is for me to think of vegetarian recipes outside of your typical roasted/sautéed variety—that's when it hit me. Let's have the chef of St. Louis' James Beard winning restaurant create recipes using local and seasonal ingredients to help everyone cook better.

Hereford's first dish is beets with roasted maitake mushrooms, miso yogurt, candied pecans, oregano, and a quick spruce (rosemary for the home cooks) pan sauce. It may look complicated, but any decent home cook will be able to pull this off flawlessly.

"It's January, it's cold out, I wanted something vibrant but speaking to the season. Here we have beets, a great winter ingredient that grow really well around here in winter, as well as locally cultivated maitake (Hen of the Woods) mushrooms. I thought the earthy flavors of the two things would go really well together."

Something that struck me from my first meal at Niche was the huge variation of texture in every dish. "You want texture, but you want to balance the textures in every bite. The mushrooms have one texture, the two different kinds of beets have two different textures. When I construct a dish, I want to make sure I'm really focusing on the element you’re focusing on. The pecans are going to add sweetness as well as crunch, the yogurt gives you a creaminess, and the sauce on the plate ties it all together with acid. The oregano gives a background herbal note, refreshing your palate as you eat. Typically, when we think of dishes and start to construct ideas, we try to follow that pattern. We find that it allows constant excitement when you’re eating a dish. You’re always finding new flavors, new textures, cleansing your palate."

Beets

miso yogurt, mushrooms
by Nate Hereford

Beets with Miso Yogurt, Mushrooms

YIELD: 6 | PREP: 1 HOUR | ACTIVE: 10 MINUTES | TOTAL: 1 HOUR AND 10 MINUTES

INGREDIENTS

BEETS

12 red beets
salt
canola oil

BEET SYRUP

2 C maple syrup
2 C white distilled vinegar.
2 C water

MISO YOGURT

1 C white miso
1 C greek yogurt
1/2 C whipped cream
salt

CANDIED PECANS

1 C pecans
2 egg whites
1 C sugar
salt

MUSHROOMS

Hen of the Woods mushrooms
butter
salt
fresh oregano
1 rosemary sprig
2 T white distilled vinegar

METHOD

Beets

Preheat oven to 300.

Toss beets with just enough oil to cover, salt, then wrap beets in foil. Bake until tender, checking every 30 minutes. A knife should slide in easily. It should take roughly 1 hour. Once cool enough to handle, peel the beets (gloves are advised to avoid stained hands). Once peeled, set 3 aside. Using a mandoline, thinly slice beets about 1/16 of an inch (if using a knife, do your best to cut them very thinly). Set aside.

Dice the remaining 9 beets into assorted organic shapes. Whatever your heart desires.

Beet Syrup

Combine the maple syrup and the vinegar in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Turn the heat down and slowly reduce by about 1/2. Once brought down by 1/2, add the water, stirring to combine. Slowly reduce by 1/2 again. It should taste sweet and acidic. Brush on to or spoon over larger beet chunks.

Miso Yogurt

Whip the cream with a mixer. Blend miso and yogurt until a smooth puree is formed. Place in a mixing bowl and fold in whipped cream. Season with salt to taste. Set aside.

Whipped cream is optional if you’re short on time or lazy.

Candied Pecans

Whisk eggs whites with the sugar and salt until frothy. Add in pecans. Place on a sheet tray and bake at 325, stirring every 5 minutes until done (about 30 minutes).

Mushrooms

Tear the Hen of the Woods mushrooms into chunks and roast in a hot pan with canola oil. Finish with butter, basting until butter is browned. Season with salt.

Remove mushrooms from the pan and lower heat. Add rosemary sprig to pan and briefly cook to bring out aromatics. Deglaze pan with white distilled vinegar. Pour sauce in small bowl and set aside.

Plating

Plate at your heart’s content. To do it like Nate, spoon a dollop of miso yogurt on the plate, then use the back of the spoon to make a swoosh. Place the larger beet chunks on the miso. In between the beets, place the mushroom chunks and pecans. Place oregano in 2-3 places. Lay thinly sliced beets on top, as seen below. Drizzle with the rosemary sauce to finish.

Yum

Spencer 5/14/15 Spencer 5/14/15

Priyaa

You could poke my eyes out and deafen me, then wheel me into almost any Indian restaurant in town and I could order without seeing the menu or letting anyone read it to me. One chicken korma! One saag paneer! Tikka masala, please. It seems like they're all your typical North Indian restaurant serving the same dishes with nearly the same quality and taste levels.

That's not to say the food is bad - it isn't - it's just that there is no range in quality or choices. India is huge. Go on Wikipedia and you'll see 37 types of regional Indian cuisines listed. Give me some Goan seafood dishes with their Portuguese influence. It's just like Japanese restaurants in the US: there's more to Japan's cuisine than ramen and sushi.

After eating lunch at the forgettable Chihuahua's Mexican at 270 and Dorsett, I noticed Priyaa Indian at the corner of the strip mall and got to Googling. South Indian dishes! Two days later, I was there.

I love South Indian food; there was a hawker stand I went to weekly in Singapore that served up an enormous dosa with rainbow of sides for something like $6. South Indian food is typically spicier and contains more tamarind and coconut to replace the dairy often seen in the north (paneer, cream), which is a-ok with me.

As I tout my love of the South, I order a Punjab (North Indian) entree: the Chole Bhatura. Our waitress told us it was one of her favorites and not something seen at most other restaurants in town, so we went with it. This was one delicious, spicy bowl of chickpea curry. It looks like your typical American chili, but the flavors - cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, turmeric - let you know you're not in Kansas anymore.

The dish is served with three giant bhatura, a puffed fried bread.

I let me stomach dictate my photos of the rava masala dosa. I knew they weren't great shots, but the smell was so tempting, I couldn't resist. I had to start eating.

For the unaware, a dosa is basically a gigantic crepe that is filled with a thick vegetable curry (if it has masala in the name), then folded or rolled. The rava (semolina flour) masala dosa's batter contains onions, peppers, and all sorts of spices, making every bite a flavor-filled one. It's crispy, it's comically large, and I devoured it. I went in with low expectations, but after tasting how spot on the dosa was, I wanted to try every type they make.

We had expected all of the entrees to come at the same time, but the tandoori chicken came 10-15 minutes after everything else. By that time, we'd gone through the entire dosa (see below) and most of the chickpea curry - there wasn't much room left for chicken. And, as if a dosa and the bhatura bread weren't enough, the chicken came with naan (see below again). Suffering from Celiac? Don't come here.

The chicken was standard: charred and juicy. It was good, but not an item that I'd return to Priyaa for specifically.

I wish Priyaa had more South Indian dishes on their menu, but I understand that they probably aren't their money makers - yet. If you enjoy Indian spices and want to try something different, head over and get some dosas to share. Or, better yet, get one dosa and one of their Thali, something like a sampler platter.

What's your favorite Indian restaurant in St. Louis?

Priyaa Indian Cuisine

1910 McKelvey Rd

Maryland Heights, MO 63043

314-542-6148

Spencer 3/18/15 Spencer 3/18/15

Brasserie by Niche

Maybe I'm lying to myself when I say I don't like French food. Every time I eat at Brasserie by Niche, I end up with enough food to choke a horse. As usual, it was packed on the Friday I went.

I was feeling particularly indecisive that night, so rather than make any tough decisions, I just got it all. First up were the classic Burgundy Escargot, swimming in little pools of herbs, garlic, and butter. Thinking with my tongue and not with my brain, I dove straight into these bad boys. There go the taste buds - these things were still hot as hell! Not one to be defeated by stupid little snails, our table still managed to decimate these.

Hidden away to the right are the gougeres, little poofs of cheese bread. I stand by my previous statement that Gerard Craft is the master of cheese breads.

Organ meats - liver in particular - are typically not my favorite due to their minerally flavor. However, if you think wayyyy back to my first Niche post, you'll see that I raved about a play on Peanut Butter & Jelly using chicken terrine. The Brasserie Chicken Liver Terrine is that terrine! I didn't even know! That ramekin left the table clean as a whistle.

Now onto our fourth appetizer (stop judging!), the Steak Tartare. We finished this baby off, too. The meat had a good amount of capers mixed in, giving it a nice salty punch.

Full yet? We weren't. It's entree time!

To share, we got the Moules a la Normande, mussels cooked in a broth with country ham, cider, leeks, garlic, and creme fraiche. I wasn't keen on ordering these (mussels are mussels are mussels, right?), but lo and behold, these are now my favorite mussels in town. They're smokey from the ham and sweet from the cider, giving them a different flavor profile than most places. I drank that broth like it was soup.

My main was...vegetarian? Yep, I went meatless. I picked the MASSIVE Roasted Vegetable Tart. Lentils, cauliflower puree, caramelized onions, and all sorts of other veggies were piled high and cooked spectacularly. This was my dish of the night. The different vegetables and cooking styles gave it all sorts of textures and a deep, complex flavor.

Roasted Vegetable Tart at Brasserie Niche

This is not a great shot, but it's just there to reiterate that Brasserie's roasted chicken is great.

The final entree was the Trout with fingerling potatoes, lemon, brown butter, capers, and parsley. It's a solid, healthy dish.

At this point in the evening, it felt like death was near. Clothing was tighter. Breathing was labored. I was sweating butter. I thought the evening's eating marathon was over, but Brasserie's great manager, Jen, and chef Nick Blue disagreed. Out came a chocolate mousse and the floating island. A few bites in and I passed out on the table.

Another successful meal at Brasserie completed.

Brasserie by Niche

4580 Laclede Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63108

314.454.0600

Spencer 2/19/15 Spencer 2/19/15

Mai Lee

Here we are with another edition of Whiskey & Soba goes to Mai Lee, St. Louis' best Vietnamese restaurant, and tries stuff he's never had before.

Things kicked off with a top secret off the menu item: salt and pepper frog legs. Owner Qui Tran knows my affinity for all things with their salt and pepper dipping sauce - you must try the S&P calamari, soft shell crab, and/or shrimp - so when he asked if we'd be down for S&P frog legs, the answer was a resounding yes. Don't fear the frog legs. They taste just like chicken. If I blindfolded you like we were in 50 Shades of Grey and fed you bites of chicken and frog, you'd never know the difference.

Forget about the French-influenced Vietnamese dishes - give me more of these Jewish-Vietnamese dishes! This is a Southeast Asian latke. The #50 Banh Tom Chien is made of shredded sweet potato is wrapped around shrimp then deep fried. Like most Southeast Asian fried dishes, it comes with lettuce to wrap around it. That way you can pretend it's not bad for you!

I always poll Twitter before I head to Mai Lee since everyone has different favorites. One of the more intriguing recommendations was for #145 Dau Hu Sot Ca, a vegetable and tofu stir fry served in a tomato sauce. Tomato sauce? Vietnamese restaurant? I was hesitant about ordering this, but Qui assured me it was good and, as usual, he was right. This is killer. I've never had another Asian dish with a similar sauce.

You've seen this off the menu special in previous Mai Lee posts: it's the seafood charred rice. Get it.

#121 Tom Rang Muoi is a dish that would be perfect after a long night of drinking. Shrimp are stir fried with butter, garlic, onions, and scrambled eggs. It may sound strange and may not be the prettiest dish, but it is addictive.

A friend and Mai Lee expert insisted (in the same way Tony Soprano "insisted") that I try the often overlooked Chinese menu, so I picked General Tso's Chicken. This was the last plate to arrive at the table but that didn't stop it from being swallowed up instantly. The quality is much higher than your typical American Chinese restaurant, which is to be expected, and it has these monster slices of ginger in it. I come from a long line of ginger fiends, so that definitely gave this dish some bonus points.

Mai Lee. It's the best.

Mai Lee

8396 Musick Memorial Dr

St. Louis, MO 63144

314.645.2835

Spencer 1/26/15 Spencer 1/26/15

Pizzeoli Neapolitan Pizza

I told you in my A Pizza Story post that I'd be getting to Pizzeoli next and here we are. Housed in a small Soulard space, Pizzeoli has 6 or 7 tables and a small bar, but turnover is quick thanks to the lightning speed at which pizzas cook.

Pizzeoli offers a simple menu: pizza. Yes, there's a simple side salad and gelato, but the rest of the menu is just the world's greatest food, pizza. Their oven is a Marra Forni beast that sits right in the dining room, letting you watch the whole pizza making process. The set up reminded me of The Good Pie's original space, just condensed.

This picture was taken from our table, so you can see just how close to the action you can get. Hypothetically, the pizza could have been taken out of the oven on that peel and throw directly into my mouth.

Scott Sandler at Pizzeoli in St. Louis, MO

Owner Scott Sandler manned the oven while we ate, continuously turning and moving the pizzas around for the 60 seconds or so they were in there. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a video of the whole process. For an impatient millennial like me, it's a dream come true to order something and have it come to the table 5 minutes later.

Perhaps the most important difference between Pizzeoli and St. Louis' other Neapolitan pizza shop, The Good Pie, is that Pizzeoli is vegetarian. That's right, there is no meat here. There are even a few Vegan options, which I can't remember seeing at another pizza shop in town.

We started with the Funghi, topped with crimini, shiitake, and yellow trumpet mushrooms, plus fresh mozzarella, thyme, grated parmesan and...vegan sausage. I didn't love the vegan sausage, which tasted vaguely mushroomy itself, but I didn't hate it either.

They don't skimp on the mushrooms, so if you're into them, this is a solid choice. I would get it again (without the sausage).

Yeah, this next one tasted as good as it looks. I'm getting hungry just looking at it again. Their classic Margherita gets no complaints from me. The simple combination of fresh tomato sauce, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella is unbeatable.

Margherita pizza at Pizzeoli in St. Louis, MO

Bianca Pizza at Pizzeoli in St. Louis, MO

This pizza let me get a good look at the crust and I must say, I was quite pleased. It's strong enough that you can hold it up, which may not be traditional for Neapolitan pizza (no goopy center), but that doesn't stop it from tasting good, which is what I really care about.

Our waitress emphatically recommended the Bianca, so we got that. I didn't like it.

I loved it (you got Gordon Ramsay'd!). The base is a light béchamel sauce topped with fresh mozzarella, garlic, and rosemary. When I was a youngster, I loved the more out there and creative pizzas. The kinds you see at California Pizza Kitchen. Now, as I've gotten older and wiser, I really prefer simple pizzas executed perfectly. This is one of those. I don't even normally go for white pizzas! I don't think I can resist getting this again when I go back.

Pizzeoli did not disappoint. Our waitress was super friendly and gave good recommendations, and the owner is clearly passionate about his pizza making. With a great crust and simple but high quality toppings, you're going to be getting a tasty pizza. I would add this to the upper echelon of pizza spots in this pizza-heavy town.

Pizzeoli

1928 South 12th Street

St. Louis, MO 63104

314.449.1111

Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.