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A pizza called Space Opera ($15) soars: smoked salmon, ricotta, red onion, salt cured capers & fresh dill.
2 of 4
Yes, they do get this big: giant rings of calamari, so big they resemble onion rings.
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No connection to Michael Jackson, the Thriller ($15) is topped with spanish chorizo, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and oregano
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Bomboloni with a key element: an orange-flavored syrup for dipping.
Sometimes I forget there are certain things that some people need to hear over and over. One of them is that there are lots of different ways to make pizza. The stuff that appeared in college dorms is not the only kind of pizza out there, and to go to a pizza place expecting what you've had before is, frequently these days, to set oneself up for a surprise.
There's a certain irony in the fact that across the street from A Pizza Story is a franchise pizza spot. You've probably gathered that I'm going to say that APS pizza is not the mass-produced stuff. It's Neapolitan style, the soft, thin crust with charred bubbles on the edge, one size, maybe 11 inches across. The double storefront on Manchester Avenue in Maplewood is simple, casual enough to be family-friendly and yet showing some style.
The menu, too, is pretty simple, a few pizzas, a couple of pastas, some salads and a couple of desserts. And the calamari. Let us not forget the calamari.
Why? Because they're pretty amazing. Forget the little leg-tassels you've had. As shown in the photo, these fellows are as big as onion rings. Twice as interesting, though. Part of it is that they're more tender than the rubber-band-y texture those tassels have. The other charm is their seasoned breading, slightly peppery, notes of garlic and perhaps onion, very satisfying. The puttanesca sauce with them is tasty but superfluous. One visit, the daily special was a caprese salad, tomato and mozzarella with just a touch of balsamic vinegar. Nothing innovative, certainly, but tasty despite the use of Roma tomatoes, which are not among the most flavorful of the breed.
The pizzas begin with the basic margarita, tomato, mozzarella and tomato sauce. Three of the six pizzas are vegetarian, by the way, and this is a kitchen that likes eggplant a lot, at least at this time of year. The Thriller adds oregano and Spanish chorizo to that. Spanish chorizo differs from its Mexican cousin in that it's rather like salami, a cured sausage that's sliced before its served. It's a spicy, less greasy change from pepperoni, and it worked wonderfully as a pizza topping.
A Space Opera - no, I don't know the exact origins of the name - was a take on the classic smoked salmon pizza from Wolfgang Puck. No caviar here, and ricotta instead of creme fraiche, topped with slivers of red onion, fronds of fresh dill and some salt-cured capers. A note to non-fanciers of capers: Their counterpoint of tartness and a little salt are perfect punctuation marks in the paragraph of the pizza. Tasty hot, equally good at room temperature, too.
Yes, dessert, tiramisu and housemade gelato, for instance, and bomboloni, often described as Italian doughnuts. Not quite - they're made here with the pizza dough, a little larger than shooter marbles, deep-fried, of course. They're chewy, a little sweet from the swoosh of powdered sugar across them and served with a light syrup flavored with orange. The syrup is what saves this from being an unremarkable dish, its almost flower-like orange flavor givng a smile to the dish.
Pleasant, attentive service, at table and bar, lots of different sorts of diners. Don't dress up.
A Pizza Story
7278 Manchester
Maplewood
314-899-0011
Lunch & Dinner Tues - Sun
Pizzas: $12-$16
SLM contributor Ann Lemons Pollack also takes readers on journeys--culinary and otherwise--in her blog, St. Louis Eats and Drinks.
