A sneak peek at Noto Italian Restaurant in St. Peters

×

Expand

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Bufalina pizza, a classic Margherita-style pie with Bufalina mozzarella from Italy

The last time a couple moved their unusual flatbread operation from a truck to a brick-and-mortar restaurant, the lines stretched out the door. Following in the tire tracks of Balkan Treat Box is Noto Italian Restaurant. The proprietors are Wayne Sieve and Kendele Noto Sieve, whose love for Neapolitan pizza begat a pizza trailer with a bona fide domed oven, which begat a bona fide Italian restaurant in the former J. Noto Bakery, a family business. The eat-dessert-first crowd will opt for Kendele’s filled-to-order cannoli, or the bombolini, filled with pistachio cream. Old World touches include 24-month-aged Prosciutto di Parma, as well as such rarities as imported capocollo and DOP cheeses; even the sea salt comes from Sicily. Noto’s meatballs are wood fire–roasted, all of the pastas are homemade, and the pomodoro soup is garnished with hearth bread dumplings. The Sieves crave Italian authenticity, be it in Positano or St. Peters, where Noto happens to be, so its beverage list is rife with aperitif-based cocktails and riffs on digestifs. The pizzas adhere to strict Neapolitan specs, so expect 11-inch pies to emerge from a 1,000-degree Italian-made oven in 90 seconds marked with telltale char bubbles (a.k.a. leoparding). Behind the oven is a wall of distressed planks antiqued in gray tones, striations repeated at the bar and in the Carrara-esque tabletops. Subdued smoke-gray wallpaper evokes a birch forest in winter, echoing the 65-seater’s wood-fired heart. The Sieves deserve props for taking a culinary leap in St. Charles County. Raise a limoncello spritz in their honor.