Melo’s Pizza, the five-year old pizzeria operated by Joey Valenza, son of Blues City Deli owner Vince Valenza, closed this week. A Facebook post announced Monday that “because of staffing issues and other factors,” the pizzeria would be ceasing operations for the moment.
The pizzeria (which took its name from Valenza’s grandfather, Carmelo “Melo” Valenza) was a bit of an anomaly from the start. The tiny space at 2438 McNair in Benton Park was intimate and charming, with a scatter of seats and a side patio. The original pizza offerings, including a limited selection of Neapolitan-style pies cooked in a 5,500-pound, wood-burning Italian oven, were delicious. The hours were always limited, though—the pizzeria was open Wednesday through Saturday only, a combination of days and nights, partially a result of Joey wanting to spend some quality time with his five children.
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In 2021, dine-in seating was eliminated to accommodate an additional oven—a traditional deck oven—which allowed Melo’s to offer a slower-cooking, thin and crispy, more St. Louis–style pizza, the intent being to broaden its market. A third pizza option, a hybrid, was first cooked in the deck oven and then finished in the wood oven.
Then, this June, Melo’s shifted to a daytime-only model, serving slices, whole pies, and homemade Italian ice from 10:30 a.m.–3 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. At the time, Joey told SLM it was a lifestyle decision that would better accommodate staff and complement the deli. With the restaurants sharing the same hours, he and his father hoped to put more emphasis on the connection.
But late last week, the restaurant lost two-full time employees and a part-timer. The staff was already thin, according to Vince, so the decision was made to close Melo’s and use the pizzeria space to concentrate on wood-fired, frozen pizzas, which customers will soon be able to pick up at Blues City Deli.
“Business is as strong as ever there,” Vince says. “It’ll be a lot of the same customers and then some.
“Developing Melo’s frozen pizza market was always our intent anyway,” Vince adds. “We didn’t want to close [the restaurant] to do that, but we had no choice. We hope to eventually revisit a pizzeria when we can staff a pizzeria.”
