A new pizza joint quietly opened yesterday near the corner of Hanley Road and Dale Avenue in Richmond Heights. Motor Town Pizza (8029 Dale), from Simon and Angelica Lusky of Revel Kitchen fame, takes its name from the handful of signature Detroit-style pizzas on its one-page menu. Also on offer are salads, grinders, sides, and desserts.
Situated at The Crossings at Richmond Heights, the 1,500-square-foot, fast-casual restaurant seats 26, plus an additional 10 on the patio. When placing orders, guests are issued Tonka-style cars to mark their table, just one of many whimsical thematic touches. “Simon is very, very creative,” Angelca says of her husband. “I just help him execute—we’re a good team.”
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Here’s what to know before you go.
The Menu
Known for its crunchy, almost caramelized crust, Detroit-style pizza is available at only a handful of establishments in St. Louis. As such, it’s among the most unrepresented styles of pizza in the city.
Historically, Detroit-style pizzas were baked in rectangular steel trays designed for use as automotive drip pans, though most are now cooked in thick-gauge, anodized aluminum pans made by Lloyd. “It’s the Lodge pan of the aluminum world,” co-owner Simon Lusky says of the “indestructible pans that can easily outlive the pizza parlor.”
Motor Town sells small (8-by-10-inch) and large (14-by-11-inch) rectangular pizzas and has a gluten-free crust and vegan cheese available. “We have so many health-conscious clients at Revel that we wanted to be health-conscious here as well,” Angelica says. “Plus, we’d been slowly building that market at the ghost kitchen.”
In addition, Motor Town offers hand-tossed, round pizzas in 10-and 14-inch sizes. “Selling a new style is great, we thought,” says Angelica, “but it was so easy to add a more traditional style that we thought why not?”
The doughs for the respective pizzas are different, though. “Thin versus a thicker crust—they almost have to be,” says Angelica. The pizzas are thematically named after movies and car models. Some are easy to decipher (especially those complemented by photos and graphics on the walls), while others may require a cell-phone search. In all, there are 10 stock pizza options, or guests can build their own Henry Ford–style pie, choosing from 18 toppings and five cheeses.
It’s no surprise that the 12-inch grinder sandwiches get run through the car showroom as well. Check out the Lambo (Italian meats and cheeses), the V-Ate (veggies and goat cheese), the Weinermobile (roasted salsiccia), and the Buffalo Benz (hot and crispy fried chicken). All are served on a freshly baked hoagie loaf that’s been auto-piloted through a conveyor oven at the proper speed.
The automotive test drive extends to Motor Town’s four salads: Kale Mobile, Chop Shop, Nuts & Bolts, and Chevy Caprice (a clever take on the tomato/basil/mozz Caprese salad). But it stops short at the side dishes (where the pole sitter is Simon’s dry-rubbed, smoked, flash-fried chicken wings) and dessert (where options include a Nutella gooey butter cake and an 8-by-8-inch, scratch-made chocolate chip cookie cake that’s baked Detroit-style).
As soon as the proper licensing is approved, the restaurant will serve full and half bottles of wine, a handful of canned wines, and canned beer. Guests may pick-up, dine-in, or order for delivery via a third party app.
The Backstory
In 2015, Simon and Angelica opened the flagship Revel Kitchen (8388 Musick Memorial) in Brentwood, where the restaurant quickly became known for its locally sourced, reasonably priced, healthy meals. A location inside TruFusion in Clayton followed, as well as another location in Kirkwood in 2021. In November, the Luskys opened a location in Boca Raton, and they plan to open another St. Louis location next month in a former Jack in the Box in Maplewood.
Prior to the building boom, however, the pandemic partially derailed expansion plans. Anxious to recoup some lost income from temporarily closing the dining room at Revel Kitchen and the facility at TruFusion (which had closed temporarily), the Luskys pondered adding a ghost kitchen at Revel. The concept needed to dovetail into the existing kitchen equipment, its product needed to travel well, and, ideally, the offerings should satisfy an untapped niche. The decision was to offer deep-dish, Detroit-style pizza. Motor Town Pizza was born.
The concept took off, and “after four years, it was time to expand, plain and simple,” Angelica says, “especially since Revel was already so busy. We already had a following in Brentwood, so when a space in a high-traffic center opened up nearby, we signed on.”
The Crossings at Richmond Heights is home to five other food service operations: Red Robin, Firehouse Subs, Starbucks, the relocated King & I, and the third metro area location of Drake’s Come Play, which opened earlier this week.
