There are only two things you need to know about PaPPo’s: pizza and beer. Sure, the new place that took over the spot formerly occupied by Six Row Brewing near Saint Louis University has sandwiches, as well as a handful of Italian-American dishes and salads. But those are whatever the Italian word for lagniappe is. This place is focused on house-specialty pies and house-brewed suds.
If you do want a salad, heck, you can even get one on a pizza: A riff on Caesar dressing serves as the sauce for a chicken Caesar pizza, topped with diced chicken breast, mozzarella, roasted garlic, lettuce, and Parmesan. You can even upgrade with anchovies and argue whether it’s an “authentic” salad over a few brews.
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Speaking of brews, there are plenty of choices. The draft list comprises 15 of PaPPo’s own (two of them made creamy by nitrogen propulsion), as well as four guest beers and a guest cider. In general, PaPPo’s approach to beer is nothing if not bold. I enjoyed the Fat Ash (Nitro) Stout, its unmistakable cinnamon flavor amplified by a smooth head. The added flavors in every augmented beer we tried were tangible: cherry in the Monks Communion, a Belgian strong ale; hazelnut in the aptly named Hazelnutty, an imperial brown ale; and different shades of orange in the Tropical Tripel City, brewed with coriander, and the Blood Orange IPA, whose supplement should be self-evident. There’s even a white-peppercorn saison called City Farmer. Flights of four small glasses are also available.
Of the pizzas, we tried the white (roasted chicken, fresh basil, roasted whole garlic, fontina, and mozzarella on a white sauce base) and Sicilian (classic red sauce pizza topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, Italian sausage, capicola, salami, banana peppers, and red onions). The chicken on the white pizza was slightly dry, but the basil and garlic flavors popped. The Sicilian was spot-on, visually vibrant thanks to the peppers and onions and boasting vibrant flavors from the veggies and four meats.
We tried several non-pizza items, though none as noteworthy as the pies. The sirloin club was sufficiently stuffed with thin slices of meat and melted Provolone, and the house salad was a reasonable facsimile of the Italian salad served at dozens of restaurants around town (although it wasn’t as drenched in dressing as seems to be the norm).
Even the smallest pizza is filling enough that we had leftovers, so dessert seemed a stretch. Nonetheless, the deep-dish brown-butter chocolate chip cookie is worth the effort.
This is the third PaPPo’s location, following the original in Springfield, Missouri, and another at Lake of the Ozarks. When you’re jonesing for a pizza and beer, it’s pretty cool to get both of them made within sight of your table.
