Katie's Pizzeria Cafe

Earlier this summer, some coworkers and I went to lunch nearby at Katie's Pizzeria Cafe (aka Katie's Pizza).  I had been there for dinner a couple times before and really enjoyed each time, so I wanted to see what it was like for lunch.  Also, I heard how the business itself was up for sale, so I wanted to go eat there before ownership changed.

 

 

 

They had a nice lunch special where you could have a salad and a personal pizza for $14.  It even includes specialty salad (I got the Caprese Salad) and specialty pizzas (I got the Tre Amici - with Genoa Salami, Italian Sausage, Pancetta and Fontina - which is normally a $21 pizza!)

Caprese Salad

Service was pretty bad (waitress had to come back to re ask our order and she was quite slow with bringing us our food and our check), but the food was good!  Overall, I like Katie's Pizza because it is unique.  The pizza combinations on the menu are very creative, and you can tell she uses fresh ingredients.  The pizzas are also made with a true Italian style, where entire toppings are laid out on top of the pizza, as opposed to being chopped up and spread around.  If you go for dinner, I also would recommend sharing the eggplant appetizer (fried eggplant rolled and stuffed with four Italian cheeses and herbs with marinara sauces for dipping) which won me over.

 

 

Tre Amici Pizza

 

Note that Katie Lee, the namesake of Katie's Pizzeria, is starting up a new restaurant in Rock Hill called Katie's Pizza and Pasta.  It is set to open November 2013 and I can't wait to try it!

PW Pizza Contest

PW Pizza is the new pizza restaurant in the Vin De Set building, same owners but different menu. Josie and I have been here and their pizza really is very delicious. Our favorite pizza is last year's winner from this contest. That pizza was meatballs with spinach and artichokes, yum! Now it is your turn to submit a recipe for a chance to be placed on PW Pizza's menu! Here are the details:

Starting October 1st through October 31st PW Pizza will be accepting pizza recipes. Food Outreach will be hosting a Recognition Dinner at Moulin (event space in Vin De Set building) on November 17th with 200 guests. The guests will be sampling the submissions and a winner will be selected that evening.

The winning pizza will enjoy a prominent location on the PW Pizza's menu for at least 3 months and a portion of all sales from that pizza will be donated to St. Louis Food Outreach. In addition, the winner will receive a $50 gift certificate valid at one of the following: Eleven Eleven, Vin de Set, Grand Petite Market or PW Pizza.

Recipes must include the portion amount of each ingredient as well as some basic instructions of how they should be layered on the pizza. cooking time and temperature are not necessary. FYI their pizzas are 12 inch rounds. Please email entries to stacy@vindeset.com for consideration.

GOOD LUCK!

Restaurant Review: Peel Wood Fired Pizza

One night on our Staycation, Jessie and I decided we needed to get out of town, no... make that get out of the state!  We decided to take a mini road trip over to Edwardsville, Illinois to try Peel Wood Fired Pizza!  Peel has recently won Best Pizza in Sauce Magazine and we had to see what all of the fuss was about.  Peel was actually at the Sauce Soiree this year, serving sample food, but unfortunately they couldn't bring a pizza oven with them to the set up, so they went with a buffalo chicken mac n' cheese instead... definitely got my attention!

Edwardsville, Illinois

We heard that there is always a wait at Peel, so we weren't surprised when we were asked to wait 45 minutes for a table of two.  No problem, we had a beer and sat up at the bar and watched the kick off to the Notre Dame - Michigan game.  They had over 20 beers on tap, so I went with something hoppy (of course) and tried the Founders Centennial IPA from Grands Rapids Michigan.  It was good, hoppy, and not too heavy because I drank it rather fast (usually I'm really slow at drinking beer). 

We perused the menu to pick out what we'd order once we sat down, and found ourselves deciding between three yummy choices for appetizers.  We decided on the Spinach Artichoke Involtini, not really understanding what it would be like, but knowing we liked the ingredients.  We were blown away!  It turned out to be bits of pizza dough wrapped around a spinach artichoke mixture, and baked in the pizza oven.  These bite size pieces of heaven also came with three different types of dipping sauce, which really took it up a notch.  First sauce was roasted red pepper hummus (our least favorite... it was too cold to go with the warm pizza bits and lacked flavor), followed by Roasted Garlic Olive Oil (an amazingly garlicky liquid concoction that we gobbled right up), and Parmesan Creme (think of a glorified alfredo sauce for dipping... awesome!).  We ate the entire platter of apps and ended up saving the leftover garlic olive oil and Parmesan creme to dip our pizza crust in later.  Smart move by us!!!

Spinach Artichoke Involtini
Dipping Sauces (L to R) Roasted Red Pepper Hummus, Roasted Garlic Olive Oil and Parmesan Creme

We also had a three-way tie for our pizza order too, but we decided on the hot brown, which has smoked turkey, prosciutto, roma tomatoes, broccoli, mozzarella, Parmesan cream, Parmesan cheese.  I've never had a pizza with broccoli on it, and I love broccoli, so we thought we'd give it a go.  It was good, but we were pretty stuffed from the spinach artichoke appetizer that we took most of it home.  We noticed that most people in the restaurant got their own individual pizza!  We couldn't believe how they could eat so much, Jessie and I could barely split one.  I guess they didn't get the yummy appetizers ;-)

Hot Brown Pizza: Smoked turkey, prosciutto, roma tomatoes,
broccoli, mozzarella, parmesan cream, parmesan cheese

Using a pizza oven really makes a difference because the crust was really good and great for dipping in the sauces.  Next time I'd probably try the buffalo chicken pizza, because I believe that is their signature pizza.  Overall it was a really good experience and I would drive all the way back just for their appetizers!!!  When it comes to pizza though, I still think PW Pizza takes the top spot and I would rather go there.

Pizza Oven!