I love all sorts of pizza, and lately these "artisan" pizza places have been popping up everywhere like Katie's in Rock Hill which we visited not too long ago. Yet another one has opened up nearby and we decided to visit it on Sunday evening. It is called "A Pizza Story" and it is located on Manchester in Maplewood near all the other restaurants in downtown Maplewood. We parked in the big lot between Sutton and Marshall, and I had mistakenly thought it was on that block, but it is actually east of Marshall across from the Domino's Pizza. Arriving on Sunday evening it was pretty empty, and we were seated at a table by the window, probably so people walking by could tell they were open and serving!
The menu was small and we decided to sample three pizzas among the four of us and my wife and mother-in-law also split the pear salad. The salad arrived quickly and it was pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. The vinaigrette dressing did not have much flavor. The waiter did the split the salad for the two of them and he did a very good job serving us (he also looked strikingly like a younger Kevin Costner.)
The pizzas arrived in a short time later. We had ordered a margherita, a fantasy and a thriller. I tried the fantasy first which featured prosciutto ham and arugula. The prosciutto ham tasted good on the pizza, but it was hard to bite through and I kept pulling it off the pizza. The arugula just keep falling off the pizza so I had to pick it up and eat it separately. The crust was good, though, with a nice wood fire taste to it. The thriller was actually just a fancy name for a pepperoni pizza. The crust was again good, but the toppings just seemed like a typical pepperoni pizza. My son complained he would rather have a Domino's pizza from across the street, especially when noting the premium price "A Pizza Story" charged for their pies compared to Domino's. I did appreciate their much more appealing crust and having a real ambiance, but I did think the price premium was a bit steep (as it was at Katy's.) My wife and mother-in-law had been sharing the margherita pizza and offered me the last piece of it which I tried to complete my comparison. Once again the crust was very good and flavorful, but the toppings were nothing exceptional. For a small $12 pizza with not much on it, I was expecting a bit more.
All in all, " A Pizza Story" served up a reasonably good "artisan" style wood fire baked pizza, but there seem to be too many of these places popping up serving up the same old, overpriced pizzas. I am surprised that the Twin Oaks in Brentwood is still surviving, as well as the original Katie's on Clayton and the now new one in Rock Hill. Is there room in mid-county for so many, expensive wood fired pizza places? We shall see.
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