Il Vicino

Pizza club is always looking for ways to help out the community by eating pizza, so when we found out that Il Vicino in Clayton was giving proceeds to local non-profit College Bound on a single night in February we were enthusiastic.

Il Vicino serves individual sized pizzas (about 12 inches) that comes as close to real Italian pizza as I've seen in St. Louis. They use the right ingredients and cook in a big hot oven in the middle of the room. This is the only pizzeria in the US that I've seen serve the olio piccante(spicy olive oil) that I fell in love with in Italy and used to flavor the pizza crust at the end of the meal.

At Il Vicino I recommend that you stick with simple pizzas. Try the pepperoni, margherita, or salsiccia and enjoy the fine flavors that come from each of the pure and simple ingredients. Personally, I think they have one of the finest pepperoni pizzas in St. Louis and it is near perfect every time. Several other members of Pizza club got the vegetarian calzone and were not impressed, and this just reinforces the idea that a simple pizza is best.

In the end, Il Vicino has delicious and earnest pizza at a reasonable price.

Note: Il Vicino means "The neighbor" and is pronounced ill-vih-chee-no.

La Pizza

La Pizza is an unassuming little pizzeria on Delmar not far from 170. You might pass it by even if you're looking for it, and your whole party might not be able to fit at one table inside. None of this matters because La Pizza has a truly top notch New York style pizza. The Pizza Club meeting at La Pizza was one of the most successful meetings ever because all of us were just plain overjoyed by the delicious pizza and delightful surroundings. We dominated the entire seating area on a Sunday evening and the owner was even nice enough to stay open a little later than usual to accommodate us.

The pizza was fantastic. Everyone agreed on every pizza. The crust is thick and fluffy while the middle is thin and greasy. These are the makings of a perfect pizza. This is the kind of place that doesn't make a bad pizza.

Go see for yourself.

Domino's Pizza: New Recipe

It has long been known that Domino's pizza is awful. So when Pizza Club heard that Domino's was attempting to revive their fallen status in the pizza-world with a new recipe, we decided we must try it. Pizza Club got out their coupons and sat down on January 14 to decide whether this new recipe suited their taste buds or not. As we dined on 4 pizzas, we posed two questions for discussion: (i) Is the new recipe better than the old one? (ii) Is Domino's now worth a damn?

We concluded that (i) YES the new recipe is an improvement, and that (ii) YEAH while it's not the finest pizza in the world, the new Domino's is pretty darn good for home delivery style pizza.

The new recipe seems to include three main changes: crust, sauce, and cheese. The new crust is quite an improvement in that it actually tastes like pizza crust whereas it previously seemed like substitute pizza crust food product. However, now there is some herb mix (Parmesan, oregano, garlic, etc) that is used heavily on the crust that I could do without. The new sauce has a nice sweetness to it, and the cheese is much improved. I seem to recall the old Domino's having a very salty flavor, but this was not a problem with the new recipe.

Of the four pizzas we tried (cheese, pepperoni, red pepper & onion, pepperoni & jalapeno), the pepperoni and the roasted red pepper & onion were the most successful. The plain cheese fell flat compared to the others, and the jalapeno & pepperoni was pretty good, although it proved to be the least popular among Pizza Club members.

In conclusion, Pizza Club decided that the new Domino's is now close to the quality of Papa John's. Take that for what it's worth.