Even more than fried chicken, there are probably never enough pizza places in St. Louis. One of the newest is ‘ZZA Pizza + Salad, the new baby of the Pi Pizzeria family. Located northeast of Washington University at the corner of Skinker and Pershing, it’s a long, well-windowed room with very spare, modern décor. (That means it’s noisy, but surely no one expects a quiet restaurant that close to a university.)
The menu is simple, just what the name implies. All pizzas and all salads are $9, and the salads are lunch entree size. Orders are taken at the back of the restaurant, drinks chosen from a cooler case or self-serve iced tea or soft drinks (cane sugar-sweetened from Blue Sky). The food’s brought to the table.
About half the salads are vegetarian; the rest have chicken breast or there’s an option for a poke bowl with ahi tuna. Avo goddess brought good fresh greens, including romaine, plus avocado, of course, and jicama, grape tomatoes, crumbled tortilla chips and a few shreds of jalapeno. The creamy goddess dressing wasn’t as green as its namesake, and lacked the tarragon often associated with it, but did quite well overall. The ‘ZZA’lafel salad brought small pieces of kale with romaine, cucumber chunks, the occasional sliver of red onion and crumble of feta, and a dollop of hummus. A couple of rather dry felafel were broken in half and studded the top, the yogurt-mint dressing not enough to redeem the dryness.
Pizzas , like the room, are long and narrow. This is a St. Louis-thin crust, stretched out carefully, and not soggy on the bottom. The edges blister and char slightly, anathema to some but in the Italian tradition quite acceptable. The Marg, as ‘ZZA calls their margherita pizza – always a good place to start pizza exploration, just like vanilla ice cream is the first step in ice cream evaluation – sports fresh mozzarella rounds, and fresh basil leaves, a drizzle of olive oil and, interestingly, a sprinkle of coarse salt flakes. It’s very primal, the way a margherita should be. The only surprise to me was that the tomato sauce was as sweet as it was. The salt was random, so not every bite had it, showing what salt can do. And the added little crunch of the flakes was fun, too.
Lots of vegetables, of course, on the Garden City pizza, so many they almost completely hide the tomato sauce. Smoked gouda joins the mozzarella (shredded, not the fresh stuff), and there are slices of those tiny Dutch sweet peppers, yellow grape tomatoes, a few scallion slices and some crimini mushrooms. Surprisingly tasty, even to a meat-lover.
Several pizza restaurants in Washington State swear that Thai pizza is their best seller. So maybe it isn’t just a fad perpetrated on us by California Pizza Kitchen. ‘ZZA calls theirs Thai Dye. The chunks of chicken breast are large, the peanut sauce is nicely spicy, there’s cilantro, garlic bits and sesame seeds strewn over it, along with more of the little Dutch peppers. This stuff could be addictive, especially for the diner who really isn’t into more traditional forms of pizza.
Lots of boxes for transferring leftovers, which is nice, near where your dishes and other discards go. They also do carryout orders – literally. They’ll carry them out to your car if you preorder and phone them when you’re outside. Parking is on the street or on a lot to the east of the building, which is lined with parking meters – which demand to be fed 24/7 per the signs on the lot. I suspect this isn’t municipal, but Washington University, who owns the building. Put the money in the meters. It’s quite a scavenger hunt to pay a parking ticket to the WashU campus police. Save it; I’m not telling you how I know.
‘ZZA Pizza + Salads
282 N. Skinker Blvd
314-696-8585
Lunch and dinner daily
Credit cards: Yes