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The Bonci pizza with thinly sliced roasted eggplant, garlic chili oil and parsley is a standout in a lineup of pizzas that bring Naples to St. Louis. | MABEL SUEN
[REVIEW]
The Moon Hits the Eye St. Louis’ Pizzeria Da Gloria serves up the best Neapolitan pizzas this side of Naples Written by
CHERYL BAEHR Pizzeria Da Gloria 2024 Marconi Avenue, 314-390-2836. Wed.Thurs. 4-8 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun. noon-8 p.m. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.)
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f the many vibrant characters along Joe Kurowski’s pizza-making journey, none are as vivid as Baffo. A 50-year-old Neapolitan piz-
RIVERFRONT TIMES
zaiolo nicknamed for his prominent mustache, Baffo made dough every morning at Italy’s famed Pizzeria Dal Presidente, refusing to measure anything and calculating the mixing time by his cigarette breaks. He was an absolute genius. Kurowski found himself working alongside this mustachioed gent after landing in Naples for a friend’s wedding. Having left the practice of law a short time prior, Kurowski was sure that he wanted to become a professional pizzaiolo, so he set out to Brooklyn and the famed wood-fired pi eria, Fornino. There, he got an adequate education in dough-making that he used to beg his way into Pizzeria Dal Presidente’s kitchen. For a month, he worked with Baffo, learning to make pizza by feeling rather than a recipe and soaking in the energy that defines the quintessential Neapolitan pizzeria. It was a foundational experience that would define his idea of what he wanted to create in a
MARCH 24-30, 2021
riverfronttimes.com
pizzeria of his own one day. Kurowski carried his experiences at Pizzeria Dal Presidente with him back to New York, where he worked for Danny Meyer’s pizza restaurant, Marta, and eventually Rad Times Pizza, the roving pizza brand that did festivals across the country. He did some consulting, too, all the while never letting go of his vision to create a Neapolitan-inspired pizzeria back in St. Louis. He would regularly travel between his hometown St. Louis and New York in search of a location, but when he wasn’t having any luck, he decided to move back home so he could dedicate himself fully to locating a spot. After searching around town, he found a storefront on the Hill and began construction on what was to become Pizzeria Da Gloria. While doing the buildout on the restaurant, Kurowski intended to do a series of pop-ups out of his house for research and development purposes. That series turned
out to be a single event when the pandemic turned all of his plans on their head. Forced to rethink his business model, Kurowski threw himself fully into getting the restaurant and his recipes ready for takeout business, finally opening the doors to Pizzeria Da Gloria in late November of last year. When Kurowski tells people that he had to change his business model to accommodate the takeout-focused pandemic, they often do a double-take. Pizza, after all, is the quintessential carryout and delivery food, rivaled only by whiteand-red-boxed American-style Chinese food for at-home dining dominance. However, as Kurowski explains, traditional Neapolitan pies are meant to be eaten straight out of the wood-fired oven. The crust is chewy and char-blistered; the interior surface is so thin and bubbling hot you eat it with a knife and fork. Served fresh from Continued on pg 20
