F
orty-five seconds into a minute-long plank, as your trainer counts down the time and your sweat pools under your face, you remember why you’re really working out. So you can eat more pizza. This is the last day, you tell yourself, the third of three breakfast-lunch-dinner-snack pizzathons. You and your colleagues are taking on slice after pie after slab, tasting the familiar along with the new. You’re wondering how Savannah, Georgia, sneaked onto Travel + Leisure’s “Best Cities for Pizza” list two spots ahead of Kansas City. (We’re No. 10.) You’re thinking you need to eat a lot of salad for the rest of your life. Together you’re trying to eat all the pizza in the metro, and together you’re experiencing the same symptoms of what’s now a full-on bender. First there was bliss (pizza all the time!). Then disbelief (more? I just flossed!). Today: a nagging shortness of breath and the occasional blackout. It’s worth it. Because you’ve found proof of what you always knew: In Kansas City, you’re never farther than a mile or two from a good pizza. Sometimes, in fact, you’re a short walk from a great pizza, a pizza that defies the usual taxonomy — is this New York-style? St. Louis? Why doesn’t anyone around here do Providence? — and establishes its own identity. There’s no KC-style pizza in Savannah, and that’s fine. We’ve got all the KC-style pizza right here. (All of it except the one that got away, the one we figure you’ll tell us about.)
ALL THE
PIZZA? THREE DAYS, 58 PIZZA PLACES, ENDLESS LOVE. KEY By the slice Delivery Price
$
Green = Yes | Red = No
All Star Pizza & Pub
6100 Northwest 63rd Terrace, 816-587-6000, allstarpizzaandpub.com
The Art of Pizza
1801 Baltimore, 816-421-1888, theartofpizzakc.com
$$ Amore? Craft-beer and pizza lovers’ refuge in
the Northland Signature pie: The Dot.com Special — a weekly selection from creations suggested on the restaurant’s website Noteworthy deal: A salad and mini pizza with two toppings for $7 (11 a.m.–2 p.m. Monday– Friday) Toppings: Bait (white anchovies), sweet-pepperpesto and roasted-garlic-butter sauces, grilled squash, avocado and sun-dried tomatoes. All Star’s bar is inviting, running the length of the restaurant, beneath a ceiling filled with upside-down umbrellas from sports teams. Go for the beer list — 31 taps plus another 10 that will be installed soon — but you’ll be ordering pizzas after seeing them come out of the kitchen. The pub pizza is closer to flatbread, with the Thai Pie (a homemade peanut sauce and red-chili chicken) and the Shrimpy (grilled shrimp and chorizo in a jalapeño cream sauce) regularly appearing on plates. The classic pizza has housemade red sauce and a fair bit of grease, but it grows on you after another round.
$$ Amore? For Art of Pizza fans, a long wait never
Signature pie: The Windy City is the only pizza
on the menu.
Noteworthy deal: Plan your pie around whatever beer special is available that day.
Toppings: Meat is a smart choice for the sake
matters.
of structural integrity.
pepperoni, sausage, ham and ground beef, is not for the faint of artery. Noteworthy deal: All-you-can-eat pasta on Mondays for $5.95 Toppings: Feta is as exotic as Art gets. This Crossroads pie joint is home to tortured pizza-maker Victor Almo, whose pies reflect his mood swings. When Almo is content, his pizza lives up to the claims that this is the city’s best New York–style version. Other days, an order of crackling garlic knots is best. Roll the dice with a $12 carryout special on Fridays (order between 4 and 6 p.m. every week except First Fridays).
Chicago-style pizza is on few local menus and is done well by even fewer restaurants. The crust on the version at Barley’s, light brown and tantalizingly flaky around the top, suggests that someone in the kitchen here knows the basics. But the heavy, chunky sauce and the pie’s inner architecture stray from what a purist demands without compensating with strong flavors. On the other hand, you can drink a lot of beer — good beer, given that this is Barley’s — in the 40 minutes it takes to bake one of these bastards, by which time this pizza is about cushioning. And claiming to be a purist about Chicago pizza in a KC bar is a dick move anyway.
Barley’s Brewhaus
Bella Napoli
Signature pie: The Meataholic, topped with
11924 West 119th Street, Overland Park, 913-663-4099 16649 Midland Drive, Shawnee, 913-268-5160, barleysbrewhaus.com
$$$ Amore? People come for the beer first and the pizza … not quite first.
6229 Brookside Boulevard, 816-444-5041, kcbellanapoli.com
$$ Amore? A taste of Rome in Brookside Signature pie: The Giovanni (sausage, onion, peppers, tomato and mozzarella)
Noteworthy deal: 10-inch pies for $5 on Monday nights Toppings: Great selection of Italy-centric cured meats Part café, part grocery, part classy restaurant, Bella Napoli is one of those quiet, easy-to-miss Brookside spots that makes the neighborhood a coveted place to live. The authentic Italian sandwiches are the star menu items, but the pizza is a close second. The crust is chewy (in a good way), and the mozzarella is always fresh. (The recipe and all ingredients for the dough are imported from Italy, the menu notes.)
Blue Grotto
6324 Brookside Plaza, 816-361-3473, bluegrottobrookside.com
$$$ Amore? Progressive wood-fired pies Signature pie: Quattro Formaggio (bubbling
ricotta, asiago, aged gouda, goat cheese, extravirgin olive oil) Noteworthy deal: Half-price 8-inch pizzas 3–6 p.m. weekdays Toppings: Hard to beat the lamb sausage.
There’s a pepperoni pizza on Blue Grotto’s menu, but it’s the type continued on page 8
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