New Kids on the Block
Six or seven years ago, when I used to give a damn about having a waistline, I used to work out with a personal trainer who thought pizza was the worst possible thing any human could ingest. “It’s baked fat!” she screamed. Well, I suppose it is, but every once in a while I absolutely crave it, cholesterol be damned.
When I do succumb to the siren call of the pizza oven, I shamelessly go for the most decadent pie imaginable. At the two-week-old Pizza 51, located in a former service station at 5060 Oak Street, the Cowtown Lover’s Pizza is heaped with pepperoni, sausage, tiny beef meatballs and Canadian bacon. And lots and lots of cheese. It was so good that I could have finished it in a single sitting if I hadn’t accidentally ordered (and eaten) the garlic-and-mozzarella breadsticks, a Caesar salad and a pepperoni calzone.
The place was opened on a budget by young couple Jason and Shannon Pryor, who shrewdly noted that the location was within walking distance of UMKC and Rockhurst. It wasn’t as if they had no money; they actually bought the old garage, had three trucks of concrete poured inside to level the floors, and installed new plumbing and electrical work. The place looks great — and it’s usually crawling with students.
Now they need to spend a little more money. Plastic forks and knives are fine for a pizza joint, but not the cheapest plastic knives, which can barely saw through baked pizza dough. Upgrade the flatware, I say, and actually train the dazed and confused college kids who work the counter; the night I was there, I felt like I was dealing with Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend a lot of dough for excellent pizza and salads. Only one of Pizza 51’s dressings is house-made — chef Scott Dutra‘s slightly sweet, creamy green-herb vinaigrette — but it’s very good. The place serves pizza until 11 p.m. on weekends, and the patio is a great people-watching spot, night or day.
Another new business, located about 35 blocks north, is Phoenix Catering, created by four former employees of the now-defunct Joe D’s on 39th Street. Before that ill-fated joint even closed, manager Jim Nimmo, chef James Shake, pastry chef Scott Compton and sous chef Juana Lopez had left to start their own company.
“We’re having a lot of fun,” says Nimmo, who has given his crew the creative freedom to make anything. Even pizza.
