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The "Chestnut Street" pie is topped with olive oil, roasted garlic and mozzarella, as well as a host of vegetables, including onions, peppers, olives, tomatoes and mushrooms. | Jennifer Silverberg |
Plank Road Pizza
5212 Highway N, Cottleville; 636-477-6154)
11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tues.-Thurs,
11 a.m.-9 p.m. Fri.-Sat.,
10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sun. (Closed Mon.)
Pass the Chesterfield Valley outlet malls and cross the Boone Bridge, and you'll find yourself at a fork off the Highway 94 exit ramp. If you turn left, you'll be amongst the rolling hills of Missouri wine country. A right turn looks like it takes you into beige suburban terrain without much beyond the Bed & Bath. But duck down a small side street headed north and the landscape turns from subdivisions to historic downtown Cottleville, a quaint strip of genuine, old-timey storefronts, poised to become the Edwardsville of St. Charles County.
The oldest standing building in Cottleville houses Plank Road Pizza, a recent addition to the city's burgeoning dining scene (the acclaimed Stone Soup Cottage, one of the metropolitan area's top restaurants, is located down the road). Named for the old Western Plank Road -- once literally made from wooden planks -- that connected St. Charles and Cottleville, the restaurant serves American-style, wood-fired pies reminiscent of an independent California Pizza Kitchen. Owner Andrew Brewer was taken by the 1840s-era building, originally envisioning it as an ice cream parlor, and eventually settling on pizza as a better year-round concept. He bought the building, did some remodeling, planted a garden and fired up the oven.
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