St. Louis Style Pizza

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Quick Bite

St. Louis Style Pizza is a thin, cracker-crisp pizza topped with sweet tomato sauce and gooey Provel cheese, then cut into squares. It is divisive, distinctive, and deeply loved by the people who grew up on it.

History

St. Louis style pizza developed in the city’s Italian-American food culture, especially around neighborhood taverns, pizzerias, and family restaurants. Its defining traits are a very thin crust, square “party cut” slices, sweet tomato sauce, and Provel cheese.

Provel is the ingredient that makes the style unmistakably St. Louis. The processed cheese blend is made from provolone, Swiss, and cheddar, and it melts into a creamy, stretchy, almost sauce-like layer. People either adore it or spend years trying to understand it.

Imo’s Pizza helped make the style famous across the region. The company began in St. Louis in the 1960s and became the best-known ambassador of the city’s square-cut, Provel-topped pizza.

A great St. Louis pizza is crisp enough to snap, thin enough to eat several squares without noticing, and covered edge-to-edge with toppings. It is not New York pizza, not Chicago pizza, and not trying to be either.

Fun Facts

• St. Louis pizza is usually cut into squares, not triangles.
• The crust is often described as cracker-like.
• Provel cheese is the love-it-or-question-it heart of the style.

Where to Try

Imo’s Pizza St. Louis and Missouri locations
The most famous St. Louis-style pizza chain and the easiest place to understand the Provel-and-square-cut experience.

Pirrone’s Pizzeria Florissant and St. Peters, Missouri
A longtime St. Louis-area favorite for thin crust, Provel, and classic local pizza.

Faraci Pizza St. Louis area, Missouri
A family-run St. Louis pizza name known for thin-crust local-style pies.

About the Game

This recipe is part of Van Life Challenge, a travel-themed board game from Gray Dog Games where players explore the United States, discover regional foods, and collect memorable experiences along the way.

Each featured food celebrates a real place, a local flavor, and the kind of delicious roadside discovery that makes every trip feel like an adventure.

Recipe

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Home-Cook-Friendly St. Louis Style Pizza Makes: 2 thin pizzas Prep: 20 minutes Cook: 10–12 minutes Difficulty: Easy Style: St. Louis / Missouri Thin-Crust Pizza

Ingredients

For the crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ cup water, plus more as needed

For the pizza

• 1 cup pizza sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional for sweeter St. Louis-style sauce
• 2 cups shredded Provel cheese, or a blend of provolone, Swiss, and white cheddar
• ½ pound Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled, optional
• Pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, or green peppers, optional
• Dried oregano

Instructions

1. Heat the oven: Heat the oven to 475°F. Place a pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven.
2. Mix the dry ingredients: In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. Make the dough: Add olive oil and water. Mix into a firm dough, adding a little more water if needed.
4. Divide: Divide the dough in half.
5. Roll thin: Roll each half very thin on a floured surface.
6. Sweeten the sauce: Mix pizza sauce with sugar if you want a sweeter St. Louis-style sauce.
7. Sauce: Spread sauce thinly over each crust.
8. Add cheese: Add Provel or the cheese blend.
9. Add toppings: Add toppings and a pinch of oregano.
10. Bake: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the crust is crisp and the cheese is melted.
11. Cut: Cut into squares.

Traditional note: To make it more traditional, skip yeast in the crust, roll it very thin, use Provel cheese, keep the sauce slightly sweet, and cut the pizza into squares.

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