A second wave of St. Louis-inspired pizzas is hitting Schnucks’ and Dierbergs’ markets: On Jan. 23, Lucia’s Pizza and 4 Hands Brewing Co. introduced new additions to the line of frozen favorites. The new flavors were all created in conjunction with local restaurants, and include an Indian-inspired chicken tikka masala pizza with Rasoi, a Greek-inspired Gyro pizza with Michael’s Bar and Grill and a cheeseburger-inspired pizza with Hi-Pointe Drive-In.
How does Lucia’s select potential partners? “We pick iconic restaurants well-known by community, and then we sit down with them and determine what dish they serve that they are known for and would translate to a pizza,” Lucia’s president Scott Ashby says. “We try to come up with a product that is representative of the restaurant and representative of the quality of the restaurant that we can produce on a large scale in the factory.”
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To bring these collaborations to life, Lucia’s crafts samples modeled after a favorite off the restaurant’s menu, which are reviewed by the restaurant to determine how closely they represent the original. Sometimes, Ashby says it only takes one round; other times, it takes several attempts to land on a product that truly feels like the restaurant. Once that happens, it’s off to the factory to create the pizzas that eventually make their way into freezers across St. Louis.
The crust for Lucia’s 4 Hands Brewing Co. line uses pent grain created during 4 Hands’ brewing process. The new offerings will feature a naan dough for the chicken tikka masala flavor, a grain crust for the gyro flavor and a brewery crust for the cheeseburger flavor. Past collaborations have included partnerships with Sugarfire BBQ, Mission Taco Joint, Old Vienna and Lion’s Choice, which featured a French fry crust. “4 Hands is not a cheese, pepperoni and sausage product: Everything we do has to be something that’s not in the market currently,” Ashby says. “Everything we’ve done up to this point have been products you don’t find in a market every day.”
4 Hands will offer samples of the new flavors on Saturday, Jan. 28 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its LaSalle Park tasting room. “We grew up eating Mama Lucia’s pizza, and felt like it would be a fun project to work on,” Kevin Lemp, 4 Hands owner and founder, said in a press release. “Now that we have proven the concept, we wanted to take this full circle and bring in some local brands we all love.”
4 Hands Brewing Co., 1220 S. 8th St., LaSalle Park, St. Louis, Missouri, 314-346-1559, 4handsbrewery.com
Lucia’s Pizza Manufacturing, 10989 Gravois Industrial Ct., Sunset Hills, Missouri, 314-843-2553, luciaspizza.com