A Pizza Story is coming to the busy strip on Manchester Road in downtown Maplewood, and doors may open by early December. A Pizza Story is a venture by Sherif Nasser, Muhammad Alhawagri and Nael Saad. According to Nasser, he and Alhawagri had bounced around the idea of opening a pizzeria for years. While the trio of owners is not Italian, Alhawagri, who will leave his post as a lab biologist at Washington University to run A Pizza Story, is “passionate about eating,” said Nasser. On a recent trip to Italy, Alhawagri went “from pizza place to pizza place,” eating and chatting with pizzaioli about pizza-making, explained Nasser. “He has been perfecting his pizza recipe for the last few years,” continued Nasser. “He approaches it like a lab.”
A Pizza Story will specialize in wood-fired Neopolitan pizza. Other menu items will include rotating pasta dishes (always with a vegetarian and meat or seafood options), Italian appetizers and salads. In addition, noted Nasser, he and his partners are in discussion with a pastry chef to prepare a selection of Italian desserts. A Pizza Story also will have a bar; it has already been approved for a liquor license.
When renovations to transform the former typewriter shop into a pizza joint are complete, the restaurant will seat up to 70 patrons, plus additional sidewalk seating during warm weather.
This article appears in September 2013.