St. Louis, MOPizza

On Marconi Avenue in The Hill, the kitchen uses a dedicated pizza oven. Order the cheeseless pie with thinly sliced roasted eggplant, garlic-chili oil and parsley.

This bakery makes pizza crust with the delicacy and char of a Neapolitan pie at a New York pie's size and texture. Six varieties run from pepperoni to the Foxglove with cheese and mushrooms. Add the side of marinara, smeared on the crust and topped with soffrito and Grana Padano.

The Olive + Oak team opened this Lockwood Avenue pizzeria in its former restaurant space. Executive chef Mike Risk built crisp, charred thin-crust pizzas around a new oven. Order the O+O Original with tomato sauce, Fior di Latte and pecorino, or build one with Ezzo pepperoni, pistachio pesto and hot honey.

Katie Lee Collier runs this Rock Hill osteria, whose interior carries Ted Collier's paintings. Its Giveback Tuesdays program has raised thousands for charities around the metro. Wood-fired pizzas use ingredients such as Salume Beddu pepperoni salami, pear, figs and prawns.

This small Soulard pizzeria opened in 2014 and fires charred, pliable Neapolitan pies in a 900-degree wood oven. A later owner kept the meatless menu and added meat pies, tallow-fried wings, appetizers and desserts. The candlelit room has stained glass and jazz; an online waitlist helps with limited seating. Order a pie and a negroni.