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@bogusrogus: Good point regarding the bread. I still the cheese issue is relevant, but you're definitely right to point out that people not particularly concerned with making bread would have trouble producing a quality crust.

@foolishpoolish: I'm with you on saag paneer pizza 100%. In fact, it was thinking of that that stopped me from condemning all of Asia. And back to my cheese point and bogusrogus's bread point - neither of those apply to India, a country that does use cheese and puts out nan, a classic flatbread.

@finewinendine: Thanks for the editing help. I've fixed the text to reflect my original sentence. I must have messed up cutting and pasting in the editing process.

@Lyra Ngalia and esseelig: I feel bad writing a place off after one visit so I'll have to give the chicken satay pizza a try next time I'm in U City. Could be a while before that happens though.

Okay, lifelong U. City resident and former WU student here -- I can settle a few of the questions. For the "space that formerly ______" question, Thai Pizza Co. is in the space that formerly held another Prapaisilapa Thai restaurant, Thai Seafood Cafe.

As for introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as I look at the website, I think that it's the phrasing that's key here, since they don't explicitly say that they had the first Thai restaurant in St. Louis. I know for a fact that there was a good but short-lived Thai restaurant also in the U. City area called Thai Town on Olive Blvd. in the eighties. With the longevity of the Prapaisilapa restaurants though, it probably is fair to say that Thai Cafe and Thai Country Cafe have probably been more successful at introducing Thai food to St. Louis, as they were pretty much contemporary with the Loop's escalation in popularity. I would imagine that The King & I on South Grand has probably been around since the '80s (or maybe even '70s?) as well.

I've been to Thai Pizza numerous times since it opened, and my findings have pretty much been this: next to falafel wraps from Al-Tarboush, the pizzas from here were always one of the best food deals in the Loop (I think that the 9" pizzas used to be either $6 or $7, but pretty much every restaurant has raised their prices in the last 2 years). The thin crusts always seemed pretty filling, so to get the thick crust was basically total overkill (and yes, since their crusts are lacking for flavor a bit, it's usually best to stick to the thin).

I enjoy Thai curries quite a bit, but every time that I've tried a curry pizza from here, the curry flavor does get lost between the crust and the cheese combo. On the other hand, as a few people mention above, their chicken satay pizza has never let me down, always quite flavorful.

Incidentally, for all cultural fusion pizza superfans, I just had some really good gyro/tzatziki pizza in St. Louis from Anthonino's, a Greek/Italian restaurant on the Hill.

Oh, Adam, is your mom old enough to have been in the same jr. high 1962 home ec class that I was in? (I lived in Upper Michigan then.) We learned how to make pizza spirals, kind of like the muffins above but meatless, flat and baked on cookie sheets. I wish I still had the recipe.

Thanks, Adam, for passing along this cool idea. It does indeed look like it would be a fun project.

I take it from your title that you don't think it would be a pizza an adult would like--too much bread, perhaps?

When I was a kid, I loved going to the Organ Grinder in Greenfield whenever we'd visit relatives in Milwaukee. I was driving up hwy 100 not too long ago and was surprised to see it still there.

This sounds like a bit of alternative gimmick to the ragtime, banjo-playing, player piano entertainment that Shakey's introduced. I'm becoming fascinated now, and wish I had been to one. Like Adam, I'll have to see if the one in Greenfield still exists the next time I'm up in Wisconsin.

@Aidylc The organ at Roaring '20's came from Paramount Pizza in Indy. I've always wanted to go there to see\hear it again. Lots of fond memories from when I was a kid seeing Sammy Terry and Cowboy Bob there and of course, hearing Star Wars.

I recently drove by the old Organ Grinder in Portland. It closed over a decade ago but the weird '70s northwest-style facade still remains. It's where we used to go with Girl Scouts before Chuck E. Cheese existed.

Wow -my favorite thing in the world when I was a child in the 70s.
At Har Mar mall in St. Paul MN was Cicero's. The organ player was a blind guy named George Summers, and I've still got the vinyl of his performances.
The walls were lined with the pipes, and drums and every sort of zany percussion, horn and whistle he controlled from the keyboard.

I'm kicking myself for not researching this sooner. I'm floored that there's one in Greenfield, Wisconsin, not more than 20 minutes from my aunt's house. I was just there in March and could have stopped in. Next time ... next time. Though I better make it quick. These places are going fast, and I'm afraid may go even faster with the crap economy now.

If only my wife would wear this, I could be the perfect reviewer!

alberto
thanks for yourkind remarks
my earliest memory of pizza eating was in the mid 50s in brooklyn at a husband and wife place called mr pizza
the box said you tried the rest now try tohe best
they were immigrants who spoke with an accent but they were super nice to us rough kids.
the husband had one thumb missing which intrigued us
but the love and sweetness and craft they was in every slice forged a life long memory.
as an aside our parents took us every sunday a very nice chinese dinner but he was kind enough and never got mad at us when we asked for a slice of mr pizza as a second dessert
the only codicil was that we had to eat the whole slice which we always did
if you read the comments in the ledger re pizza patrol i am the one who always has something nice to say, bad pizza hurts me and we are dealing with people's life and livihood
forza pizza

Have to concur with Paulie G and those who feel the crust is the key...Its ez to pick tasty toppings off a lousy crust but whats the point of ordering pizza then? As Pepe Miele of the VPN and Antica Pizza in LA has told me..the crust is like the foundation of a house and who in their right mind would buy live in a house with a weak foundation. Amen!