Readers: Put Velveeta on a Townhouse cracker, and you have St. Louis-style pizza

Arch Pizza Co. just opened its third St. Louis-style pizza restaurant in five months -- and the latest incarnation, at 10101 East Hampden Avenue, is the largest store yet. "The community support and feedback has been extremely valuable, and we're excited to bring a different take on pizza to Colorado,"...

By Patricia Calhoun

March 10, 2014

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Arch Pizza Co. just opened its third St. Louis-style pizza restaurant in five months -- and the latest incarnation, at 10101 East Hampden Avenue, is the largest store yet. "The community support and feedback has been extremely valuable, and we're excited to bring a different take on pizza to Colorado," says owner Marc Dak. "We hope that people from St. Louis feel like they've gone home when they taste Arch Pizza, but we also hope that people who have never tried St. Louis-style pizza feel they've discovered a wonderful alternative to the pizza they know. We're different. We know it. And we couldn't be more thankful to our fellow Coloradans for trying us out!"

Even if they don't have much nice to say after they do.... See also: Arch Pizza will open its third St. Louis-style pie hole

For example, here's the response from Denise:

Whoa. St Louis style pie? The pizza made of a large cracker crust topped with a processed provolone that sticks to your teeth? I can't imagine that would catch on outside of St Louis, and possibly east Illinois.

And Tonya:

Being a MO native, this is sad representation of the original St. Louis style pizza. Provel is a processed combination of Swiss and Provolone cheeses. It is a yeast free crust which is why it's cracker thin. Other than sharing those common characteristics, Arch Pizza's preparation isn't even close...and it's definitely more expensive in Denver. Surely it can't be that expensive to import cheese from St. Louis!! Very disappointed!!

And Matthew

Not good pizza, thin like a cracker and the cheese tastes like plastic. Put Velveeta on a Townhouse cracker and you get the same thing.

Have you tried St. Louis-style pizza since Arch Pizza opened in Denver? What did you think?

Read more comments here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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