Spinelli's St. Matthew's- Soft Opening This Weekend

The pizza gets bigger... St. Matthew's Spinelli's is open for takeout and delivery this weekend during a soft opening... Good Luck!

We went late last night and DeeDee, who runs the cash register, said both Friday and Saturday were busy! The slice was nice...!

[Robin Garr]

Was there any discussion as to why it took them about as long to get this one open as it took them to get the one at Goose Creek open?

Did not really ask...they are remodeling the main dining room with the usual Spinelli style.

We picked up a pie to go from there last night.

As is our habit with new pizza places, we had a sausage and mushroom pie. The dough is of the floppy thin variety, with a wide, two inch crust on the outside. the plain crust was nice and spongy, not hard. The sauce was tasty, if a bit on the sweet side for my taste. The sausage was good as well, with a couple of large chunks on each slice, along with a few crumbles under the cheese layer. The mushrooms were nicely fresh.

Overall, we both liked this pizza, though my sweetie thought the crust could have been a little thicker, and we both like a little more spicy sauce. Bottom line for us is that we'd definitely go back again, especially since they're the closest pizza joint to our home.

You can buy pizza whole or by the slice. The only whole pie size they offer is 18", which leaves us enough for that very important next day leftover slice or three. Their prices trend towards the median of what most indie shops charge for what you get: $15 for cheese and $2 for each additional ingredient. With tax and title our pie came out to $20 and change. They also offer some appetizers, cold and hot sandwiches, including Philly cheese steaks (wit or witout), and stromboli.

They're open 11 a.m to 5 a.m. currently for pick up or delivery only, which should be a boon for the late bar and early breakfast crowd. The phone is 895-0755, and I think they have one of them facetwitlink pages.

One thing that's very curious is the sudden proliferation of pizza within a mile or two of the St. Matthews Hardware Store.

Here's a list of places I know of, in no particular order

• Spinelli's
• Impellizzeri's
• Boombozz
• DiOrio's
• Papa John's
• Domino
• Naked Pizza

On top of that you have the soon to be open Coal, along with more traditional restaurants that have pizza on their menus like Cafe LouLou and BBC.

It kind of makes you wonder what the saturation point is, and if they'll all survive. I wish them all the best.

I think Cafe Lou Lou's pizza gets overlooked a lot, because they have such a great eclectic menu. They also deliver from both locations. They have a proper conveyor pizza oven, a lot of toppings to choose from (artichokes, smoked sausage, goat cheese...) They make their own pizza sauce, and their own dough from scratch.

And where else can you have pizza delivered along with Wild Bill's Cajun Cheese or a Blue Cheese Polenta with roasted red pepper sauce?

Is there a 'proper' conveyor oven? The proliferation of the fast-moving conveyors over the past two decades have ruined the chain pizzas. They simply are not hot enough to work the required magic on the cheese and dough. Pizza Hut limits their pizzas to five toppings because the oven can't cook more than that.

I saw a rather large conveyor at the Jtown Bearno's, but they still finished the pie in a flat oven.

Is there a 'proper' conveyor oven? The proliferation of the fast-moving conveyors over the past two decades have ruined the chain pizzas.

It's not just chains, unfortunately it is many pizza shops that have succumb to the fantasy of conveyor ovens!

Is there a 'proper' conveyor oven? The proliferation of the fast-moving conveyors over the past two decades have ruined the chain pizzas.

It's not just chains, unfortunately it is many pizza shops that have succumb to the fantasy of conveyor ovens!

I have no complaint with Cafe Lou Lou's conveyor oven pizza.

1. Cafe Lou Lou's pizza / calzone is delicious... I enjoy their eclectic variety and the hot brown pizza is awesome.

2. If you aren't using a wood fired oven / super hot oven, a conveyor oven seems like a perfect way to make pizza. Easy to do other things while the pizza cooks, and not really different from a standard gas oven.

I meant "proper" in the sense of "rather than a range oven". Conveyor ovens are great for consistency, speed and even cooking. (Danny Mac's has a conveyor oven, too.) We can't all have wood fired/coal fired ovens!

My first job was at Mr. Gatti's and it took real skills to keep 12-14 pizzas from burning in those super hot ovens. This is more than nostalgia, though. That wonderful 'orange oil' which I encountered at Diorio's is not coming out of a conveyor. And yes, this equipment makes perfect sense for ease of use. So much so that Pizza Hut changed their signature product to conform to the technology. Thirty years ago Pizza Hut was the best sit-down restaurant in many Kentucky towns. Now it is one step from a drive-thru and Mr. Gatti's is a playground.
Anyway, I applaud anyone who is maintaining real pizza above the lowest common denominator, and I enjoyed Cafe Lou Lou's pie the last time I was there. I'm just thrilled with all of the new entrants into the 'authentic' category.

[Robin Garr]

Here's a list of places I know of, in no particular order

• Spinelli's
• Impellizzeri's
• Boombozz
• DiOrio's
• Papa John's
• Domino
• Naked Pizza

On top of that you have the soon to be open Coal, along with more traditional restaurants that have pizza on their menus like Cafe LouLou and BBC.

It kind of makes you wonder what the saturation point is, and if they'll all survive. I wish them all the best.

It's my considered opinion that this is a direct outgrowth of St. Matthews' booming recent development as a nightspot/watering hole zone, which is a thing of beauty insofar as it takes the community back to its roots as Gilman's Corner, a notorious saloon that operated in the early 1800s at what was then known as Five Points. It was only after the Civil War that the city fathers decided their growing community was better named after a local church. Of course, they did pick a damn fine one.

[It's my considered opinion that this is a direct outgrowth of St. Matthews' booming recent development as a nightspot/watering hole zone,

I do not want to take away from the topic, but here lately I have been hearing some major crackdown on watering hole zone patrons when driving in St. Matthews.
I do not want to open a can of worms about drunk driving on this forum but be careful out there folks.

[Robin Garr]

I do not want to take away from the topic, but here lately I have been hearing some major crackdown on watering hole zone patrons when driving in St. Matthews.
I do not want to open a can of worms about drunk driving on this forum but be careful out there folks.

Yeah, there have been a couple of alerts posted on the forum in recent months, Alan. I don't mind discussing the issue, frankly, and can see a couple of sides to it. Drunk driving is very bad, yes; on the other hand, roadblocks have a repressive feel that makes me antsy, and I'd personally rather see them reserved as pretty much a last resort when a serious problem exists. I can't say I've heard anything about a rising tide of drinks-related carnage around St. Matthews, but maybe I have my head in the sand.

From my vantage point, the problem would not necessarily where the alcohol is consumed, but rather as the intoxicants make their way to their next stop. This may be a preventative measure due to the increase in drinking establishments and their popularity. In my experience, a lot of alcohol related incidents (I absolutely refuse to call them "accidents") are quite a distance from the last ingestion.