Charred Crust will open in downtown Clayton

Charred Crust will bring the dough to the fire as a brick-oven pizzeria this month at 105 S. Meramec Ave., in Clayton, in the former home of Uptown Café.

Co-owners and chefs Andrew Simon and James Flemming jumped at the opportunity to open a restaurant in the business district of Clayton for the busy lunch rush.

“If you look when you come out here at lunch time, the place is just crawling with patrons and customers looking for a great bite to eat at a fair price and a reasonable time,” Simon said.

The restaurant will serve sourdough-crust pizzas, as well as house-made linguini and gnocchi, salads, sandwiches and soups. Simon said they also plan to live up to their name Charred Crust.

“We’re going to incorporate the charring method for the flavor profiles for most things, so if you have a sandwich it could be a charred aioli, a charred baguette or anywhere from sauce for garlic pizza or our house sauce with charred tomatoes with the fresh tomatoes from Tony White’s Family Farms in St. Louis,” Simon said.

The concept will be a fast-paced with quick service for the lunch crowd. “Our goal is to provide quality and the love of food in a faster pace, so you don’t have to wait that hour-and-a-half to have a great meal and have a great experience,” Simon said.

Charred Crust is expected to open their doors to the public the third week of June.

Darian Stevenson is an editorial intern at Sauce Magazine.