Eugene’s Pizza vs. Imo’s Pizza

Growing up in Glasgow, Montana, I had the privilege of  regularly consuming some of the best pizza on the entire planet.  This pizza is served by a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant (located in the “Big G Shopping Center”) called Eugene’s Pizza.  Eugene’s Pizza does not take reservations, and on certain nights you may have to wait for an extended amount of time to seat yourself at a recently departed table.

You almost never sit at a clean table at Eugene’s; you sit at a dirty table and wait for a waitress to come clean the table for you.  The waitress then takes your order and you wait… and you wait… and you wait for your order.  The cool thing is, as a kid (or a kid at heart), you can watch the entire pizza-making process if you can muster the courage to go stand in front of the counter.  You can watch the dough go through this cool flattening machine, and then you can watch a highly-trained pizza-tossing professional twirl the thinning disc of gluten higher and higher into the air.  If the dough doesn’t actually hit the vaulted (probably 15 foot) ceiling, the dough isn’t thin enough.  There are usually cobwebs encrusted in flour near the point on the ceiling where the dough makes contact, but this never seems like a big deal.

Eugene's Pizza,Glasgow,MT,Best Pizza Ever! St. Louis style pizza,thin-crust pizza

Crap, if there was a spider in my Eugene’s Pizza, I probably wouldn’t care, because the pizza is that good.

After the dough is tossed, they bring the paper-thin masterpiece to the counter and slather it with a tomato-based sauce.  The other toppings follow… and what most clings to my memory are the sheets of mozzarella cheese.  This isn’t a handful of shredded cheese sprinkled on top of the pizza; rather, a solid foundation of sheeted mozzarella is laid under the building blocks of flavor that will soon be exploding in your mouth.  Honestly, I didn’t know pizza was made any other way until some point beyond my youth where I came to the conclusion that some pizza-makers cheated with faster-melting shredded cheese.  There is no “faster” with a Eugene’s Pizza.  From the counter, the pizza makes it’s way into a true pizza oven, where it spends what seems like an eternity.  This ain’t fast food, and you can tell by the taste of the finished product!  Cracker-like crust that bursts upon impact with the teeth, stringy mozzarella in every bite, a world class sauce that is reproduced by no imitator, and enough toppings to satisfy the largest hunger.  I always figured that Eugene’s was one of the best thin crust pizzas  in the world.

After leaving Glasgow (’cause pizza alone cannot retain a soul yearning for satisfaction… there has to be jobs), I discovered that the style of pizza that Eugene’s served was unique.  I couldn’t find anything like it anywhere I went.  So, I did a little Internet research at some point that led me to believe that Eugene’s served St. Louis style pizza.  Yeah, I know, St. Louis style pizza in Glasgow, MT… seems like a stretch.  So I did a little research on St. Louis style pizza.  What I found out is: there isn’t a lot of information on St. Louis style pizza.

Although the info on St. Louis style pizza is limited, I did find some.   St. Louis style pizza is made on a cracker-thin crust, is cut into 3″ or 4″ squares (instead of the traditional pie-type cutting), often uses (but does not require) Provel cheese, and is either loved or detested by most people who try it.

Eugene’s cuts its pizzas into the squares found in a traditional St. Louis pizza, and the cracker-thin crust of Eugene’s Pizza is one of it’s greatest features.  The major difference I could find between traditional St. Louis style pizza and Eugene’s Pizza is the cheese.

Provel,Imo's,Eugene's Pizza

Provel cheese is a blend of cheddar, swiss and provolone cheese.  But Provel isn’t just a blend… Provel is a processed cheese food (think Velveeta).  Provel cheese originated in St. Louis in around 1947 (Wikipedia) for use in the St. Louis pizza market.  If you have never heard of Provel cheese, well, that’s because you probably aren’t from around the St. Louis area.  The world outside of St. Louis knows little about Provel cheese.  Why?  Well, if a pizza place started using Velveeta on it’s pizza, the average pizza connoisseur who most likely run the opposite direction.  In St. Louie, they run for it?!?

Mozzarella is real cheese.  In fact, mozzarella is the traditional cheese used in modern-era pizza-making.  And, when a pizza joint forgoes the now-common shredded cheese in favor of large slices on cheese; well, said joint is going to serve a superior pizza! At least these were my thoughts having never tried Imo’s Pizza.

Well, recently, I had the opportunity to visit St. Louis. I didn’t see the Arch, I didn’t hear any live Blues, I didn’t catch a Cardinals game… but I made sure I tried an Imo’s Pizza. It had been so long since I had good thin crust pizza of the Eugene’s caliber that I was extremely excited! I had grown up eating a copy of Imo’s, right? Now I was going to get to try the original! After all, Imo’s claims to be “The Original St. Louis Style Pizza!”

I ordered the pizza from my hotel room and anxiously awaited the call announcing the delivery dude had arrived. When the call came in, I sprinted to the lobby and grabbed the wonderful-smelling treat.

Imo's Pizza,St Louis style pizza

I rushed back to my room, mouth watering, and threw the box open! The pizza that rested before me looked quite similar to the Eugene’s that I missed so dearly; square cut pieces, cracker-thin crust, loaded with toppings…

Imo's Pizza,St Louis style pizza

As I slid a piece between my lips and snapped into the crust, a wave of nostalgia swept over me. That was some good pizza. In fact… believe it or not… Imo’s is… is… almost as good as Eugene’s Pizza!  Imo’s just didn’t have the zing of Eugene’s.  Although I liked the smoky flavor of the Provel cheese, the stringy-chewy-deliciousness of Eugene’s mozzarella just can’t be touched by a processed cheese food.  Eugene’s is KING!

You know what I really found interesting?  If you notice on the box from Imo’s, the “Original St Louis Style Pizza” has been around since 1964.  If you check out Eugene’s website (from which you can order these pieces of art to your own home anywhere is the continental USA), you will notice that Eugene’s was established in Glasgow, MT in 1962?!?  My research had led me to believe that Eugene’s copied Imo’s… but it looks like Eugene’s was in business before Imo’s!  Maybe Imo’s isn’t the original St Louis style pizza… maybe Eugene’s is the original Glasgow, MT style pizza… and maybe, just maybe, Imo’s copied Eugene’s 🙂   YEAH… Glasgow, MT may be famous for a pizza style… it just has the wrong name!!!