For anybody who grew up in or spends a lot of time in New York, New Jersey or Philly, pizza is a major food group. Foldable, crunchy crusts, often eaten late at night or on the run, are a birthright.
That was Tony Biancosino’s experience and the impetus for St. Pizza in the Lower Garden District. The Philadelphia-born TV producer grew up around his grandparents’ prime rib restaurant in Tullytown, Pennsylvania, across the border from Trenton, New Jersey. It was once an old-school place that celebrated meat and mid-century abundance.
At home, Biancosino’s grandparents always made pizza, as did his mom and dad. Those square sheet-pan tomato pies without cheese were eaten hot, room temp or cold out of the fridge.
“I’ve always played around with pizza dough,” he says.
Biancosino and his wife Leslie Pariseau, a journalist, moved from New York to New Orleans in fall 2019. He had recently come to shoot a Super Bowl commercial.
“Tony said he could live here and that I could too,” Pariseau says. “There’s a point where you think, ‘Why am I spending so much money on rent?’”
They also moved to grow their family. Their daughter Olympia is a native New Orleanian.
“We were never going to do the NYC kid thing,” Biancosino says.
The couple heard about the big warehouse space at 1152 Magazine St. more than three years ago. Formerly a meat-packing warehouse and a commercial laundromat, the building had been vacant for years.
“This place had a dirt floor,” Biancosino says. “There was nothing.”
Pariseau always dreamt of having a sustainably sourced wine shop that spotlighted small producers. She wanted to offer what she calls “minimally manipulated wines,” produced by vintners who care about issues like climate change and fair labor practices.
When the space next door also opened up, the notion of a wine shop on one side and a pizzeria on the other took shape. Patron Saint Wine opened around Thanksgiving and St. Pizza followed around Carnival. At first, there was just a take-out window, but now there is a full-fledged back bar and dining room.
The wine shop is inviting, with blush pink walls lined with interesting bottles, communal tables and a long bar for sipping wine and eating cheese or pizza from next door. There’s a refrigerator case filled with sherries, cider, bubbles and wines with labels new to many local oenophiles.
The back pizza tavern has cream colored walls and wooden floors, with a long bar and a scattering of booths and tables.
Abhi Bhansali, a former marketing guy who co-founded City Greens in 2012, is a third partner in the pizza business. The creative team running the restaurant includes a French-trained chef and creatives with years of hospitality experience.
While the work rhythm in New York is much different than that in New Orleans, Biancosino leans into the differences gladly.
“That’s why we moved down here,” he says. “We aren’t just restaurant owners. I typically run a crew of 80 people on a TV show, which is way harder than running a pizza place. We treat this business with the same best practices we use in our other work. Our team is great.”
Tomato pie is, of course, on the menu, elevated with a layer of garlic confit under the house-made tomato sauce and a scattering of fresh herbs and fennel dust. Slices are offered to go, but dining in involves ordering one of a handful of 18-inch pies, notable for their sourdough crust and traditional toppings.
“We do the kind of pizza I grew up with,” Biancosino says.
Pizzas include a traditional margherita, one with thick-cut pepperoni, another with house-made fennel sausage, and a bianca topped with either fresh or regular mozzarella, Parmesan, ricotta and basil. The team recently added salads, meatballs and chicken parmesan and pasta dishes to the menu.
The dining room is open for dinner only, but the window opens for takeout at noon.
There is a full bar, a couple of martinis on the menu, and a frozen drink on tap. For dessert, there's a popular salted chocolate chip cookie and butterscotch budino.
