Black Thorn Pub

Just moved here from Chicago and have been craving good pizza! This place came highly recommended as true Chicago style. The crust was super bland and the pizza was fine but far from Chicago style. On the hunt for decent pizza here in St. Louis…

Tried this place for second time. First time pizza was great. 2^nd time pizza was way over cooked and the bartender said «next time you come in tell them to take $ 5 off, per me.» Wow, bad customer service, how about acknowledge the issue and discount my current purchase since you messed up THIS visits order.

Great staff. Good food. Air hockey table right next to bar has to go! Unbelievably annoying.

I am so torn on how many stars to give this place… If it was based on just the pizza, I would give it 5. I’ll start by saying that their Chicago Style is definitely not for everyone. There is a TON of cheese and the sauce has a lot of what I’m assuming is oregano (which I love) so I can see how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I personally love their pizza but it’s definitely something I would only eat once in awhile because it is SO filling. Like I ate it for dinner last night and it’s now lunchtime the next day and I’m still full… I wasn’t even able to finish two slices after running a freaking marathon.
The reason I only gave Black Thorn 3 stars is because of the service and wait time. I’ve never physically eaten there but every time I’ve called, the person answering the phone has been pretty rude. It’s gotten to the point where I dread calling the order in. And I get that the insanely long wait time is kind of Black Thorn’s «thing» but cmon now… Last night we ordered at exactly 5 o’clock on the dot when they opened and still waited an hour and a half. That is INSANE. I’m assuming unless people put their orders in a day in advance, our order is one of the first they had upon opening. I literally can’t conceive of one reason why it would take one pizza an hour and a half to cook… I worked at a small (but very busy) pizza place in Chicago that only had myself and two other employees working at a time and we would get deep dishes out in 40 minutes MAX. It wouldn’t even take an hour and a half on Super Bowl Sunday, so I don’t know what their excuse is. When my husband went in to pick it up last night, he said that people were being told two hours and were calling to cancel their orders. Long story short: I get it, your pizza is good… But what’s the hold up?!

The wait is absolutely the worst. I went into this fully understanding that, so I did not let that impact my perception. I called in a pickup order and was told one hour 45 minutes. I showed up almost exactly one hour 45 minutes later. When I arrived I was told it would be 20 more minutes, so I asked for a drink and watched football.
This is a dive bar. I appreciate that, not everyone does. Writing on the wall, dollar bills nailed to the wall and ceiling, overall messy layout, rough looking patrons, etc. There are a few TVs and some games (Pac Man, shuffle board). I went on a Sunday evening and it was not very crowded, although traffic in and out picking up pizzas was heavy.
When 20 minutes had passed, I asked if it was ready and I was told about ten more minutes. 15 minutes later, my name was announced on the PA. I swear this pizza was upwards of ten pounds. I ate two pieces, barely, before I was stuffed. It is loaded with cheese; any more would be too much. The crust is amazing and seems house made from scratch. The toppings were loaded and fresh. The sausage had a lot of flavor. The sauce was very light, I might order it with extra sauce in the future, but had a lot of Italian herb flavor. For $ 30 (14 inch with unlimited toppings), this is really a lot of food. I count myself a big fan.

The pizza is fine. It’s nothing to write home about, but pizza is usually good no matter where you go. The service is not good. You have to go up to the bar to order food and drinks. When I went there was one bartender slowly pouring beer while taking orders for people at the same time. This might be fine if the place isn’t busy, but it was about 7:30 on a Thursday and the line was taking about 20 – 25 minutes alone. And then the pizza takes like an hour to get.

We came here because of some of the great reviews of this place. The pizza was good but there was some kind of spice in the marinara sauce, I think, that ruined it for both of us. It might have been oregano or something else. I think this is a good place to try once and check it out but I doubt we will ever repeat it… I will go with 3 stars, taking into consideration the cleanliness of the place as well…

This should be a 2.5 rating. Here is the good, the bad, the ugly and the LDF (low, down foo)
The Good– great Chicago style crust, nice cheese in there.
The Bad– the sauce? Burgundy color with tons and tons of oregano. Makes you gage its so much!
The Ugly– did I mention the massive amassing amount of oregano? That’s all it’s taste like. Had to wipe it all off to taste anything else on the pizza.
LDF– get rid of that sauce!!! OMG we at foodies and this sauce is bad… just say no.

A Great dive bar!!! With amazing pizza! Come on and galaga video game, shuffle board and air hockey, and pinball what else do we need oh yeah a full bar! Please take note… If we could bring descent wine into your bar u would get 5 stars… U could make $ on corkage… ??? Please??? Your wine is tragic!!! Say yes to the wine!!!

If you think Blackthorn is in a sketchy/​ghetto area of StL, you need to get out more. Unbelievable! I’m certain anyone making comments like that in their reviews are not city dwellers. Location is fine. Residential area of Tower Grove South.
Anyway — Blackthorn is divey as hell, takes freaking forever to get your pizza. Like, forever forever. We used to call in orders right when we started playing Ultimate, which usually took two hours. It probably won’t blow your mind, but it is delicious and a unique take on Chicago style deep dish.

I have not had the pleasure of trying their pizza yet, so I will save my extra star for that.
That being said, I’ve really enjoyed Black Thorn — if only as a pub. Good service and a very diverse crowd. Plus, they have a solid selection of beers — both macro and micro — at affordable prices.
They accept credit cards, using Square — so it’s a really nice, easy transaction process.
I’m all in. Now to just try some of that pizza…

This was a great place tucked in a residential area. The bartender seem pretty nice. The dish pizza was delicious. Topping on top of magnificent topping. A decent take on a Chicago deep dish. Well obviously i didn’t finish it so when i went to reheat it it wasn’t the best. Overall good place to enjoy pizza and drinks.

I am from Chicago and this is by far the best Chicago style pizza I’ve ever had in my life and quite possibly the best pizza in general.
The place is a dive and doesn’t present a terribly family friendly type vibe but as a broke 23 year old I could care less. Beer is cheap and the selection is pretty decent. The pizza takes a while to cook, but any one who’s had deep dish pizza should know the drill. Staff is really cool and authentic and for the most part they leave you to your own devices, which, personally, I’m a fan of.
I’m ASTONISHED at the amounts of bad review I’m seeing. The sauce is unique with a kind of peppery spice – maybe it’s not for you if you have bland taste preferences or like Papa Johns.
Heavy and filling, it’s not for every day or even every week consumption, butt when your in the mood for some hearty and reasonably priced pizza at a cool and unassuming locale, Blackthorn is your place.

Pretty good Chicago style pizza. Takes about an hour to cook one of these pies so keep that in mind when coming here. Cool little dive bar though and they have air hockey, shuffleboard, Ms Pac-​Man/​Galaga, and pinball to play while you wait. Friendly bar staff as well.

Black Thorn Pub gets 4 stars for strong effort in Chicago-​Style pizza making!
— This place is super dive-​y, but that adds an odd sense of legitimacy to the pizza even before tasting it. The atmosphere makes you feel like you’ve found a hidden gem.
— There are like 2 – 3 people that work there at any given time, so I imagine if you’re trying to order a pizza in their busy time, it would be a nightmare if you were really hungry at the time of ordering. (*** I recommend ordering ahead, before you’re starving, and picking it up!!! ***)
— When I went to pick up my pizza, I could see evidence of home-​made crust (i.e. some sort of mixing contraption and a lot of flour!). This is a win for SURE.
— As another reviewer (Courtney J.) astutely wrote, «[their] Chicago style stuffed crust pizza is more of an homage to Chicago style deep dish than a textbook replica.» I couldn’t agree more, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. The pizza is kind of like an Italian-​flavored quesadilla with raised edges, melty cheese, tomato sauce, and extra toppings on covering it.
— Note: the deep dish pizza does not re-​heat very well. Even using the best stovetop method (if you don’t know about stovetop reheating of pizza, you’re missing out, go check it out on youtube immediately!), you’ll never achieve the same level of meltiness as when the pizza was first made.

I had been hearing a ton about this place and was normally deterred due to the 1+ hour wait times I had heard about.
My wife, her friend, and I decided to just suck it up and try it out, knowing that wait times maybe up to an hour or more.
We went on a Monday, hoping that there it wasn’t going to be really busy, and we were right!
There were only two groups in the restaurant at the time. I had never been here before, so the bartender/​server behind the counter was very helpful. He explained that the menus were on the table, and when we were ready to order to come up to the counter and order. They usually call out names when the orders are ready, but they weren’t super busy so they brought out the pizza to us.
The menu is on each table in one of those plastic things that you usually see some sort of happy hour or weird looking ad promoting a club. There’s «art» everywhere. Almost every single wall is covered in writing or pictures, some people even managed to make it up to the ceiling. There’s a table shuffleboard on a wall and in the back are two dart boards.
We knew we wanted the Chicago style pizza, but didn’t know what we wanted on it or the size. We ended up getting a medium with bacon and mushrooms.
Since I heard there were always super long wait times for the food, I timed our order. To my surprise it arrived in 20 mins! Probably because they weren’t busy.
Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed in the pizza. The pizza was SUPER cheesy. I really like cheese, but even this was too much. It was like Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust pizza, except instead of just the crust being stuffed, the whole pizza was. I felt like there was so much cheese everything else on the pizza was overpowered. I barely tasted any of the bacon, mushroom, or sauce. I basically just tasted a ton of cheese and a little bit of crust.
In my opinion, the Chicago style pizza isn’t worth the 1 hour wait, but I would come back to try the normal style pizza.

We enjoyed our visit to the Black Thorn Pub. Given the reviews we read and the long lead times for the deep dish pizza, we ordered a smaller thin crust to enjoy while we were waiting for our deep dish and it worked out great. The sauce is almost like a tomato tapenade instead of a sauce given it’s thick near relish consistency. It’s definitely not like what I’ve experienced in a true Chicago deep dish, as they normally have more distinguishable tomatoes as a part of the pie. By no means am I saying the pizza at the Black Thorn wasn’t good. It was. However, if you are going with an expectation of something that you’d get at one of the tried and true Chicago pizzeria, you won’t here. The atmosphere is eclectic and fun. Very casual with shuffleboard, graffiti everywhere, a line for the bar, booths, crowds, it’s cool.
I’d definitely go back again. It’s not the same as getting a true authentic Chicago deep dish, but it’s worth the trip down to Wyoming for a great pizza in a little place with a lot of atmosphere.

My experience with Blackthorn was a real disappointment. Being from Chicago, I was excited by all the reviews raving about the Chicago style stuffed pizza (yes, this is different from deep dish, so get it straight). However, neither myself nor any of my friends will be going back any time soon after trying it out.
Heaping amounts of cheese and other ingrediants were great, but were also drowned in a nearly toxic sauce, consisting of WAY too much italian seasoning (oregano maybe?). Most of our pizza went in the trash. The sauce made it nearly inedible. This may have been an isolated incident, but it was awful enough to warrant a 2 star review.

It’s time for an update, I’m now a full blown believer of Black Thorn pizza. That’s right, I was skeptical at first. But now I’m a super fan. Your first time visit can be a little intimidating if you don’t know what you’re doing. There is a large potential it’s going to be packed to the brim and you have to camp out for a spot.
What will make your experience 10 times better? Ordering a minimum of 1 hour ahead of time. There is only 1 – 2 people making pizza and they’re doing in-​house orders and to-​go orders. This means it usually takes 1 – 2 hours. Going with a group of 6ish? Two 14-​inch Chicago style pizzas will easily feed 5 – 6 people and everyone will be quite happy.
The pizza is phenomenal. I had some for leftovers and was super happy the next day. Their Chicago style has stuffed crust and amazing semi-​spicy sauce. Despite being a diver bar, the toppings are high quality as well.
If you’re looking to discover STL’s awesome pizza scene than you need to check out Black Thorn.

First off, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for thick pizza and low key bars. Black Thorn delivers on both.
Black Thorn may have topped the list as my favorite pizza in St. Louis. Their Chicago Style is amazing — thick and doughy crust with crispy edges, gobs of gooey (non-​provel) cheese, and smokey marinara sauce. Extremely satisfying and a few slices will fill you for days. Yes, as other reviewers have commented it may not be classic «Chicago» style with a second thin layer of crust on top — when I’ve had similar styles before it’s been called «stuffed» pizza — but it’s still great.
I called my order in ahead of time pretty early on a Friday night and would recommend anyone else do the same, otherwise I’d have been waiting with nothing to eat for 75 minutes. Wait times can be anywhere from 40 mins to 1 hr 30 mins. Calling ahead can ensure you’re not standing around waiting with no place to sit. They do have carry out service so that’s always an option.
That’s another thing: the interior adds to this place’s charm but also stops it from getting a better review. Seating is very limited and there aren’t really servers so when some couples sit, they’ll stay seated. I love the atmosphere the bar has, too. A single ~30″ tv, old beer cans, an old porch style overhang, and generally old decorations. Old regulars sit at the bar yelling at the Cardinals game while an odd mix of hipsters, yuppies, and hoosiers enjoy old bar/​arcade games and cheap beer. It’s just eclectic and fun.
The outside face is completely unassuming. You can hardly tell this place serves food if you didn’t read up before hand. It’s far enough off Grand to keep street parking fairly easy and groups of bar hoppers avoid it as it’s off the strip.
I’d recommend Black Thorn to people looking for a relaxing evening and some different, good pizza. Don’t go in expecting great service or the best ran restaurant and you won’t be disappointed. Rather than thinking of it as a restaurant, think of Black Thorn more as a cheap bar that happens to have a kitchen.