Minnesota Winters, St. Paul Slices: 10 Pizza Parlors Locals Love
When Minnesota’s brutal winter winds howl outside, nothing warms the soul like a piping hot pizza from a beloved local joint. St. Paul’s pizza scene is a delicious mosaic of old-school Italian traditions and bold Midwestern innovations.
These pizza parlors have earned their place in local hearts not just for their spectacular slices, but for being the warm, cheese-laden shelters we escape to when the snow piles high.
1. Red’s Savoy Pizza: The OG Dive With Attitude
This joint serves up nostalgia topped with cheese so thick you need muscles to lift each slice. Red’s hasn’t changed its recipe since 1965, and thank goodness for that stubborn dedication.
Walking into Red’s Savoy feels like stepping into your uncle’s basement, if your uncle happened to make the most addictive, sauce-heavy pizza in the Twin Cities. The square-cut “tavern style” pies come loaded with their signature spicy sauce and mountains of toppings.
Locals swear the secret ingredient is actually the decades of pizza grease absorbed into the walls.
2. Punch Pizza, Grand Avenue: Neapolitan Nirvana
Where else can you watch your pizza cook in 90 seconds flat? The wood-fired oven blazes at 800 degrees, creating that perfect leopard-spotted crust that makes pizza nerds weep with joy.
Punch doesn’t mess around with authenticity. Their Neapolitan pies come with minimal yet impeccable toppings, San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and basil that hasn’t been sitting in some fridge for days.
The Margherita is so good it should be illegal, but nobody’s calling the cops when they’re too busy licking olive oil from their fingers.
3. Cossetta’s: The Italian Market Heavyweight
However could a simple slice from the counter of this sprawling Italian market outshine fancy sit-down spots? The answer lies in Cossetta’s century-old recipe and the perpetual line of people waiting to get their mitts on it.
Though it’s expanded into a multi-level Italian food emporium, the pizza remains gloriously unchanged. The crust strikes that magical balance between chewy and crisp, while the sauce brings just enough sweetness to make you close your eyes with each bite.
Pro move, grab a slice to eat while shopping for imported pasta upstairs.
4. Big River Pizza: Farmers Market Fresh
Are you the type who actually reads the farm-to-table manifesto on restaurant menus? Big River won’t bore you with paragraphs about sustainability, they just quietly source ingredients from the farmers’ market across the street.
The sourdough crust here develops for three days before meeting the oven, resulting in a complex flavor that makes ordinary pizza bread seem like sad Wonder bread by comparison. Seasonal toppings change faster than Minnesota weather, featuring whatever local farmers are harvesting.
Their “Lowertown” pie with bacon, brussels sprouts, and apple is what would happen if a hipster and your grandma collaborated on dinner.
5. Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza: Char Masters
When winter hits -20°F, the 800-degree coal oven at Black Sheep becomes St. Paul’s most coveted spot. The intense heat creates a crust with perfect char that tastes like summer cookouts in the dead of January.
Though fancy-pants food critics rave about their meatless options, the real move is their fennel sausage and onion pie. The meat is house-made, the cheese is applied with restrained sophistication, and the thin crust somehow supports it all without getting soggy.
Their oyster mushroom and smoked mozzarella pizza converts even the most dedicated pepperoni purists.
6. Mucci’s Italian: Montanara Magic
Hence the perpetual lines outside this tiny spot, they’re doing something nobody else in Minnesota dares attempt. Mucci’s fries their pizza dough before topping and baking it, creating a crust with crispy-outside, puffy-inside perfection that’ll ruin you for regular pizza.
The “Camilla” with roasted garlic cream sauce, chicken, bacon, and banana peppers hits flavor notes you didn’t know existed in the pizza universe. Their dough ferments for days, developing a complexity that makes each bite different from the last.
Weekend brunch features donuts made from the same dough, genius level carb innovation.
7. Pizza Lucé, St. Paul: Late Night Savior
When it’s 1 AM and you’re contemplating questionable life choices, Pizza Lucé embraces you with open arms and zero judgment. Their St. Paul location serves up creative pies until the wee hours, becoming a beacon for night owls and service industry folks.
The “Athena” with feta, tomatoes, olives, and gyro meat tastes like someone teleported a Greek island to Minnesota. Their mashed potato pizza sounds like a dare but eats like a dream, loaded with garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli, and cheddar cheese.
The vegan options don’t taste like sad compromises, which in Minnesota winter is practically a miracle.
8. Davanni’s Pizza & Hot Hoagies: Neighborhood Staple
Everyone in St. Paul has a Davanni’s story, first dates, post-game celebrations, or study sessions fueled by their deep dish pies. This local chain has outlasted countless national competitors by sticking to what works, consistent quality and generous toppings.
The “All Day Breakfast Pizza” with scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese sauce has saved more hungover Minnesotans than all the Advil in the state. Their hoagies deserve equal billing with the pizza, hot sandwiches served on freshly baked bread that’s worth the trip alone.
Bonus points for the old-school punch card loyalty program that feels delightfully analog in our digital world.
9. Mama’s Pizza: No-Frills Time Machine
Did your Italian grandmother ever make you pizza in her kitchen while telling you stories about the old country? Mine didn’t either, but Mama’s gives us both that experience.
Mama’s hasn’t updated its decor since opening in 1964, and the pizza recipe has remained equally untouched. The sausage is made in-house daily, the crust has that distinctive old-school chew, and the sauce carries hints of secret spices nobody can quite identify.
The dining room feels like a family reunion where everyone’s arguing about politics but united in their love for good food.
10. The Little Oven: Hidden Jewel With Heart
Tucked away on St. Paul’s East Side sits the pizza equivalent of a warm hug. The Little Oven doesn’t look like much from outside, but locals know this unassuming spot serves some of the most soul-satisfying pies in the city.
Their specialty is the thick, square-cut Sicilian-style pizza with a buttery crust that’s both crisp and fluffy. The family-owned spot has perfected its sauce over decades, slightly sweet, deeply tomatoey, and applied with generous abandon.
The dining room feels like your grandparents’ basement, complete with wood paneling and inexplicable knickknacks that somehow enhance the pizza experience.
