This week, we set our sights on the pizza place that was voted “Best Pizza in St. Louis” in a poll hosted by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Black Thorn Pub and Pizza, located in the Tower Grove neighborhood south of the Health Sciences Campus, clearly states its priorities in its name: It is a pub first and a pizza place second.

Having arrived mere minutes after 7 p.m. on a Friday night, we were carded at the front door before we were allowed entry, because patrons who are under 21 years of age are not allowed, in late evening. The pizzeria was lacking a sufficient amount of places to sit. When you arrive, you can seat yourself only if you are lucky enough to find an open table. We ordered our pizza before we even had a table, and it was 40 minutes before a group left and we were able to sit down. We would recommend visiting on a mid-week night, or shortly after they open at 5 p.m.

The scene is casual at best. We each wore a collared shirt and felt embarrassingly out of place. The exterior of the place draws no attention to itself, as it is nestled into a quaint residential area just south of Tower Grove Park. The interior brick and wood-paneled walls of this old, converted “corner-store” building were littered with messages written in chalk, and the background music was a typical bar mix of hits from yesterday and today. Black Thorn fits the dive bar mold like a glove.

Do not go to the Black Thorn if you are extremely hungry because the wait time for a single pizza is a minimum of an hour. By the time we were called to the bar to pick up our two pizzas, our stomachs were grumbling and our mouths were watering.

Judging from the other tables, Black Thorn’s Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is the way to go, although they do offer thin and pan-crust pizzas for the less adventuresome. Purists may dispute the legitimacy of their claim to Chicago-style pizza, but the structure of the pizza begins with the main bottom crust followed by pounds of cheese and toppings all covered by the top crust, which is smothered in Black Thorn’s signature sauce and more toppings. The cheese is hard to miss, due to the loads of melted goodness trapped between the two layers of crust in every bite. We were big fans of the sauce as well, which is generously seasoned with oregano and crushed red pepper to give your pizza a distinguished kick of spice.

We ordered two medium pizzas, one cheese, and the other pepperoni and sausage. The plain cheese pizza was a bit of a dairy overload, so toppings are recommended. We joined six friends at Black Thorn, and the two medium pizzas were more than enough to fill everyone’s appetites.

Though the experience was something to write about, the pizza was the main reason we went to Black Thorn. If you have the time to spare, then eat-in. Otherwise, we would recommend carry-out, to enjoy the Chicago-style pizza in whatever setting you may desire.