Chicken club pizza at Pagliai's Pizza

611 S. Main St., Maryville, Mo., (660) 582-5750

I was working in Maryville a few weeks ago, and one of my good customers told me about this great place for pizza. Since I used to work for a pizza company, I'm always up to trying pizza, so I loaded up the family and went north.

When we got there, the place was packed, so I figured it had to be good. Boy, I wasn't disappointed. We decided to try the chicken club. It comes with chicken, ham, bacon with provolone cheese, Parmesan cheese and a ranch base sauce topped with mozzarella. All this is on a thin-crust pizza baked in a stone oven and served piping hot with real strips of bacon, chunks of white-meat chicken and lots of ham. The taste was just like a chicken club sandwich, only better. With all that cheese on there, I figured it would be really overpowering, but it blended well with the chicken and strips of real bacon. This was one of the BEST gourmet pizzas I have had in a long time. The rest of their menu has more gourmet pizzas, mini pies and, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, they serve spaghetti. If you're heading to Maryville, I would stop by for a great pizza.

Steve Warner| Stjoelive guest reviewer