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BY LISA KAMPETER
Pizza is a favorite among many of the Dining Divas. We’ll make excuses to get a few slices any time we can. One reoccurring excuse we use to get together for pizza is to share our travel adventures. This month, the Dining Divas had great adventures to share along with great pieces of Pi, a pizza place in University City on Delmar (or 3.14…for the mathematical wizards out there).

President Elect Barack Obama said he really liked the pizza he sampled from Pi on on a recent visit to our city. This being St. Louis’ version of Chicago-style deep dish pizza, he may have been biased, but we had to agree. This unique pizza made a statement. Pi is not just an average pizza joint.

As we waited for the Tardy Diva, we ordered some appetizers. Crunchy warm loaves of bread arrived with bulbs of garlic and softened butter for this “do-it-yourself” version of garlic bread. The problem with the “do-it-yourself” option is that we may have loaded on the garlic slightly over the top as the garlic stayed with us for what felt like days afterwards.

We dove into the dinner salads we all ordered as well. The small BLT salad with the peppercorn ranch dressing made a perfect appetizer. The Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil was another good option. The Math Diva had no choice but to order the K2 salad at Pi. This place represented her daily working life. Numbers, averages, math. That, and her initials are “KK” so K2 seemed appropriate. The K2 salad has an unusual combination of clementines, beets, goat cheese, field greens and more that perhaps only a math connoisseur would dream of.

The Greek Diva had just returned from attending her sister’s wedding in Tuscany, Italy. Although it rained most of the time she was there, the skies cleared up for the big day. And in typical Italian fashion, the family and all attending walked the streets of the small town from the wedding to the reception as townspeople cheered and waved and stopped in the streets to congratulate the new couple.

The Adventurous Diva shared with us her latest journey from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to the Taj Mahal and Mumbai in India. Yes, the place where the terrorist attacks were recently. Fortunately, she had been home safely for a few weeks. Her beautiful pictures painted such a different world to the rest of us— a world of richness and yet such poor living conditions for many.

Keeping with tradition, the group brought Christmas presents for the Marines’ Toys for Tots toy drive. Reliables like Barbie and Play-Doh made it into Santa’s helpers’ bags.

Being from St. Louis and not from Chicago, we decided to order a couple thin crust pizzas; however, one Picky Diva went for a deep dish, cheese only. The East Loop version with chicken, mushroom, onions, mozzarella, and pesto threw us for a loop. This combination was awesome. Those of you who prefer “normal” pizza, the kind with red sauce, may want to stick to Pizza Hut.

We also tried the thin version of the Western Addition. This pizza combined spinach with feta and ricotta cheese along with mozzarella, mushrooms, and onions. This was a closer version to “normal” but definitely unique and delicious. Oh, and for those of you who love St. Louis’ own provel cheese, don’t even think about it here. The staff wears t-shirts with symbols that basically say to “Say No to Provel.”

For the Picky Diva who ordered the thick crust cheese pizza, amazingly, everyone who tried it said it was amazing. This wasn’t your average cheese pizza. Next time, we’ll be ordering it again. And next time, we won’t wait for excuses to go back to Pi.

For those that despise math, fear not. The waitress even offered to divide up our bill for us. It was as easy as Pi!

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