What happens when "just fine" isn't good enough? Apparently, you send your daughter to New York.
Metropolitan Grill—the Cheers of Fine Dining—does, in fact, hold a Pizza Class.
And yes, we know. A hands-on pizza class probably isn't the first thing you expect from the place you normally come for steak, seafood, wine, and handcrafted cocktails.
But like most things at Metro, there's a story behind it.
Our pizza oven came to us all the way from Italy, and that oven has quite the story of its own. We're going to keep that one to ourselves for now, though. You'll have to come to Pizza Class if you want to hear it.
For this edition of Behind the Apron, we're picking up the story after that beautiful Italian pizza oven arrived at Metro.
Because owning a great pizza oven and knowing how to make a great pizza are two very different things.
"Just Fine" Isn't Really the Metro Way
When we first started making pizzas, we'll admit it: we were using some bulk products that came to us from elsewhere.
The pizzas were fine.
Perfectly respectable pizzas.
But this is Metropolitan Grill, and we don't really like doing "just fine."
So Pat had an idea.
And when Pat gets an idea, there's usually a pretty good chance the rest of us are about to go on an adventure.
He looked at his daughter, Katrina Duran, one of the cooks in the Metro kitchen, and asked:
"Want to head to New York and learn how to make some real wood-fired pizzas?"
Really, how do you say no to that?
So off she went.
From Springfield to Staten Island
Katrina spent a week learning at The Original Goodfella's, established in 1992, on Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island.
Now, one week might not sound like a long time.
But when you're kneaded right into the fold—see what we did there?—one week can teach you an awful lot.
This wasn't a trip spent sitting in a classroom taking notes about pizza.
Katrina jumped straight into restaurant life.
She helped with prep. She worked the dough. She learned the process. She worked through full services and helped close at the end of the night.
It was hands-on, side-by-side, one-on-one experience with people who live and breathe pizza.
And as Katrina quickly discovered, restaurant people are restaurant people no matter where you go.
Restaurant People Just Get It
One of the things Katrina remembers most about her time in New York actually has very little to do with pizza.
It was the hospitality.
From the moment she arrived, everyone seemed genuinely excited that she was there. They wanted her to learn, wanted her to experience their restaurant, and wanted to make sure she got a real taste of everything New York had to offer.
There was an immediate familiarity to it.
If you've spent enough time working in restaurants, you know the feeling. You can walk into a kitchen hundreds of miles from home, fall into the rhythm of service, start helping wherever you're needed and somehow feel like you belong.
Different city. Different restaurant.
Same restaurant people.
That sense of hospitality and family stuck with Katrina just as much as the techniques she brought home.
Although New York hospitality did present one small problem...
About the Espresso...
Katrina does not like coffee.
Not "coffee isn't really my thing."
She does not like coffee.
Unfortunately for Katrina, she was in New York surrounded by incredibly hospitable people who kept offering her espresso.
And naturally, she wanted to be a good guest.
So when they offered her one?
She said yes.
Then came the question of whether she'd like sugar or anything else with it.
Of course, the reasonable thing would have been to admit that she wasn't a coffee drinker.
Instead, Katrina apparently decided she had something to prove.
"Nope."
And down went the black espresso.
Then they offered it again the next day.
And she drank it again.
And again.
At that point, she'd committed to the bit.
So for the sake of New York, hospitality, and apparently her own pride, Katrina continued drinking straight black espresso throughout the trip while pretending this was a completely normal thing she enjoyed doing.
The things we do for culinary education.
Bringing New York Back to Metro
Fortunately, Katrina brought home more than an unexpected tolerance for espresso.
She returned to Springfield with something much more important: the foundation for the pizza we wanted to make at Metro.
She brought back a dough recipe and a sauce recipe.
The dough?
We knew better than to mess with something they had clearly figured out.
That recipe became the foundation for the dough we still make and use today.
The sauce, however...
Well, we're Metro.
We had to play with it.
So began the mixing, milling, stirring, cooking, spreading, tasting, adjusting—and probably more tasting—until the kitchen landed on a sauce that felt distinctly ours.
The result is the pizza you eat at Metro today: techniques and lessons brought home from Staten Island, combined with the experimentation and personality of our own kitchen in Springfield.
And Then Came Pizza Class
Once you've gone through all of that work learning the craft, perfecting your dough, developing your sauce, and figuring out how to work with an authentic Italian pizza oven, there's really only one logical thing left to do.
Teach somebody else.
And that's how Metro Pizza Class became part of our story.
Pizza Class gives us the opportunity to bring guests behind the apron and share some of what Katrina brought home from New York.
You'll get your hands into the process, learn some of the techniques we've picked up along the way, make your own pizza, and understand a little more about what goes into that pie before it ever reaches your table.
You'll probably laugh.
You'll definitely eat.
And you may finally hear the story about how that Italian pizza oven ended up at Metropolitan Grill in Springfield, Missouri.
Some stories are better told over pizza.
Learn the Metro Way
At Metro, we've never been particularly interested in doing something simply because that's how we've always done it.
Sometimes getting better means experimenting in our own kitchen.
Sometimes it means learning from people who have spent decades perfecting their craft.
And apparently, sometimes it means sending Pat's daughter to Staten Island, forcing her to drink black espresso for a week, and waiting to see what she brings home.
In this case?
She brought home some pretty great pizza.
Want to learn how we do it?
Come get behind the apron,
get a little flour on your hands,
and Learn the Metro Way
at our next Pizza Class.
