LOCATION: 9.2
St. Leo is just off the square in Oxford.
ATMOSPHERE: 7.9
Definitely a cosmopolitan vibe going on here, complete with a few areas where the seating is a little too close together. We know some people like this, but it’s one bit of “cosmopolitan” we can do without. Your mileage may vary. A giant TV hanging over the bar can be more than a little distracting. Together these detract from what could have been a higher score, but on the whole, St. Leo is a sophisticated, lively, and lovely place.
FOOD: 8.3
The specialty here is the Neapolitan-style pizza, and it is in fact very good. Neapolitan pizza is the subject of extremely strict regulations in its hometown of Naples — for example, only a very specific type of flour can be used, it must be cooked in a wood-fired oven no longer than 90 seconds, only five ingredients are allowed, etc. — and therefore inspires fanatical devotion, and highly critical assessments, among both pizza chefs and discerning diners all over the world.
We’re happy to report that, with only one small asterisk, the Neapolitan pizza at St. Leo is a superb example of the craft, one that you should make a point to experience yourself. To explain what that asterisk is for: The AVPN regulations dictate that the only approved condiments are tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil, oil, and parmigiano reggiano cheese; thus purists will scoff at the ingredient combinations that exceed the scope of those regulations. And to be fair, there is a method to the madness of the regulations. The point of Neapolitan pizza is simplicity, to let every ingredient shine, something that’s impossible to do when you put 15 ingredients on a pizza.
But the triumph of St. Leo’s Neapolitan pizzas is that, while they offer a classic Margherita that holds to those guidelines regarding condiments, they otherwise drift decidedly wide of them, but for the most part keep the number of ingredients to a tasteful minimum. While you can use the “build your own” approach to create something resembling a “kitchen sink” pizza, thankfully St. Leo doesn’t put one on the menu. If that’s really what you want — and we strongly discourage it — you’ll be forced to commit that atrocity yourself.
We had three of the pizzas: The pepperoni, sausage, and pork belly; the roast mushroom; and the prosciutto, arugula, and mozzarella. Of the three, the prosciutto, arugula, and mozzarella was the clear winner, a nearly flawless execution. Our only complaint was the excessive amount of arugula piled atop the pizza, which, in the grand scheme of things, was a minor misstep, because you can easily remove any arugula you don’t. We felt the pepperoni, sausage, and pork belly had great flavor, but was too heavy and completely wiped out what made the prosciutto, arugula, and mozzarella pizza so extraordinary, and that was the way you could taste the flavor of the dough, the salty, tangy, and slightly sweet flavors of the very high-quality prosciutto, the fresh bitterness of the arugula, and the creaminess of the fresh mozz. Every ingredient stood on its own, but combined into a masterful whole.
Neapolitan dough is difficult to get just right, because it’s not just about taste, but texture as well. Ideally there’s an old-world bread flavor, with bold accents of charring from the wood fire, underneath which is a faint, yeasty sourness. That’s hard enough to get right. But then there’s texture, and ideally you have a very thin center that flares into an airy cornicione, but the whole thing, when folded, provides a substantial, tender but chewy, decidedly flop-free platform for the pizza’s condiments. St. Leo succeeds at all of this. Their pizza dough is phenomenal, their ingredients are first-rate, and their technique, from what we can tell, is expert. When the number of ingredients is kept to three or four, and when they’re smartly selected, the results are sublime.
SERVICE: 7.9
Service at St. Leo is highly competent. It’s not cutesy, nosy, over familiar, or excessively chatty. All of this we appreciate. However, it does lack a little charm, a little warmth, and, once dinner got underway, a little attentiveness. We would have appreciated having our water, wine, and other things checked on just a little more frequently.
OVERALL: 8.3
St. Leo operates in the very top tier of Oxford restaurants, and thus in the very top tier of Mississippi’s restaurants. The kitchen very clearly has a firm grip on the basics as well as the nuances of Neapolitan pizza, and executes them at a very high level.