First Look: Jalisco Offers a Unique Twist on Pizza in St. Charles

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Jessica Rogen

In some ways, the pizza at Jalisco Pizza (3831 Elm Street, St. Charles; 636-723-7800) is about what you'd expect. It's pan pizza (so not St. Louis style) with cheese, sauce, crust and toppings.

But those toppings — that's where Jalisco gets wild.

In addition to the standard pepperoni, veggies and whatnot, the newly opened restaurant covers its pizza with ingredients more commonly wrapped in a tortilla.

Currently, the menu includes three Mexican-Italian fusion pizzas. There's the Jalisco pizza, which features slow-cooked, shredded birria and sauce, cilantro and onions, served with a side of au jus. Then there's the al pastor pizza with marinated pork, cilantro, onions and chipotle salsa. Finally, street steak pizza is topped with the aforementioned steak as well as cilantro, onions and green and red salsas.

The combos all come from the mind of co-owner and chef Leonardo Ortiz, 26, who opened Jalisco's doors on February 1 with his wife Anna Seville.

"It's all about just combining flavors, combining traditional stuff," he says. "How do you make things different? You just do what no one is doing, like, just take the risk."

Hailing from Degollado in Jalisco, Mexico, Ortiz is no stranger to the traditional flavors of the region's cuisine. He began working in food at 14. He bussed tables, washed dishes — eventually graduating to waiter and then moving into the kitchen.

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Jessica Rogen

Ortiz pairs a variety of salsas with his pizzas.

"I've done it all," Ortiz says. After high school, knowing he didn't want to go to college, he was looking around for a job opportunity. A friend who owned a bike store mentioned that his brother owned restaurants in the U.S. and asked if Ortiz would like to work there. He thought: Why not?

So that's how he ended up in St. Louis eight years ago, working at El Maguey in Bridgeton. He's stayed in the restaurant business since, except for a brief stint in moving. Eventually, he got tired of just working in restaurants and started thinking about finally making a move to own one.

That's when he found out that a friend, the owner of Stef's Pizza, was selling the space. Ortiz jumped at the opportunity, ready to make standard Italian food — except for a happy accident.

Ortiz's mother was set to visit, and he was craving a particular goat birria from his hometown. His mom, however, declined to bring him some. So he got in the kitchen and tried to replicate that dish. When Ortiz was done, the dish tasted nothing like what he expected. But it was really, really good.

That rendition became the topping for the Jalisco pizza. But his friend, who'd formerly owned the space, wasn't immediately convinced of the concept.

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Jessica Rogen

Leonardo Ortiz is the chef-owner of Jalisco.

"He was speechless," Ortiz says. "He couldn't believe what I was going to do. He even thought it was a bad idea because no one has done it."

But Ortiz had a sense that it would be great, and he went with it. In fact, Ortiz was so sure it would be good that he didn't even try the mashup until it was already on his menu. But when he did, "everything started clicking."

The response from customers has justified that surety, Ortiz says.

Part of the fun is the variety of salsas and sauces Ortiz makes to complement or heighten the pizzas' flavors. There's everything from a mayo-based chipotle to a thick Diablo to a punchy green chile sauce.

"Some people will love it just the way it is," he says. "And then some other people just eat it with just all the sauces or just one or two. It's up to you, how they feel. It's an experience that you want to come in and repeat, [because] it's not going to be the same every time."

Jalisco also has a variety of aqua frescas, such as horchata and hibiscus. Like most else in the restaurant, they are made from scratch. In the not-homemade category, there are sodas and candy imported from Mexico.

But like everything at Jalisco, they are carefully selected by Ortiz in order to bring a taste of his home to an otherwise unremarkable St. Charles strip mall.

It's all an extension of Ortiz's passion for the business.

"I don't like food," he says. "I love it."