The Headless Bat will open in what was formerly the London Tea Room on Morgan Ford in Tower Grove South.
Early in the pandemic, Rick Giordano was having a few socially distanced porch beers with his pal Kenny Snarzyk of the Crow's Nest and musing about what St. Louis really needed.
Their answer: a pizza joint where the duo could "play metal all the time."
Something close to those pandemic musings is set to become a reality. Giordano (sans Snarzyk) plans to open his heavy metal pizza place, Headless Bat (@headlessbatstl), at 3128 Morgan Ford Road in the space that formerly housed the London Tea Room.
"This space is exactly what I saw in my head as I've been envisioning it for the past couple of years," Giordano says. "It was this spot. Exactly."
Giordano says that Headless Bat (a nod to Ozzy Osbourne's infamous bat-biting incident) will have a bar with a great beer and liquor selection and upscale, high-quality food. But that will be contrasted with "bizarre artwork" and heavy metal music — albeit metal played at a level that won't disrupt conversations.
The heavy metal aspect of Headless Bat is not a surprise coming from Giordano, who is one-third of local metal band the Lion's Daughter and formerly worked at the Ready Room. But the pizza is something of a surprise.
"I am not a pizza person," he says. "I've never worked in a kitchen. I don't know how to make a pizza."
It might be more accurate to say that he didn't used to know how to make a pizza. Since Headless Bat has come on the horizon, Giordano has been learning, perfecting his recipes and even consulting with a mysterious pizza expert from Chicago, whom he wasn't ready to name.
Despite the Chicago connection, Headless Bat will serve New York-style pizza and maybe some pan pizzas, too.
"If you think about that one time in the '90s when you had Pizza Hut and it was really, really good that one time: That's what I want to recreate here," Giordano says. "I want to there to be a sense of nostalgia to the food here as well."
Giordano hopes to be open some time this summer, but it's too early to say when, or even approximately when. What's not in question, though, is the vibe of the future space and who he intends it to be for.
"This isn't a dark place, but it's a place for weirdos," Giordano says, "a place where people are into weird music, weird art, weird culture and really good food."
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