Kitchen/Counter Help

Ed and Margie Imo began their journey to St. Louis pizza history as a pair of young, hardworking St. Louisians who fell in love, started a family and dreamt of owning their own home.

As devoted Catholics, they would wait until 11:30 every Friday night to order a meat-topped pizza from one of the many Italian restaurants near their home on The Hill in St. Louis. After years of picking up their pizzas safely after midnight, a simple idea launched a phenomenon…

“Wouldn’t it be nice if someone would deliver the pizza to us?”

They opened their first pizza parlor in 1964 at Thurman and Shaw Avenues in St. Louis. It was open evenings only, offering pick-up and delivery. Ed continued to work as a tile setter, slicing squares of linoleum by day and pizza by night. Their first kitchen consisted of a used oven, two refrigerators and a stove they purchased for $75.

With no experience in retail and little experience in cooking, the I...