Experienced Chef Bringing Taste of The Hill to St. Peters

St. Peters residents now have a new place to dine on authentic Italian cuisine. Dino’s Pizza Italian Restaurant and Café, located on Mexico Road, opened in October.

The eatery is a full-service Italian restaurant, serving everything from pizza by the slice, to pasta dishes to appetizers and breads. The restaurant offers carry-out, has a few tables for dining in, delivery when available and also offers full catering.

“People can expect to get food that is like what’s served on The Hill here in St. Peters,” Dino’s owner and chef, Tony Borrelli, said of the menu.

Borrelli said some of the things that make Dino’s unique are the Sicilian pizza, garlic sticks and, with the exception of a few appetizers, everything on the menu is baked, not fried. Additionally, Borrelli said all dishes are prepared fresh, from the dough for pizza to the sauces used in the pasta dishes.

“I don’t know any other place in St. Peters that has full-scale authentic Italian cooking—nobody takes the time out to make things homemade anymore,” he said.

Borrelli is an experienced chef and has a background in cooking and the pizza business. Borrelli was a master chef in New York, and got his start in the restaurant business early in life.

He said he was 8 years old when his dad, who owned a pizzeria, taught him to make pizza, sauce and dough. Borrelli said he became head chef at a restaurant at the age of twelve and was the youngest chef to ever receive a rating of 4.5 out of 5 hats from News Day Newspaper in New York.

The chef spent years working in the industry, but when he had a family, he felt he had to get into something steadier than the restaurant business. He wound up working in the airline industry and retired from that career in 2003.

Now, Borrelli is getting back to his culinary roots, while at the same time accomplishing a life-long wish.

“This is something I’ve dreamt of all my life, it’s an opportunity so I’m going to make it work,” Borrelli said of owning his own business.

Borrelli added that success in the restaurant business is more than just preparing food. Having a passion for good cuisine and cooking from the heart are two key ingredients.

“You’ve got to love cooking, anybody can cook, but there can only be one chef,” he said.

Dino’s Pizza is located at 6240 Mexico Road. For more information and hours of operation, call 636-922-4441.