Katie’s Pizza and Pasta Opens Design-Forward Crestwood Restaurant, Expands House-Made Pasta Retail

Katie’s Pizza & Pasta has opened its fourth restaurant in Crestwood, Missouri, a 400-seat ground-up freestanding building sited on the former Crestwood Mall. The new Crestwood location presents itself as a mid-century modern statement, organized like a modernist home with a kitchen at its center and a light-filled dining room meant to read like a living space.

The design leans explicitly on Ridgewood-era details, borrowing inspiration from the Ridgewood homes designed by Ralph and Mary Jane Fournier and aiming to be a rare example of architecture-forward suburban restaurant design in the St. Louis region. Natural materials and handcrafted details appear throughout the fit-out; the company notes custom walnut millwork by local craftsman Dave Stine and artwork by Belinda Lee as visible interior features.

Culinary operations at Crestwood push the brand’s house-made emphasis: the restaurant includes a dedicated pasta-making room and a European-style open kitchen, embedding pasta production on site rather than outsourcing it. The layout places the kitchen at the operational heart of the 400-seat dining room, a configuration the company describes as kitchen-centered and chef-driven, underscoring the focus on chef-made pasta and Italian dishes prepared in-house.

The Crestwood opening is tied closely to the story of founder Katie Lee, identified in company materials as a James Beard–recognized restaurateur, a self-taught chef, and a single mother who built the company independently. The press materials list local accolades for Lee, including St. Louis Chef of the Year six consecutive years, Best Pizza in St. Louis ten consecutive years, and Best Pasta in St. Louis seven consecutive years, framing the Crestwood restaurant as a personal and regional milestone.

Retail expansion remains a central strand of the company’s growth narrative. The company says its frozen pizza and other frozen products are now available in stores nationwide and that it plans to expand into thousands of additional retail locations in 2026. Katie’s will showcase its CPG line at Natural Products Expo West, scheduled March 4–6, 2026 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and the company has announced additional retail launches planned for spring and summer 2026 resets.

Promotional materials describe Katie’s as one of the fastest-growing pizza companies in the United States and say the brand’s chef-made frozen products are outperforming legacy premium brands; those growth claims come from the company’s press release. With a first-ever ground-up freestanding building and an on-site pasta room at Crestwood, Katie’s is putting its retail momentum and house-made pasta claims on display in both dining room and freezer aisle.