Food Adventures in Cole Camp – Calgaro’s Pizza

Wednesday I got the chance to join our sales guy "Money" Mike Pettis on a road trip to the small town of Cole Camp.  The town population isn't much more than 1100 people.  This trip turned out to be a whole lot of fun.  They have a nice downtown with some wonderful shops including a vintage toy stop ( Back In Time) , a store that sells nothing but novelty socks (Happy Feet) and a real cool local store called RiOak Western Design. After checking them out, were were hungry for lunch, and that is where we arrive.

I am from Illinois, a small town about 40-45 minutes outside of Chicago.  I know pizza.  That led us to Calgaro's Family Pizzaria.  They have been there since 2002.  Happy 20th anniversary. This turned out to be a great stop.

When we walked in to this little place, the heat was on, the tables were clean, and the place was 3/4 full.  Good sign.  We checked out the menu, and heard that this place is also known for good sandwiches.  Click HERE to view the menu.

The daily lunch special caught our eye, so we went with that.  The dinner salad could use a few more vegetables on it, we got lettuce, a cucumber and a tomato on it, but they were all fresh.  Pepsi products for beverages.  As I said, I know pizza and I saw an award on their wall.  2 actually.  So I had expectations.

There was also an award for 2021.  Well let's see what we ordered.

Our new sales associate Bill ordered his 3 topping pizza with bacon, sausage and onion.  Fresh ingredients, crispy crust.  Thumbs up.

Mike went with Pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and mushrooms.  I do like that most of the toppings are cooked underneath the cheese, and not on top.  It might just be a preference for me, but I think you get a better value that way and the toppings taste better.  Mike said he could taste all three ingredients.  Thumbs up again!

I went for pepperoni, green pepper, and onion.  I initially asked about a "thicker" crust as the menu had said, and was politely told that was no longer an option.  I would have liked a bit more garlic flavor in the sauce, but the pizza was cooked perfectly and I enjoyed the crispiness of the crust.  Thumbs up 3 times!

So the final thoughts on our pizza adventure, is that this place is worth the awards that they received from MissouriMagazines.com.   It has been in business for 20 years and that alone is a big deal that should be recognized.  The next time Mike and I have to make a trip to Cole Camp, we will stop again.  From Sedalia, the drive was about 20-25 minutes.  Totally worth it.  Seek this place out.