A new food truck is slinging brick oven, Philadelphia-style pizzas all over St. Pete. The Violet Stone, opened by a local couple, made its debut a few weeks ago and is quickly growing a following thanks to its crispy crust and homemade ingredients.

The brightly-colored food truck can be seen regularly in afternoons and evenings at Crescent Lake Park, and at events throughout St. Pete. What started as a hobby for a local couple became a passion project as they first learned how to make their own ingredients, followed by months of perfecting the results.

Everything but the cheese is made fresh with a secret recipe, including the dough, the sauce, and most of the toppings, with options like house sausage, hot honey, a balsamic reduction and much more. Using a French-style brick pizza oven, The Violet Stone makes what it calls Philly-style pizza, “baked well-done and crispy.”

The cheese on each pizza (or ‘The Cheese’ as it’s called on the menu) is a delicious, velvety mixture of whole milk, low moisture mozzarella, mozzarella di buffalo, and shaved parmigiano Reggiano. It is complemented (most of the time) by ‘The Sauce,’ the homemade concoction ownership developed.

We got our first try of The Violet Stone’s pizza last week, and loved The Hot Ham, topped with The Cheese, capicola, hot honey, and basil, no sauce. The hot honey drizzled across the crispy pie was a delight. While we have yet to try more of the options, we’re told The Classic (The Cheese, The Sauce, and basil) and The Sausage have been early favorites in the lineup.

And a fair warning to pizza lovers – this is a different type of crust than many are used to. Rather than the airy and doughy crusts standard on many styles, the Philly-style calls for truly crunchy and chewy crusts, along with a thin bottom that still supports the toppings.

We haven’t had another pizza like it in St. Pete, and it is certainly a standout. Follow The Violet Stone on Instagram to see where they’ll be next. You can catch them on the pier at the World’s Largest Hammock Hangout on October 22.

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