New pizza and salad restaurant coming to Edwardsville

A new pizza-and-salad restaurant will come to Edwardsville’s newest building this spring.

Crushed Red has already made waves at several St. Louis locations with franchises opening up in Columbia, Mo., and Denver. They’ve been voted best local restaurant chain by Go! Magazine and best fast casual restaurant by the Riverfront Times in years past.

Now they’re moving into 222 E. Park St., a new multi-story office-and-retail building under construction near the Edwardsville Public Library.

Crushed Red is a “fast-casual concept restaurant serving up chopped salads and individual-sized pizzas,” according to spokeswoman Candace LaRocca.

Crushed Red offers gourmet pizzas like the Mona Lisa with olive oil and roasted garlic, kalamata olives, spinach, feta, goat cheese and mozzarella; or the Yukon Gold Steakhouse with Parmesan cream, sirloin steak, bacon, Yukon potato, onion, Gorgonzola cheese and mozzarella with fresh rosemary.

You can also get salads from the basic Hail Caesar — which is exactly what it sounds like — to the Deluxe Berry Crunch, a mix of rainbow quinoa, blueberries, figs, feta cheese and housemade granola with mixed greens and a lemon agave nectar dressing.

Edwardsville Economic Development Director Walter Williams said the building is about 9,000 square feet per floor, and Crushed Red will take up a good portion of the first floor. Constructed by Madison Mutual as their new corporate headquarters, Williams said a Glen Carbon law firm also is planning to move in as a tenant, relocating close to the Madison County Courthouse on Main Street.

Crushed Red will open only a block away from another gourmet pizza restaurant: Dewey’s Pizza has been open at 112 E. Vandalia St. for a few years, while Peel Wood-Fired Pizza is a short distance away on South Arbor Vitae. That’s not including the usual carry-out or delivery places, such as Imo’s, Pantera’s, Joe’s Pizza, and the national chains. So far, Peel holds the top spot for the best pizza in Edwardville, with Dewey right behind it in both Yelp and TripAdvisor listings.

The Edwardsville location of Crushed Red will open near the end of April, LaRocca said.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 1:59 PM with the headline "New pizza and salad restaurant coming to Edwardsville."