Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky can find a pepperoni pizza anywhere, but he likes it best from Schottzie’s Bar and Grill, an unassuming but venerable eatery that has served St. Louis since 1947.
Owned by Mike Carlson, who took the restaurant over from his dad, Schottzie’s has been fulfilling special orders for the NHL great—widely considered the best to ever play the game—for more than 20 years, according to Fox 2 Now. Gretzky played a one-season stint in 1996 with the St. Louis Blues and discovered Schottzie’s during that period before moving away to join the New York Rangers.
After wrapping up his hockey career, Gretzky threw a family party when the then-St. Louis Rams made it to the Super Bowl. “At the time he was living in California, and he called up here and wanted us,” Carlson explained to Fox 2 Now. “We shipped, like, six, seven or eight pizzas to Hollywood to his residence in dry ice. That whole story made the news.”
When the St. Louis Cardinals played in the 2004 World Series, Gretzky put in a similar order from Schottzie’s. It probably helped that Gretzky’s wife, Janet Jones, grew up in the St. Louis area and was a frequent customer at Schottzie’s. Gretzky himself visits his wife’s family in the city periodically. “Since then, basically, we would get to-go orders, and whoever would come in and pick up [those] orders would say, ‘Oh, this is going to the Gretzkys,’” Carlson told Fox 2 Now.
Carlson has met Gretzky in person, sometimes delivering orders for him to private airports around St. Louis. That happened again earlier this month, when Gretzky requested an order of pepperoni pizzas, deli sandwiches and tuna salad. Gretzky even gave Carlson a tour of his private jet. “I told him, next time he pulls me on [the plane], I’m not going to want to get off,” Carlson said in the Fox 2 Now interview.
Carlson also said that, according to an agent who helps arrange the orders, “Wayne likes two things when he flies. Doesn’t matter if it’s 10 a.m. or 10 p.m. When he flies, he wants pizza and Heineken.”