KC fans love his New York-style pizza. Now he’s expanding to Johnson County, Lawrence
Erik Borger grew up eating New York-style pizza in New York and after moving to the area he wanted to bring that high-quality to the Kansas City region.
He first opened Pizza Tascio in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 2021. A location opened at 1111 Burlington St., in North Kansas City, in January.
Founder of Kansas City’s popular Il Lazzarone opens New York-style pizzeria
Now he’s expanding again with two more area locations in the works.
▪ A restaurant in La Paloma Plaza, at 6705 W. 119th St. in Overland Park, is scheduled to open in early September. It was a former Dunkin’ donuts.
▪ A Lawrence location, at 1004 Massachusetts St., is scheduled to open by the end of the month.
He said many of his Johnson County customers didn’t want to journey to the Northland, and “Lawrence I have just always liked,” he said.
The menu includes pepperoni, three meat (pepperoni, Italian sausage, salami, oregano, mozzarella and red sauce), cheese, supreme, spicy pepperoni, white tomato, white broccoli, veggie and the Upside Down (cheese first, then sauce, with Parmesan on top). Prices range from $20 to $28 for the 18-inch pies.
Pizza Tascio offers a daily special of two slices and a drink for $10 and pizza by the slice for $4 to $5. It also has cheesy breadsticks. He uses Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes and Italian-style double zero flour (he just put in a $16,000 flour order on Monday, not counting shipping fees).
“We get a lot of ‘this is the most authentic in the Midwest’ and a lot of people saying ‘this is the best pizza I’ve ever had,’” he said. “I spent a year of my life developing that crust recipe.”
Borger founded Il Lazzarone, an authentic Neapolitan-style pizza shop, near downtown St. Joseph. He brought the concept to the River Market in 2015.
But he sold those locations four years ago to spend more time with his young family. He got back in the restaurant business in April 2021 with his first Pizza Tascio in St. Joseph.
