Food and Drink: Columbia’s Shakespeare’s remains a favorite of Audrain County residents

By: Dave Faries, Editor
Posted 8/24/21

What's old is new again, and vice versa.

There is likely just one case where such a cryptic phrase can be applied and actually make sense: Shakespeare's Pizza.

The iconic downtown Columbia …

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Food and Drink: Columbia’s Shakespeare’s remains a favorite of Audrain County residents

Posted

What's old is new again, and vice versa.

There is likely just one case where such a cryptic phrase can be applied and actually make sense: Shakespeare's Pizza.

The iconic downtown Columbia restaurant is a destination for students and residents alike. Grad students treat it as a happy hour reward for completing yet another week of rigorous study. University of Missouri alumni tend to treat Shakespeare's as part of the campus, a must visit on any nostalgic tour.

"It's part of tradition," said Ben Cornelius of Boone Health in Mexico. "It's like a cult following."

Even followers agree there is better pizza to be found in the city. The sauce carries a sweet tang, the crust slips in a mellow, nutty savor – all good.

Shakespeare's is not intended as a haven of artisanal pies. They don't explain the provenance of meats on the menu. There is no list of small local vegetable farms.

The venerable place defies such trends. Yet lines form even before opening time and the kitchen staff turns out 1,000 or so pizzas a day.

It's pizza that fits a crowd, and does so with comfortable perfection.

"Shakespeare's is the atmosphere, the location," observed Mexico's economic development director Russell Runge, who is not a Mizzou alumnus, but has sent two kids to the campus. "I've been there a billion times."

The restaurant also gives back to its guests, perhaps inadvertently.

"Myself, like all Mizzou graduates, have a complete dining set compiled of collected plastic Shakespeare's cups in their cupboards from over the years," Brooke Jameson, CEO of the Mexico Family YMCA, pointed out. "All Columbians – even ones who have relocated – have this staple in their home, no doubt."

The restaurant has been a fixture on the corner of 9th and Elm since 1973. Well, pretty much.

In 2015, the city announced it was scrapping the original building to add more downtown housing. Shakespeare's was torn down, much to the dismay of its legion of fans, and the owners forced to find a temporary location.

Before the staff abandoned the place, however, they took steps to preserve what is most important about Shakespeare's.

"Did you know they rebuilt that building?" said Chad Shoemaker, Mexico's Parks and Recreation Department director. "I heard they used Lidar radar to record their interior. After the building was torn down they rebuilt the interior exactly like it was before."

That's right, they measured everything. They logged the location of every treasured piece of decor. They kept 22,000 of the original bricks for reuse.

Except for a much larger dining room and a few other details, someone walking through the doors of Shakespeare's Pizza for the first time in decades might only notice that an apartment building has sprouted on top of the famed 9th and Elm joint.

Everything else at the new old location – including the pizza – remains the same. Pretty much.


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