RACELAND — Chef Drex McCalvin spent years chasing the memory of the flavor and feel of the pizza he grew up with. When he nailed the recipe after years of trial and error, he knew he had a taste of something worth sharing.

“That taste as a kid — stuck in my mind forever. I spent the rest of my life in a quest for that taste. I said, ‘I’m going to do it. I miss it so much, I’m going to do it myself.’ One night we hit it. My wife agreed it was fabulous, and now I’m the only one who knows the recipe,” McCalvin said, explaining he had been pursuing a formula based somewhere between LaRosa’s Pizzeria of Cincinnati and Donato’s Pizza of Columbus.

McCalvin and his wife, Jami, opened Pizzardo’s Pizza at 4341⁄2 Greenup Road in Raceland on April Fool’s Day. “It kind of fit my personality,” he said with a chuckle. “When the opportunity for this came up ... we decided to go for it.”

Among the many challenges of opening a pizzeria was finding the right name. McCalvin smiles and shakes his head as he tells the story.

“My wife and I were high school sweethearts,” he begins, explaining he tagged her with the nickname “Pizzard” after she turned up her nose, made a noise and flicked her tongue at him. “It was like a pig⁄lizard, so I called her Pizzard.

“As a joke, I suggested Pizzard Pizza. We wanted to make it sound classy and Italian, so we added an ‘O.’ We later found out that is an actual Italian name,” McCalvin said, adding the name may even be shared by a member of the pope’s staff.

Combining his absolute passion for cooking, his labor-of-love recipes and 20 years of experience in commercial kitchens, McCalvin began working on a menu offering both familiar entrees and somewhat-exotic options.

“We put the love back in pizza. We are pushing pizza limits to the extreme,” he said, noting the quality and attention that goes into the barbecue on his pulled-pork pizza, alongside choices including a taco pizza, the Meatster, TSO Hawaiian, cheeseburger, Buffalo or Buffalo chicken, chicken Alfredo, Mac & Cheese pizza and a Chicago-style deep dish pizza “that is this thick (holding his thumb and finger far apart) and you may need somebody to help you carry it.”

McCalvin also offers dessert pizzas topped with choices including apple, cherry, blueberry, peach or his own formulation for a peanut butter and jelly pizza or even a peanut-butter-cup pizza he designed as a salute to his wife’s favorite candy.

Anyone who talks to McCalvin about pizza will quickly learn of his genuine hatred for things like conveyor ovens and any sort of shortcut. He believes in piling his toppings heavy upon the custom-batch dough and secret sauce, and then applying his blend of mozzarella and provolone cheese.

“Only real, real cheese,” he said with emphasis. “It has to have that stretch.”

While pizza may be the star of the show at Pizzardo’s, it is far from being the only thing on the menu. McCalvin prepares specialty sauces for his pasta dishes, and the small restaurant has numerous choices including salads, oven-baked sandwiches and calzones.

“It is worth the drive to Raceland,” McCalvin concluded before adding customers may have to wait a bit longer and even pay a little more for their food than they are accustomed to from places that specialize in premanufactured “ready-to-go” food.

For more information or to place an order, call (606) 836-0277.

TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2651.