Katie Lee is the chef and owner of Katie’s Pizza and Pasta Osteria in St. Louis, MO. This family-owned and operated restaurant is a successful, award-winning artisan Italian restaurant and bar. Katie’s focuses on a modern, approachable interpretation of regional Italian cuisine, featuring fresh, local, and seasonal ingredients. Her inspiration comes from the time she spent living in Florence, Italy, with her artist mother, Belinda Lee.
Katie has received numerous awards for her cooking and entrepreneurship, including “Best Pizza” and “Best Pasta” from Feast Magazine, “Best Pizza” from Ladue News, and many A-List Awards from St. Louis Magazine. She has also been named Sauce Magazine’s “Chef of the Year” twice in a row. In 2016, Katie was honored on the St. Louis Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list.
At 24, Katie created the business plan for the first and original location, Katie’s Pizzeria, with a dream to bring hand-made, in-house artisan and Neapolitan pizza to St. Louis. Under the ownership of her father, Tom Lee, Katie’s Pizzeria opened its doors in February 2008.
With help from her family and a Kickstarter campaign, Katie opened Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria’s Rock Hill location in 2013, which saw the evolution of Katie’s Pizzeria into what it is today.
In 2017, Katie’s Pizza and Pasta expanded to a second location in Town and Country. Katie’s biggest location yet, a third spot at Ballpark Village in Downtown St. Louis, opened in the Spring of 2023, featuring a pasta-making station, wood-fired grill, expansive patio, private events space, and an in-house market selling to-go items.
When COVID-19 hit, and dining rooms across the country closed, Katie acted fast. She and her team immediately began freezing and selling their pizzas to save the restaurants and protect the livelihood of the Katie’s team. Strong demand and positive feedback gave Katie and her family the momentum to expand and improve the operations, allowing them to ship their pizzas throughout the entire U.S.
Today, Katie's Frozen is a business of its own. You can pick up Katie’s Frozen products, including pizzas, pasta bakes, fresh pasta by the pound, and sauces, in grocery stores across the country such as Dierbergs, Whole Foods, Hy-Vee, Fresh Thyme, Central Market, Balducci’s, and many more.
Now, Katie's focus is giving back to local charities through her successful “Giveback Tuesday" program. Each month, a different local nonprofit is selected to receive 100% of the profits made on the fourth Tuesday of that month at one of Katie’s locations. Since 2014, the program has donated $463,051 to St. Louis-based charities and has been a huge success in the St. Louis community.
THE KATIE’S PROMISE
To create moments of enjoyment between friends and family through passion filled food and warm hospitality.
