One of the things I miss about our former site is being able to follow my original home city. St. Louis has unique pizza, with a very thin, crisp crust, a melty cheese called provel, and slices cut into squares rather than wedges. Often eaten with toasted ravioli, which are breaded and deep-fried and dipped into the marinara sauce on the side. Good bbq, big portions, friendly service – a great eating city.
So how do I get this to post under a new “St. Louis” tag?
I find the Italian in St. Louis is very good…
Pappy’s is da bomb but that’s for Q…
Wish they would bring their famous St. Louis custard soft serve to So. Cal…
There are two places in SoCal that sell St. Louis-inspired frozen custard: Pier Burger is a burger place on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Top Round is a roast beef sandwich place (think Lion’s Choice but better) on the S/E corner of La Brea and Olympic. Both serve “concretes,” which are very thick blends of frozen custard and mix-ins and/or syrups. I don’t know if the custard itself is soft-serve or frozen in tubs. Both are pretty good, albeit not as inexpensive and happily popular as Ted Drewe’s.
Don’t forget you can always get a Veggie sandwich at Amighetti’s, for our vegetarian friends. Nothing like Ted Drewe’s in Socal. Strickland’s in Irvine might be close, but not the same.
I had never heard of “St. Louis-style” pizza until I read an article about it about ten years ago. I had been eating it for years (but was unaware of the name) from the time I was a child in Northwest Indiana in the 1960s until I moved to Florida in 1990, at which point my access to it completely disappeared. Whenever I return to Hammond, Indiana or Schererville, Indiana, getting some (repeatedly) is a high priority. The place in Hammond, Indiana, which serves it is House of Pizza. I can’t remember the name of the place in Schererville, but I understand that it is owned by relatives of the guy who owns the House of Pizza in Hammond.
What I like most about it is the provel cheese, which I have never encountered elsewhere, the slightly bitter green peppers which have been parboiled and then charred, the super crisp crust, and the fact that the makers believe in incorporating basil, oregano, garlic and I don’t know what all else, into the tomato sauce. No “here’s a bland pizza, now sprinkle it with garlic powder, basil, and oregano at the table” for this restaurant! Everything has flavor, including Italian sausage with a hefty dose of fennel seed!
Anyway, apparently this restaurant is a convert, proselytizing about St. Louis-IMO’s-style pizza from St. Louis.