To get a taste of St. Louis, one could do worse than consult with Judi Beheler, a certified tour guide who works for local DMC Discover St. Louis (www.discover-stlouis.com).
While she readily points out the town’s many accolades—the city offers more free attractions than any U.S. city other than Washington, D.C., for instance—the true way to attendees’ hearts is through their stomachs.
From music to food, St. Louisans have a hearty appetite, with the city’s many colorful neighborhoods serving up hefty servings of each.
Perhaps no neighborhood is as colorful as The Hill, which was founded by Italian immigrants.
“It’s still very much Italian today,” Beheler says. “Even the fireplugs are the colors of the Italian flag. The sites and smells of Italy abound in this neighborhood.”
As ubiquitous as Italian-Americans are to The Hill, so is the signature snack food of St. Louis—toasted ravioli—throughout the city.
“Toasted ravioli was founded in St. Louis,” Beheler points out. “It’s like a boiled ravioli, except they deep-fry them. It’s everywhere in St. Louis—you can even buy them in grocery stores here.”
Barbecue, of course, is a topic of conversation that can provoke a confrontation depending on which region’s signature style you favor. Be it Texas-style, Kansas City-style, Low Country-style, or Memphis-style, it’s all good, but none is better than what can be found in St. Louis—that’s the story it’s wise to stick to when visiting the Gateway City, anyway.
“Barbecue is big here,” Beheler notes. “In fact, other cities will say their sauce is St. Louis-style barbecue—we do consume a lot of barbecue sauce.”
Smothered on pork, tomato-based St. Louis-style sauce is thinned with vinegar and has a sweet and spicy flavor—not as sweet and thick as Kansas City-style, not as spicy and thin as Texas-style.
And if the sauce is venturing a little too far west, toward rival Kansas City-style, it can be thinned during the cooking process with a little beer—Budweiser comes to mind, thank you.
Yet another signature St. Lou food item is something many would consider a dessert food, but what many St. Louisans enjoy for breakfast.
“Something else that’s unique to St. Louis, food-wise, is the Gooey butter cake,” Beheler says. “It’s sort of like a breakfast item—more than a dessert—with lots of butter and a topping of powdered sugar—and we don’t take the calories out of them.”
