Modern Forage: St. Louis, MO
St. Louis is second only to Chicago in entry count for the Midwest, with twelve hyper-local dishes from four distinct lineages: Italian-immigrant Hill cooking (toasted ravioli, hot salami, Mayfair Italian-restaurant tradition), German-immigrant hotel cooking (gooey butter cake, Mayfair dressing), Black-BBQ tradition (snoots, pork steaks), and the city's signature Provel-and-cracker-crust pizza.
St. Louis carries the densest Modern Forage entry count in the Midwest after Chicago. Twelve hyper-local dishes cluster around Italian-immigrant Hill foodways (toasted ravioli, hot salami sandwich, Imo’s pizza style), German-immigrant hotel and bakery cooking (gooey butter cake, Mayfair dressing), Black-BBQ tradition (snoots, pork steaks), Chinese-American adaptation (St. Paul sandwich), and the city’s Imo’s-anchored Provel-and-cracker-crust pizza style. Ted Drewes frozen custard and Red Hot Riplets potato chips round out the brand-locked side; the slinger is the city’s late-night diner plate.
This list is almost certainly incomplete; St. Louis is a major Midwestern food market and likely holds further hyper-local dishes that have not yet surfaced in the survey.
A note on the Where-to-eat blocks. Every entry below carries a list of restaurants and, where available, star ratings as of the date this post was published. These are a snapshot. Verify hours and addresses before driving anywhere.
St. Paul Sandwich — St. Louis, MO
Pattern: Chinese-American Adaptations.
An egg foo young patty on white bread with dill pickles, iceberg lettuce, onions, and mayo. A Chinese-American fusion dish created in the 1940s, commonly attributed to Steven Yuen of Park Chop Suey. Despite St. Louis having many distinctive foods (toasted ravioli, provel cheese, gooey butter cake, the slinger), the St. Paul sandwich is arguably the most obscure outside the city. It remains a staple at Chinese-American restaurants across the metro area.
Sources: Lovefood.com; Wikipedia (List of regional dishes); multiple St. Louis food histories.
Where to eat: Most St. Louis Chinese-American restaurants. Park Chop Suey (the credited origin restaurant). Many neighborhood Chinese-American carryouts on the city’s North Side and South Side keep the dish on the menu.
Hot Salami Sandwich (Salam de Testa) — St. Louis, MO (The Hill)
Thick-sliced salam de testa (a fresh salami made from pig head parts, not a cured salami, processed fresh from beef and pork, never frozen, served warm) on Fazio’s Bakery bread (another 100+ year STL institution), with provolone or Provel cheese, mustard, and pepperoncini. “Hot” refers to temperature, not spice. Food & Wine: “What you’re getting here is something like an Italian-inflected, rustic country pâté.” Gioia’s Deli (est. 1918 on The Hill by Italian immigrant Challie Gioia) is the canonical source. James Beard America’s Classics 2017, Food & Wine “Best Sandwich in Missouri,” 3,000 lbs of salami weekly, 900 customers daily, secret recipe kept in a safe. Fourth-generation owner Alex Donley: “All of these one-hundred-plus-year-old practices have created a product that is synonymous with St. Louis.” Charlie’s Market & Deli (Imo Meat & Sausage, est. 1971, connected to the Imo’s Pizza family) also serves a version. Diaspora signal confirmed: “I’ve never tasted anything like it living in MN, ND and IA.”
Sources: Tasting Table (2023, with Alex Donley interview); Sandwich Tribunal (2024, longform comparative); FOX 2 St. Louis (2021, JBF + Food & Wine); St. Louis Restaurant Review (2025); Palatable Pastime (2023, diaspora nostalgia); Jen Eats blog (2015, firsthand). Six+ sources.
Where to eat: Gioia’s Deli, 1934 Macklind Ave, The Hill (the canonical James Beard America’s Classics 2017 anchor). Charlie’s Market & Deli, Imo Meat & Sausage.
Gerber Sandwich — St. Louis, MO
An open-faced sandwich on Italian bread spread with garlic butter, topped with ham and Provel cheese, sprinkled with paprika, then toasted until melted. Named for Dick Gerber, a neighbor of Ruma’s Deli in South St. Louis who made it himself in their kitchen. Ruma’s added it to the menu and it became a citywide standard, a St. Louis Croque Monsieur. The Provel cheese is essential. Substitute mozzarella and it’s not a Gerber. Available at delis across the city, but Ruma’s (1395 Covington Manor Ln) remains the canonical source.
Sources: Chef Denise (2025, with origin details); Sandwich Tribunal (2024, Provel discussion); AFAR STL food guide (2026); multiple STL food guides. Four+ sources.
Where to eat: Ruma’s Deli, 1395 Covington Manor Ln, South St. Louis (the canonical source). Most St. Louis delis carry a version.
Toasted Ravioli — St. Louis, MO (The Hill)
Breaded, deep-fried ravioli (beef-filled), served with marinara for dipping, dusted with Parmesan. Created on The Hill in the 1940s. Origin contested between Mama Campisi’s and Charlie Gitto’s. “If you are away from St. Louis, you likely won’t find this item anywhere on the menu.” Served as an appetizer at virtually every Italian restaurant in the metro. T-ravs are so embedded that STL transplants report confusion when other cities don’t have them.
Sources: Only in Your State (2017); Chef Denise (2025); AFAR (2026); Odyssey (2019, diaspora nostalgia); multiple STL food guides. Five+ sources.
Where to eat: Mama Campisi’s, The Hill (claims origin). Charlie Gitto’s, 5226 Shaw Ave, The Hill (also claims origin). Virtually every St. Louis Italian restaurant.
Gooey Butter Cake — St. Louis, MO
A cake made from a yeasted dough base topped with a gooey layer of butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and eggs. Created in the 1930s, reportedly by accident when a baker reversed his proportions of butter and flour. The texture is deliberately underbaked: cakey on the outside, dense and molten in the center. “I remember the first time I made this cake in North Carolina. All of my friends were blown away.” Sold at bakeries across the city. Park Avenue Coffee is among the best-known. The recipe is deceptively simple but requires specific technique to nail the gooey center.
Sources: AFAR (2026); Chef Denise (2025); Odyssey (2019, diaspora); Only in Your State (2017); multiple STL food guides. Five+ sources.
Where to eat: Park Avenue Coffee, multiple St. Louis locations (the citywide gooey butter cake destination; many flavor variants). Federhofer’s Bakery, Affton (heritage gooey butter cake bakery). Missouri Baking Co., The Hill.
Pork Steak — St. Louis, MO
A blade steak cut from the pork shoulder (not pork chops, which come from the loin), grilled and then finished with a slathering of barbecue sauce, traditionally Maull’s, a local brand. The cut itself is unusual outside STL: “pork steaks are an unusual cut, they can be a difficult item for restaurants to source.” Thick fat cap and marbling make it tender. A backyard BBQ staple across the metro. Maull’s BBQ sauce (STL-local brand) is the traditional pairing. Part of a broader STL barbecue identity that also includes snoots (grilled pig snouts), rib tips, and burnt ends.
Sources: AFAR (2026, with restaurant recommendations); Chef Denise (2025); multiple STL BBQ guides. Three+ sources.
Where to eat: Bogart’s Smokehouse, 1627 S 9th St (signature pork steak). Adam’s Smokehouse, 2819 Watson Rd. Or buy a pork blade steak at any St. Louis-area grocery store and grill at home with Maull’s BBQ Sauce.
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard — St. Louis, MO
Frozen custard so thick it’s served upside-down. The signature “concrete” doesn’t fall out of the cup. Founded 1929 by Ted Drewes Sr., the Chippewa Street location is a summer pilgrimage site with lines wrapping around the building. JBF America’s Classics winner. “I hope you all start planning your food trip to St. Louis while I sleep dreaming of the next time I can have Provel cheese and Ted Drewes.” Frozen custard itself exists in Milwaukee and other Midwest cities, but the Ted Drewes concrete format and the institutional culture around it is STL-specific.
Sources: AFAR (2026); Chef Denise (2025); Odyssey (2019, diaspora); Only in Your State (2017); JBF America’s Classics. Five+ sources.
Where to eat: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, 6726 Chippewa St (the Chippewa flagship; the summer pilgrimage). The Grand Avenue location (4224 S Grand Blvd) is the second.
Red Hot Riplets — St. Louis, MO
Pattern: Grocery Store Regionalism.
Ridged potato chips seasoned with hot sauce and barbecue spices, made by Old Vienna LLC (est. 1936, reborn 1996). “Almost entirely a local phenomenon. The company does not have the finances or ability to expand its distribution to a national level.” A STL Post-Dispatch columnist: “It was a full six months before a colleague just came right out with it: ‘Man, you’ve got to try Red Hot Riplets.’” Fiercely loyal following, particularly in the African-American community: “They just purchase what they like and what they grew up with.” Locals crush them as breading for chicken, sprinkle on mac and cheese, and make party mixes. The owner: “If people ask my adult children ‘what does your dad do?’ and they say ‘he’s the Red Hot Riplet guy,’ they’re treated like kings and queens.”
Sources: STL Post-Dispatch (2021, longform by Ian Froeb); AFAR (2026); Chef Denise (2025); UDTECH (2025); multiple STL food guides. Five+ sources.
Where to eat: Any St. Louis-area grocery store, gas station, or corner shop. Old Vienna LLC ships nationally for diaspora orders.
St. Louis-Style Pizza — St. Louis, MO
A cracker-thin, unleavened (or barely leavened) crust rolled paper-thin, topped with sweetened tomato sauce and Provel — a processed cheese blend of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone with a low melting point that goes glossy and almost liquid in the oven. Cut in 4-inch squares (“party cut” or “tavern cut”), never wedges. The dish is built around Provel, which was developed in St. Louis in the 1940s by the Costa Grocery and Hoffman Dairy collaboration as a fixed blend that sets up gloss-smooth at oven temperature; Schreiber Foods is the dominant manufacturer today. Imo’s Pizza (founded 1964 by Ed and Margie Imo, ~95 locations across the metro and downstate Illinois) is the largest purveyor, the dominant grocery-aisle frozen brand, and the brand most often used as the city’s culinary stand-in. The pizza is divisive even within St. Louis. Outsiders frequently misread the cheese as plastic on first encounter, and a meaningful fraction of locals refuse to eat it, but it remains the city’s signature pizza style despite (or because of) the Provel lock-in. Containment is structural: the cheese is St. Louis-only at retail scale, and the cracker-crust + Provel + sweetened sauce + 4-inch-square combination doesn’t exist anywhere else in the country. Loathed and beloved in roughly equal measure; either way, you can only get it here.
Sources: Wikipedia (St. Louis-style pizza); Wikipedia (Provel cheese); Imo’s Pizza official; Eater St. Louis; Sauce Magazine; Atlas Obscura; Riverfront Times; STL Post-Dispatch dining coverage. Six+ sources.
Where to eat: Imo’s Pizza (citywide chain, the canonical mass-market version; ships frozen). Pizza-a-Go-Go, 6703 Scanlan Ave (independent neighborhood standby with scratch sauce). Cecil Whittaker’s (Missouri-Illinois chain, ~50 locations). Frank & Helen’s, 8111 Olive Blvd, University City (since 1956, sit-down Provel + cracker crust + scratch sauce). Provel itself is at any St. Louis-area grocery; Schreiber sells five-pound loaves to home cooks willing to roll their own.
Snoots — St. Louis, MO
Pig snouts, slow-smoked over hickory until the cartilage softens and the skin crisps into a shell, then sometimes finished on the grill or fryer; served in a paper basket on white bread, doused in sweet tomato barbecue sauce. Eaten with the fingers or a fork. Texture is part pork rind, part cracklin’, part rib tip. A single cut delivering several mouthfeels in one bite. Originated in St. Louis’s Black BBQ tradition during the Great Migration, when South Side and North Side pitmasters used cheap whole-hog cuts (snouts, ears, tips) that the rest of the country shipped abroad or threw out. C&K Barbecue (1101 Tucker Blvd, since 1963) is the canonical destination; Smoki O’s, Roper’s Ribs, and Super Smoker’s BBQ all carry them. Containment is near-total: the dish exists almost nowhere outside St. Louis, and St. Louis transplants regularly cite snoots as the food they can’t replace. Eddy Roper Jr. (Roper’s Ribs) describes them as “like a pork rind, but with a ton of meat on it.” A parallel to the Chicago aquarium-smoked tip-and-link as a Black-BBQ regional signature: a cheap cut elevated into a city-defining preparation, locked in place by the absence of pork-snout supply chains anywhere else.
Sources: KSDK (longform feature); Sauce Magazine; Riverfront Times; Feast Magazine; Eater St. Louis; The Bittman Project; STL Post-Dispatch dining coverage. Six+ sources.
Where to eat: C&K Barbecue, 1101 Tucker Blvd, downtown (since 1963; the canonical name; carry-out, often a line). Smoki O’s, 1545 N Broadway (well-known for snoot orders). Roper’s Ribs, 6929 W Florissant Ave (Eddy Roper Jr.). Super Smoker’s BBQ, multiple metro locations. Most STL Black-owned BBQ joints carry snoots — ask for “snoots” or “snouts” and expect a paper basket on white bread.
Slinger — St. Louis, MO
A breakfast/late-night diner plate: two eggs over easy on top of a hamburger patty on top of hash browns, all smothered in chili, topped with cheese and onions. The St. Louis slinger is hangover food, the city’s answer to Rochester’s Garbage Plate or Nashville’s hot chicken. Served at diners across the metro, particularly late at night. Unknown outside the STL area.
Sources: Eat This, Not That; multiple St. Louis food sources.
Where to eat: Eat-Rite Diner, 622 Chouteau Ave (24-hour; the canonical STL diner slinger). Courtesy Diner, 3155 S Kingshighway and other locations. Most St. Louis 24-hour diners carry one.
Mayfair Dressing — St. Louis, MO
Pattern: Grocery Store Regionalism.
An anchovy-based salad dressing created at the Mayfair Hotel (~1935 by chef Fred Bangerter, though some link it to the 1904 World’s Fair). Made from oil, whole eggs, anchovies, garlic, celery, onion, prepared mustard, champagne, and black peppercorns. Similar to Caesar but with more “bite.” The hotel sold it by the pint. Regulars “would go to the Mayfair Hotel and buy this dressing by the pint” as a luxury. The secret recipe was so valued that Nantucket Cove restaurant purchased it from the hotel. Still on many St. Louis restaurant menus today. Diaspora nostalgia is strong: “30 years later and I find the recipe. What joy it brought. I live on the east coast now. It’s my soul comfort food.”
Sources: Wikipedia; St. Louis Magazine (2017/2025); Feast Magazine (2023); Food.com (diaspora nostalgia comments); Barbaric Gulp blog (STL local); Lost Dishes of St. Louis. Six+ sources.
Where to eat: Nantucket Cove, Clayton (the historical Mayfair-recipe successor restaurant). Several other STL restaurants keep Mayfair dressing on the menu; ask the server which house dressing is the Mayfair.
More from the series
Browse the rest of the Modern Forage survey.
Research & primary sources
Methodology, validation logs, and the entries that didn’t make this post are in the modern_forage/ on GitHub. Every entry here passed a 2+ independent-source check; the citations under each dish list them.