Many Fine Dining Choices During IAFC Conference
“Meet me in St. Louis, Louie; meet me at the fair …
Everybody sang it in 1904 on their way to one of the great expositions in history, a fair that produced two items that have become essential to modern America. Along the midway, a sausage salesman with tender fingers inserted a freshly cooked frankfurter into a bun and invented the hot dog. Nearby, an ice cream salesman wrapped a cooling waffle around his wares and invented the ice cream cone.
Years later, a few landmarks and a few legends remain from the fair, but today’s St. Louis is a city with considerable charm and life and, despite some recent cynical comments, it is putting a new face on its downtown, a new spring in its civic step.
The tourist stamp
And, by the way, despite the words of that old song, the people who live here pronounce the final “s” on the name of their city. “St. Louie” will immediately stamp you as an out-of-towner, unfamiliar with King Louis IX of France, who gave his name to the city where the Missouri River joins the Mississippi.
Until a decade or so ago, St. Louis was like a lot of its midwestern neigbors, sitting quietly in the doldrums of the world of fine eating.
Now, things have changed, and pleasantly for the better. A city that didn’t have a French restaurant in 1971 now has five splendid ones, and even on the Hill, the long-time Italian enclave in the southwestern part of the city, new and better restaurants have arrived. The Hill, by the way, is home to Yogi Berra and Joe Garagiola, and a walk through its quiet streets provides not only splendid dining, but some superior shopping at Italian groceries, bakeries and meat markets that still make their own sausage and prosciutto.
Elegant and expensive
The downtown area boasts four elegant—and expensive—restaurants, each with its own character. Dinner will rarely be under $20 per person.
Tony’s, at 826 North Broadway (231-7007), is the city’s only owner of the Mobil 5-star award and has been ever since the awards were instituted. It’s the premier restaurant in the city, one of the dozen or so best in the nation. The food is Italian-Continental, and owner Vince Bommarito and his staff offer exquisite dining and service to match. The veal chop is a winner, a huge chunk of tender veal topped with a truffle sauce—or almost any other sauce you can imagine. Fresh seafood, pasta, steaks and a variety of other dishes are available, and its a superior experience. Be warned, however—Tony’s takes no reservations.
Anthony’s, in the Equitable Building at 10 South Broadway (231-1434), is a younger brother to Tony’s, and Tony Bommarito, younger brother to Vince, is in charge. The room has a New York feel, with lots of smoked glass and dark fittings, but with the same impeccable service as the other establishment. The menu, however, is different. No pasta, more lighter foods with preparation leaning toward the French style. Fresh meats and seafoods are served in a variety of sauces or just plain. Lunch and dinner reservations are taken. Anthony’s, however, is the last outpost of formality in the city—coat and tie required for men.
Show and tell
Al’s, at 1200 Main Street (421-6399) is actually at First and Biddle Sts., but owner A1 Baroni found an old map that showed the presence of a Main Street where the restaurant now stands, and he likes the idea. He serves dinner only, and there’s no formal menu. Waiters bring around a platter showing the night’s basic offerings and then describe the various sauces and styles of preparation. The tone is Italian, the specialities are steaks and chops.
Cafe de France at 408 Olive St. (231-2204) is downtown’s newest gourmet restaurant. Marcel Keraval opened less than two years ago, but it has established a reputation for haute cuisine French cooking that ranks with the best in the city. Lunch and dinner are available, with reservations accepted. The offerings can be prepared in the classic style or in some of the newer cooking techniques, but dessert is extremely old-fashioned—lots of calories in an array that is beautiful to look at and tastes every bit as good as it looks.
Economical eating
Like most cities, however, St. Louis can offer a variety of meals to fit any taste and any pocketbook. The Miss Hulling’s cafeterias have been a tradition for more than half a century, and there are good views of the river from the Lt. Robert E. Lee and the Belle Angeline, both moored at the levee where cotton bales used to be traded. Incidentally, Lee’s rank is neither an error nor an insult. When Lee was a Corps of Engineers officer here in the 1840s, he was a lieutenant.
The downtown streets are dotted with restaurants—Chinese food at the Shanghai, 606 Pine St.; ribs at McCrary’s, 9th and Pine. An old-time St. Louis lunch habit is the O. T. Hodges Chili Parlor, 814 Pine St., where the range of dress begins at three-piece suits and ends with torn shirts and raggedy shoes. Kosher delicatessen lunches are available at the Corn Beef Shop, 803 Chestnut St., or at Jack Carl’s Two Cents Plain, 313 N. 11th St.
And if you’re shopping, the city’s two big department stores, Famous-Barr and Stix, Baer and Fuller both serve excellent lunches in their dining rooms.
Laclede’s Landing
Just north of the Arch, between the Eads and Martin Luther King Bridges and extending three or four blocks west from the river, is Laclede’s Landing, named for the man who is credited with founding St. Louis. Pierre Laclede was a fur trader, and he and his partner, Auguste Chouteau, landed there in 1764.
The landing, with narrow, cobblestone streets and some pretty steep hills, includes a large number of places to eat, drink and be entertained, mostly in buildings that are more than a century old. The rebuilding and remodeling have been extensive and beautiful.
In terms of food, most of it is pretty standard—hamburgers, soups, salads, quiche, omelettes, some Mexican dishes for lunch. Dinner is usually more complex. Most of the spots have live entertainment, from cocktail-hour piano players to jazz combos, rock groups, and country guitar-players later in the evenings. Sometimes you can tell as you stroll by.
Best looking restaurant
Hannegan’s is probably the nicestlooking restaurant in the Landing. It’s owned by Bob Hannegan and named for his father, one-time chairman of the Democratic National Committee and postmaster general under Harry Truman, still Missouri’s first son. As a matter of fact, there’s a letter on the wall to Hannegan from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, noting that he would accept Truman as a running mate in the 1944 presidential campaign.
It features a seafood bar and hearty soups and sandwiches. Across the street, under the same ownership, is Roma’s, where ribs and other barbecued meats are featured. Massucci’s Hollywood Bar and Grill offers hamburgers under almost anything you can imagine. Kennedy’s Second Street Company caps its week with a splendid brunch, while Lucius Boomer’s makes first-rate omelettes. Bogart’s has the loudest music and the Old Spaghetti Factory is charming to look at and popular with children.
Slightly farther south of downtown than Laclede’s Landing is north, there’s another old part of the city. Its focus is the Soulard Market. Some of the older buildings in the neighborhood have been rehabilitated, and there are restaurants and entertainment spots dotting the neighborhood.
Carnegie’s for example, is in a remodeled library, and Browner’s Mike and Min’s, with some very good homemade soups, usually features some fine musicians.
Bohemian area
A 15-minute cab ride west of downtown is an area known as the Central West End, where elegant houses and lovely antique shops abound. It’s home to the city’s Bohemian community— artists, writers, a few drifters, musicians, people who walk to a different drummer.
The area is anchored by the venerable Chase-Park Plaza Hotel, the grande dame among the city’s hotels and due for a facelift after its recent sale. It is the home of the Tenderloin Room, one of the top spots in the area for steaks and a restaurant favored by visiting theatrical types and athletes.
Along Euclid Ave., a block east of the hotel, the restaurants and bars have an informal air. If the weather is nice, several have sidewalk dining areas— always nice at the noon hour.
Balaban’s at 405 N. Euclid, is a restaurant that blends white tablecloths with a highly informal atmosphere but with some outstanding cuisine. There are French overtones and a loving hand with fresh fish. Duff’s just south at 393 N. Euclid, changes menus every month and offers four or five choices, always prepared with imagination and style. On a dollar value basis, it’s one of the best buys in town.
Entertainment offered
There’s less formal entertainment in the Central West End—conversation seems to fill the gap—but the Chase often has big acts, or revues, or something enjoyable going on, and Duffs tends toward poetry readings and guitar players.
Culpeppers, at Euclid and Maryland, serves spectacular sandwiches and wonderful soups, and the kitchen stays open until midnight. If the weather is nice, Zimfel’s, across the street, sells good wine by the glass and has a fine assortment of cheeses to go with it.
There’s always more formal entertainment, too. The American Theatre, downtown, books traveling stage productions of all types, and the St. Louis Symphony, second-oldest in the nation, performs in spectacularly beautiful Powell Symphony Hall on Grand Ave. Kiel Opera House, also downtown, is home to a variety of concerts and some of the larger stage musicals, and if you’re a theater buff who doesn’t mind traveling to the suburbs, the resident regional theater, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, performs at the Loretto-Hilton Center. Bertoldt Brecht’s “A Three Penny Opera” opens the fall season.
And don’t worry, St. Louis hasn’t forgotten that heritage of the fair—hot dogs and ice cream cones are still available.
