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By Dave Lowry
[Note: This is the first in a new web-only review series called “Been There?” The series will explore more or less off-the-radar spots around town. Have a suggestion for a neighborhood spot we should check out? Let us know.]
The classic, iconic St. Louis Italian eatery--what's more "St. Louis"? Okay, flesh-blistering car seats in August. Shoveling six inches of the local weather guy's "partly cloudy" off your driveway in January. Winter or summer, though, you have visitors in town, and if they want to see a typical St. Louis restaurant, you couldn't do much better than Adamo's.
Ambience is critical in places like this. From the trellis room dividers festooned with plastic grape vines, to the long bar locked and loaded with Budweiser’s finest, to those stylish plastic checkered tablecloths, Adamo's has it. In order to be classic Stl-It-Am, the place must also have families in regular attendance, without seeming to cater to them. Kids are welcome here. It's clear, though: This isn't a Chuck E. Cheese, and the kids don't behave like it is. It's got that bar long enough to accommodate your bowling team and the team that beat you in the tournament, and yet Adamo's isn’t a watering hole. This is a place you come to eat.
Waitresses in these places must either look too young for the senior prom or old enough to make implausible their denials that they ever discoed. Both servers at Adamo's were in the former category; both were late for the evening shift. So a cook was taking orders and serving food and acting as sommelier. He managed the first two jobs better than the third. He broke the cork on a bottle of Chianti we ordered and he forgot our order of garlic cheese bread. But little says "Sorry" more eloquently than a big comped platter of meatballs lolling in marinara sauce that shortly appeared on our table to pass the time. It passed deliciously. Meatballs here are light and beefy and obviously casalingo. Salads are enormous, dressed more stylishly than most of the clientele (us included). A little tub of extra dressing appears beside the plate of Caesar salad; St. Louisans like their salad dressing the way Donald Trump likes his comb-overs: lots of it and on the side.
Of course, the essential St. Louis It-Am dining experience revolves around what goes on top of that pizza--and what's on the bottom as well. Adamo's strikes a "Can't we all get along?" note here. The crust isn’t purely "St. Louis-style," in that it doesn’t taste like a Saltine impregnated with tomato sauce. It's thicker than the St. Louis Standard (an even thicker "deep-dish" version is available), yeastier, with more of those irregular bubble "beads" that inevitably mark a homemade dough. On top, the restaurant opts for a combination of Provel and mozzarella that will satisfy all but the most loonily dedicated Provel purist but which is also palatable to those who prefer the more mozzarella-y side of pizza life.
Other Italian offerings bounce all over the place. There are almost two dozen pasta dishes, from that nuptial standby mostaccioli to lobster-stuffed ravioli to linguini with clams. Ribs and chicken are also on the menu, but anybody who'd order these at an Italian joint would go to a sushi place for steak.
The marinara's spicy, the Chianti--even with a little cork floating in it--is flowing in a happy, purply stream. There are families here, along with couples, and softball teams celebrating victories or drowning defeats. It's lively--but not so loud you can’t hear Dino crooning "Volare" in the background--and the food’s good and it’s affordable.
You'll find Adamo's in Bridgeton. There's a bowling alley nearby, usually a good sign that you're near a decent Italian-American joint. An even better sign is a meatball sub on the menu and another stuffed with Italian sausage. Does Adamo's have toasted ravioli? Come on. Would we steer you to an iconic St. Louis Italian-American restaurant that didn't?
Adamo's Italian Restaurant
12207 Natural Bridge Road
Bridgeton, MO (Google Maps)
314-291-3555
