For a former “cowardly eater,” local author Ann Lemons Pollack has written a rollicking and authoritative book on St. Louis restaurant history. In the interests of full disclosure, though, Pollack was also the longtime partner of erstwhile St. Louis Post-Dispatch dining critic Joe Pollack, who died in 2012. She's also a regular contributor to St. Louis Magazine. The Pollacks wrote three guide books together on this city’s food, and she certainly knows her stuff.
Lost Restaurants of St. Louis was published by Arcadia Publishing a few days ago. It knits up St. Louis culinary history in four parts, beginning (of course) with the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World’s Fair), but going well beyond the folk legend “foodie firsts” (waffles as ice cream cones, hot dogs, cotton candy, etc.) that are usually attributed to the expo. Here, we learn there were a number of restaurants on the fairground that each could seat 2,000 people at a time, and food for every budget was available. At the Minnesota state building, a free lunch of pickles, beans, bread, and butter was available if diners arrived early enough, and The German Wine Restaurant, which sold a lavish prix fixe meal for $2, went bankrupt the following year because it was simply too pricey. At Ralston Purina’s lunchroom, everything except the daily specials were 10 cents, while August Busch’s brainchild, Tyrolean Alps Restaurant, offered a double sirloin with béarnaise for a whopping $3.75.
We learn, too, that the fair was impressively international in flavor, offering not just the foods of Germany, Ireland, and Italy but also Japan, Sweden, France, Egypt, and Mexico. “St. Louisians continue to refer to the fair, but there’s so much we’ve forgotten,” writes Lemons Pollack. The size of the attendance (an estimated average of 87,000 people a day over the seven-month period) and the huge challenge of feeding so many was “nothing short of stunning.”
The bulk of the book is devoted to “Really Golden Oldies,” the 40 or so restaurants that are no longer in existence. Some, like Busch’s Grove (famous for its mint juleps, prime rib, and fillet of sole) date to the turn of the last century. Others—Nantucket Cove, Rossino’s, and Cafe Balaban—will be fresher in the memories of their fans.
Pollack says the spot on which Rossino’s sat (on Sarah just north of West Pine) was among the first places in the Midwest to make pizza. It was 1945 and the restaurant, housed in snug half-basement, was called Melrose. New owners in 1954 christened the Italian-American eatery Rossino’s, and in 1963 it passed to Nancy and Tom Zimmerman, who ran the restaurant until it closed for good in 2006. “The restaurant was dark and full of atmosphere … At any moment, it seemed as though Frank Sinatra and a couple of friends could walk in and be greeted as regulars,” Pollack writes, remembering the candles and red checkered tablecloths. Sinatra never was a guest, though Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, did pay a visit one night in 1988.
Fun tidbits like this (and the fact that Bill Murray loved Crown Candy Kitchen’s malts so much he ordered 50) keep the book lively and help to paint St. Louis as the relevant culinary town that it is.
“St. Louis has always liked to eat,” Pollack says. “We were bringing barrels of oysters on ice up from the Gulf on boats and fast trains even before 1900.” And she says mackerel from the Atlantic was certainly on the menu at Tony Faust’s Oyster House and Restaurant. That establishment, which she calls “the granddaddy of great St. Louis restaurants,” opened in 1868 at Broadway and Russell, but moved shortly thereafter to Broadway and Elm. There it gained a national reputation for fine dining, which, besides seafood, included frogs legs, woodcock, and chanterelle mushrooms.
Although Naugles Tacos & Burgers was a California-based chain, Pollack includes it here because it was so beloved by locals. ”It was definitely popular with the young and young-at-heart, but there were times when things got somewhat out of hand,” she remembers, listing trash, traffic, loud noise, and “other results of too much beer.”
Among the other oldies are The Sunshine Inn and Three Fountains, Riddle’s Penultimate in The Loop, The Lettuce Leaf, King Louie’s, and Jack Carl’s Two Cents Plain (where everything came with a side of tongue).
In Part Three, Pollack talks about three restaurants that are still open for business: Al’s, Bevo Mill, and Crown Candy. In the last section, she lists a few iconic recipes, among them Elsah Landing’s Pumpkin Praline Pie, Nantucket Cove’s Mayfair Dressing, The Green Parrot Inn’s fried chicken, and Riddle’s Penultimate Magical Garlic Potatoes, which required around 4 cups of heavy cream.
Lost Restaurants of St. Louis is available now on Amazon and at Left Bank Books and is expected soon at Barnes & Noble. The author will be signing copies of the book at Left Bank Books on Tuesday, December 4, at 7 p.m.
