When I was in St. Louis at the end of last year, my dad, ever the epicure, decided to show me some of the local fare.
My father is the one who first introduced me to a true New York slice, at Patsy’s and John’s, so I was surprised when he was so excited to show me pizza from another town. Cicero’s definitely isn’t New York pizza, but it’s a prime example of St. Louis style pizza.
They aren’t joking when they call this pizza thin-crust — cracker-like and crispy, the crust of this pizza is just thick enough to hold up a fairly generous amount of tomato sauce and cheese (Provel, which, I learned, is a mix of provolone and mozzarella, and is gooier than any cheese I’ve ever tried, with the possible exception of raclette).
I like that they spread the toppings all the way to the sides, though it does make it tough to eat without a knife and fork. (Not that I’m complaining — living in France means that this is my normal pizza-eating behavior. *Hides from angry fold-and-bite New Yorkers.*)
I’m not hugely into sweets, but my dad definitely is. He’s also pretty good at telling the difference between an OK dessert and a really phenomenal, gotta-try-it dessert, so he persuaded me to try some Ted Drewes frozen custard.
This St. Louis staple is sold either “sundae” (soft) or “concrete” (hard) — we opted for the former. I delegated to my dad as far as toppings were concerned (in matters of dessert, one nearly always should), so we tried it with hot fudge and nuts. It was just the perfect amount of sweet (aka, not too much), and in my opinion, it’s far superior to ice cream.
Did I miss any St. Louis staples that I should have tried?