Thanks to my kindred Roadfoodies for the encouragement and kind offers of suggestions on places to eat. I have a large number of places identified, but am always willing and eager to hear of more places to explore.

I suffered a poor wireless connection in the St. Louis hotel room. I have arrived in Dallas and have access to a reliable high spped connection. I will catch up in a few posts.

Day 2: Sightsee around St. Louis
Miles: 55
Roadfood: Does Steak ‘n Shake count?

I spent the day in St. Louis visiting and photographing the Gateway Arch, driving around my alma mater, St. Louis U, and visiting the Missouri Museum of Transportation. I was still a little tired from the previous day’s drive and was not adventurous with my eating.

Here are some photos:

Everyone has seen pictures of the arch:

This is a picture of a "Big Boy". It is the largest successful steam locomotive ever built. If you look carefully you will see it has 2 complete sets of 8 drive wheels. It could not operate east of the Missippi because the bridges could not support it’s weight, or so they say.

Here are some pictures from Rigazzi’s. It is a restaurant on "The Hill". This primarily Italian neighborhood is still a very nice and clean place to live, tucked into the middle of a big city. As you drive through the neighborhood you can tell that everyone is still very proud of their home and neighborhood. The hill is also mad about baseball. After all, Yobi Berra and Joe Garragiola grew up here. While I was in Rigazzi’s all the TVs were showing baseball all the time.

Here is Rigazzi’s signature "fishbowl":

A dish unique to St. Louis is toasted ravioli. This is ravioli that is deep fried, dusted with parmesian cheese and served with a marinara sauce for dipping. Another restaurant on The Hill, Charlie Gitto’s claims to have invented this dish.

Rigazzi’s serves their toasted ravioli with their meat sauce. The same one that you would get if you ordered pasta with meat sauce. Some places serve this dish with a generic marinara sauce, but I found that Rigazzi’s meat sauce definitely enhaced the flavor. The ravioli are hand made locally on The Hill and are in and of themselves very good. Also, at Rigazzi’s the parmesian cheese was thick enough to form a frico-like covering on the ravioli. This was a nice touch.

Here is the sausage sandwich. It is made with two patties of locally made Italian sausage grilled to a crunchy crispness. It is topped with "Provel" cheese – a tangy provolone. Notice that the sauce is served on the side. This is the same meat sauce that is served with the toasted ravioli. But, because it is served on the side, the sandwich is much easier to eat. You dip the sandwich in the meat sauce and therfore you never have the sauce dripping out at the wrong time. Also, by using patty sausage the roll lays flat and this also makes the sandwich easy to eat.

If you are driving through St. Louis I would highly recommend Rigazzi’s. It is literall 2 minutes off of I-44 at the Kingshighway exit. Or you could try another place on The Hill. It is famous for the restaurants.

All in all a good time in St. Louis.