Chris’s Pancake & Dining

The lead item among Chris’s breakfast specialties is named “Top of the Hill”; connoisseurs of unruly St. Louis gastronomy will recognize it as a Slinger. That’s the kill-or-cure dish that is a hamburger topped with eggs, chili, hash browns, cheese, and onions. In the same over-copious genre as a Nick Tahou Garbage Plate or a Springfield, Illinois, Horseshoe, Top of the Hill is a mighty, spicy, greasy, big-flavored plate of food, really quite beautiful as abstract art. In fact, it is visually so compelling that I forgot to photograph it until I was halfway through. Mea culpa! (Fortunately, Buffetbuster came through town and remembered to take a picture before eating it.) But if you are a looking for a true and ridiculously hearty St. Louis breakfast — served here any time — I do recommend it.

A couple of the dishes I did remember to photograph were not quite so captivating, but were very good: a bountiful summer omelet of tomatoes, bacon, spinach and cheese. The menu lists it as coming with Provel cheese – a processed mix of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone frequently found on St. Louis pizza – but “single origin” cheese also is available: feta, cheddar, American. Salsiccia is another winner – muscular, fennel-spiked Italian sausages served in pairs with eggs, hash browns, and toast or pancakes.

About those pancakes. They make good conduits for the undeniably happy duet of melted butter and corn syrup, but are not themselves interesting. Neither is the heavily breaded country-fried steak, smothered with white gravy.

Lunch and dinner options include half-pound burgers, pork steaks, fried chicken and a “Chris’s original” of ground beef, cheddar jack cheese, tomatoes, onions, and basil tossed with macaroni and marinara sauce and baked. And, as a reminder that you are in St. Louis, the appetizer menu includes deep-fried, breaded Provel cheese sticks and all-beef, deep-fried “toasted” ravioli.