Dining
St. Louis is home to several extravagantly fine ethnic restaurants, especially some upscale Italian restaurants in the Hill Neighborhood, and some less formal and very enjoyable assorted ethnic restaurants along the Delmar Loop area in University City, just north of Washngton University. (The area is called “The Loop” because in streetcar days, the Delmar Trolley from downtown turned on a loop of track in University City for its return trip toward the waterfront.). It is also a city that likes its barbecue and pizza, though St. Louis style pizza bears little resemblance to pizza from other areas, having an almost cracker-thin crust and very sweet sauce. Toasted ravioli is a late night snack favorite. St. Louisans take pride in the traditional belief that hot dogs on buns and ice cream in cones were first served at the 1904 World’s Fair. St. Louis is also the pork butt steak consumption capital of the United States. It is not unusual to awake on the morning of the Fourth of July, turn on the television, and see the local weather man barbecuing pork butt steaks on a grill on the roof of the broadcast station.