Imo’s Pizza ~ St. Louis MO

Italian/Pizza
August 8, 2021

Imo's Pizza montage

The Vitals:
the spot: Imo’s Pizza multiple locations in St. Louis 
the eats: St. Louis style pizza
the bucks: $13 for a small single topping pie, $25 for a large with all the toppings
the full nelson: pizza abomination and beloved local institution

I love my hometown, I really do. Nostalgia rushes through my veins when I come back to St. Louis. There’s a charm about a Midwest blue collar city that endures in my soul. It’s more than the local landmarks too. Sure, it’s fun to see the Arch in your selfie and go to Busch Stadium and see the Cardinals regalia. What really makes St. Louis special is the Midwestern friendliness. Which even extends to a love affair with a pizza style, that simply put, just ain’t good.

Forgive me St. Louis but I don’t love your pizza anymore.

Imo's Pizza sign 1

Imo's Pizza sign 2

Imo’s Pizza is a St. Louis institution that has been going strong for nearly six decades. What started out as a little pizza joint in the Hill, a historic Italian American neighborhood, has grown into 100+ locations across three states. The promise of pizza delivered to your door in the early 1960s lead to Imo’s growth. In some ways it’s like how chains like Domino’s came to be: fast, convenient and consistent pizza; though Imo’s carries the allure of a local Mom ‘n Pop.

I was staying in downtown St. Louis a few weeks ago and had to make a stop to Imo’s. Apparently their main location was a stone’s throw from my Airbnb. My nostalgia was met with immediate modern day gratification. You can order online directly on their website. Within 45 minutes my Imo’s feast was about to begin.

Imo's Deluxe pizza

Imo’s Deluxe pizza

Growing up, I can’t say Imo’s was part of my family’s regular rotation. Trips to Imo’s happened more and more in the years after I moved away from St. Louis, when I would visit family and hit up Imo’s with old high school friends. And that’s how I discovered the deluxe. Sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, bacon and provel cheese combine forces to say a big “FU” to your cardiologist or gym trainer. I don’t mind getting over the top every now and then if it’s worth it. Sadly, Imo’s isn’t.

At this point non St. Louis folks might be asking what Provel cheese is? According to Imo’s website + Wikipedia, Provel cheese is a combo of Provolone, cheddar and swiss along with some emulsifiers which allow it to melt very easily. A modern food marvel perhaps but it ain’t better than Mozzarella. In fact it’s decidedly worse.

Imo's Pizza sausage pie

Imo’s Sausage Pie

My kid opted for something pretty typical for a kid: single topping pizza and on this day he was feeling sausage. I love sausage on pizza when the seasonings, like fennel seed, really pop. This sausage makes Jimmy Dean taste like Andouille from New Orleans Gumbo Shack. I will say this was by far the best pizza of the bunch. Still, you’re stuck with that St. Louis cracker crust whose texture is closer to undercooked frozen pie crust. Oh, and provel doesn’t pack much of a flavor wallup. That plus the low melt point makes the cheese behave more like a white sauce. And a bland one at that.

Imo's veggie pizza

Imo’s veggie pizza

This could be the worst pizza I’ve ever eaten. Mushrooms, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, black olives and provel prove that throwing a salad bar at a pizza monster is a really really bad idea. The tomatoes must have leached out so much water that the ensuing pizza sog was to be deemed inedible by an inebriated Ali Khan. I’m not one to waste food, especially with a few beers in me, but a keg of IPA could not wet my whistle to eat this. Most of this was consumed by the trash can.

I still love you, Imo’s.

Imo’s pizza is not very good pizza. Nor is St. Louis style pizza, a very good pizza style. And while I’m at it I could throw Chicago deep dish in there too plus the BBQ chicken pizzas from California Pizza Kitchen I ate in the 1990s. The point is bad pizza is out there and people love it anyways.

Lately I have been on a pizza Renaissance tour with Neapolitan pies popping up along with some more frequent trips to NYC and East Coast. When I think about the sausage pie we featured in Cheap Eats New Haven, I think any St. Louisian who tried that would throw their arms in the air and say “That is real pizza!” And it’s nothing too elegant or foreign. That’s “watching football on the couch” pizza as Dave Portnoy would put it.

Ultimately none of that matters. For a place like St. Louis, that’s maybe seen more that it’s fair share bad days than good, I’ll let the people rejoice in what they take pride in. It’s their thing and it has stuck around.

Eyes wide open. A little.

This last Imo’s run has let me look at Whataburger with fresh eyes. Since I moved to Texas, the love affair for Whataburger has truly escaped me. Especially because it comes with an In-N-Out bashing. Whataburger is decidedly inferior to In-N-Out which is more a reflection of Whataburger’s ho-hum fast food burger quality than In-N-Out being some sort of shining burger joint on the hill. But Whataburger, like Imo’s, is a beloved local joint, it has stuck around and that counts for something. Even when the food doesn’t.

I’d bookmark Imo’s as a true St. Louis eatery that’s worth of a visit. I just won’t eat there.

 

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13 responses to “Imo’s Pizza ~ St. Louis MO”

  1. Brian says:

    Imo’s is definitely a St. Louis thing that you live or hate. With all the different locations you can have a bad Imo’s experience even if you love Imo’s like I do. There are locations I will not go to because they undercook the pizza and the crust is soggy. You can get mozzarella on the pizza instead of provel if you want but that is not a STL style pizza in my opinion. I will agree that the sausage has changed for the worse and is dry now but I still like my Imo’s. At least we are not Indiana with their regional foods like peanut butter hamburgers or brain sandwich’s!

    • admin says:

      I’d say the biggest change for me is me. Over the last few years I have really gotten into Neapolitan pizzas, where I’ll even eat my kid’s crust. I never considered a cheese only pie but now I’m into Margheritas now. Also having some coal fired pies in the East Coast with outstanding sausage has also please my “classic comfort pizza” style.

      I’ll vouch for T-Ravs all day in STL. Along with Carl’s Drive In and the relatively recent BBQ explosion. Now I need to get my hands on some Vess soda.

  2. Dynisha Chevelle Shealey says:

    Great best pizza ever

  3. Joyce Oren says:

    I have to agree with the comments. I love Imos.. my favorite. But there are some locations in south St Louis I will not go back to.. very unhappy with Hampton by the zoo… locations in mid west county are amazing..

    • admin says:

      I would consider getting a pie from the West County locations but I fear my palate has simply changed. I now favor the airy chewy crust that come from double zero flour and the farm sourced ingredients. My new kind of pizza is Neapolitan Margherita as my “standard” for tasting. It’s interesting when you “go back home” only to find that you(and your taste buds) have changed.

      Thx for commenting!

  4. David Goldford says:

    You are obviously not a pizza expert. You are a critic of everything you don’t like. You have zero credibility. Imo’s is the best !!!

  5. Angela Johnson says:

    THIER CAHOKIA, ILLINOIS STORE NEEDS TO BE CLOSED DOWN. MY PIZZA WAS. PILED ON ONE SIDE OF THE BOX & MY CHICKEN WAS COLD.$44 & some change and then manager told me I was a lie. And nobody has tried to fix this problem if it wasn’t against the law in would burn down every store i see about my $44

  6. Guest says:

    Not all Imo’s locations are created equal. But with a hit piece this harsh, I don’t think even going to the best location would change your mind.

  7. Amelia says:

    Definitely a strong opinion you have. St Louis style pizza is definitely something you either love or hate.

    I love it. I have even worked at a few imos. Because they’re individually owned and operated by locals each one is different. There are some I will never go to ever again and there are some I will go out of my way to patronize. Just depends on the owners and the cooks. That’s the mom n pop charm of it. Not all imos are created equally lol

  8. Wes says:

    Your freaking nuts, imos rocks, out eating habits change, sometimes we lose the taste for things we once liked, you are the first person I have heard complain about imos, glad I had imos before I read your waste of a space where a good article could have beem

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