Fishbowls and Friends

Rigazzi's is a St. Louis Instituition.  It is the longest established restaurant on The Hill, founded in 1957, by Louis and Josephine Aiazzi and business partner John Riganti.  They smooshed the two surnames together to get Rigazzi's.  How 'bout that?

In front of the Frozen Fishbowl sign.

I learned this information from a column that I wrote in November of 1990 for the Bugle Newspaper.  Other than that, I'm not sure how much of the information in that article is still accurate.

Not sure if folks still show up for breakfast - even though they have no breakfast menu.  I'm not sure if the restaurant is still of favorite of Blues fans and even players.  I'm not even sure if Mark Aiazzi is still running the place.  But you can find out more here:  Click for history.

When any St. Louisan thinks of Rigazzis, they think of "The Frozen Fishbowl."  This is a 32 ounce chalice filled with the beverage of your choice....but most adults choose beer.  

Some holy grails for St. Louisans.

And they know this fact.  And they are consistent and thorough in their marketing.  "The Frozen Fishbowl" is on their signs, on art glass windows for the building, on the menu, etc.  

Frozen Fishbowl in the Art Glass.

So we ordered some.  I got a classic Budweiser, although some others got the Rigazzi's Golden Ale, handcrafted locally for the restaurant.  Click here for the drink menu.

 As you may have gathered, we visited with some very dear, longtime friends: Colleen and Joe, and Kristin and Kyle.

It's been a while, but we finally got the band back together.

The upstairs dining dining area was roomy and very classic, with the red/white checked vinyl tablecloths and red back basic chairs.  It was also nice because it got us away from the hustle and the bustle downstairs.  We could easily talk to one another and enjoy  the company.  They had tiny, autographed hockey jerseys framed and hanging on the wall.  I'm guessing toddler sized, or put in the dryer for waaay too long.

Since I don't care about food much, I won't go into details very much.  I got a pizza, my favorite from childhood visits here.  I will say that the crust was not at all like I remember it, but the cheese had that same "stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth" quality that I remember from when I was a kid.

Personally, I find pictures of food especially unappetizing.  But, if you are into that sort of thing...Have at it!

Mel enjoyed hers...the Eggplant Parmesan.  You can click here to see their menu.  And I didn't really assess what everyone else thought.

It had been a very, very long time since I had been there....I'm going to say, decades....with the "s" to indicate somewhere over 20 years.  Since I last visited, I know that they had a fire somewhere in there, added a formal patio and (as learned on this most recent visit) changed their pizza crust.

This patio is new to me....

 I must say, it was a fun "throwback" evening for me, punctuated with Fishbowls and Freinds.

Just a thought....

Wrap your head around this:  For 113 years, the Italian language newspaper Il Pensiero has been documenting Saint Louis' Italian-American community's stories.  One hundred and thirteen years!

In that time. the Missouri Intelligencer has gone out of business. As has the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the St. Louis Sun.  Heck, even the self-proclaimed, "World's Softest Newspaper," The Bugle folded.

In fact, the only other newspaper remaning in St. Louis is the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  All the rest are gone.  Click here for a link to the Il Pensiero website.

In fact, the year this paper first published, the 1904 World's Fair was in full swing, and this also was the last time the Olympics were held in St. Louis.

As we know, ice cream cones and hot dogs were barely invented.  Radar, color photography and the X-ray machine made their debuts the same year as Il Pensiero.  It is a survivor.

This paper not only documents local goings on in both Italian and English, it sprinkles in a bit of news and opinion from "The Old Country," for good measure.

Il Pensiero serves not only as link to the past...but a link to a community.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST!

Full Disclosure:  

In another life....I was a paid journalist.  I'm not at all pretending that I was good at it.  I will only say that I got paid to write articles and even "gussy them up' with photos that I took and then processed in a darkroom in my basement.

A long time ago in a galaxy far,far away....  I used to be a beat reporter for Bugle Newspaper....the "World's Softest Newspaper - Lavatory Tested."  My beat was The Hill.  I covered retiring cops, ventriolquist priests, neighborhood associations.....And I covered Milo's on the Hill.

Clip from my personal file on Milos..back when I was apparently, Robert Merz.  Photo by Bob Merz.

So, just a mere 27 years ago.... I covered this busisness. And it is still there

Milo's has staying power.  It is a neighborhood bar that has a long and rich history.  Just click here and read a nice history provided by, coincidentally enough, my former highschool principal.  I love the fact that there are so many fantastic nicknames involved with the history of this building and business...   “Toots” Pezzani, Joe “Bull” Panneri,  “P.I.” Pisoni , or even  “Butch” Grassi.  Just some great names. Seriously, it is a good history of the building and business, and it covers everything that I would put into a blog post.  Click on that different colored text above to read it.

Anyway, Mel and I went here to eat this past Friday.  This is first and foremost a bar.  But the food was pretty good.  I got the Chicken Parmesan...and Mel got (you guessed it) a veggie sandwich. 

 Mine was pretty solid.  Mel really liked hers.  It's the bread that makes it.  And I will say, with so many of the restaurants on The Hill, it is typically the bread is that makes the sandwich.  There are several fantastic bakeries on The Hill, and all the restaurants seem to buy locally.  So... good for the consumer.

They also have daily specials.

Milo's has the premier Bocce Courts in St. Louis.  If you would like to play...they have open play from 11 am - 6 pm most days.  Bocce is reasonably big in St. Louis.    

In fact, when I was a kid, men would play this every weekend at the park about 1/2 block from my house.  It was part of the fabric of my childhood.  Click here for some of the rules.

Drop by for the food (worth it), the Bocce (pronounced "Bow-chay"....not "Botch-ee."), or just beer with some locals.   I'm really glad that I went back....27 years later.