St. Louis Blog

​Best New Restaurant? Best Burger? We've made our choices, but you still have time to make yours in the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2009 Readers' Poll. This year you can cast your ballot online only. Click on the link above, register and then choose your favorite restaurants, chefs and dishes -- as well as your favorites in many other non-food categories.

​Time for your weekly reminder: Voting is now open in the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2009 Readers' Poll. This year you can cast your ballot online only. Click on the link above, register and then choose your favorite restaurants, chefs and dishes -- as well as your favorites in many other non-food categories.

​It's that time again: Voting is now open in the Riverfront Times Best of St. Louis 2009 Readers' Poll. This year you can cast your ballot online only. Click on the link above, register and then choose your favorite restaurants, chefs and dishes as well as your favorites in many other non-food categories.

The response to this first Fight Club Sandwich contest has been fantastic. All of you provided great ideas for both burgers to try and specific battles to stage. I decided it would be easier to choose from among five different battles -- a few suggested by readers, a few put together from your ideas by yours truly -- rather than vote for individual restaurants.

Here are the five possible Battle of the Burgers match-ups:

Blueberry Hill vs. Fast Eddie's Bon Air

Burger Bar vs. White Castle

Carl's Drive-In vs. Cardwell's at the Plaza

Fatted Calf vs. Bussone's Wine & Spirits

O'Connell's Pub vs. Seamus McDaniel's

(I wanted to include the "Baseball's Best Burger" at GCS Stadium, but the Gateway Grizzlies will be on the road when I plan to visit the restaurants.)

Vote for the battle you want to see in the poll below. Voting will remain open until the end of the day Monday, June 29. Look for the battle results at the end of next week.

By a landslide, the winner is "mednek," whose comment on the Post-Dispatch article about Pi cooking pizza at the White House managed the trifecta of being racist, inaccurate and off-topic. The nature of the winning comment seems especially appropriate given the national attention that Post-Dispatch commenters are receiving for another recent article.

www.stltoday.com

Bumped: Only a few hours left to vote!

As I write this, Jake Wagman's fine Post-Dispatch article on President Barack Obama inviting the Delmar Loop pizza restaurant Pi to the White House has garnered 178 reader comments.

While a few readers are thrilled to see a locally owned St. Louis business gain national attention, others are, frankly, batshit insane.

I should point out that these batshit insane comments are in no way the fault of the Post-Dispatch. Really, the source of the comments is beside the point. I'm just flabbergasted that this rare instance of national attention for a St. Louis restaurant has led to...well, you'll see.

So which comment is the most asinine? I invite you, Gut Check readers, to choose.

The Nominees

A. Patriot April 8, 2009 5:35AM CST

That Chicago style thick pizza does look good! Hope Obama gets diarrhea!

Underground_Mensa April 8, 2009 8:28AM CST

Dear Veggie Girl: One American ideal The Current President of US bragged about in Saudi Arabia is loyalty. He insulted out country on foreign soil. He said we are not a Christian country even though the Founding Fathers wrote centered on this in Federalist papers. And now he orders CHICAGO DEEP DISH PIZZA from St. Louis. He's not even loyal to his hometown, or his hometown business. While we are gettting a life, Veggie Girl needs to get a brain.

bud fox April 8, 2009 11:01AM CST

Will the owner of this pizza joint, bow to his majisty obama like obama bowed like a servant to the king of saudi arabia? I too would like to know who's paying for this? Does he do this all the time? I can only imagine the cost to taxpayers if his majisty has people flown in from all over the country to feed him. --but why should i be surprised, his majisty spends taxpayer's money like its going out of style... Glad I know now never to spend one dime inside this place. --Long Live Imo's at the Original St. Louis style pizza

schut81 April 8, 2009 1:58PM CST

stlsasquatch, hmmm, maybe all the liberal whiners deserve a taste (albeit small) of what we have been listening to for the last 8 years! If I hear one more story about Obama's favorite color or what kind of toilet paper he uses, I think I am going to barf! Has anyone seen Idiocracy? Its becoming all too familiar...I am with lilmac, he will be lucky to last 4 years! BTW, it cracks me up how heated a conversation about pizza can end up in STL. Let's face it, you are only a true St. Louisan if you LIKE provel cheese and Imo's pizza. All of the rest of you are diluting our culture and can keep your opinions to yourselves!

mednek April 8, 2009 10:06PM CST

How many murdered cops, street thugs, and slashed up people does one have to step over to get in and out of PI there on Delmar ? Mr.Sommers should serve mace and a Smith & Wesson anytime after 4 pm with his PI pizza. I wouldn't go near the place.

You have until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, to vote. Results Wednesday. May the worst commenter win!

A new restaurant deserves two visits, in a romp.

- Ian Froeb

All right, I haven't done one of these in a while. In this week's review of Tower Tacos, I ponder the risks a new restaurant takes. Now, it's part of my job to give a restaurant more than one chance. But I imagine most, probably all, of you who read this blog dine on your own dime. So I'm curious: How many chances do you give a new restaurant before deciding it's not worth the money?

Results in a week.

- Ian Froeb

Traditional tacos, in a rout:

-Ian Froeb

Bumped: Keep voting!

In honor of my review of Taqueria la Pasadita: What's your favorite kind -- in the broadest sense -- of taco?

Vote until the end of the day Tuesday.

-Ian Froeb