Joey B’s Restaurant – St. Louis Missouri

In my last posting, I published family photos from Laurie’s recent family gathering in St. Louis Missouri.  I kept that post ‘pure’, totally sticking with family photos… But now…for the foodies among us…this posting is purely focused on the food and the restaurant.

Laurie’s sister Bonnie had arranged space for our family group at Joey B’s in Concord Plaza on the south side of St. Louis.  In the press of getting 24 or so people together for our dinner, I neglected to take an exterior photo of the restaurant.  As a matter of fact, this is the only interior photo I took…other than the people and the food!  Busy place isn’t it?  Keep in mind that this was on a Wednesday night!

Although there are a number of TV’s mounted around the walls, this restaurant can hardly be termed a sports bar…either in atmosphere or most certainly in its food offerings.  Not to say that one couldn’t party at Joey B’s!  This is just one page of the restaurant’s alcoholic specialty drinks menu.  Just a couple of White Gummi Bear or Dragon Berry Bomb shots…and you’d be flying…at least in your mind!

Joey B’s is all about comfort food…especially Italian comfort food!  To start us out, a few appetizers were ordered for the table. (Note: With 24 people grabbing for the food, our appetizer photos show what’s left after the plates have been savaged by the hungry crowd!) 

This was what was left of one of the orders of Joey B’s Fried Onion Rings…and they were excellent! ($8.99 for 10 of these monster rings)

I requested 5 orders of the Cheese Garlic Bread for the gathering. ($5.59 each) It was plenty cheesy and the garlic wasn’t lacking either…and all 5 orders were consumed in record time! 

Someone else ordered the Fried Pickles with Spicy Ranch Dressing. ($6.99) They were good but in my opinion they weren’t particularly distinctive.  Never the less, they too were quickly devoured!

Pizza was a big item at our family gathering… However, for the uninitiated, you should know that a St. Louis pizza is different from other pizzas that you find around the country.  Whereas most pizza has mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato sauce, in St. Louis its provel cheese!  The taste is completely different…but good luck in finding anyone other than a chain pizza restaurant that sells pizza covered with anything other than provel…

Also, square pizzas are the norm in St. Louis.  This one has pepperoni, Italian sausage and green olives. (Small Cheese $12.59/Large Cheese $13.99)

This version was loaded…bacon, mushrooms, green peppers, sausage, pepperoni and maybe more! 

FYI… Provel is a white processed cheese particularly popular in Saint Louis.  It is a combination of cheddar, Swiss, and provolone cheeses.  Provel has a low melting point and, therefore it has a gooey and almost buttery texture at room temperature.  According to a St. Louis food critic, provel was developed to meet perceived demand for a pizza cheese with a "clean bite" that is one that melts well but breaks off nicely when the diner bites down”.

This humongous bowl of pasta was what I had for my entrée… It’s the Pasta Carbonara…penne noodles in butter and cream sauce with bacon, parmesan cheese and eggs. ($13.99) This was a great entrée…with way too much pasta for even me to finish!

Someone else at the table ordered something that I’d never seen on a menu before.  This is the Ravioli Prosciutto. ($14.99) This house specialty consists of beef ravioli in a rich cream sauce with prosciutto ham, fresh broccoli and mushrooms.  It was yet again another winner!

Variety is indeed the spice of life.  Another family member ordered the Pasta Tutto Mare…shell noodles in cream sauce with shrimp, crab meat, clams, mushrooms as well as both provel and parmesan cheeses. ($17.99) Thumbs up!

One member of the family doesn’t care for pasta…and he’s not allergic to glutens either.  So he went with the 12 oz. New York Strip Steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. ($22.00) He was a happy camper!

Since his wife never gets to have pasta at home, she ordered the spaghetti and meat sauce. ($12.99) Like the other pasta entrees, the portion was huge and she was happy to have pasta for dinner another night!

One couple ordered this pizza…my favorite!  It’s 'Grandpa Joe’s Favorite'.  Meat, meat and more meat!  This pizza was topped with sausage, bacon, pepperoni, hamburger and ham… ($17.49 small/$19.99 large) The good news is that I can testify that this was an excellent pizza...even though I’ve been away from St. Louis for so long and I’m not used to the provel cheese anymore.  “Unfortunately”, the pair couldn’t finish their pizza.  When they offered it, I grabbed at the chance, put it in our cooler and finished it the next day at our son's home in Nebraska… Yum!

Joey B’s at 189 Concord Plaza in St. Louis Missouri is 1 of 3 locations owned by the Gianino family. (Phone: 314-843-2121) They also own 3 other Italian Restaurants and a catering business.  This was a great place for us to gather.  This location was casual, big and the food was both plentiful and very good.  We’d definitely eat here again!  To learn more about Joey B’s and the families’ other restaurants, just go to http://www.joeybsconcord.com/index.html.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave