Imo's Pizza

Local chain serving the polarising St Louis-style thin-crust pizza

Imo's is the dominant local pizza chain — over 90 locations across the metro area — and the best-known purveyor of the regional St Louis-style pizza: a thin, cracker-like crust, sweet tomato sauce, and a smoked processed cheese blend called Provel that does not melt or stretch like mozzarella.

This is, fairly, the most controversial pizza in America. It is small, square-cut, and not what most visitors expect. But it has been a fixed point in the St Louis food landscape for generations and is genuinely good once you adjust expectations — sweet, smoky, salty in a way that goes well with cold beer. Order extra Provel if you want the full effect.

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A story
St Louis-style pizza is famous for two things: a cracker-thin unleavened crust, and Provel — a processed cheese blend of provolone, cheddar, and Swiss invented locally in the 1940s and almost never used outside the region. Outsiders generally dislike both; locals defend both with surprising vehemence.

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