Evan of Broad

Above: A selection of past St. Louis restaurants featured on Dr. Harley Hammerman’s website, losttables.com. Hammerman writes individual histories about each restaurant and compiles photos of each restaurant.

Website keeps St. Louis’ restaurant history alive

BY JORDAN PALMER

CHIEF DIGITAL CONTENT OFFICER

St. Louis is a town of passions. Sports, the arts, culture, beer, our history and of course, our restaurants. For a city our size, to have as many media entities covering the food scene as we have shows how interconnected we are when it comes to where we eat out.

And that passion for our restaurants doesn’t stop with what’s new or our current favorites. The interest in the past is just as strong, thanks to Dr. Harley Hammerman and his website Lost Tables (losttables.com) and its companion site Lost Dishes.

“Restaurants hold a special place in our lives. Some we remember for their atmosphere, others for their food and some for who we dined with,” writes Hammerman, on his homepage at Losttables.com. “We’ve lost many of the St. Louis restaurants once special to us. Lost Tables archives the culinary memories of those eating places - from their first course to their last.

“I do think St. Louisans like to talk about the lost restaurants they remember eating at in the same way they talk about where they went to high school,” added Hammerman.

Hammerman, a radiologist by training, grew up in University City with his parents and three siblings. He says his early experiences at restaurants helped develop his appreciation not only for the food but the history of what he experienced as he grew up.

“My earliest memory eating out was at Golden Fried Chicken Loaf on Delmar, west of DeBaliviere. My mother and grandmother would take my siblings and me there for dinner on Friday evenings when my father worked late,” Hammerman recalls. “I’d also go with my father to pick up dinner from GFCL on Sundays.”

The fried chicken at Golden Fried Chicken Loaf became the stuff of legends and remains wedged solidly in Hammerman’s memory.

“The crust was crisp, with a peppery spice, and the chicken was hot and moist,” he says. “The chicken dumpling soup was also special. I’d order a bowl at the restaurant, and we’d also take it home in one-gallon glass jars on Sundays.”

Another of Hammerman’s favorites was Ruggeri’s on The Hill.

“Our waiter was usually Mickey Garagiola,” remembers Hammerman. “Ruggeri’s gave out certificates for a free dinner on birthdays. Everyone in my family signed up, but I used them all with my wife on weekend dates before we were married. Mickey would come to our table and ask, ‘Is it your birthday again, Harley?’”

In addition to GFCL and Ruggeri’s, other St. Louis restaurants that carved out space in his gastronomical memory include the tearoom at Famous-Barr in Clayton, Hamburger Heaven in University City and Cyrano’s on Clayton Road at DeMun Avenue.

“When my wife and I were dating, we’d go there, usually after a movie. We’d get their roast beef sandwiches and a Cleopatra – an ice cream sundae, with bananas, whole strawberries, rum sauce, a hard chocolate shell and a mountain of whipped cream,” says Hammerman.

“We often went to Casa Gallardo with our children. They were a captive audi-