While in the Chesterfield Valley in the far western suburbs of St. Louis recently, I decided to have lunch at a place that I hadn't been to in quite sometime - Wente's O&W. I used to work for a company in the Chesterfield Valley nearly 20 years ago and we used to go there every once in a while for lunch or dinner. It became a favorite place to stop when I had the chance for years after. But it had simply been years since I was last in the place.
Bob Wente was a noted midget car racer in the St. Louis area. He got the racing bug when his parents took him to a race track as a little boy and he raced in his first competitive midget race at the age of 20. 10 years later he won his first United States Auto Club (USAC) national championship after finishing second three years in a row. Wente eventually got to race in the USAC Championship Car Series - basically the Indy car series of its day. He had 11 starts for the series and ended up with 5 Top Ten finishes.
Pictured right - Bob Wente (Photo courtesy St. Louis Post Dispatch)
The highlight of Wente's career came at the 1964 Indianapolis 500. After trying to qualify for the 500 for four years, he finally made the field starting in the middle of the back row. A horrific wreck on the second lap happened in front of Wente who steered clear of the raging fire. Despite being penalized for driving off the track and not through the fire, Wente eventually finished ninth during his inaugural Indy 500. Luck and bad timing cost Wente other shots at driving at Indianapolis on Memorial Day weekend and he ended up going back to racing midget cars full time. Bob Wente ended up second on the all-time list of most midget car victories behind the legendary Mel Kenyon.
Wente retired from racing and opened his restaurant in Chesterfield. He called it Wente's Open Wheel, which was eventually just shortened to Wente's OW. My old boss who first turned me on to Wente's years ago told me that Bob told him that two many people were calling it Wente's "ow!", like what you'd say when you got hurt. So he changed it to simply Wente's O&W.
Bob Wente ran his restaurant up to his death in 2000. His son Terry - who was also a midget car racer - took over the restaurant upon his father's death. He continues to run the place today.
Wente's O&W is located on Chesterfield Airport Road in the midst of office parks and near the Spirit of St. Louis airport. (see map) Wente's is one of the older structures in the ever growing Chesterfield Valley that has seen an explosion of retail stores, restaurants, small businesses and office buildings over the past 20 years.
Wente's O&W features a number of racing memorabilia throughout the place. The place is nothing fancy and it's cozy enough to make it inviting. With all the businesses in the Chesterfield Valley, you'll often see guys in suits seated at a table with construction workers seated at the next table. Wente's appeals to all walks.
It was around 1:30 when I got into Wente's. It was a cloudy day with mist in the air so it was pretty dark in Wente's. They have an outdoor patio, but no one was sitting out there because of the moisture in the air. It looked pretty much the same as it did the last time I was in there so many years ago.
I took a seat at the bar and was greeted by one of the bartenders, Amber. She gave me a menu and I immediately ordered up a Budweiser. (When in St. Louis...) She gave me a few minutes to figure out what I was going to get.
The racing theme extends to the menu with their "Green Flag" appetizers, their "Lap 1" is an assortment of salads, "Lap 2" is the low-carb portion of the menu, with "Lap 3" being their pizzas. I sort of remember their pizzas - thin crust and topped with a lot of cheese. In fact, I almost went with one of their 7" luncheon sized pizzas.
"Lap 4" on the menu features Wente's smoked barbecue items including ribs, brisket, pulled pork and smoked chicken wings. "Lap 5" features the dinner platters including an 8 ounce ribeye, fried chicken entrees and a fried cod plate. "Lap 6" are the available side items that you can order including 1/2 orders of onion rings, breaded mushrooms and jalapenos, and baked potatoes. (These are available after 2 p.m.)
"Lap 7" was getting into my wheelhouse - steak sandwiches and burgers. Wente's uses only Certified Angus Beef for their steaks and burgers. They have a number of specialty burgers on the menu including the Funny Car burger that features a blackened patty topped with pepper jack cheese and fried jalapeno rings. You can also build your own burger from their basic 1/4 pound burger (or a 1/2 pound burger for $1.29 more).
The menu ends with the "White Flag" specialty sandwiches that include a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich, a corned beef sandwich, a club sandwich, and something called "Scotty's BLT" - 1/3 pound of bacon with lettuce, tomato, mayo, American cheese and garlic butter on Texas toast. And the "Checkered Flag" portion features chicken and fish sandwiches. There's a little bit of everything on the menu at Wente's O&W.
I went with the double (1/2 pound) burger with Swiss cheese, sauteed mushrooms and bacon. Amber asked me if I wanted fries with my burger and I sort of turned up my nose at that. "Cottage cheese? Baked beans? Cole slaw," she asked me. I finally decided on the fries.
The burger was topped with copious amounts of mushrooms, a couple thick slabs of bacon and Swiss cheese. Skinny fries came on the side with the burger. (I found later that I could have had steak fries instead of the regular fries. I have been on a steak fry kick since I got back from England which had - by far - the best steak fries I've ever had.) The flat-grilled burger was big, but manageable.
The first bite was a memory jogger for me - I forgot how good Wente's burgers were. The burger was juicy, messy and great tasting. They have rolls of paper towels on the bar and I had to tear off at least five sheets during the course of eating the burger. It was a glorious messy burger full of flavor. The fries were basically a throw-away for me. It was all I could do to eat the burger at Wente's.
I was certainly glad to get reacquainted with Wente's O&W after all these years. The food is good to very good for the type of bar/saloon food fare that they serve. I've always liked going into the place years ago and I feel bad that I've neglected going back in until now. It's one of those places that never really changes. And sometimes that's not a bad thing.
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