I think I've eaten at nearly every restaurant located on St. Louis' famed Hill neighborhood in all the years that I have been traveling there. But one place on the western edge of The Hill that I had passed many times over the years was one of those that I had never been in before. Trying to figure out a place to get dinner after getting into St. Louis one evening, I decided to take a chance and give Joey B's on the Hill a try.
Joey B's on the Hill is one of the three Joey B's locations in the St. Louis area - the other two are Joey B's in Concord Plaza in St. Louis, and another Joey B's location in the western suburb of Manchester. But the three restaurants are just branches of a tree of a number of restaurants in the St. Louis area that first started in the late 1950's. That's when Frank "Frankie" Gianino established Valencia's on Delmar, an family-style old-world Italian restaurant that also featured pizza. Frankie was a partner in another restaurant, Rossino's, located in the Central West End of the city.
Along with his two brothers, Willie and Chip, Frankie Gianino started a small chain of carry-out pizza restaurants in the 60's - Gianino's Pizza Den - and it was there that Frankie's son, Bill Gianino, cut his teeth in the restaurant business. Sometimes he was a reluctant worker in his dad's pizza places as he was 16 and didn't want to work on Friday or Saturday nights, but was forced to when his dad was shorthanded.
After Bill Gianino was discharged from the Army in 1975, he followed his father's footsteps and opened three small carry-out pizza places on the south side of St. Louis. His father helped him get his start, but Frankie Gianino passed away in 1977. Bill Gianino leaned on the expertise of his uncle Willie Gianino who helped him grow his business. The small carry-out place in the suburb of Oakville eventually became Bill Gianino's, a small ma-and-pa-type Italian restaurant. Later on in the early 90's, a space opened next do to his eponymous restaurant and Gianino opened Frankie G's, a small bar and grill.
Pictured right - Bill Gianino. Photo courtesy Sauce Magazine and the Gianino family.
Bill Gianino's two sons, Tony and Billy, joined their father in developing two other restaurants - Frankie Gianino's in Imperial, MO, and Billy G's in the suburb of Kirkwood. But it took one of Bill Gianino's lifelong friends to help develop the Joey B's concept of restaurants for the Gianino family.
Joey Barczewski and Bill Gianino were pals since grade school. Barczewski eventually got into the restaurant business and opened a sports bar on Laclede's Landing a number of years ago. Bill Gianino asked Barczewski to join him in the Gianino family of restaurants and together they developed the modern day Joey B's concept. A building that used to house a Bartolino's restaurant on the west side of The Hill became available and Joey B's on the Hill opened in 2008. As I wrote earlier, that was followed by two other Joey B's restaurants - one in the Concord area on the south side of St. Louis, and another on the far west side in Manchester.
On a sad note - Bill Gianino was spending some time in June of 2020 on his farm near Cuba, MO when he suffered a heart attack and passed away. Gianino was 69. His legacy continues on thanks to Barczewski and his sons who now run the Gianino family of restaurants.
It was just after 6 p.m. when I went down Hampton Ave. and took a left turn on Columbia Ave. to get into the parking lot behind Joey B's on the Hill located on the northeast corner of the intersection. (see map) I went inside and was immediately in the bar area of the place. Things were a little tight to maneuver through the bar to get to the restrooms toward the back end with the high-top tables so close to the bar, itself. I thought about having a seat at the bar, but it was pretty packed when I came in. So, I ended up heading over to the hostess stand to see about getting seated in the dining area.
I was seated in the dining room at a step-up booth along the wall. A number of tables were in the center of the dining area and there was a patio off to the side. Joey B's on the Hill reminded me of an upscale sports bar with a number of flat screen televisions on the wall throughout the place. There was a mix of families having dinner, friends having drinks, and a single patron - me - who wanted both dinner and drinks.
After getting a menu from the hostess who sat me, I was greeted by my server that evening, a friendly guy by the name of Josh. He said, "We have an early bird special where you get either a pasta dish of your choice, our Chicken Speidini or Chicken Modiga with salad and one side for $11.99." Then he looked at his watch and said, "Ooohh, it's after 6. Well, I'll tell you what. If you give me your order now, I can still probably get it in." Well, I hadn't even opened the menu yet to see what they had to offer, let alone knowing what kind of pasta they had to offer or what the hell Chicken Modiga was. (It's a lightly breaded chicken breast that's pan fried topped with Provel cheese, and a white wine and butter sauce.) I said I was going to pass on the early bird special.
Josh then told me that their special that evening was the fried chicken dinner for $12.99. "Best fried chicken in the city," he told me with all sincerity. But I doubted that it could top the great fried chicken at Hodak's, a place I had considered going to when I got into town. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on Hodak's.) I told him that I'd just start out with an ice cold Budweiser and take a look at the menu.
I was a little astonished at the offerings in the menu. They had pasta dishes, sandwiches, burgers, and entrees such as the aforementioned Chicken Modiga, beef tips and noodles, housemade meat loaf, and a 12 ounce New York strip steak. They had pizza on the menu at Joey B's on the Hill and it was served in a square cooking sheet. The thing that got me is that some of the items on the menu came with "St. Louis' favorite cheese", which is the creamy Provel cheese. Now, I can take Provel cheese from time to time, but I prefer mozzarella on my pizza. I thought about the pizza for a moment until Josh told me when he brought my beer out that they did not offer mozzarella cheese on their pizza. Some places in St. Louis give you the option, but not at Joey B's.
They also had a number of appetizers and salads on the menu. I thought about getting some of the toasted ravioli to start out, but Josh told me that the portion served was great for two people to share and it would be more than enough for one person to have as dinner. I decided to pass up the toasted ravioli for this trip.
Man, they had a lot of stuff on the menu at Joey B's on the Hill. I was apprehensive about all the items on the menu because history has told me that restaurants with deep menus usually only do all of the foods well enough, but not great. I was certainly in a quandary that evening. Josh may have come around three or four times to see if I was ready to order, but I was trying to mentally pare down the items that I was interested in.
Here's what I was looking hard at for dinner - the Swiss cheese and Mushroom burger (I hadn't had a burger in a long time), the meat loaf, the lasagna, the portobello-stuffed ravioli, and I also considered the fried chicken special that evening. But I reluctantly - and with my fingers crossed - I ended up order the tortellini that evening.
The tortellini featured beef, veal or chicken stuffed pasta served in a thick cream sauce along with fresh peas and sliced mushrooms, then finished with grated parmesan cheese. A basket of fresh and warm sesame-seeded Italian bread came on the side with the tortellini. (I passed on a salad that I could have gotten.)
The tortellini was surprisingly very good. I was amazed at the taste of the stuffed pasta shells in the rich and creamy white sauce. It was a large portion and I was certain that I couldn't finish the whole bowl of pasta, but it was so good that I couldn't stop eating it. I was taking portions of the Italian bread and dipping it in the cream sauce because it was so sinfully good. I ended up eating a very large portion of the tortellini and had only two pieces of bread left in the basket at the end of the dinner.
As I was eating my dinner, a young lady by the name of Breanna came over to introduce herself to me. "Josh had to leave suddenly," she explained. "I'm taking over for him." I thought it was rather strange because there were a couple times that I saw Josh at the order station in the dining room after she came over to tell me she was taking over. If he had to leave suddenly, there was a guy who looked like Josh inputing orders into the system.
Nevertheless, I was more than happy - and very surprised - at how good the meat-stuffed tortellini was at Joey B's on the Hill. I'm leery of restaurants that have a lot of food to choose from on their menu - and it was a large combination of American and Italian foods. But Joey B's more than acquitted themselves on their very good tortellini. The fresh and warm Italian bread they served with the pasta dish was a plus. I felt bad for Josh as I made him check with me three or four times before I decided on dinner. Maybe that's why he "left suddenly" and Breanna took over my table. He'd just had enough of the guy who couldn't make up his mind. I won't say the tortellini at Joey B's on the Hill was the best I've had, but it was very good and it was a perfect meal for someone who really didn't know what he wanted when he came in the door.
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