7 Things Missourians Order at Imo's That Confuse Everyone Else

Some Imo’s orders sound like inside jokes until the food shows up.

Missourians around St. Louis order them without a second thought, while visitors are left with questions.

Here are the menu items that stump Imo’s first-timers, and what’s behind them.

1. Toasted Ravioli

Imo’s lists toasted ravioli with its appetizers, and the menu calls it lightly breaded, filled with beef and deep fried.

If you order it, Imo’s serves it with meat sauce.

Many out-of-staters hear the word toasted and picture an oven.

Toasted means fried.

2. Provel Bites

Provel Bites at Imo’s are lightly breaded and deep fried, with a filling of Provel cheese.

NPR described Provel in 2013 as a processed cheese rarely found outside its hometown of St. Louis.

Imo’s lists them in the same menu section as the toasted ravioli and serves them with meat sauce.

If you’ve never tried Provel, the bites give you the cheese without a pizza around it.

What Imo’s Provel Is Made Of

Imo’s Provel blends cheddar with Swiss and provolone into one cheese.

A low melting point lets Provel melt without turning stringy.

3. Cheese Only Pizza

Imo’s Cheese Only Pizza is topped with Provel cheese and no other toppings.

The menu says all pizzas come with Provel and Imo’s pizza sauce, and the first topping is always free.

If you want more than Provel, the toppings list runs from sausage, pepperoni and hamburger to anchovy, pineapple and jalapeño.

You can order it in four sizes, from 10 inches to 16.

Out-of-staters often walk in expecting to pick their cheese.

Plain means Provel.

4. Extra Special Sandwich

Imo’s Extra Special sandwich layers Provel with roast beef, ham, salami, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles and sandwich dressing.

The Imo’s menu calls it “the St. Louis classic.”

That puts Provel in a sandwich instead of on a pizza, which may surprise you if you only know it from the pies.

5. Gooey Butter Cake

Dessert at Imo’s includes Gooey Butter Cake, which the menu calls “a St. Louis classic.”

If you think the name is a joke, it isn’t.

Atlas Obscura describes it as butter, sugar, eggs and cake flour poured over a chewy crust and baked into a sheet with a crackly top.

The legend dates to the 1930s and the Great Depression, when a German-American baker in St. Louis mixed up the butter and flour measurements for a coffee cake.

Some accounts place the mistake in the 1940s.

Rather than throw out the thin, buttery mess, he decided to bake the mistake.

6. CrunchImo

If you’ve never had one, a CrunchImo is Provel and other fillings folded up and baked inside a garlic-butter crust.

The menu lists four varieties: Chicken Bacon Ranch, Buffalo Chicken, Double Pepperoni and Cheese Only.

The Chicken Bacon Ranch has chicken, bacon, ranch and Provel folded inside the crust.

The two chicken versions come with ranch, the Double Pepperoni with meat sauce and the Cheese Only with pizza sauce.

From the name alone, many visitors can’t tell what’s inside.

7. Ship a Pizza Option

Imo’s site links its Ship a Pizza option to Goldbelly, so you place the order on Goldbelly’s site instead of Imo’s.

Imo’s will ship its squares anywhere in the U.S.

Imo’s history page says the family began packaging and shipping its pizza, toasted ravioli and Provel Bites across the country.

The Goldbelly listing for the 12-pack says Imo’s ships it nationwide with dry ice and includes your choice of 12 pizzas.

Dry ice may dissipate in transit, and the pizza may thaw.

Baking takes 12 to 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

Thin Crust, Square Cuts

Imo’s makes St. Louis-style pizza, which PMQ Pizza Magazine describes as round and cracker-thin and cut into squares in a party or tavern cut.

Imo’s calls its crust “thin, crispy and crunchy.”

The pizzas are covered edge to edge with toppings and layered with Provel.

When you order a pie, the slices run from crispy triangle corners to center squares.

Toasted Ravioli Origin Claims

When you order toasted ravioli at Imo’s, you’re ordering a dish that more than one St. Louis restaurant claims to have invented.

Oldani’s, now Mama’s, and Angelo’s, now Charlie Gitto’s, both promote themselves as the birthplace of toasted ravioli.

The Oldani’s version of the story is set in the 1940s.

Angelo’s tells a similar story.

Imo’s Beyond St. Louis

Imo’s says you can find nearly 100 franchise locations, plus its items in retail outlets, across Missouri, Illinois and Kansas.

Imo’s celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2024.

Psst! How much do you know about Missouri food? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.

Where Provel Came From

Imo’s didn’t invent Provel.

Tony Costa, who owned Costa’s Grocery on the Hill, reportedly worked with J.S. Hoffman Co., a Chicago importer of meats and cheeses, to create a cheese that would stay melted and creamy even after it cooled.

The developers of the cheese received a patent for it in 1950.

If you’re wondering what the name means, the patent application calls Provel an “arbitrarily coined word in the English language.”

NPR reported in 2013 that Imo’s was both the prime seller of Provel and its distributor.

Ed Imo still worked as a tile setter by day when he and Margie opened their first parlor at Thurman and Shaw on the Hill in 1964.

They made Provel the default cheese on all the pies at that first parlor.