8 Regional Restaurant Chains Missourians Will Defend to Anyone From Out of State

At Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, your dinner roll might come flying at your table.

Missourians think that’s part of the charm, and they’ll defend it to anyone.

Here are the regional restaurant chains Missourians will defend to anyone from out of state.

1. Imo’s Pizza

Ed and Margie Imo opened the first Imo’s Pizza parlor in 1964, at the corner of Thurman and Shaw on The Hill in St. Louis.

The cheese is Provel.

A chef from the neighborhood swapped it in for the mozzarella traditionally layered on South St. Louis-style pizza, and customers loved it.

By 1985, the couple had 30 parlors across the St. Louis region.

Many St. Louis-area diners will defend Imo’s against other pizza.

For its 60th anniversary, Imo’s counted 98 locations across Missouri, Illinois and Kansas.

Out of state, you can still order its squares, along with Toasted Ravioli and Provel Bites, shipped anywhere in the US.

2. Gates Bar-B-Q

Gates Bar-B-Q began in 1946, according to its history page, when George W. Gates left railroad work to open Gates Ol’ Kentucky at 19th and Vine in Kansas City.

A second restaurant opened in 1954, and the family renamed the business Gates & Son’s Bar-B-Q in 1956.

On the menu, you can order mutton, sausage or a burnt ends sandwich.

Walk in, and you may hear the greeting Gates calls a trademark: “Hi, may I help you?”

The family took its sauce to grocery stores in 1975 and began national distribution in 1983.

Gates has five locations.

Four are in Missouri, in Kansas City and Independence, and one is across the state line in Leawood, Kansas.

3. Lion’s Choice

Brothers-in-law Marv Gibbs and Clint Tobias planned the first Lion’s Choice with their friend Arthur Morey in 1966.

The first location opened in 1967 as Brittany Beef, and the Lion’s Choice name arrived with the second location in 1969.

The original restaurant sits in the busy community of Ballwin.

The cut is top round.

The beef is slow roasted on-site for three hours.

A busy location can go through an estimated 60,000 pounds of roast beef a year.

Ask around, and many locals will point you to a Lion’s Choice for roast beef.

The sauce bars come with an au jus dispenser, so you can build the sandwich your way.

Roast beef and 25-cent ice cream cones helped the chain build a loyal following, Mental Floss wrote in 2015.

The chain’s website puts the count at over 20 locations.

4. Andy’s Frozen Custard

Andy’s Frozen Custard started in 1986 in Osage Beach, and the Kuntz family founded and owns the company.

The concrete is the signature.

Sundae toppings are mixed into the custard.

Order a jackhammer, and you get mix-ins plus a saucy center.

The rest of the menu runs from malts and splits to sundaes, cups and cones.

The company is based in Springfield, and Franchise Times lists more than 100 units across 15 states, mostly in the southeastern United States.

5. Jack Stack

Russ Fiorella bought a roadhouse called The Lucky Inn on Hickman Mills Drive in Kansas City in 1957 and renamed it Smoke Stack BBQ.

Jack Stack itself arrived in 1974, when Russ and his eldest son, Jack, launched the first restaurant in Martin City.

There, Jack and his wife, Delores, expanded the restaurant to full-service dining, with more menu items and two dining rooms.

Jack Stack has six restaurants, four in Missouri and two in Kansas.

The Missouri four are the Country Club Plaza, the Freight House, Lee’s Summit and Martin City, and the Kansas two are in Overland Park and Lenexa.

Martin City serves burnt ends.

Its page for the restaurant promises famous ribs, too.

At the Freight House, you can eat in the Crossroads Arts District under twenty-five-foot ceilings, with a fireplace bar nearby.

6. Pasta House

Pasta House, a St. Louis restaurant company, was founded in 1974 by Joe Fresta, John Ferrara and Kim Tucci.

In a 2011 Q&A, Tucci said he was offered a small space but needed a partner, and that’s where Fresta came in.

Each man needed $5,000.

The first restaurant opened for $96,000, with the remainder paid out of cash flow.

Fresta Sr. had run Bastiano’s, a popular pizzeria on The Hill, before he went all in on the company.

Bastiano’s pizzas began appearing on Pasta House menus on November 4, 2025.

Order one, and you get a thin, crispy crust with fresh shells from Vitale’s Bakery on The Hill.

Pasta House has 13 locations, including Affton, Arnold, Kirkwood, Creve Coeur, Ladue, Festus and Union in Missouri, plus one across the river in Edwardsville, Illinois.

7. Lambert’s Cafe

Earl and Agnes Lambert opened Lambert’s Cafe on March 13, 1942, in a small building on South Main Street in Sikeston, with five employees and seating for 41.

One busy afternoon, their son Norm told Kansas City station KSHB, the dining room was packed and he had no room to hand out the rolls.

A customer yelled, “Just throw em.”

The tradition stuck.

If you eat in Sikeston or Ozark, you may have a roll tossed to your table.

The menu runs to country fried round steak covered in milk gravy.

A fresh cut pork steak comes with your choice of three sides and all of Lambert’s pass arounds.

Lambert’s calls itself the “Home of Throwed Rolls,” with restaurants in Sikeston and Ozark, Missouri, and Foley, Alabama.

8. Bandana's Bar-B-Q

Bandana's Bar-B-Q opened its first restaurant in July 1996 in Arnold, Missouri.

The meat is cooked sauceless.

Bandana's says its smokers operate 24 hours a day, with 14 hours for pork butts and special beef cuts and five hours for ribs and chicken.

The chain has 24 locations: 17 in Missouri, five in Illinois, and one each in Indiana and Kentucky.