“A few years back, when Aerosmith was beginning their U.S. tour in St. Louis, [guitarist] Joe Perry was on the CBS news and said, ‘I can’t wait to be in St. Louis and have a great hamburger at Blueberry Hill,'” recounted Joe Edwards, owner of the Delmar Loop eatery.
Joe Perry – and everyone else who digs the food at Edwards’ local landmark – now has one more option when it comes to topping the restaurant’s famous burger. Diners have long been able to choose between blue, soft Cheddar, Swiss, American, Provel and pepper cheese to top their cheeseburgers, but now they’ve got one more option: goat cheese. While this might seem like a tiny tweak for some restaurants, this is the first change Edwards has made to his legendary burgers in at least 20 years, he said. If it’s not broke why fix it, right?
His inspiration was simple enough: “At Eclipse [another Edwards property], one night I had a dish with goat cheese, and I realized, wow, that’d be great on a burger at Blueberry Hill,” he recalled. (Those burgers, incidentally, arrive on buns made just for Edwards by Creve Coeur’s Pratzel’s Bakery.)
Joe Perry likes the burgers, but how does Blueberry Hill regular Chuck Berry feel about them? “Chuck was in just a few days ago,” noted Edwards. “He loves the chicken noodle soup and the mild wings. We’ve actually got a quote from him on the menu. He once said, ‘I don’t come here for the music – I come here for the wings.'”
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2010.