Fitz’s (Delmar)
6605 Delmar BoulevardI’ve written several times over the years about how my dad, brother, and a friend from elementary school all get together once a year for a baseball game at US Cellular Field/Guaranteed Rate Field/Rate Field or, this year at least, Soldier Field.
I think I’ve mentioned it before but that friend has lived in Southern Illinois for the last twenty years. He grew up a few blocks from me and my brother and was kind of like a third child for my parents. He was always around and we were always playing some kind of sport in one of our backyards.
We were texting about something a few weeks ago and I jokingly asked if he wanted to meet at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis to tailgate before the US Figure Skating Championships.
He had no interest in figure skating but he did recommend a restaurant that his family loves. I had nothing else planned so we got up Saturday morning and headed in to St. Louis for lunch before heading to the arena.
Fitz’s is regional craft soda brand specializing in root beer. The brand has been around since the 1940’s, originally as a drive in restaurant in nearby Richmond Heights. That location shut down in the mid-1970’s and the beverage production closed as well. The brand was brought back to life in the mid 1990’s with the purchase of a building on Delmar Boulevard and Leland Avenue in the cultural district known as Delmar Loop in St. Louis. The building was originally built in the late 1920’s as a bank. It was bank for many years before becoming a Chinese restaurant in the 1980’s. This is one of two locations. The South County location one opened in 2019 on Lindbergh Street. At the Delmar location, there are a couple of public parking lots off Leland Avenue. The entrance to the restaurant is closest to the Leland Avenue intersection on Delmar Boulevard.
The restaurant has a pretty fun vibe to it. It’s a two level dining room with bold, bright colors and a 1950’s art deco motif. We were seated in the main floor dining room which has hardwood floors and big, heavy wooden furniture.
There is a bar like you’d find at any other microbrewery but this one has pop (I refuse to call it soda) on tap. There are some barstools so you could sit at the bar but it kind of feels weird to belly up to the bar and ask for a root beer float.
The upper level dining room is kind of closed off from the main area. There is a large wooden staircase near the entrance to the dining room to go upstairs. We didn’t check it out because we had no reason to but I almost didn’t notice at first that they were seating people up there. I thought the place was a little small but I was only looking at one small space. They seemed to be taking larger groups to that dining room.
The brewery is visible from the main dining room behind a wall of glass. The company purchased vintage 1940’s bottling line, restored it, and uses it to run their production. The line was not working on our visit. It would have been cool to see it in action.
The first thing we did when we sat down is figure out what we were going to drink. We noticed that the kid’s meals all came with bottomless mugs of root beer. B didn’t want just root beer though but I told him to get it and I would drink it then order what he wanted. The root beer is magnificent. It’s so creamy and delicious. I’m not the biggest root beer fan. It can be too sweet a lot of times..and that’s coming from a Pepsi drinker….but this was not overly sweet. It had those deep, rich tones that make root beer what is without the big sweetness. All of Fitz’s drinks are made with cane sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup which helps tone the sweetness down a bit. The drink is served in a thoroughly chilled mug which actually freezes part of the drink. The kids had never had anything like it before.
L picked her favorite Burdick’s drink, a Shirley Temple. It’s not just simply a mix of Sprite and grenadine. This is actually part of the beverage line and you can buy it in bottles. It’s their own take on a Shirley Temple that hits the notes of the citrusy Sprite. Her drink also came in a super chilled mug.
J went a little fancier with a Cherries and Cream Dirty Soda. The drink is Fitz’s Black Cherry, cream, and vanilla syrup with whipped cream and a cherry on top. She had gotten a couple of dirty sodas already this week at Dutch Bros but this one was totally different due to the high quality of the pop base.
What did B want? A Root Beer Float. Duh.
This root beer float was massive. There were three large scoops of vanilla ice cream on top of a mug of root beer. We knew there was absolutely no way he was going to eat all of that ice cream so we all started reaching over and pulling ice cream off to put in our own drinks. We made a pretty good size mess because the glass was also full to the top of root beer so every time one of us pushed down on the ice cream, root beer came seeping out. It was an amazingly good root beer float. If you go to Fitz’s, someone at your table has to get one. It’s enough to share and make two or three more root beer floats with your own mugs.
The food at Fitz’s is essentially pub food which is the best thing that can happen to us.
I ordered the Sunshine Burger. This sandwich comes topped with an egg, bacon, Pepper Jack and Colby cheeses and is served on Texas Toast. It’s a pretty simple burger but putting it on Texas Toast instead of a bun made this burger a little different. The crunch, buttery toasted added a layer for flavor and texture to the sandwich. The plate came with a side of fries. They were the frozen battered variety of fries. They were fine but needed some mustard or BBQ sauce to dip them in.
Speaking of BBQ sauce, J ordered the House Smoke Pulled Pork Sandwich. This massive sandwich is filled with applewood smoked pulled pork, Fitz’s Root Beer BBQ sauce, and onion straws. J didn’t even know how to begin. She ended up picking up a knife and fork because that was the only way to eat this sandwich. She doesn’t always like thick layers of pork on a sandwich but that was overridden but the incredible BBQ sauce. The thick, gooey BBQ sauce had the flavor of root beer but the sweet stickiness of a good Kansas City style BBQ sauce. This monster of a sandwich was way too much for one person and unfortunately, we weren’t going back to the hotel so it wasn’t something we could save for later. I was pretty stuffed so I only had a few bites but it was really tasty. Her plate also came with fries and I think L helped her eat some of those.
L ordered the Taco Salad. The crispy taco shell bowl is filled with lettuce, ground beef, black beans (left off), pico (left off), corn, avocado (left off), and Colby Jack cheese. Even with all the stuff L left off, this taco bowl came filled almost to the top. Again, way too much food for one person and we weren’t able to take it home. L did pretty good though eating about 3/4 of the salad before declaring defeat.
B ordered the Cheeseburger off the kid’s menu. This is a really simple cheeseburger topped with American cheese and served with Smiley fries. B has really been going to town on cheeseburgers lately. He likes this simple…just like this one was. He’s not a big fry guy so he only ate a couple of the Smiley fries. Again, I was too full to finish off everyone else’s meal.
Our bill for lunch before tip was a little over $81.
I’m a little surprised I had never heard of Fitz’s before. It’s such a great place with fun drinks for the kids….and adults…and a solid food menu. I don’t think I would have found this one on my own so I’m grateful my buddy pointed it out. He said it’s always been one of his kids’ favorite places. Usually I’m the one giving out the restaurant recommendations but he came through big time for me on this one.
SW Michigan Dining 