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Gooey Louie is a Delicious St. Louis Tradition
(Photo by Susan McKee)
The Road Trips Foodie
The siren call of a great dessert dragged me into
Gooey Louie, an improbably named St. Louis, Missouri, icon right on Historic Route 66 at 6483 Chippewa Street in the neighborhood of Lindenwood Park. The absolutely sinful butter cakes with deliciously gooey tops are the creation of Kirk and Debbie Stieferman (pictured, below). Gooey Louie started out small in 2006, offering the cakes (one of Debbie’s old family recipes) at the Best of Missouri Market in the Missouri Botanical Garden — and sold out.
(Photo by Susan McKee)
Same thing happened the following year, and the next. Inevitably, they opened their own shop and haven’t looked back since. “This is a homestyle recipe,” Debbie notes. “It’s all natural and we make ’em from scratch using actual butter, sugar, cream cheese and eggs. My personal favorite (available only in the summer) is Key Lime.” Gooey Louie offers 20 or so flavors, which rotate with the seasons. The most popular — some 50% of their sales, she says — is the original flavor. A sentimental favorite at the moment is Hwy 40: Driving Me Nuts — because St. Louis is tied in traffic knots due to construction on its interstate system. Others I sampled on a trip to their store were Chocolate Chippewa, Chocolate Raspberry, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Turtle Park (think I was on a chocolate roll!). I took home an original flavor cake, but I have daydreams about that extra gooey Turtle Park, replete with caramel and chocolate. Fortunately, the cakes — and the new cookies — are available by mail! Check out the custom labels — Debbie is a graphic artist. Hmm. Wouldn’t these be terrific holiday gifts?
