“It’s in good competition”: the fight over flavor on The Hill

By Amber Roldan • Dec. 15, 2025

For decades, St. Louis natives and visitors alike have become infatuated with the city’s signature dish: toasted ravioli.

While the familiar flavor has transcended city limits, the bite-sized pockets of fried beef and ricotta cheeses can be traced back to a happy accident in an Italian kitchen on the Hill.

“One of the cooks downstairs had a little bit too much to drink and dropped ravioli in the oil instead of the water, and instead of throwing them away, just gave 'em to the guys at the bar,” Ace Hornbeck, a manager at Mama’s On The Hill said.

The retelling of this story has been passed down for generations at Mama’s On The Hill: Home of the Toasted Ravioli. At the family oriented business, legend has it that the regulars who were given the ruined ravioli liked it so much they came back the next night asking for more.

Just a short walk away from Mama’s, another restaurant shares a similar story also claiming to be the first creators of toasted ravioli. This restaurant trades in Mama’s rustic, homey feel for more of an elevated approach thanks to white table cloths and decorative chandeliers.

Since the 40s, Angelo’s on the Hill was a beloved neighborhood staple. The restaurant changed ownership in the 80s and became what is today known as Charlie Gitto’s. Despite the change of ownership, a collection of both memories and recipes were passed down and continue to be shared today.

“The story that I've always been told is that Angelo was hosting a big party one night, and he was trying to hurry up and get people fed," Anthony Gitto, an owner at Charlie Gitto’s said. “One of the chefs accidentally dropped one of the raviolis, a regular ravioli, into a vat of fry oil and not a pot of boiling water. So the chef presented it to Angelo and Angelo thought it was a great idea, and the rest is kind of history.”

While both restaurants have touted ownership of toasted ravioli for years, the fan favorite dish has made its way outside of the Hill and into freezer aisles and kitchens across the country.

From Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood to Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse in Chicago, the fried pasta is now a popular menu item hundreds of miles away from its origin. Fans who don’t live close to a restaurant serving the dish can still indulge in the St. Louis tradition through grocery freezers.

Toasted ravioli may no longer be a well kept secret, but a friendly sense of competition still exists between restaurants on the Hill.

“Cooking is subjective,” Gitto said. “It's like art, everybody has their own way of doing things. And, you know, ours is about community and taking care of the Hill and sharing the story of the toasted ravioli, because at the end of the day, it's exposing St. Louis, it's exposing the Hill”.

The debate over who created the first toasted ravioli may never be settled — and legally, not much could be done to prove otherwise.

“Even if somebody could prove that they were first, that wouldn't give them any intellectual property rights in the food item of toasted ravioli,” St. Louis trademark attorney Morris Turek said.

At both Charlie Gitto’s and Mama’s On The Hill, subtle differences exist between each toasted ravioli recipe — from red sauce ingredients to breadcrumb variations. Both restaurants share a similar origin story, but hold onto slightly different recipes.

“Generally speaking, a recipe is just a recipe,” Turek said. “It's a list of instructions to make a certain dish, and you can't really protect the concept or the idea or the method or the process of a recipe. That's just not something that's protectable.”

For both Mama’s On The Hill and Charlie Gitto’s, the fight over flavor has become more of a friendly competition than a legal battle of ownership.

“I think it just keeps the synergy of the toasted ravioli in the neighborhood of the Hill going," Gitto said. “It keeps us fresh and in the forefront of everybody's minds.”