A Block of Provel on Loan: How St. Louis Pizza Got Its Cheese
Revised October 29, 2026
What is Saint Louis style pizza?
St. Louis-style pizza is a thin, crispy, crunchy crust covered edge to edge with toppings and Provel cheese, then cut into squares instead of wedges. Provel is a blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone with a low melting point, so it melts without turning stringy. The squares give you crispy triangle corners at the edge and softer center squares in the middle.
Keep reading ↓The knife goes across, then down, then across again, and the pie falls apart into a grid. Nobody waits for plates. A hand goes straight for the edge, for one of the little crispy triangle corners, and the cheese does not follow it up in a long rope the way it would off a New York slice. It just lets go. Soft, creamy, a little glossy, sitting on a crust that cracks when you bite it.
That cheese is Provel, and the most famous pizza in town has a better story about it than most St. Louisans have ever heard. By Imo’s own history, the Provel that made the chain arrived in the trunk of a man’s car, and the young couple who ran the place could not pay him for the first block. He left it with them on loan anyway.
There is a second surprise in that same history, and it is the one worth saying out loud at the table. By Imo’s own account, mozzarella was the cheese traditionally layered on South St. Louis style pizza. The Provel that now defines the style came in as a swap a neighborhood chef made in their kitchen. The most St. Louis thing on a St. Louis pizza started as a substitution.
What is Saint Louis style pizza?
St. Louis-style pizza is a thin, crispy, crunchy crust covered edge to edge with toppings and Provel cheese, then cut into squares instead of wedges. Provel is a blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone with a low melting point, so it melts without turning stringy. The squares give you crispy triangle corners at the edge and softer center squares in the middle.
That is the whole definition, and it is shorter than the arguments it starts. Thin crust alone is just thin crust. Squares alone are a party cut. It is the three together, with that particular cheese melting into the toppings, that people mean when they say St. Louis pizza.
How to order it like you grew up here
Start with the cheese question, because it changes everything else. When you call a place you have not tried, ask whether they use Provel on their thin crust or mozzarella. A St. Louis pizzeria will not be offended by the question. It is the first thing a regular would want to know, and the answer tells you which pie is about to land on your counter.
Then think about who is eating. Squares are made for a crowd, so a thin-crust pie stretches further around a table than the same size cut in wedges. If you have kids, the center squares go first. If you have corner people, and every family does, order a size that leaves enough edge pieces to keep the peace.
Eat the first squares fast, while the cheese is still glossy and the crust still cracks. That crispy, crunchy base is the point of the style. Leave it in a closed box for twenty minutes and the steam softens it. Crack the lid a little on the drive home and the crust has a better chance of arriving the way the oven left it.
Want it at home without a delivery driver? Imo’s sells its own Shredded Provel Cheese and its frozen pizzas in grocery stores, and the company’s own advice for the frozen pie is the local rule in one line: cut your pizza into squares to get the parlor experience in your own kitchen. Pile the cheese to the edges on the thinnest crust you can find, slide it into a hot oven, and listen for the crackle when the knife goes through.
A block of Provel in the trunk of a car
The Imo’s history starts small enough to feel like a family story told at a holiday table. Ed and Margie Imo, a young couple, spent five years saving $1,500 and opened their first parlor on the corner of Thurman and Shaw. The year was 1964. Their first kitchen was a used oven, two refrigerators and a stove, bought for $75.
Think about the work in that room the way the company describes it. Ed kept his day job as a tile setter, slicing squares of linoleum by day and pizza by night. Margie answered the phones, scooped salads into cups and ran the cash register, which was an old tackle box they repurposed. Margie’s brother drove every delivery. Then they hired a chef from the neighborhood to cook the pizzas, and that chef made the call that stuck: Provel instead of mozzarella.
It sold. It sold so fast they needed more of the cheese than they could find, and word got around town that they were looking. One day a man the company remembers only as Mr. John showed up with a block of Provel in the trunk of his car. They could not pay him for that first block, so he gave it to them on loan the first week. The next week they paid him back. According to Imo’s, Mr. John returned every week for the next three years, until his death.
There are bigger, more official histories of St. Louis pizza. None of them have a better scene than a man opening his trunk outside a corner pizza parlor and trusting two strangers with a block of cheese.
Why the squares, and why the corner piece?
Here is the part even the company keeps modest. On its own page about the style, Imo’s answers “why squares?” simply: it is how pizza gets sliced in St. Louis. The linoleum line in its history is a nice echo, the tile setter cutting squares all day and then cutting squares all night, but it is told as a detail of Ed’s life, not as a patent.
What the squares really do is change how a pizza gets eaten. A round pie cut into a grid gives you two kinds of pieces. The edge pieces are the crispy triangle corners and slim strips with a dark, crunchy rim. The center squares are smaller, softer, and carry more cheese and toppings than crust. At any St. Louis table you will see people go for one or the other on instinct.
Imo’s says squares make for the perfect shareable pizza, and you can see why in any living room on a game night. Nobody has to wrestle a floppy wedge. A kid can take one square. Somebody watching their carbs can take two center pieces and call it dinner. The pizza stops being eight equal slices and turns into a bowl of snacks everyone reaches into.
What Provel actually does when it melts
Pull a square off a fresh pie and look at the cheese. It does not stretch into strings. It slumps and sheets across the toppings, creamy and slick, and it stays put on the square instead of sliding off in one piece. That is the low melting point Imo’s describes: Provel melts without being stringy. The company calls it gooey and creamy, and that is about right.
Imo’s lists its Provel facts plainly. The blend is cheddar, Swiss and provolone. It was invented in St. Louis, Missouri in 1947. More than 2 million pounds of it are eaten each year. The company also says the cheese’s origins are debated, which is an unusually honest line for a pizza chain to put on its own website.
If you did not grow up on it, the first bite can surprise you. It is not the clean, milky pull of mozzarella. It is softer and more buttery, with a tang that sits under the sauce. People who were raised on it taste a whole childhood. People who were not tend to have an opinion within one square. Both reactions are part of the experience.
And if Provel is not for you, that is a preference, not a verdict on the city. Ask whether the kitchen will build the same thin crust with mozzarella. Many local kitchens will make it either way if you ask.
Hungry for dessert after? A walk to one of the St. Louis bakeries is a good way to settle the table after a big round of squares.
Provel is only one of the local foods outsiders squint at - here is the rest of what this city invented.
Is the pizza different on the Illinois side of the river?
Sometimes, and the fastest way to find out is to ask. A thin, square-cut pizza in Belleville, Edwardsville or Collinsville can arrive with Provel or with mozzarella depending on the kitchen. Neither is wrong. They are just different pies, and a minute on the phone saves a disappointed face at the table when the box opens.
The same goes for the Missouri side. A shop in Affton, Florissant, Kirkwood or Maryland Heights might be a lifelong Provel house, or it might be the place your mozzarella-loving cousin swears by. The style is a shared language across the metro. Each kitchen still has its own accent.
Can you get it outside St. Louis?
You can, if you are willing to ship it. Imo’s says it will ship its squares anywhere in the US, and its history describes packaging and shipping St. Louis style pizza, Toasted Ravioli and Provel Bites across the country to loyal customers. That is how a lot of former St. Louisans in other states get their fix, and how a lot of people who never lived here get their first taste.
Shipped pizza is a box, a freezer and an oven, not a corner parlor with the crust still crackling. It is still the closest a homesick St. Louisan in another state can get without a drive. For a gift with more than one local flavor in it, these two help:
- Sending a taste of St. Louis to someone far away
- How to order a Philly cheesesteak in St. Louis, for melted cheese done a different way
Settle the Provel argument at your own table. Browse pizza across the St. Louis metro on St Louis Near Me Directory, then order two thin-crust pies from one kitchen, one with Provel and one without, and let the room vote square by square.
If you run the pizza place people should be calling, the hungry customers searching tonight should find your squares before anyone else’s. Put your hours, menu and phone in front of them with a listing on St Louis Near Me Directory.
Frequently asked questions
What is different about St. Louis pizza?
Three things together: a thin, crispy, crunchy crust, Provel cheese instead of mozzarella, and a cut into squares instead of wedges. Provel is a blend of cheddar, Swiss and provolone that melts without being stringy, so each square stays neat. The edge pieces come out as crispy triangle corners and the center squares stay soft.
Is Provel cheese only in St. Louis?
It is a St. Louis cheese at heart. Imo’s says Provel was invented in St. Louis, Missouri in 1947 and that more than 2 million pounds of it are eaten each year. The company also admits its origins are debated. Where it is eaten most is not up for debate: on squares of thin crust, right here.
Who has the best St. Louis style pizza?
There is no settled answer, and anyone who says otherwise grew up on one particular pie. Imo’s is the name most people know, but plenty of St. Louisans have a neighborhood favorite they defend just as hard. Judge a shop on the crust, the cheese and whether the corner pieces still crack.
Can you buy Provel Cheese outside of St. Louis?
The easiest way to taste it outside the region is in a pizza that ships. Imo’s says it ships its squares anywhere in the US, and it has shipped Provel Bites across the country too. If you want the block itself, call a store near you and ask before you drive.
Did Imo’s start the Provel tradition?
Imo’s own history says a chef from the neighborhood chose Provel in place of the mozzarella traditionally layered on South St. Louis style pizza, and that the switch was such a hit they had to hunt for more cheese. Imo’s says Provel itself dates to 1947, years before the first parlor opened in 1964.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.