Lousies on the Loop (567-A Melville) is a new, locally owned eatery in University City with a name that only makes sense once it’s explained.
“We are St. Louisans with a restaurant on the Loop that specializes in loose meat sandwiches,” says chef Daniel Boyer, who owns the business with his wife, Kelle. “Plus, people will shorten the name to Lousies [pronounced loosies], which is the dish’s nickname, so that works, too.”
The so called “loose meat sandwich” (basically a sloppy joe without the tomato-based sauce) was created at a Maid Rite diner in Muscatine, Iowa almost a century ago. In many circles, the sandwich is known as a Maid-Rite. “I grew up in northeastern Missouri eating loose meat sandwiches,” Daniel says, “which are popular throughout the Midwest, so I was surprised that no restaurant here focused on them. They’re fun, fast, affordable—as well as being nostalgic and identifiable— so we thought, Why not?”
Kelle and Daniel Boyer owners of Lousies on the Loop
