LostSTL: Texas Bruce

Harley Hammerman is a radiologist and entrepreneur. On the side, he collects historical memorabilia, including those from long-gone beloved restaurants in the St. Louis area.

Those vanished restaurants — their menus, their signature dishes and, most of all, their memories — have captured the attention of thousands of current and former St. Louisans who visit Hammerman's Lost Tables and Lost Dishes websites.

For Hammerman, the memories began with a long-gone restaurant on Delmar, east of the U. City Loop, called Golden Fried Chicken Loaf.

"It was one of the restaurants that has always haunted me," he says. "That fried chicken might not taste the same to me today, but in my mind it is what all fried chicken has been measured against."

By chance, he located the granddaughter of Mina Evans, the restaurant’s original owner. He thought of doing a whole website just about Golden Fried, but he realized there might not be enough meat there.

Then, bitten by the history bug, he started to wonder about and research other fabled restaurants he loved and missed.

Next up were Cyrano’s, the basement bistro on Clayton Road in the DeMun neighborhood that featured a decadent dessert known as the Cleopatra, and Ruggeri’s on the Hill, famous for veal parmesan, showy service and organist Stan Kann. For Hammerman, both spots brought back memories of dating his high school sweetheart, who would later become his wife.

With his restaurant appetite whetted, he created Lost Tables, and the range of establishments you can find at the site amazes. They range from the casual to the fancy, from Hamburger Heaven to Tony Faust’s. Alphabetically, they stretch from Al Baker’s to the Zodiac Lounge.

"These are not necessarily the best restaurants in the world," Hammerman says, "but they provide the best memories."