About

St. Louing is a personal project I created to document my experience living in St. Louis and learning to love it.

I’ve been on a quest to find the best food in St. Louis, and after realizing I’ve tried more St. Louis-style pizza than anyone I know (and have strong opinions about it), I thought a website would be a fun medium to share everything I’ve discovered.

The site is not meant to be a definitive source of information about the STL food scene or neighborhoods - just my own little field guide. There is a heavy focus on food as that’s my primary way of exploring the city and culture.

Purpose#

As the internet enshittifies, it becomes harder and harder to find quality content. Everything is about how much data a company can extract from you to show you targeted ads and get you to buy stuff. I miss when much of the internet consisted of text-based personal sites about obscure hobbies and interests, made with love. These sites were slow, and you’d check back every now and then to see if they wrote something new.

That’s the experience I’m trying to recreate here. I have nothing to sell. I don’t want your data. I don’t want to make money showing you ads or affiliate links. I just want to document my thoughts in a way that’s fun for me and possibly interesting or useful to you.

I’m generally following the principles of the IndieWeb.

Contact#

I’d love to hear from you!

• Fill out the contact form
• Email me at hello@stlouing.com

This site is the source of truth, and I’ll automatically publish to these other platforms, following the POSSE practice (Publish on your Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere).

• Instagram - st.louing
• Substack - stlouing
• Bluesky - stlouing
• Twitter - stlouing
• GitHub - stlouing
• RSS

Ideas#

Just some thoughts I’m mulling on.

• A case for St. Louis
• Does the arch control the weather?
• Walkability of neighborhoods
• Nearby hiking spots
• Things to do in St. Louis
• Like and Dislikes of STL
• Chicago and St. Louis comparison

Uses#

A few open-source projects this site relies on.

• Host - Github Pages
• Web Framework - Astro
• Maps - MapLibre GL / Protomaps / OpenStreetMap
  • Map vector files for St. Louis greater area were saved as a .pmtiles binary and served from Supabase to prevent relying on third-party CDNs.
• Icons - Lucide
• Forms - Formspree
• Analytics - GoatCounter

Links#

• Built St. Louis
  • A website documenting the historic architecture of St. Louis in the “old internet” style of website I love to see.
• St. Louis City Talk
  • Many thoughts and pictures about St. Louis neighborhoods.
• Next STL
  • A website covering civic engagement and development in St. Louis.
• St. Louis Magazine
  • STL-based magazine with news and events.
• St. Louis Public Radio
  • The St. Louis branch of the NPR network.
• pizzababble
  • The St. Louis pizza guy. He’s out here fighting the good fight. I’ve discovered some new places thanks to his feed.
• STLFood on Reddit
  • The place to discuss food in St. Louis.
• St. Louis-MO.gov
  • Used for determining neighborhood boundaries and facts.

Etymology#

The name St. Louing is meant to represent the ongoing nature of my journey. I know it sounds a little cheugy, but let’s just roll with it.

History#

This site began on May 28, 2026. My St. Louis experience began in 2023.