St. Louis Soulard & The Hill Food Tour

The St. Louis Soulard & The Hill Food Tour is a guided walking experience covering two of St. Louis, Missouri's most historically rich food neighborhoods within a single three-and-a-half-hour session. The tour is operated by Feast and Footsteps STL Food Tours, a St. Louis-based culinary tour company that has been leading neighborhood walks since 2015. Groups meet at Soulard Market on Carroll Street, one of the oldest continuously operating public markets in the United States, dating to 1779.

The Soulard segment introduces visitors to the French Creole and German immigrant traditions that shaped the neighborhood's cuisine. The tour begins with a produce tasting and local honey sample inside the historic market hall, where vendors sell Missouri-grown fruits, vegetables, and specialty goods. From the market, the group moves to Bogart's Smokehouse for a serving of pit-smoked meats — a style rooted in Southern BBQ traditions transplanted to St. Louis.

After Soulard, the tour crosses the city to The Hill, a compact Italian-American neighborhood settled by immigrants from Lombardy and Sicily in the late nineteenth century. The Hill is widely regarded as the birthplace of toasted ravioli, a St. Louis signature dish. Tour stops on The Hill typically include Amighetti's Bakery, where the house Italian hoagie has been made to the same recipe for decades, and a dessert stop for cannoli or gelato. A local craft beer pairing accompanies at least one savory stop.

Feast and Footsteps STL Food Tours caps group sizes at twelve participants per departure to maintain a conversational pace. Tours depart Saturday mornings to coincide with peak Soulard Market hours, when all vendor stalls are fully staffed. The guide covers the architectural history of both neighborhoods alongside the food narrative, pointing out the redbrick rowhouses of Soulard and The Hill's distinctive fire hydrants painted red, white, and green to match the Italian flag. Dietary substitutions are available with advance notice — gluten-free and dairy-free alternatives can be arranged for most stops, and vegetarian participants are accommodated at nearly every location. The $75 per person tour price includes all food and drink samples and the walking guide. Participants should plan for approximately two miles of flat walking on city sidewalks.