St. Louis is a city rich in passions, especially for its restaurants. This enthusiasm extends to a strong interest in culinary history, largely due to Dr. Harley Hammerman. His websites, Lost Tables and Lost Dishes, keep the past alive and have become a popular part of St. Louis’ vibrant food scene.

Now, Hammerman is expanding his efforts to chronicle St. Louis’ gastronomic heritage with a new podcast.

‘Lost Tables’

Hammerman, a radiologist by training, grew up in University City with his parents and three siblings. He says his early experiences at restaurants helped develop his appreciation not only for the food but also for the history of what he experienced as he grew up.

“My earliest memory of eating out was at Golden Fried Chicken Loaf on Delmar, west of DeBaliviere. My mother and grandmother would take my siblings and me there for dinner on Friday evenings when my father worked late,” Hammerman recalls. “I’d also go with my father to pick up dinner from GFCL on Sundays.”

The fried chicken at Golden Fried Chicken Loaf became legendary and remains a vivid memory for Hammerman. This memory led to his passion project, “Lost Tables” a website detailing the stories of 130 St. Louis restaurants that no longer exist.

“Restaurants hold a special place in our lives. Some we remember for their atmosphere, others for their food and some for who we dined with,” said Hammerman. “I do think St. Louisans like to talk about the lost restaurants they remember eating at in the same way they talk about where they went to high school.”

Lost Tables: The podcast

Golden Fried Chicken Loaf is the impetus for Lost Tables and was Hammerman’s first story on the website. So, it’s only fitting that this golden fried story be the first episode of the new podcast.

“It was the story that got me started, so it just felt natural to lead off with it as the first episode of the podcast,” said Hammerman.

Hammerman produced the episode himself but did not like the sound of his own voice on the recording.

“So, I decided to try using AI and the result was the creation of ‘Delilah,’ the new voice of Lost Tables,” said Hammerman.

The theme music at the beginning and end of each episode was composed and produced by Hammerman’s grandson, Calvino Hammerman.

While Hammerman’s plan is to produce and release a new episode each week, you will not find a simple re-reading of his written stories. Instead, in many cases, you’ll find the actual audio recordings he made of interviews with the principals from each restaurant’s stories.

“In some cases, like the Golden Fried Chicken Loaf, where I didn’t use audio originally, I conducted new interviews and will include them in episodes to provide more voices in the storytelling,” said Hammerman.

Episode 1: Golden Fried Chicken Loaf