Human Flower Project

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Root, Flower, for the Cardinals

Few businesses offer the amenity of fresh flowers. One St. Louis restaurant owner holds firm, and buys the blossoms every week himself.

Always packed, and ever with fresh flowers, Charlie Gitto’s is a downtown institution in St. Louis, Missouri
Photo: Human Flower Project

Following flowers this year has led us to follow baseball – thanks to Charlie Gitto, we have a team.

Charlie operates two well known Italian restaurants in St. Louis and for the past thirty years has bought the establishments’ fresh flowers himself. We wound up at his downtown spot thanks to the recommendation of a friendly custodian at Busch Stadium. There actually aren’t too many restaurants open in this part of the inner city at night, so we were thrilled to find Charlie Gitto’s on North 6th Street, a healthy but easy walk from our hotel.

There was a short wait, but we settled into the pretty old foyer – tile floor and lots of polished wood. There was a big vase of gladiolas on the counter just inside the door and, of course, the game was on TV.  We looked up at scores of framed photographs of baseball heroes, musicians, pols, and the Budweiser clydesdales, all posing with the same mustachioed gentleman – the fellow who happened to be sitting at the end of the bar watching the game.

“I buy go to the flower market every week,” Charlie told us proudly. There he picks up enough stems for the tables and a big bouquet up front, plus “two dozen white roses for my daughter.” (St. Louis still has a busy downtown flower market on the 2700 block of La Salle Street. You can watch a youtube about the market here.)

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