Karlie Kloss Just Schooled Vanity Fair on Imo's Awesomeness

May 3, 2017 at 7:45 am

It was supermodel Kate Moss who famously proclaimed that "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." But her St. Louis-born successor, Karlie Kloss, has a far more relatable mantra when it comes to food. Namely, "cut pizza in squares." Oh, and "everything is better with ranch dressing."

Kloss recently took Vanity Fair's Derek Blasberg to Imo's for an episode of his web series, "Derek Does Stuff with a Friend" (no, we'd never heard of Blasberg or his web series before this either). And much to our amazement, rather than turn up her nose at the Square Beyond Compare like some lesser locals we can think of, Kloss went all-in — introducing viewers to toasted ravioli ("they're just delectable!"), explaining that people drive to St. Louis from all over America to get Imo's, and, yes, arguing the merits of cutting pizza in squares ("you get more slices per surface area of pizza — it's just math").

Ultimately, Kloss lays down the five rules of the Midwestern diet:

Everything is better fried.
Everything is better with ranch dressing.
Everything should be bigger than your head.
Cut pizza in squares.
Be thrifty — take it home.

Yes, we'll admit that we detected a hint of mockery in some of this twosome's vamping. (Seriously, despite all of Kloss' professed love of this stuff, just how much of it ends up in a to-go box?) But hey, at least they're paying lip service to the mighty T-rav and St. Louis-style pizza — and it's certainly preferable to trying to argue that starving yourself is fun.

And if nothing else, it's nice to see Imo's getting some free publicity. As Blasberg concludes, "I really think this place could teach us everything we need to know about eating in Missouri." Derek, you have no idea. Come back and we'll teach you all about this amazing little invention called Provel ...

Update: We've now heard from multiple readers letting us know that Blasberg — wait for it! — went to high school right here in St. Louis. Affton High School, apparently. So, yeah, dude probably knows about Provel.

Which raises a whole other issue. Should we assume the video's unwillingness to mention Provel is a slight to St. Louis' favorite almost-sort-of cheese product? Why not at least mention the stuff that gives Imo's its distinctive Imo's-ness?

Maybe we'll just quit while we're ahead...

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