Our #1 Bestseller, Every Single Day
It started simply in the late 1960s. At our Town & Country store, two dedicated Straub’s meat cutters decided to whip up a batch of chicken salad using fresh chicken breasts. It was a straightforward, honest recipe using simple ingredients and Hellmann's mayonnaise, and our customers fell in love with it immediately.
As demand grew from a few pounds a week to a city-wide obsession, the operation needed to expand. That is when the torch was passed to Joyce Schierding, wife of one of the meat cutters. Joyce took that original recipe and made it legendary, hand-crafting batches in her own home kitchen for over a decade as word spread across St. Louis.
Today, we honor that shared legacy. Production has moved to its own dedicated room in our Clayton store, but the method hasn't changed. In 2025 alone, we sold over 83 tons of our famous chicken salad, yet it is still made fresh daily by our "Chicken Salad Ladies," a dedicated team trained to uphold the exact standards set decades ago.
It’s more than just a recipe. It’s a St. Louis tradition.
The Legacy of Miss Hulling's Cakes
For generations, Miss Hulling's was more than a cafeteria; it was a St. Louis institution. It all started in 1930 when Florence Hulling, a woman renowned for her incredible, homelike cooking, opened her first restaurant with $600 and a prayer.
For decades, Miss Hulling's was the "gold standard" of St. Louis comfort food, and her downtown bakery was the go-to place for families to mark special occasions.
Straub's is honored to be the steward of this true St. Louis legend. After the institution closed, we acquired the original, authentic recipes to ensure this piece of history would not be lost. We proudly continue that legacy in our bakery today, baking her famous split layer cakes just as she did.
When you buy a Miss Hulling's cake from our bakery, you're not just getting a delicious dessert. You're getting a genuine piece of St. Louis history.