I am headed toward Saint Louis this weekend. Does anyone have recommendations for Sunday lunch between Springfield and Chicago for the drive back? We have one person seeking fried chicken and one (very not picky) vegetarian. That stretch of 55 always seems pretty sparse, so if we're better off stopping in Springfield, I'd love recommendations for there as well.

veghound wrote:I am headed toward Saint Louis this weekend. Does anyone have recommendations for Sunday lunch between Springfield and Chicago for the drive back? We have one person seeking fried chicken and one (very not picky) vegetarian. That stretch of 55 always seems pretty sparse, so if we're better off stopping in Springfield, I'd love recommendations for there as well.

You're probably gone by now, but just in case, we really enjoyed "Reality Bites" on the edge of downtown Bloomington, IL. Kind of a tapas bar, but they have standard plates, too. I had the kobe beef burger with the truffled sweet potato fries, and hmm, I can't remember what my wife had, but we enjoyed our meal along with a couple pints of Fat Tire. Indoor and outdoor seating, and situated in a neat little area of downtown. Here's a link to their site.

http://www.realitybitesinc.com/

Between their several chicken and veggie options, it might be a good compromise restaurant for your competing food requirements.

Going to a show at the Fox Theater... I think we're hitting Sweetie Pie's for a late lunch/early dinner.

Any good breakfast spots worth driving to? I'll be mobile, staying downtown on the river.

Probably hitting J & A's bar for pre-show drinks...

Any tips welcomed.

So, we've been meaning to try train travel, spouse has some time off work, planets aligned - and we decided to try the short jaunt to St. Louis for a quick two-night stay. We'll be carless, staying at the Peartree Inn Union Station.

I saw a lot of potential places in gleam's roundup, above - any advice on what's accessible near the train/hotel or how to get around? I know that often in small cities, public transportation isn't something you can take for granted (I'd never ridden a bus in my life until I left Cincinnati; they were almost useless there.) We will have access to a GPS, for whatever that's worth without a car...

St. Louis has a light rail system along with buses. http://www.metrostlouis.org/

Mhays wrote:So, we've been meaning to try train travel, spouse has some time off work, planets aligned - and we decided to try the short jaunt to St. Louis for a quick two-night stay. We'll be carless, staying at the Peartree Inn Union Station.

I saw a lot of potential places in gleam's roundup, above - any advice on what's accessible near the train/hotel or how to get around? I know that often in small cities, public transportation isn't something you can take for granted (I'd never ridden a bus in my life until I left Cincinnati; they were almost useless there.) We will have access to a GPS, for whatever that's worth without a car...

If you didn't like the Queen City Metro, you will not like the St. Louis public transportation. I rode the QCM and the TANK buses all over the place but could not stand the terrible bus service in St. Louis. There is the MetroLink in St. Louis - its original route was more geared toward the politician's dreams than in reducing the rush hour traffic.

Your options are as follows:

1) Downtown St. Louis has a few restaurants. I am not into the downtown scene as the food tended to be overpriced options like Mike Shannon's and Tony's or the bar scene in Laclede's landing. It is a walk straight down Market Street toward the Arch.

2) A short taxi ride from the hotel is the Grand Ave. strip. In that area, there are a variety of family owned small Asian and other international restaurants. Nothing that you really cannot find in Chicago but generally at a lower price points. You will get a good meal at any of the Vietnamese restaurants. The King & I is rather overrated.

3) The Hill has a wide variety of Italian places of varying reputation. Generally, the better known, the worse the food.

Several caveats.

You can take the Metra Rail around the city. Avoid the Grand Ave. Station which is about 1.5 miles N or the restaurant area and is not in a good area if you are walking.

Also, I would not recommend walking to the Grand Ave, or the Soulard district, especially at night as you have some housing projects in the area.

I am in St. Louis next weekend. I am looking forward to trying out some of the old places.

Thanks much, both of you! Looking forward to this trip - and also to the train ride (I'd heard the food on the train isn't too good, but will report)

It's too bad you are transportationally challenged on this trip because St. Louis is home to a couple notable ice cream destinations. First there is Crown Candy Kitchen, located in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. It's been there since 1913 and is very much worth a visit for the ice cream as well as their hand made chocolates.

Crown Candy Kitchen


Crown Candy Kitchen Soda Jerk


Crown Candy Kitchen Crown Sundae


Also not to be missed (if at all possible) is Ted Drewes for frozen custard. Ted Drewes closes during the winter, so call ahead to make sure they are open during your visit.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard


Ted Drewes Menu


Ted Drewes Cardinal Sin


Enjoy your trip. St. Louis is a fun little town.


Crown Candy Kitchen
1401 Saint Louis Ave
Saint Louis, MO 63106
314-621-9650

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
6726 Chippewa
St. Louis, MO 63109
(314) 481-2652
(314) 481-2124

We were in St. Louis a couple weeks ago and had a good breakfast at Rooster in the downtown area. Very nice crepes and omelets.


Rooster
1104 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63102
http://roosterstl.com/

Michelle,

You'll be just around the corner from the Schlafly Tap Room. Decent pub food and their beers are much better on tap than when I've had them in bottles. I've only been there a few times (don't get to St. Louis too much) but I've had very good experiences on those occasions.

Schlafly Tap Room
2100 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

I'll add:
Amighetti's - http://www.amighettis.com/
to the list. Great sandwiches.

stevez wrote:Also not to be missed (if at all possible) is Ted Drewes for frozen custard. Ted Drewes closes during the winter, so call ahead to make sure they are open during your visit.

Not sure when you are going, but I am fairly sure the Ted Drewe's on Chippewa/Route 66 (the one pictured in stevez's photo) is open at least through the end of the year -- I know we got custard there for my son's birthday on 12/27 a few years ago (my sister-in-law and her family live two blocks away). But I believe that location may be closed in January. I am pretty sure the other location, on Grand Blvd., is a summer-only place.

Matt wrote:

stevez wrote:Also not to be missed (if at all possible) is Ted Drewes for frozen custard. Ted Drewes closes during the winter, so call ahead to make sure they are open during your visit.

Not sure when you are going, but I am fairly sure the Ted Drewe's on Chippewa/Route 66 (the one pictured in stevez's photo) is open at least through the end of the year -- I know we got custard there for my son's birthday on 12/27 a few years ago (my sister-in-law and her family live two blocks away). But I believe that location may be closed in January. I am pretty sure the other location, on Grand Blvd., is a summer-only place.

If you don't have transportation, I don't think the Ted Drewes is very accessible. We went for my first time last year and I felt like we drove for miles to get there. Granted, we weren't coming from downtown, but it still felt far. (and dare I say slightly overrated? And I love everything in the ice cream/custard family....)

Matt wrote:

stevez wrote:Also not to be missed (if at all possible) is Ted Drewes for frozen custard. Ted Drewes closes during the winter, so call ahead to make sure they are open during your visit.

Not sure when you are going, but I am fairly sure the Ted Drewe's on Chippewa/Route 66 (the one pictured in stevez's photo) is open at least through the end of the year -- I know we got custard there for my son's birthday on 12/27 a few years ago (my sister-in-law and her family live two blocks away). But I believe that location may be closed in January. I am pretty sure the other location, on Grand Blvd., is a summer-only place.

The Ted Drewes on Chippewa is open ALL year. However, it is hard to get into this time of year as they have a lot of Christmas trees in their lot. The Grand Ave. store closes after Labor Day.

While I prefer a good ice cream, the Cardinal Sin (Sour Cherries and Hot Fudge) has such a great topping that I generally always get that.

I had planned to take the $1 Megabus on this trip but the $25OW fare on Southwest (and the fact that I have to carry my laptop) discouraged me.

I'll be in the Mound City next week. Crown Candy is a must, and other stops I'm considering are:

Pappy's Smokehouse
Roper's Ribs
Al-Tarboush just for falafel and groceries
Black Thorn Pub for eccentric pizza

I'd like to try the Plush Pig mentioned upthread, but I understand it's a catering-only business at the moment while they relocate. One dinner will likely be at Eleven Eleven.

Any additional suggestions, closings, openings, updates, etc. will be greatly valued.

So sorry, realized I never reported back on our trip - in between, my laptop died and I've been struggling to gather all my photos together (at least, I hope I haven't posted this somewhere.) Of course, the food on the train is bad. It's fun to eat in the dining car if you like melamine and very good service, but the food is about exactly what you would expect. Even the little boxed packaged-cheese-plates were barely edible, partly because they were room temperature which allows the oils in the wrapped cheeses to ooze to the surface.

However, entirely by accident, we had an excellent meal at an exception to Mike G's rule: spang in the middle of downtown, a fair but do-able schlep from the arch and from Union Station, there is a very nice, kid-friendly sculpture garden. We were starving when we got there, and decided to just eat right there at its restaurant. The Terrace View's menu was downright scary for a place inside a tourist attraction: words like "rillette" and "fritto misto" make me cower - you often wind up with some TGMcFunster's bastardization. However, Jason bravely ordered the porchetta sandwich, I had the mussels, and Sparky, boy of my heart, had excellent french fries with the optional fried egg and (IIRC) a grilled cheese sandwich after stealing half of my mussels and using the nice broth as a sandwich-dip. It was all exactly what it was supposed to be, and everybody was happy. I can't say the same for any of the food we ate elsewhere (we didn't have many options, being both transportationally and kid-attention-span challenged.)

We were starving, and the food was good. Somewhere, I've got pictures and I'll post them.

I was in St. Louis last week for work and had one excellent meal and one lousy one. Cielo Restaurant in The Four Seasons was terrific. The hotel is only a year or two old and easily the best in St. Louis. Dont be scared off by its proximity to the casino, you won't even notice it is there. Beautiful grilled salmon served on a mix of greens was a perfect light lunch before my meetings. The view of the arch and river from the dining room is the best in town, I should have dined there for dinner--the menu is contemporary Italian.

Mike Shannon's Steak House is really the pits. I have yet to have a good local steak house experience in St. Louis. Mike Shannon's is as dreadful as Dierdorf & Hart's, another pitiful excuse for a steakhouse in the gateway city. I ordered a supposedly "dry aged" 12 oz Handcut Strip medium rare and was served a piece of shoe leather. Sent it back and my second steak was not much better. Sides and appetizers were bland and the blue cheese dressing served with the wedge salad was thin and watery. The close proximity to all that Cardinal memorabelia sickened me more than my dinner. This place is a bust.

Cielo at The Four Season's
999 North 2nd Street,
St. Louis, Mo 63102
Tel. (314) 881-5800

Mike Shannon's Steaks and Seafood
620 Market St
St Louis, MO 63101
(314) 421-1540

Dierdorf & Hart's
323 Westport Plaza
St Louis, MO 63146
(314) 878-1801

SomeoneOnPage2 wrote:There is a nice breakfast place that is part of a deli with good smoked salmon, but unfortunately I can't remember the name.

the place he/she was referring to (way back on page 2) was a really great Jewish deli in central west end called

Kopperman's Specialty Foods & Delicatessen
386 N Euclid Ave
Saint Louis, MO 63108

i had the smoked trout w/ cracked pepper last time i was in, quite great.

also while in st. louis i frequent Duff's, which is next door to Kopperman's... very nice place, great for lunch.

Duff's Restaurant
www.dineatduffs.com
392 North Euclid Avenue
St Louis, MO 63108

...actually, of all of the restaurant areas in st. louis, central west end seems the most likely to have "finds" .. and if you've never been, it's a quieter area well worth exploring. also, it's home to one of my favorite 24 hour coffee shops--Coffee Cartel. spent more hours there than i could ever count... though it's drastically different than it used to be. The Hill has some history, but the food can be pretty mediocre from what i gather.

And has anyone mentioned a pizza from Imo's as being a must?? :]

while getting your Maull's, don't forget to pickup a gooey butter cake! actually there are more gourmet versions, but schnuck's always has "the standard" ...

last time i was in the area, there's an antiques row that's pretty cool Cherokee (http://cherokeeantiquerow.net/)... but near it was a Nicaraguan place called Fritanga that i have high on my list to visit next time... it gets great reviews everywhere i've looked... anyone here been? .... can't find nicaraguan in chicago .

Fritanga
2208 South Jefferson Avenue
St Louis, MO 63104-2212

...p.s., if you're driving between st. louis and chicago, I always take I57. in part that's because my parents live off of i70 (you go i57 to i70), but i prefer the drive itself. if you map it, it shows as being 20 minutes longer than i55, but in practice i always get there much, much quicker on i57/i70. it's a less trafficked route with very few semi-trucks, few "roving roadblocks" of mini-vans too. i make it in about 4.5 hours to downtown stl this route, driving a constant 72.

If you do take i57, about an hour and a half outside of st. louis in effingham, there's a great newish restaurant called Firefly. well, i say great but i've only been there once. it's a really cool building they built, looks like one of those ultra modern meets rustic type places. right off the highway on but you'd never just stumble upon it without knowing where it was. i think it used to be a bit of a hidden gem but as of last time i traveled there there was a small billboard advertising it along the highway I think the menu is decisively higher end at night than at lunch, sustainable focus type place (i think they have a tasting/tour menu as well)

Firefly Grill
www.ffgrill.com
1810 Ave. of Midamerica
Effingham, IL 62401
(217) 342-2002

if you want steaks and don't mind driving to the middle of nowhere IL (half an hour off i70 or i64) surrounded by pig/cow/corn/soy farms, a town of 300 has one of the best steakhouses around... Popeye's chop house. good wine list too. the wedge salads is one of my favorites anywhere. you won't find really high end dry aged anything here, but it's solid in the steak category. Breese also being the regional home of Ski soda, a must in that area (get it in the glass bottle and it has the real fruit pulp in it, as well as being made with real cane sugar vs the cans which are HFCS) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_%28soda%29

Popeye's Chop House
www.popeyeschophouse.com
17910 Saint Rose Road
Breese, IL 62230
(opens daily 4pm, reservations recommended)

veghound wrote:I am headed toward Saint Louis this weekend. Does anyone have recommendations for Sunday lunch between Springfield and Chicago for the drive back? We have one person seeking fried chicken and one (very not picky) vegetarian. That stretch of 55 always seems pretty sparse, so if we're better off stopping in Springfield, I'd love recommendations for there as well.

Sorry for the delayed response, but Shannon's Five Star has an excellent chicken dinner, but I will have to check as I am not sure if it is available until dinner time. They are located behind the enterprise rental place at Mercer and Veterans Parkway(business 55). If you can afford a small diversion in your route, the Busy Corner in Goodfield on I-74 west heading to Peoria also has an excellent chicken dinner, not to mention PIE! It is only about 15-minutes from the North-west side of Bloomington/Normal.

Santander wrote:I'll be in the Mound City next week. Crown Candy is a must, and other stops I'm considering are:

Pappy's Smokehouse
Roper's Ribs
Al-Tarboush just for falafel and groceries
Black Thorn Pub for eccentric pizza

I'd like to try the Plush Pig mentioned upthread, but I understand it's a catering-only business at the moment while they relocate. One dinner will likely be at Eleven Eleven.

Any additional suggestions, closings, openings, updates, etc. will be greatly valued.

Quick reactions (I'll return with photos and longer descriptions soon):

Schlafly's Tap Room: fantastic building, atmosphere, and staff. Coffee stout (draft) and quadrupel (bottle-conditioned) were tops. Smoked porter was without question the worst beer I have ever had, reeking and tasting of cigarette smoke and bad cheese. Schnitzel was not so much schnitzel as the ubiquitous Dust Bowl breaded pork tenderloin sandwich made with some veal they had lying around, but the warm potato salad was awesome. Sticky toffee pudding was commendable.

Pappy's Smokehouse: adult contemporary cue, perfectly moist pulled pork and pastrami-seasoned brisket with zero (0) smoke flavor, sides average, a good value but a significant disappointment.

Crown Candy Kitchen: amazing. How Petersen's in Oak Park screwed this format up, I have no idea. Thanks for the rec.

Hubert Keller The Burger Bar: wonderful toppings; bread, fries, and burger doneness need work. I'll take Gage / Paramount / Duke of Perth.

El Gallo Jiros: find of the trip, a Platonic ideal CESJ in the shadow of Cahokia Mounds staffed by a couple from Cicero.

Hadn't been in awhile and found the city charming, welcoming, and desperately in need of tourism like everyplace else.

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread. I haven't been to St. Louis in more than thirty years. I'll be in town for a convention at the downtown Renaissance Hotel. I'll be traipsing around town to some of the obvious suspects, most of which aren't close to the hotel, but was wondering if there are any good options in the downtown area for breakfasts, but especially lunch and dinner.

Took a pretty spontaneous drive down to St. Louis this past week to check out Wash U and the Arch, didn't have much time to carefully peruse this thread but I did take a quick look and wanted to just provide my little updates. No pictures, sorry.

We arrived late Thursday afternoon and went straight to Ted Drewes. It was good, hard to find based on the AAA book's directions but the handy iphone thingy got us there. Loved it. Custard seems to melt faster than ice cream, but it was sure creamy and delicious.

Stayed at the Sheraton downtown and walked over to J. Buck's, about the only thing open, walking distance from the hotel and not super expensive so a good choice for us with the kids. Burgers were fine, toasted ravioli was good too. French onion soup was horrible...absolutely flavorless, the soup, the cheese, the croutons. To their credit they took it off the bill after being told.

Went to lunch on Friday at Blueberry Hill on the Delmar Loop, great hamburgers. They were very busy, service was scattered but mostly friendly. Loved the pop culture decor and would heartily recommend it to anyone.

We had dinner on The Hill at Mama Campisi's. It was good. The salad was included and it was tasty and fresh. The bread on the table was nothing to write home about. My husand had calamari, it was ok, and my daughter and I shared antipasto which was also, ok. The veal was very tasty and a generous portion, nothing very exciting but enjoyable nonetheless. Much smaller place than i expected, the singer walking around crooning was a little much IMO since there weren't many people for him to croon to! The veal dishes were both $17.95 so it was surely reasonable, but it was nothing I would race back to here at home.

Had a fast lunch at Hannegan's at Lacede's Landing on Saturday before starting our drive home, had a terrific pulled pork sandwich, the clam chowder tasted homemade and everyone liked their meals there.

All in all not sure we saw what makes St Louis a great restaurant town, but we'd go back and try some other spots next time. Now my daughter just needs to ace her ACTs and get accepted!

Good luck to your daughter. My son had a wonderful four years at WashU, which is why I started this thread!

Some illustrations for the February post:




In the 13th century, more people lived here than in London. 15 minutes away from St. Louis; I stop by every time I can.


A new reason to visit Cahokia: hot-damn CESJ, from a family transplanted from Cicero using a take on the recipe from Los Gallos, in arrow-shot distance from the westernmost mounds.


If PIGMON were a superhero, this would be the signal to project against the sky.


Crown Candy is a little more sassy this year than in 1913.


Loved the smoke.


Wish it made it into the meat.


A really nice bottle.

Mrs. Davooda and I were in STL for a weekend of dining and shopping and we had a thoroughly enjoyable luncheon at Cardwell's at the Plaza at Plaza Frontenac. Located adjacent to the Nieman-Marcus store, Cardwell's offers a varied menu to a varied clientele, though there was clearly a prominent "ladies who lunch" element when we dined there Saturday.

Mrs. D had the Four-Cheese pizza and declared it a winner. I though the toppings flavor was good but the crust seemed thin on flavor.

I was in the mood for a burger and ordered the Bill's "Burger Meister Burger" Topped With Amish Bleu & Cheddar Cheeses, Spiced Tomato Relish & Apple Wood Smoked Bacon. Ordered medium rare, it was cooked perfectly and featured excellent beef flavor. But it wasn't the highlight on the plate - the french fries are the best we've had. Admittedly they weren't a special cut or fried in duck fat or an exotic root vegetable - these were just plain delicious spuds cooked to perfection; crispy and hot exterior and a wonderfully flaky interior.

Service was an issue, I will say. There is a quality bread tray offered by a server - who gives you butter wrapped in foil What's up with that? I also had to ask our server for refills on water, and had a long wait for dijon mustard for the burger. But he was "johnny on the spot" in bringing the check!

http://www.billcardwell.com/restaurants.html

Enjoy,
Davooda

I'm looking for the best eating close to the Pageant theater. I don't know STL geography, so the closer the better. Thanks in advance.

Has anyone tried Pi, a local's take on Chicago deep dish (and Obama's claimed favorite pizza)?

jfibro wrote:Has anyone tried Pi, a local's take on Chicago deep dish (and Obama's claimed favorite pizza)?

I sure have. It's really good pizza, but it's not even my favorite pizza in St. Louis, let alone the country. My experience with pizza in Chicago's fairly limited, but I'd easily say from my perspective that the Chicago Pequod's was miles beyond Pi, but then I see Pi as kind of a different beast. It's kind of an upscale approach to deep dish, and I'd say that the non-tomato based pizzas are probably the way to go -- I think that it was actually the thin-crust pesto and chicken pizza that was the best that I've had there. For their deep-dish pizzas, they do a cornmeal-flecked crust (I guess that Gino's East does this?), but the added crunch from the cornmeal isn't really my cup of tea on a pizza. Personally, I'm more of a tomato-mozzarella-sausage or Margherita traditionalist and there are better of both to be had in both of our cities (especially yours ). It's pretty pricey as far as pizza goes in St. Louis.

I'd read that they initially bought their recipe(s?) from Little Star in San Francisco, and the original location in the Delmar Loop has basically been packed to the brim since it opened. Since the Obama kudos, the place has since opened three additional locations in St. Louis (with another in Downtown St. Louis on the way), one in Washington D.C., and it has food trucks in both St. Louis and D.C. Funny what happens when the leader of the country says you've got his favorite pizza.

I'll be in St Louis with about 20 co-workers starting Monday for the next three weeks (weekends included). We're all staying downtown, more or less in the vicinity of Union Station. Most will not have cars, but those of us from Chicago certainly will. I suspect the dining situation for the carless will be pretty dire, but we'll try to do some carpooling to help ease the pain of the others.

My in-laws live in the county, so I'm familiar with some of the places listed. I suspect I'll be steering folks to either South Grand or Central West End. But I suspect some folks will insist on going to the Hill. It should be an interesting three weeks food wise...

By the way, I see Pi mentioned, which I've never had. When we visit the in-laws, we usually go for pizza to Dewey's in Kirkwood, which is quite excellent. I don't mind Imo's but my wife can't stand it. I admit the provel is something that takes getting used to.

Vinny, if you like chinese or japanese food there are some options that surpass what is available in Chicago....if you can believe it. The only positive living there.

Olive Street has developed into its own China Town with stores and restaurants (but it's St. Louis so don't think our China Town). Royal Chinese Bar B Que is an aesthetic dump but it is very high quality. There's a Chinese/Korean restaurant immediately across the street and it too is very good.

West of these two on olive is Nobu which is Japanese in an old IHOP. It's "good" Japanese. But better than good is Seki's on Delmar in the Loop. They make California Roll with real crab...not imitation.

On this stream someone mentioned Cardwell's. There are two, the one mentioned in Frontenac and the original which is in Clayton. The Clayton Cardwell's is pretty good for standard American fare. The Calamari is excellent. Also in Clayton you'll find Remi's which is decent as well.

But they're still pretty thin in St. Louis for a reason.