St. Louis, MO

[bettyjoan]

Thanks, Steve. I had found the website, but I just don't know St. Louis well enough to have a good understanding of where places and neighborhoods fit in relation to each other. I think my colleagues have been there before, so hopefully we can get back again!

[bookluvingbabe]

I was in St. Louis for work the weekend before last.

Let's see:

Kohn's Kosher Market scooped up at least one former Pratzel's employee and has the cupcakes available.  They were moister than I remembered but tasty.

Amighetti's--as lovely as I rememebered

Pasta House Company--I love their salads, hate the service.  Went to the Delmar and Brentwood locations.

Charlie Gittos on the Hill--really lovely toasted ravioli, so-so pork shank.

Imos--perfect St. Louis pizza.

Stocked up on gooey butter cake.  BLB-1st grader would like more.  Immediately.  And is dubious of my ability to recreate it at home.

Lion's Choice downtown is closed.  Not sure if there are any other locations left.

Looking forward to another trip home over the summer.

[Marty L.]

Nothing in almost five years, eh?  St. Louis food scene almost unrecognizable since then.  Went to two great spots over the weekend:

-- Soup Dumplings. Yep, that's the name.  And basically all they serve is xiao long bao (plus three or four cold Shanghai appetizers).  Excellent version, even if not life-altering.

-- Olio.  Apparently part of a Ben Poremba burgeoning empire.  Israeli.  And--I kid you not--(Philadelphia) Zahav-level quality.  But much more low-key and much less expensive.  The labne (with the bagel), the hummus w/lamb shoulder, and the cauliflower were especially good, but almost everything emerging from the kitchen looked fantastic.

[Tweaked]

We stayed one night at the Westin downtown across the street from Busch Stadium.  The hotel was fine, it looked pretty from the outside and lobby but the rooms felt a bit dated.  

We visited the very nice St. Louis Art Museum, which has a good collection of the modern Big Names, but not a lot of depth.  The museum is located in the lovely Forest Park, which is kind of like NYC's Central Park.  You could spend a good afternoon wandering around.  At sunset we walked over to the Gateway Arch, which I'll have to say was surprisingly impressive, and it was pretty cool to watch the setting sun reflecting across the metal surface.  

We ordered take out from the very good iNDO, which was named to GQ's Best New Restaurants 2020 list. The vibe and food is definitely hipster Southeast Asian.  The clear winner was the crispy fried fingerling potatoes with kombu butter and pickled and roasted seaweed, really really good. Another winner was the shrimp toast with mango sweet chili, cellophane noodle, piperade, and LOAFERS bread.  We also enjoyed the chili garlic noodles with black garlic, mushrooms, chili oil.  The poke bowl was solid but nothing special.  The cabbage salad probably suffered somewhat from carryout, I would expect the dressing and salad would be better tossed in-house than arriving in seperate containers (plus most Asian cabbage salads don't hold up to the excellent version at Spices in DC).  I would definitely good back here again for a dine-in experience.  

Not much was open for breakfast near the hotel.  The Westin was offering a truncated breakfast menu and it sucked.  We should have walked to Starbucks, it would have been better. 

[curls]

Next time you are in St. Louis I recommend Comet Coffee (http://cometcoffeestl.com) for coffee and pastries. For dinner I recommend Bulrush (http://bulrushstl.com).