ST. Louis MLK Weekend
What does one do when you have a 3 day weekend and no plans? Dip off to another city that is local to you of course.
SO…here is the scenario. I’m on my way home and the plans we had to spend the weekend with some friends fell through. I know that if we spend another weekend on the couch someone may or may not make it out of the basement. Chaos will ensue and depending on who made it out of the terror dome will decide whether if I am engaged still. At least that is how it worked out in my head. Anyway “Boss Lady” AKA my fiancé says she was thinking about going somewhere but did not know where. I say, “How about St. Louis?” And ladies and gentlemen that is how a plan was formed.
A little background I have been to St. Louis exactly one time before. I went because my job sent me. I flew in went to the Purina HQ , saw they brought their pets to work ( thought it was kinda cool), did my job and when back to the airport and caught the next thing smoking back to the CHI. So, I didn’t really get to do much there and thought it would be nice to go back. She only passed through once when she was moving to Chicago from Arkansas. She made one stop for some BBQ and suffered a long ride with the ITIS as her passenger.
A quick google search later we found a reasonably priced hotel (Hotel Downtown St. Louis | Live! By Loews – St. Louis, Missouri (loewshotels.com)) and So we packed our bags and hit the road on Saturday to see what we could see. I will tell you living in the Midwest there is farmland and we saw all of it well that and snow. Approximately 5 hours and 2 short naps later we arrived. We checked into our hotel and went in search for food. Luckily, our hotel had a restaurant in it. We go downstairs and found the bar which had some really good food. The lobster dumplings were fire!!!!! (No pics now I know I know ill do better next time) After that we decided if we could catch a taste of night life.
Before I continue, I feel as though I would be remiss, If I did not acknowledge that there is a Pandemic in place. There is and we know. RELAX!!! We wore mask and did our best to keep our distance. YOLO.
We found a bar that turned into some form of a TRAP-SPEAKEASY and smoked cigars and drank liquor and enjoyed ourselves to low playing music. IT WAS AMAZING!!!! It was just a good time for she and I to connect with one another and talk about good times, crazy people and play dominoes. I am happy to report I won two game and she won 1. Cheers!!!! WE ate some “ok” fried fish and shrimp and headed back to the hotel. Day one in the books.
The next day we went to brunch at a local restaurant that was recommended by some people we met in the bar the night before. Evangeline’s (evangelinesstl.com) was a treat. Food was tasty, and the jazz atmosphere was truly immersive. As we ate, we bobbed our heads and tapped our feet to the music. When we left our stomachs and spirits were filled. We left there with the intention of heading to the mall as we do not really have a lot of those in Chicago. We hit the mall and quickly realized we don’t make enough to shop at the mall. Well maybe we do but are not willing to pay the prices we saw. Conversely, we contented ourselves to walking around a looking at the shiny objects and buying what we could afford.
We then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap (cause vacation). When we woke up we went in search of what St Louis is known for…BBQ. Another quick google search with some yelp references brought us to Salt + Smoke – BBQ BOURBON BEER (saltandsmokebbq.com). These people knew their business the brisket was tender, and the ribs were juicy. They kind of left us hanging on the soup though. The prices were reasonable and most of what we ate was good, so I consider it a win. We the headed to a local dive a person we met recommended to us. Upon arrival we saw it was packed wall to wall and looked like the next super spreader event in the making so we high tailed it out of there (see we can be careful). On a Sunday night our recommendations were slim, and internet was a bust on what to do next, so we called it and headed back to the hotel for some drinks and chill time.
The next morning, we awoke rested and found another good brunch place by the name of Rooster (roosterstl.com). The served Crepes. I cannot tell you the last time I’ve eaten crepes before then. I’m more than happy to report I look forward to eating them again. When I have eaten them I the past they were sweet. This was a bit different In that they made things savory which was well done. We had no complaints about this place at all. Eggcellent food (see what I did there). After that we hit the road toward home with the promise that we need to explore cities within driving distance more often.