Local Flavor in St. Louis

 St. Louis, MO

A drumstick ice cream as big as your head!

Rout 66 Carl's Drive In

Today we revisited Carl's Drive In. We first went here on one of our road trips in 2015.  Carl's hamburgers are really great.  They are made by smashing the patty as flat as possible.  The patty is so thin that it gets nice and crispy on the edges.  It's a delicious burger.  We both got burgers, I also got a Chili covered tamale, and Donna got some fries for us to split.  She also got one of their homemade root beers which was good.  For dessert Donna and I split a Ronnie's Rocky Mountain.  It's a giant drumstick ice cream deep frozen solid as a rock.  

Getting our kicks on Historic Rout 66.

This is us trying not to look like tourist.  Pretty convincing hu?

It's really one of the best burgers I have had.

Sunday Brunch in the Park

We have arrived in St. Louis just as all of the "fair weather" events are starting.  Next Saturday is the 1st Summer Schedule Farmers Market and today was the first "Brunch In The Park" event.  The park is Tower Grove Park.  It's a little over half a mile away but it's a big park so there was a lot of walking involved.  We brought Francis and headed to The Piper Palm House.  There is a little window there that sells Biscuit Sandwiches but we were there for The Balkan Treat Box Truck and the 4 Hands Brewery Truck.  Balkan Treat Box is one of the top 100 Restaurants in St. Louis according to a few publications.  They have a crazy list of accolades by all kinds of national publications including Food and Wine, Eater, Esquire, and Food Network.

When we got there we jumped in line for the Balkan Truck and decided what to order.  We split a Pide which is a sort of flatbread sandwich (I will post a picture) and it was fantastic.  We also grabbed 2 cans of beer from the 4 Hands Brewery Booth and headed into The Piper Palm House to sit and eat.  Shortly after sitting we were kicked out because Francis was with us.  In our defense, there was nothing saying No Dogs and it was sort of an out door patio thing.  Oh well, we found a seat in the real outdoor area and continued eating our lunch while listening to the live music that was going on.

The people watching was fantastic.  All kinds of folks were out enjoying the "fair weather".  It's their reward for enduring what we assume is a fairly cold and windy winter.  It was still a little cold and windy for us today but we tried to blend in with our coats on while everyone else was in t-shirts and flip flops.  As we were finishing our lunch and beer we could hear the food truck workers telling people what they were out of.  We were glad we got there when we did.

New Brewery!  Well sort of.

In line for delicious grub!

It appears people pulled the tables and chairs out of the shade and into the sun

I know this looks good but it tasted way better than it looked.

Those were our adventures for the weekend.  If you missed my previous post you can find it here.  We had another foodie adventure down in Mehlville, MO.

A Quick Trip to Meh Ville

 Mehlville, MO

Always open the post with Francis if you can.

A Local Delicacy

Today we drove south to Mehlville, MO.  On the drive Donna saw Mehlville High School and the font on the sign made it look like Mehville which we thought was funny. Our destination was Ruma's Deli.  When I get bored I watch YouTube videos and the other night I just typed in St. Louis and found a few to watch.  Ruma's was surfaced to me in this video. Most of the other things on their list we have had and don't really want again but this sandwich stood out.  When we came to St. Louis last time, we tried the Provel Pizza.  Provel is a regional cheese food made of Cheddar, Swiss, and Provolone cheeses.  We didn't like it as a replacement pizza topping but we liked the idea of it so we decided to try Ruma's Ham and Provel open-faced sandwich.  It was FREAKIN' delicious!  

Roma's is in a strip mall

The Provel looks kinda gross here but it was really good.  

We also picked up some additional highway miles and dipped into St. Louis County so we could add it to the March list.  St. Louis City and St. Louis County are 2 different county equivalents.  That was our adventure for today.  We had to get back to the house (with the basement) before the Tornado watch started.  The evening on our area was a bit stormy but no tornados hit.  Other areas to the south weren't so lucky.  If you missed yesterday's post about happy hours in St. Louis you can find it here.  We got to check off Tiki in Missouri.

Exploring St. Louis' Happy Hour Scene

 St. Louis, MO

Cheers to St. Louis!

Tiki and Pinball in One Night

The other night Donna and I took a Lyft across town to go to Taha'a Twisted Tiki.  It's the only Tiki Bar in the area and there wasn't one in KCMO so we decided to hit it early.  It wasn't our normal Tiki experience but it was still a good one.  The drinks were less "craft" and more "Vegas Strip" but we still enjoyed the experience.  The server was very nice and attentive and the drinks were delicious in a sweet soda pop way.  Also, the price was right.  While we were enjoying our drinks Donna looked at the map of the area and there were quite a few things there that seemed interesting so we decided to turn it into an evening.  

We got there at opening on a Thursday so it was pretty empty.  I am sure this place packs out on weekends.

"Dude, I finally got the venue I wanted."

Tiki Trash

My $5 Happy Hour Coconut Mojito was really yummy.

Happy Hour at Handle Bar

Since we were out and it was still happy hour, we headed down about a block to Handle Bar.  They were advertising a great tap list and half price pizzas during happy hour.  It was another cool spot that probably packed out on weekends and nights.  It was bike themed and they also had a stage that hosted live events.  The beers were great, the service was great, and the pizza was huge and really cheap.  So far STL is looking great, at least the happy hours are.

Pinball Time

Our last stop was Parlor, a sort of dive, sports, bro-cade.  It was also empty (5:30ish on a Thursday night) so we had the run of the place.  For some reason a bunch of the machines had games on them so we played those and then paid for a few.  It was fun but all of the machines were machines we had played and they weren't in the best repair.  There are still quite a few more places we can play pinball in St. Louis.  If Parlor was next door we would be going there, but it isn't good enough to justify the price of a Lyft (public transit here is pretty bad if you aren't on the light rail line which we aren't)

Special appearance by Brak!

When we got home we took Francis out and I sat down and he leapt into my lap from across the yard.  We sat there for quite a while.

That's it for today (yea it was quite a bit).  If you missed the post about our first day in STL you can find it here.  We have so much to do.  This month is going to go fast!