Travel Board: Tell me about St. Louis

I spent a few nights in St Louis a few times a few years ago for work. Think I stayed in a Hyatt downtown near the Arch, but not sure. I enjoyed the city. Apparently their local delicacy is toasted ravioli. It's basically just fried ravioli, but it was good. Seems there were a couple of bars that were pretty cool near the old train station(Union Station maybe?) Definitely catch a Cards game if you can. There's also apparently a St Louis style pizza, but I don't remember having it.

Carmine's Steak House was pretty awesome. About all I remember.

If you'll be working downtown, definitely stay there. There are several good options. I like the Hyatt and the Westin.

If you've never been, go up in the arch. Everyone should do that once. And definitely see a Cards game. I haven't been to Ballpark Village, but all my friends there love it - it's a village built with a view inside the stadium, lots of restaurants and bars.

Check out Forest Park when you're there. It's the 2nd largest city park (only Central Park is bigger) in the country. It was the site of the 1904 Worlds Fair, and all the old homes on the norh side were differen countries pavilions then. Forest park has 18 holes of golf, an art museum, 2 history museums, and outdoor ampitheatre, and the zoo-which is free and fantastic.

There is great dining and bars in St. Louis. You have to go to The Hill and have Italian, and hit up the Soulard district one night.

I haven't lived there in years, so I'll let some if the locals tell you more.

Oh, and you're less than 2 hours from Columbia. If you can, you want to check that out, see the campus, hit the bars, etc.

We stayed downtown in St. Louis. Went to the Schafly Brewery. Pretty good food and a cool place. Good beer.

The single most memorable thing about St Louis for me was dining at Mango Peruvian Cuisine. You don't see a lot of Peruvian restaurants and this place was out of this world. I put it in my top 10 all time meals.

LINK

Great ceviche and pisco sours. Everything we tried was excellent.

We do periodic food trips up to St. Louis, so I'll just paste in some emails from my friend who lives up there and gives us recs. I apologize that he had linked URLs on a lot of these, so I'll just put the names of the places in parentheses where applicable. Also, it's a collection of emails, so it may be disjointed:


This place (Juniper) is doing the very much en vogue ‘southern’ style with a twist type of thing; we went and I loved it. The chef-owner was doing a series of pop-ups for a long while before finally going with a set name and a rotating menu. The menu here appears to be their newest one as it is slightly different from the one we had 2 months or so ago. Casual but need a reservation.



This place (The Tavern) is becoming a local ‘empire’ in a sense, in that they have three or four different places all under one ownership group. The Tavern does a lot of fish, which is nice. Last time we went I thought we had a fantastic meal. Also, it’s the only place on my list here not in the city (about 10 mins away from our house).



This place (Bahn Mi So #1) is our favorite Vietnamese, I believe K has already mentioned it to you. It’s a mom-n-pop type place and service is very slow. Pop runs the front and mom runs the kitchen, but it’s fantastic. It’s not glamorous in the least and the neighborhood is sorta bad also but, best curry shrimp I’ve ever had anywhere.



This place (Planter's House) we have not been to but it is owned by StL’s most prominent mixologist (I can’t believe I just typed that sentence…) and the reviews have been good. It is primarily cocktail oriented as you can imagine.



We haven’t been to this place (The Libertine) either however it also gets good reviews, again as a southern-type thing. Chef was displaced from NOLA following Katrina, wound up staying…


Blood and Sand This is a membership only place. They allow non-members to try it out once before they join. We haven't been yet but have heard all great things. They post no prices, but I could call and get the range. I'm assuming entrees $20-35.

Niche is great--same owner and chef as the Brasserie where we went the night before the wedding. This is their nicer place, "fine" dining. We've been a couple of times, but not for their Monday night thing. It's a pre-fixe 3-course meal for $35 a person. I've heard that Mondays are "fun".


Farmhaus (known for fish, hot chef in town)

BBQ has exploded in StL the last couple years (along with whiskey bars). Pappy’s sorta became a gold standard but, similar to Gerard Craft, they’ve had acoloytes go on to open their own, just as good (and not as crowded) establishments, like Bogart’s (which we prefer) and a brand new place called Adam’s Smokehouse.



Bogarts has awesome, awesome ribs and, strangely, pastrami, which is also fabulous. Adam’s apparently does their own salami, in addition to all the regular bbq items. Both guys worked at Pappy’s for a long time. We’ve not been to adam’s.



Another BBQ place I know that is not Pappy’s related at all is called Southtown Pub, basically up the street from where we used to be in the city. They do BBQ and oysters. BBQ was very good the one time I went, no idea on the oysters.

There's also the Fountain on Locust. We could take the boys for Vietnamese if you think they'll like that. In Maplewood there's a new place called Strange Donuts that might be fun to pop in, and there's a little pie place right next door to that. There are a half dozen or more really good local breweries here now, too--some are family friendly and have small menus of good food. Also there are a couple of delis that are very good if we just need a sandwich one day.



Other possibly good kid thing is Bailey’s Range. Another outpost in one of our local, StL restaurant empires. Basically they do everything in house, burgers and ice cream/milkshakes, plus craft soda, booze, etc. Not our favorite burgers (altho they are pretty good, just overcooked) but seems like the type of place a kid would like.

Excellent list.

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I am looking for a Marriot hotel.

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Not sure if there is a Marriot downtown. Might be. Don't stay at the airport. Shitty. Shitty. Shitty.

All of the above are great recommendations. The only thing I will throw out there is no need to go north when downtown. Nothing up there and you will get shot. Ok, I kid. Maybe. But nothing north of the dome worth seeing and the neighborhood gets sketchy. Oh, and if you find the urge to hit the strip joints on the east side in Illinois, all the same applies.

Another suggestion is try Ted Drewe's for ice cream.

If you throw out some Marriotts you're considering, might be able to give you some better ideas. If you're considering just outside of actual downtown St. Louis, let me know as well.

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Nothing up there and you will get shot.

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Dere's a head shop tree fo blocks nowf of da dome.

Renaissance downtown isn't bad. Probably your best bet down there. It's on Washington St., too, which has some good places to eat and drink.

If you're into music, there's a couple of venues close by I like.

Beale On Broadway does blues. LINK

And The Old Rock House does a little bit of everything. (Jamey Johnson next week!) LINK

Or a few miles away, there's the Delmar Loop with The Pageant LINK

And Blueberry Hill, where Chuck Berry plays once a month. LINK

Chuck's not what he used to be, but you'd be seeing a living legend in a club the size of a basement.

There's also some decent shows at the Fox Theatre. LINK

And heed the advice on staying away from anything north of the dome. And don't get crazy and stay out past 2AM. Lots of senseless shite's been happening in the late overnight.

Hope you enjoy yourself.

And if you do visit St. Louis with kids... I have a whole OTHER list I can give you. But the top is City Museum. I'm not sure that there's a better place on earth for young kids. Hell... I'd recommend open minded adults check it out. It's so freaking cool... I have a blast there every time we go (though I did have a balls out panic attack one time from claustrophobia as my 6'2" 200 lb. frame snake crawled through some little tunnel with rug rats jumping and screaming around me like a pack of chihuahas).

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No

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No don't check it out or no it's not the 2nd largest city park?

Depending on what you're into, it's cool. Zoo. Science Center. Art Museum. History Museum. Skating Rink. Golf course. Boathouse. Muny amphitheater. Dwight Davis Tennis Center where pros come in and play in whatever league that is. Lots there to see, in addition to all the trails/paths for walking/jogging.