St. Louis, MO

This morning I woke up to birds chirping. Nice, right? Well, not when it’s at 6 AM and you’d really like to sleep in for just a bit longer because your own bed feels so nice and you’ll be traveling for work the rest of the week. Le sigh.

Last weekend, Dan and I traveled to St. Louis Missouri for my friend’s wedding. While it was a brief trip, we still had some time to meander the neighborhood that we stayed in and hit up some excellent restaurants.

We stayed in the Tower Grove neighborhood, just a few blocks east of Tower Grove Park and I would definitely recommend it as a place to stay. It’s about a 20 min Uber to Central West End with some great areas to walk around nearby. It you’re not partial to AirBnB, then I can’t give much recommendation on nearby hotels in the area but I’m sure Google could help you out there.

Friday night: Arrived late because #adulting and late flights and didn’t see much except the inside of the cab and the back of my eyelids. Unfortunately, if you are not renting a car then it’s best to just take a cab to this area, which will cost you about $45 before tip. I’m sure that there is decent public transportation but late trips from the airport to neighborhoods I am unfamiliar with are not really my thing. Don’t bother with Uber – only Uber Black can pick up from the airport so that will cost you an arm and a leg. We stayed in a great AirBnB with a private bedroom and bathroom and the most comfortable bed I’ve slept in for quite some time. Our hosts were super accommodating and it was really easy to get situated even though they had already gone to bed by the time we arrived.

Saturday morning: Saturday morning we walked to Starbucks because we couldn’t figure out the Keurig. By that time, my left heel was already bleeding because I am a novice that wears new shoes to a wedding. In my defense, I wasn’t planning on walking 16 minutes round trip for coffee. Strong start: under – caffeinated and bleeding. We got the last spot in the parking lot and got there literally 2 minutes before the wedding started. Come to find the doors were locked except the one labeled “Bride and Bridesmaids”. I was sitting down as the groom walked out with the priests. Phew. The wedding was at the “old” Basilica Cathedral in St. Louis. It’s a museum when there aren’t weddings going on so if you’re checking out the Arch downtown then it’s worth a visit. I guess the new cathedral is quite large and if you want it to look like there’s even a decent amount of people at your wedding you’d have to invited like 300 people. Or so, I’ve heard. Either way, Audrey looked beautiful and I was happy to be a apart of her special day.

Saturday afternoon: The reception was held at SqWires Annex, which is this really neat old wire factory which has been converted to restaurant. The restaurant is fairly close to downtown and would be easy to get to. I would definitely recommend a walk around the area and some evening drinks outside.

Saturday evening: Dan and I walked to Lulu’s Local Eatery for dinner on South Grand Ave. As I mentioned before, the neighborhood is super walkable and it was nice to get out and walk around after sitting for most of the day. I got this awesome bahn mi bowl and everything on the menu was vegetarian. We also shared some buffalo cauliflower bites that we could barely touch because we were both so full afterwards. We met up with a friend of Dan’s for this local band filming/bar hop type event on Cherokee Street. The group grabbed some food at Byrd & Barrel (the cauliflower is pretty good) and they we ended up back at his place for a bit. I shot some crappy pool while Dan had a mini jam session and then we called it a night.

Sunday morning: We tried to sleep in. Dan was pretty sick so it was a rough night for both of us. We walked to Tree House (very close to LuLu’s) for breakfast. They open at 10 AM on Sundays and I suggest getting there before 10:45 or so when it starts to get busy. Again, super awesome vegetarian and vegan options. We shared the bahn bao chay between the two of us. It’s a steamed dumpling with cabbage, tofu, leeks, and I think there were some peas in there with a side of house kimchi. It’s a decent enough size to split with someone as an appetizer while you wait for your food to come out. If dining solo – you could still eat the whole thing I suppose. I certainly wouldn’t have any issues doing so. As our main course, we shared a bagel with tofu cream cheese and cured tomato “lox” and a pair of soy chorizo and tofu scramble tacos with breakfast potatoes. The tomato lox was nice as a lighter dish to share and I’m looking forward to trying to recreate it at home. The tacos were delicious, hands down you should order them. They were on the special so hopefully they add them to the menu full time. We topped it off with a vegan donut that I didn’t take a picture of because I was too ashamed of my eating habits at this point. It had a blueberry filling with maple glaze so you could say it was pretty good.

It then proceeded to downpour on and off for the rest of the day. Dan and I took at Uber to Central West End to check out Left Bank Books which is the oldest and largest independently owned bookstore in St. Louis. We trekked in the drizzle to find Dan some medicine and then relaxed for a bit before our flight.  The airport was a decent size but not any more difficult than flying out of Minneapolis. It’s about a 20-25 minute drive out of the city with no traffic so plan ahead.

Overall, I’m looking forward to checking out more of St. Louis eats the next time I’m there. Please leave a comment on places you recommend checking out to a foodie tourist!