Last weekend, I experienced a St. Louis-style weekend with more local flavor than Imo’s thin crust pizza. I love, love, LOVE new restaurants and crazy culinary concoctions – especially the kind which leave you thinking, “WTF did I just eat?!?” I had never been to the Taste in STL before, but Taste of Chicago had left me both extremely full and contemplating dropping out of college and going to culinary school, so I figured I would give Taste of St. Louis a shot.


With my love of anything, well, food-related, and my absurd ability to handle super spicy food, (I dump hot sauce on everything I can as my friends look on in awe. I’ve been asked if I poop fire given the amount of spice I consume, and for the record, I do not.), my friends and I set out for restaurant row on Market last Saturday afternoon.


I entered heaven. I tried everything from egg rolls and pan-fried dumplings to an Italian stuffed meatball from Vito’s that put any mozzarella stick or meatball to shame: Vito’s combined both together a.k.a. phenomenal. The best taste of the night, however, came from Tomatillos Mexican Grill’s fish tacos. I know, half of you just vomited on yourself seeing the words “fish” and “taco” together, but their fish tacos with pico de gallo and cheese left me craving Mexican food like a Chesterfield trailer park resident on a hot summer day.


The Taste left me satisfied and craving a long workout because of my solid hour of pure caloric intake.


Just one event makes up a perfect St. Louis-style weekend? Please, give me more credit than that. To further my weekend, my bulging stomach and I went to the Cardinals’ last regular season home game on Sunday. I prefaced the game with Schlafly’s and capped it with Ted Drews. At this point, I had forgone my worries about calories. G loves Schlafly’s beer, but had never been to the Tap Room. Seeing as the restaurant is a family favorite and I had been there a half dozen times, I felt like I was qualified to help him experience the Tap Room. Nothing like a Schlafly beer sampler platter at noon on a Sunday. *Pause for nostalgic moment*


G and I ate, drank, and headed to the game. I scored some sweet bleacher seats from a fellow triathlete and proceeded to bake in the sun one row in front of some super hung-over, mild-tempered Brewers fans. The Wisconsin-ites kept their heckling and obnoxiously nasal northern accents to a minimum. (That accent is one thing I do NOT miss about Chicago.) The Cards proceeded to lose and I proceeded to get a massive migraine from roasting in the sun. I felt like a chicken on a rotisserie in my jeans and long sleeves. The game crept along and my fantasy husband (Ludwick) and the rest of the crew couldn’t seem to get their bats going, so G and I left in the 9th and listened to the rest of game on the car radio.


I finished off my STL saturated weekend at the Mecca of ice cream joints: Ted Drews. G has lived in STL for 2 and a half years and had never experienced the glory that deems itself Ted Drews. I blame this on the fact that he lives in Chesterfield; therefore, he rarely takes the “long” trip into the city. Hello, people it’s 25 minutes, MAX…but I won’t climb on that soapbox today. G’s second love (his first is his car) is ice cream, pie, or anything else sweet. To say he kinda  has a sweet tooth is like saying Rush Limbaugh kinda leans to the right and the Rams are kinda a bad football team. G ordered a pumpkin pie concrete while I stuck with my normal strawberry. G feel in love with Ted Drews and chalked it up next to his other favorite STL ice cream place, Sheridan’s. (Chesterfield’s attempt at frozen custard, which is twice the price and half as good.) I’ll stick with my Ted Drews.


Needless to say, last weekend turned out to be a success. I often forget all that St. Louis offers in regards to culture, events, attractions, atmosphere etc. At the Taste, one of my friends commented about how she was proud of us for actually doing something “different” in St. Louis. Now if I can just convince the West County folk that the city isn’t hood-rich, dangerous, nor that far away...