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Posts Tagged ‘st louis’

13
Oct
2018

St Louis Take 2

categories: St Louis

This is Josephine:

Josephine, also known as Jojocat 5000

Jojo is J’s cat, but she’s been living with me since July because we decided to take the big step and live together. 😮 Now my cat Mr Kitty and Jojo didn’t really get along, but it wasn’t a big deal. But then Jojo got outside 2 days before we were supposed to go visit my aunt in St Louis. J decided to stay home to find Jojo, so I had to go to St Louis alone.

I drowned my sorrows in Budweiser, 4 Hands, and Urban Chestnut beers, plus bloodies!

West End Grill

My aunt and uncle took me to West End Grill and Pub during my last visit, their favorite local hang out, but this time we went for some pub trivia. My aunt and I were joined by a few of her friends, and we won a few rounds, but came in 2nd overall. Along with my dinner, I tried their Bloody Martini. Served in a stemless martini glass, with a salt rim, it was a good standard bloody. It may have had more alcohol than usual, given that it was a martini, but apparently I did not take any notes, and now I don’t remember!

While I didn’t research new places to get bloodies at this time, we still stumbled upon a few during our travels. We caught lunch at Half and Half, and ordered this beauty.

Half and Half

Honestly, I was not expecting that much, as it did not have any description, but it arrived with a fried pickle! That was a nice surprise, along with the fact that it had a really great taste. Good tomato flavor, with a bit of a tang, and the right amount of spice it was really well balanced and enjoyable.

My last night in St Louis brought us to Evangeline’s, a Creole/Cajun restaurant also near my aunt’s house. We only stopped in for drinks, but since I was a tad hungry I decided to go for the Cajun shrimp spear in their Creole bloody mary. I’m not usually a huge fan of shrimp, but when it’s flavored like coconut fried shrimp, or these Cajun shrimp, I’m down. It was listed at $4 extra, so I was expecting 3 shrimp. Instead it was actually $6 extra dollars, and came with 6 big shrimp!

Evangeline’s

For $9 without any shrimp, it was also garnished with pickled okra, olives, and a spiced rim. The drink had a lot of spice and tartness, and made for a solid drink.

Unfortunately I came home from St Louis and Josephine was still missing. A few days after I got back I spotted her in the bushes of a nearby house, which led to us creeping around the neighborhood with flashlights at 3am and waking up the guy in the house where I saw her. The next day we borrowed a cage from the SPCA and set it up at another house where we thought we saw her. J went to retrieve the cage before bed and Jojo was on our porch! But she ran away again. 🙁 The next 4 nights brought us a new pet.

Not Josephine.

Meet Poppy the Possum. Every night, what seems like the same baby possum has been caught in the trap. So I’ve named it Poppy and we keep letting it go farther and farther away. FYI possums like sardines. Ugh. Josephine, come home!

11
Jan
2015

St Louis Days 3 and 4

categories: St Louis

The last day and a half of my stay in St Louis had to bring us to the other Rooster location, as I had to have the Bloody Fairy. When I saw this listed on their website, there was no choice. If I had no other drink on this vacation, it had to be this one. I can’t say I was looking forward to it, or that I thought it was going to be delicious. But there was no way I could pass it up.

A Bloody Mary made with absinthe.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

I have a bit of history with absinthe. I am attracted to the history of the drink and the myth that surrounds it. I invested in a bottle while it was still illegal, and I struggled to find a way to successfully drink it, as it is rather difficult to choke down. The traditional way, with water and a sugar cube (do not light it on fire you noobs!), is still quite wretched. I’ve had an absinthe frappe in New Orleans. I had it in a layered shooter style drink with sambuca and baileys in Kiev, called a Hiroshima (I really ordered it for the name haha), and I’ve drank it straight. It’s just difficult to drink. I really couldn’t imagine what it could possibly taste like mixed with a tomato base. But I knew I couldn’t pass it up, because when would I ever see an absinthe Bloody Mary again?

So we made it to Rooster downtown right before it closed so I could order the Bloody Fairy. The bartender questioned my choice, asked if I liked licorice flavor and I assured her I knew what absinthe was. She said she was making sure because the Bloody Fairy was the most often sent back drink on the menu.

The small size was $5, with a salt and chili powder rim. This time I got the 2 olive and peperoncini garnish with a lemon stuck in there that was missing from the day before. This drink definitely wins the award for Most Unusual Bloody Mary in the world. There is such a strong taste of absinthe it drowns out almost all of the tomato taste from their 17 ingredient house mix. It was not at all spicy, as it seems their house mix is not spiced (they offer a Bloody ‘ell spicy Bloody that I didn’t have the opportunity to try), and I’m not sure adding spice to the flavor of absinthe would be a good idea. It was just so bizarre! So much herbal licorice flavor! Strangely it wasn’t bad though. I really didn’t think those flavors would mix well, but it turns out it might be the only tolerable way to drink absinthe. It definitely has been the best absinthe cocktail I’ve had.

The bartender was surprised I drank it all, she can’t even stand the smell of absinthe when she’s mixing them!

Later on that day we swang by Barrister’s, also on the Best Of list I found before I traveled. Also known for their Make Your Own bar during brunch, we had to settle for a bartender made drink since it was Wednesday.

Served in a pint glass with a salt and chili rim and 2 olives, a lemon and lime garnish, they use a house made mix which was very thick and chewy. There was visible pepper and not at all vinegary. The spice lingered quite a bit and clearly was not from a generic hot sauce like Frank’s. It tasted good, but was just so thick and chewy it was like drinking spicy pasta sauce. I couldn’t quite get past it, it was just far too thick for me. As the ice melted and it got less chewy it was more enjoyable. But I couldn’t order one from there again knowing how thick they are.

My last Bloody Mary in St Louis was nicely prepared for me by my aunt’s personal trainer Kelly. She mentioned my quest to him while working out, and he claimed he made the best one in St Louis and invited us over to give his a try.

(My aunt with Kelly….I mean Kelly’s dog)

Kelly starts with a large jug of Mr and Mrs T’s bold and spicy mix, removes a bit and adds in some of Mr and Mrs T’s horseradish mix, and mixes in some creamy horseradish and even more raw horseradish from a jar. He shakes that up, adds in bacon bits and svedka vodka and voila. Garnished with peperoncini and blue cheese stuffed olives (I passed on the olives), the Bloody had a good taste and spice level from the horseradish. It had a good liquidity and wasn’t chewy at all, and after the last one, that was a welcome change. He said he made them strong and he wasn’t lying, we needed lunch after that! Thanks Kelly!

11
Jan
2015

St Louis Day 2

categories: St Louis

Day 2 brought us to the other restaurant from the Best of St Louis list that I really wanted to go to, Rooster. Rooster is a breakfast restaurant often voted “best breakfast in Missouri” as well as “best crepes, bloody marys and brunch in St Louis”. They were part of the Best Bloodys in St Louis list, and their menu offers 11 different kinds of Bloodys. I narrowed down the list to 3 or 4, and then down to just 2 that I felt like I just HAD to try. They make their own mix featuring 17 different ingredients, it has to be good, right?

So my aunt and I headed out to their new location on South Grand because it had longer hours than their downtown location, only to find out that their menu is different, and they didn’t have the one Bloody Mary I really had to have – the Bloody Fairy. And the bartender didn’t even realize the 2 locations had different menus. What?? Ok, fine, I settled for my 2nd choice, the Bloody Samurai.

Made with wasabi, soy sauce and sake instead of vodka, the small size was $5 and garnished with wasabi peas! The photos from the Best Of article showed the drink also garnished with olives and peperoncini, clearly they were missing in mine. Perhaps a difference in location as well. My initial thought was that it was delicious, but then I thought it was a little weird. I think it was the sake, as in general I’m not a huge fan. The mix seemed to have a good taste, a nice spice level and good flavor from the wasabi (which I love). In the end, though, I thought it was pretty good. I had to get used to the difference in taste from the sake is all.

My food was pretty delicious too – a southwest scramble with eggs, black beans, spinach, cheese, onion and salsa.

My aunt and uncle recently moved to St Louis, which was the reason for visiting, but I planned it around a Buffalo Sabres game, which was on Day 2. So before heading out to the game we stopped into The Scottish Arms. My aunt knew they had a nice Sunday brunch with a make your own Bloody Mary bar, but being a Tuesday, they of course didn’t offer this. They did have their mix made though, however I was not ready for another one yet, but my aunt was, so she ordered their Smoky Bloody Mary.

I did taste it, and it did indeed have a very smoky taste. Very Very smoky. And pickle-y. And very smoky. Did I say smoky? Served in a pint glass with 2 olives and a lime garnish for $7. It was smoky. Haha.

The Buffalo Sabres lost. Badly. Of course, because they are terrible this year. And that’s ok. One game closer to McDavid!

11
Jan
2015

St Louis Day 1

categories: St Louis

I have returned from St Louis, unscathed. The trip was a bit touch and go for a moment, as the verdict in the Michael Brown case was initially going to come in the day I was traveling to the city, and some…trouble…was expected, but the verdict was postponed so, game on!

I was going to post from the road, but it seems the tumblr android app does not allow for posting photos inline, so I decided to just save it all for when I returned.

So let’s go!

I had some free drink tickets for Southwest Airlines that had expired in December 2013 that I brought along with me, because I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask if I could use one. They’ll say no, and I’ll have my water and continue with my craps class homework, or they’ll say yes and I’ll have a dreadful Bloody Mary. At first the flight attendant said no, but on second thought, I guess because I did ask, she said yes, and took all 5 of my tickets in exchange for one Bloody Mary.

There we go! An airplane Bloody Mary. Made with Mr and Mrs T’s Bloody Mary mix and Finlandia vodka with a lime garnish – a bigger slice of lime than you get in most bars. It was pretty dreadful of course. You have to be pretty desperate to order one on an airplane, but I figured it had to be done for the sake of the website. It was pretty damn strong though and gave me quite the headache almost immediately.

My aunt and uncle picked me up at the airport, we caught some dinner, and in the evening headed to the first destination on my list of Bloody Mary bars I wanted to try while I was visiting. I had googled “best bloody mary in St Louis” and Sub Zero came up. Voted the best vodka bar in America, they have the largest selection of vodka in the country and boast a menu featuring all sorts of creative cocktails and several different kinds of Bloody Marys.

They don’t make their own Bloody Mary mix, they use Zing Zang’s, but I had only just recently heard of this brand so I was interested to try it. They don’t seem to sell it around here, or at least not where I’ve looked. The best of list recommended their Pepper-infused Mary featuring their house made 4 pepper infused vodka.

$9 in a pint glass with a salted rim. Garnished with 3 olives and a lime wedge. The Bloody had a strong celery taste and was very salty, and very pickle-y. It had a good strong spice level with visible black pepper. It was a bit thick and needed some chewing. It was good, but I didn’t find it mind blowing. I think the Bakon Bloody might have been a better choice, but I stuck with the Pepper-infused since the article had recommended it. If you go here you won’t have gone wrong, but I think I expected more. And if you like vodka, this is the place for you. They have a club which keeps track of all the different types of vodkas you drink, and you earn points and prizes including a jacket when you’ve tried all the vodkas they offer.

Before the night was over we also stopped into their favorite neighborhood restaurant, the West End Grill and Pub, for a quick snack and one more Bloody Mary.

This Bloody was quite the opposite of Sub Zero’s. Served in a pint glass with 2 olives and a salt rim, the flavor and spice came strictly from horseradish as opposed to peppers or hot sauce. It was very liquidy, but not too much so, and since I like horseradish I found it to be quite good. I found a couple limes hiding at the bottom as well.

And so ends day 1. Stay tuned!

Posts Tagged ‘st louis’

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