The Fountain on Locust

My work assignment in the St. Louis area ended a few days ago. In a small way, I was sad to leave. I think mainly because I wasn't able to see (or eat) all of the things that I wanted to. Typically for me a work assignment can last up to 90 days which allows me to pace myself a little better. Unfortunately, only being someplace cool for a week and a half, causes me to cram everything in.

Before I left, I did have the chance to try The Fountain on Locust which was an "I INSIST you go there!" recommendation from a friend of mine. And he was right on point!

The theme of The Fountain, is what I envision as a old time fountain and ice cream shop restaurant. It's a very small place yet packed with character and great food. I decided to have a egg salad sandwich on whole wheat bread, with a cup of Tuscan bean soup.

OK, you might be thinking, "What's so special about egg salad?". Well, this was the best egg salad sandwich I had ever had! It was a hearty sandwich and wasn't overly mayonnaisey (if that's a word). It was made with Dijon mustard and had capers in it which give it extra flavor. The soup was....it was an AWESOME bean soup! Full of beans and small bits of potatoes and lots of flavor. All of The Fountain soups are homemade every day too. (You might notice a partial view of a fountain glass in the upper left corner of my picture. That was a Pomegrante Egg Creme...delish!)

My friend who INSISTED that I go to The Fountain, is a big (and I men really BIG!) ice cream lover. The Fountain has all types of wonderful ice cream drinks (adult and non-adult) and ice cream concoctions. I decided on a butter pecan ice cream cone. Now, this was just any butter pecan ice cream cone. It was the creamiest butter pecan ice cream I have ever had, and it was in a homemade pretzel cone!

The combination of sweet and salty was WONDERFUL! The ice cream comes from a dairy in Wisconsin that some how ages its ice cream. Whatever they do to it, it is beyond awesome. By time I got to the ice cream cone, some of the ice cream had melted inside it, which made the cone even better. The cone was salty and it tasted like a fresh baked pretzel.

You definitely have to try The Fountain if you are ever in the downtown St. Louis area!

Core of Discovery Tour

Since it seems like I have been eating my way through St. Louis (if you've been following me, I think you'll agree!), I thought it might be a good idea to get outside and walk. When I checked the Core of Discovery website, I realized there were downtown walking tours. So off I went!

There are two types of walking tours: one is a visual arts tour to see some of the visual artwork in the downtown area; the other tour is a architecture tour to see the different types of architecture in St. Louis. Since both appealed to me, I decided to do a combination of the two.

The tour started at the famous Gateway Arch located on the St. Louis Waterfront:

To be honest, I don't believe I had ever seen The Arch before. And is it massive standing underneath it! There are tours in which you can go up 630 feet to see out over the city. I had been forewarned by a friend that it can be a bit tight as you move up the arch. And since I am becoming a bit claustrophobic as I get older, I decided the best place for me was on the ground!

I had the chance to see Busch Stadium and the cool statues of players outside of the stadium:

One of the sights I was really looking forward to was Citygarden:

My pictures don't do the garden justice. I bet it's a beautiful place to be in the spring and summer when the trees have flowers on them and the flowers are in bloom.

As I started walking again, I saw a wonderful tribute to firefighters (surprisingly, not on the 'official' list of statues to see):

And you'll never guess what I saw painted on a completed street block...PINK RIBBONS!!!

I have no idea why the pink ribbons were spray painted on the ground. But it was certainly a nice and unexpected surprise for me!

I decided to walk a few extra blocks (OK, like 8 blocks!) to see St. Louis Union Station. I believe in its day, this was a pretty happening and terrific place. It has a hotel connected to it, and some shopping, but I don't know if it was worth the 8 blocks (16 round trip!) that I walked to get there. Just sayin'.
Probably my most favorite thing I saw all day was this statue:

Walking Figure

'Walker Girl' (as I like to call her) reminds me so much of myself since since I like to walk. To me she possess a 'can do' attitude just like me!

Although I didn't hit all of the spots listed on the walking tours, I did see a great deal of downtown St. Louis. The complete tour is listed at 3 - 3 1/2 miles. Honestly I think you can probably add on more mileage once you get to each of the items walking around the general area. A GREAT way to see downtown St. Louis if you are ever in the area!

Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe'

Earlier this week when I was checking out historic St. Charles, I forgot to mention that I found a new cupcakery to try! One of the shops had a banner hanging outside advertising that it sold Jilly's Cupcakes. Intrigued, I decided to go inside...

Well, once inside the store I realized that it was a children's store that little customized beanie type hats were sold. On a stand were about 8 cupcakes in plastic containers. I have to admit that the cupcakes looked tasty, but I wondered how long they had been sitting there a.k.a how fresh are these cupcakes? After checking them out, I went outside and accessed the cupcake business on my smartphone. Next thing I knew I was in my rental car headed to try Jilly's cupcakes!

When I arrived, I was surprised to see the following window wrap:

I had no idea this cupcakery was a winner of Season 3 Cupcake Wars! Now, as much as I love cupcakes, I don't follow Cupcake Wars (maybe I should start, huh?). So now I was even more intrigued about these cupcakes.

There was a line which gave me time to look over the cupcakes, although I already had my mind made up. Here's my cupcake selection...The Bee Sting!

Love the bee on top!

Two of my favorite flavors are honey and lemon, and this cupcake had both! It's a vanilla cupcake, with honey lemon curd stuffing (also known as filling), and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting, toasted almonds, and white chocolate bark with crushed lemon candies. The cupcake was kind of dense (not as dense as Sprinkles) and not overly sweet. Although the topping certainly won the prize for sweetness! The frosting was a thick cream cheese frosting that complemented the cupcake very well.

I received a fresh cupcake (meaning it had not been sitting out on the counter like the others) and it was a bit chilled. I believe that I would have enjoyed this cupcake more if it had been sitting at room temperature for a little while.

Overall it was a great cupcake. A little pricey ($5) but the size and quality of ingredients definitely warranted the price. The decorative nature of Jilly's cupcakes is a big draw. Bottom line is I would definitely return to Jilly's if I were in St. Louis again!

Drunken Fish

On the first night that I arrived in St. Louis, I took a list of recommended restaurants from the front desk representative at my hotel. Almost immediately, I decided on a restaurant named Drunken Fish, which sounded like a Japanese restaurant. As I started to drive there, I began to second guess my decision...I really, really wanted some good sushi, and I was going to be soooo disappointed if this was garden variety sushi. So against my better judgement I continued on.

When I arrived the restaurant hadn't open yet, I decided to wait 20 minutes until it did. And am I glad that I did!

First plus is that Happy Hour is offered daily three times: 11 am - 12 pm; 5 pm - 7 pm and 10 pm to close. For Happy Hour there was an assortment of appetizers, speciality rolls, traditional rolls, nigiri, and adult beverages offered at half price to choose from.

Everything sounded good so I decided to try a hodge podge of things: lobster spring roll, white tiger roll, and sticky fries. And here's what that goodness looked like:

White Tiger Roll

Although I don't have a picture of the lobster roll (I took the first bite before I knew it and it was gone quickly!) it was AWESOME! It was a spring roll stuffed with lobster, cream cheese, jalapenos, asparagus and masago with honey wasabi dipping sauce. The spring roll was warm and creamy, and felt like it melted in my mouth. And the honey wasabi was wonderful! The honey kind of cooled the wasabi and gave it a light touch of sweetness to compliment to spring roll.

About the time I finished the spring roll, the sticky fries and white tiger roll arrived. I love, love, LOVE sweet potatoes, and the sticky fries were home-cut Japanese sweet potatoe fries, caramized in sweet syrup and black sesame seeds. O.M.G!!! The white tiger roll consissted of calamari tempura, crab, avocado and massago, topped with white tuna, spicy mayo and eel sauce. YUMMY!

Sticky Fries

Well you can probably tell that I throughly enjoyed my meal. I definitely give this restuarant two thumbs up and highly recommend Drunken Fish to anyone who goes to the St. Louis area and is looking for phenomenal siushi in a hip atmosphere. And to confirm just how much I enjoyed the restuarant, I found myself there AGAIN two nights after my first visit!

Red Dragon Roll and Caterpillar Roll - YUMMO!!!



http://www.drunkenfish.com/#home

Historic St. Charles

Since my trip to the St. Louis area is short, I decided to make the most of it and venture out on my second day there. The front desk representative at my hotel recommended walking Main Street in the historical area of St. Charles, so I thought "Why not?". Well...the first reason should have been because it had been a little rainy that day, and the second reason was that my newly coiffed curls were going to get damp and fall. But determined to do something, I set out for St. Charles.

And am I glad that I did! 

Once I reached the cobble stoned streets lined with beautiful historical homes and buildings filled with unique shopping, I knew I was in for a treat! I parked at one end of the 19 block area and decided that I would walk (or shop!) my way up and down the street.  

It didn't take long before I came across this cute little shop, I Am What I Am:

The store is owned by one person, although it has a collection of unique items created by local artists that are sold in the store. (If I even had a creative bone in my body, this place would have certainly given me LOTS of ideas!) The best thing about this store is that I was able to find a Christmas gift for someone. (And yes, I DO shop for people other than myself!). This year I am determined to purchase more thoughtful gifts for people other than the simple option of gift cards. (Although I love to receive a gift cards!)

As I continued walking, I quickly realized that I couldn't stop into every store due to my urge to want to purchase items! But I couldn't help but go into Di Olivas, a olive and vinegar emporium:

I had heard of this type of store previously, but never knew exactly what it was. Basically it is a store that sells high quality extra virgin olive oils (EVOO) and balsamic vinegars. Before even tasting one, I was mesmerized by the beauty of the store.

 

Fortunately there was an extremely nice salesperson to walk me through the process of trying different oils, vinegars and mixing the combinations together. (And thankfully consuming 2 tablespoons of good oil is on the Weight Watchers plan!) I ended up purchasing a butter flavored EVOO (yummy!) which the sales person said some WW members purchase it to spritz on their air popped popcorn; it also will be amazing to drizzle on baked fish. This way I am getting the taste of butter, but with the healthy, good for me oils that I should have. I also purchased a cranberry-pear balsamic vinegar (tart, yet a hint of sweetness) to spritz on my salads. I will also visit their website to order some gifts for other people for the holidays because this is GREAT stuff!

Although the day was a bit chilly (and I quickly lost my curls), it was still a great day to be out and walk about. Before I knew it, I had spent 3 hours walking in and out of shops, and I hadn't really stopped at all of the stores I wanted to!

There are lots of restaurants, some with very hip, cool and inviting outdoor seating areas that I am certain must stay busy in the spring and summer months.

So if you are ever in the St. Louis area, it's definitely worth it to make the drive to historic St. Charles!

On the Road to...

St. Louis!

Although I'm not quite ready to return to work, I have to admit that I am looking forward to traveling to the St. Louis area. Mainly because I've never been there before and I always like to travel to places I've never been.

With my job, it's possible that I could travel on any day of the week. Although today is Saturday, I love to take Saturday flights. Depending on where I am traveling to and from, Saturday flights tend to be less crowded. Business travelers typically travel the most on Sunday, Monday or Friday; and people traveling for pleasure typically travel before the weekend to get to their destination.

My flight today was no exception - thankfully plenty of empty seats (no one likes to sit cramped up next to someone else) and I had an entire exit row to myself! I love to get an exit row seat due to the extra leg room (I'm 5' 7"). And just in case there is an emergency, I always say a short prayer before each flight that everything goes well so I won't have to be responsible for the exit row door in the event of an emergency. (I also like to think that a kind gentleman will be more than willing to assist me with this responsibility if needed)

This morning as my flight left the gate, we quickly returned to the gate due to a problem with one of the instruments. The pilot was very kind to keep us updated throughout the process. Although an hour after returning to the gate an announcement was made that the plane was 'out of service' and we would need to deplane. By time we deplaned, another plane had been located for us just a few gates away. After waiting another 30 minutes, we were able to board. Only to get on the second plane to be told that there was an auxiliary unit that wasn't working properly. So after another hour on a plane we were finally off into the clear blue ski. Even after the 3 hour delay, I still stand by Saturday being a great day to fly!

The morale of the story is to make certain you bring things to keep you busy when traveling, like reading material, your iPod, or some type of electronic device (I guess kids can be entertaining too depending on their age). Unfortunately there was a problem with the Nook app on my iPad to read the books I recently purchased and downloaded. Fortunately I found out Citi/Advantage Card was offering 30 free minutes of Internet access, which allowed me time to reinstall the app and download the books again. Problem solved! This little nugget of info was only learned after checking my email during one of the delays. So see, some good can come from subscribing to emails from the airlines that you frequent.

Don't forget to check back to see what I figured out to do (in additon to working) while in St. Louis. And if you've ever been to St. Louis or the surrounding area, please feel free to recommend some things for me to do!