Winner of the St. Louis Bread Co. Sandwich Show Down

A month ago, we told you about the contest that St. Louis Bread Co. was having to choose a new sandwich to temporarily add to their menu.  The sandwich has been chosen!!!

Meet the BLTT: Gouda cheese, chipotle mayonnaise, apple wood-smoked bacon, baby spinach and vine-ripened tomatoes all on two slices of tomato-basil bread.  Surprisingly simple, but sounds yummy!

Head to any local St. Louis Bread Co. (sorry, Non St. Louisians, Panera will not have this sandwich) to try it out!

Restaurant Review: Half & Half

A few weeks ago, Jessie, Josie, Carolyn and I met up for brunch at Half & Half, the breakfast joint created by the owners of The Good Pie that opened up this summer in downtown Clayton.  I had been wanting to try Half & Half for a while, but it is only open until 2:30 most days, and is closed on Sundays... my most common brunch day!  Half & Half was in the news recently because it will soon be open for dinnertime, but as a completely different restaurant!!!  That's right, early next year, the restaurant will add evening hours, at which time the restaurant’s name will be changed to Medianoche and will serve Mexican cuisine.  Two restaurants in one?!?!  Insane!!!

When we walked inside, we were a little surprised with the atmosphere.  It seemed like they tore down a wall between two separate buildings, and never really meshed them together.  On the right side there were tables and an eating area, and on the left there was a big open area of emptiness, with the bar along the wall and the back side open into the kitchen.  This restaurant has been open for 4 months and it still looks like they are renovating.

Waste of Space

Luckily it was a beautiful day outside, so we could sit on the patio out on the sidewalk and not be stuck inside.  The indoor decor was not the only thing out of whack.  The entire wait staff was incredibly unprofessional, as if it was all their first day on the job.  After waiting a while, they finally brought out Josie's coffee, and luckily we were busy chatting and she didn't get a chance to taste it yet, because a few minutes later they came out and said "sorry, I think we gave you bad coffee."  Sure enough, we look down at the coffee and it has a clear ring of water around the edge of it and it is stone cold.  Rookie mistake for not such a rookie restaurant.

Thumbs down for the Coffee

Luckily the menu looked good!  Half & Half's menu changes each month, with an additional seasonal weekend brunch menu.  In addition to breakfast food, they also have a small list of sandwiches and burgers, but I was there for the breakfast!  This isn't your typical IHOP menu, it is small, and mainly focused on trendy egg dishes.  I ordered the Steak and Eggs which consisted of two sunny side up eggs, hanger steak, potatoes, hollandaise & tobacco onions.  It was really good!  Unfortunately they forgot the hollandaise sauce... but I reminded them and they brought me some on the side for dipping, which is probably how I would've preferred it anyway.  And the sourdough toast was great to sop up the egg yolk and scoop up the steak bits.

Steak and Eggs

Josie ordered the veggie hash with two sunny side up eggs, brussel sprouts, spinach, onions and potatoes.  It came out in a frying pan and looked really yummy too.

Veggie Hash

Carolyn went big and got the french toast.  It was huge and she ate every single bite!  So good!

French Toast with Berries

Overall, the food was descent and a good change from your usually breakfast spots.  However, it was a tad overpriced and the staff still hasn't really figured out how to function properly.  Unfortunately, when Carolyn went back in side to use the restroom she saw a cockroach scurry across the giant empty tile floor.  Luckily she told me after I had eaten, because I'm not sure I would've finished my meal otherwise.  I am also a little skeptical of Half & Half being a breakfast place by day and a Mexican restaurant, with a completely different name, by night.  This place needs to get its act together and start acting like a well established restaurant.

Bar Review: Three Kings Public House

So as I sit here and watch the Cardinals win Game 1 of the World Series, I am thinking about how I was without a TV all last week when the Cardinals were playing for the National League Championship!  The agony!  Luckily Josie and Eric were up for going out to grab a drink and watch game 4 of the series so I looked at my "list" of places to go and noticed a bar called "Three Kings Public House" that opened this Spring in the Loop on Delmar across from the Tivoli Theater (replacing what used to be Riddles).

None of us had ever been, so it was fun trying someplace new.  We got a great spot at a high table in the front bar area, with perfect views of the two TVs behind the bar to watch the game.  It was a Wednesday night, but because of the Cards game, the bar area was packed with fans wearing red.  Note that Three Kings just got a good review in Sauce Blog in regard to their bang-for-a-buck food, and there is also an entire dining area in the back area.

Watching Game 4 of the Cards Brewers Game

The beer menu at Three Kings was really appealing because they offered flights of 4 different beers.  I always like trying a bunch of different types of beers rather than sticking to one, so this was right up my alley.  There was a flight that had a good hoppy beer that I wanted to try, however it also came with a light wheat beer that I didn't really want to bother with.  Luckily you can mix and match any four beers that you want, plus the waiters at Three Kings (imagine young, hippy, laid-back dudes) are awesome and offered to make me my own flight, full of all hoppy beers.  What service!!!  Our waiter brought back my custom-made flight and I loved every beer choice.  Who knew that four hoppy beers could all taste so completely different.  My definite favorite was a hoppy IPA called Maharaja.  Soooo good!

Flight of Hoppy Beer

We also ordered two appetizers to snack on while we watched the game.  We first ordered the House Made Pub Chips served with Irish cheddar & "Winged Nut" ale fondue.  It was awesome!  The portion of chips was huge and the cheese dipping sauce was both smokey and a lit bit spicy, and absolutely delicious!  I could've licked the bowl clean.  We also ordered a Caprese Flatbread, which was flatbread topped with slices of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil.  Really simple, and really good!  The flatbread dough was cooked perfect, so it was chewy and doughy and not burnt or too crispy on the edges.  Great game watching food!!!

House Made Pub Chips and served with Irish cheddar & "Winged Nut" ale fondue

Caprese Flatbread

Overall, I really enjoyed Three Kings (and yeah... the Cardinals winning helped a little too)  I would recommend trying it out to watch a game and grab some beer and appetizers, or to actually go there for dinner to try something more substantive on their yummy and reasonably priced menu... I'm looking at you burger with provolone cheese on a pretzel bread roll!

Bridal Shower

Jessie and Joe are getting married tomorrow!!!  To celebrate, here is a review of the bridal shower that Kelly, Dad and I threw for Jessie out at in the St. Albans Villa in June.  The theme was purple floral and Kelley, Dad and I created a feast!

Menu:

• Prosecco with fresh raspberries in the glass
• Chicken, Beans and Cheese Wraps
• Cheese Stuffed Peppers
• Chips and Salsa and Guacamole
• Chocolate and Red Velvet Cupcake Flowers (see instructions below)
• Confetti Cake Pops (see instructions below)
• Blue Bunny Wedding Cake Ice Cream

Dining Room Table

Pretty Purple Flowers

Basil Plant Party Favors

Making Cake Pops

Cake Pops in M&M filled vase

Cupcake Flowers

Cupcake Flowers

Cupcake Flowers

The Feast

Buffet Line

Diggin' In

Yum!

Party Girls

It was a fun party!!!  The Cupcake Flowers and the Cake Pops were a big hit!  Here are the instructions on how I made them.

Cupcake Flowers:

1. Bake mini cupcakes (any flavor you prefer)
2. Put together green foam ball (found at craft store) in a flower pot, fastened by a glue gun
3. Starting at the bottom, fasten cupcakes in a row around the foam, keep moving up rows until entire foam ball is covered.  Fasten cupcakes by breaking a toothpick in half and use two halves of the toothpick per cupcake.  Make sure on the bottomost rows to angle the cupcakes facing upwards on the toothpicks so they don't slide off.
4. Once the entire foam ball is covered by cupcakes, put icing in an icing bag (I used a ziploc back with a small cut on the edge to squeeze the icing out).  If you want colors, I added purple food dye to the vanilla icing.
5. Voila!  You have cupcake flowers!

Icing Pops:

1. Bake cake in a pan (I used confetti cake mix)
2. Once cake cools, crumble it with your hands so the entire cake is crumbs (this is the fun part!)
3. Mix in can of icing with cake crumbles
4. Roll icing/cake mixture into small inch-round balls and put in freezer over night
5. Dip lollipop sticks (found at craft store) in icing and then poke into froze cake balls, let settle in
6. Melt white chocolate morsels (or any other meltable candy coding) in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water and dip cake pops in melted mixture
7. Sprinkle right away and then set on parchment paper for coding to harden
8. Keep cold in freezer or fridge until ready to serve
9. Serve in vase filled with colorful M&Ms so lollipop sticks stay in place
10. Enjoy!  Careful, they are rich from all the icing!

Looking forward to the wedding tomorrow!!!

Notre Dame Game Day - Candle Light Dinner

Josie, Eric, Doug and I went up to Notre Dame for the Notre Dame vs. Michigan State game. Coming off of 2 unacceptable loses, we needed to bring the Irish some luck!  The game was awesome and we kicked butt!!!  After the game we headed to South Dining Hall (yes, the pretty Harry Potter one) to experience my favorite post game pastime... CANDLELIGHT DINNER!!!



South Dining Hall - Entrance



South Dining Hall - Inside

 

The Notre Dame dining halls never disappoint, and I ate like a king for 4 years.  Candlelight dinner is like multiplied by 10 in awesomeness!!!  And since it is all you can eat, it is worth the wait in line and worth the $18 it costs to get.  That night's specialty: make your own Pho (Vietnamese soup).  And here is just a glimpse at the dessert options: cheesecake, chocolate cake, double chocolate cake, pie, ice cream, frozen yogurt.  Just take a look at my dinner tray (which is actually on the conservative side) to see what a feast I had.

Gotta try a little bit of everything

Notre Dame Field!

 

Touchdown Jesus Pose

GO IRISH!!!!



Recipe: Ricotta Gnocchi with Bolognese Ragu

The other day I made homemade ricotta Gnocchi.  The recipe provides a simple melted butter sauce to pour over the gnocchi, but I was craving a meaty ragu sauce, so I created a great bolognese recipe to top the gnocchi.  It came out delicious!  I found the gnocchi recipe at Epicurious.com and kind of just pieced together the ragu recipe myself.

Ingredients for Ricotta Gnocchi:

• 2 cups whole-milk ricotta (1 pound)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (3 ounces), divided
• 1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

 Directions for Ricotta Gnocchi:

1.   Stir together ricotta, eggs, cheese, nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add flour, stirring to form a soft, wet dough.

2.  Shape dough on a well-floured surface with lightly floured hands into 1-inch-thick ropes. Cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces with a lightly floured knife. Put in 1 layer on a lightly floured parchment-lined baking sheet.

3.  Cook gnocchi in 2 batches in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (3 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water), adding a few at a time to pot and stirring occasionally, until cooked through (cut one in half to check), 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Lift out with a slotted spoon and drain in colander. 

Ropes of dough before cutting up into gnocchi pieces

Ingedients for Bolognese Ragu:

• 1 tablespoon EVOO
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 carrot, finely, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 rib celery, finely diced
• 1 teaspoon of minced garlic
• 1 pound bolognese sausage
• 1/4 pound pancetta, diced
• 1 can tomato paste 
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar, granulated
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup dry white wine
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh basil leaves
• Parmesan, for garnishing

Directions for Bolognese Ragu:

1.  Cut open casing of Bolognese sausage links and break up meat into ground pieces
2.  In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic and heat over medium heat until the vegetables are translucent and soft but not browned, about 10 to 15 minutes.
3.  Add bolognese sausage and diced pancetta and stir into vegetables.
4.  Add the tomato paste, sugar, milk, and wine and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
5.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste, and remove from the heat.
6.  Top gnocchi with sauce and garnish with fresh parmesan cheese and fresh basil leaves.
7.  MANGIA BENE!!!

Ragu Simmering

Ricotta Gnocchi topped with Bolognese Ragu

The Gnocchi was really rich, so I would recommend only putting a small amount per plate (thing of how many large ravioli you would eat at a restaurant).  I put about 7 on my plate and I was stuffed.  I got the pancetta and the bolognese sausage links from Salume Beddu, a butcher shop in South City, right off Hampton Road.  Salume Beddu was really cool, and in addition to their butcher shop, they also serve sandwiches containing the meat they cut.  There are tables to dine in, or you can take them to go.  I definitely want to go back on a Saturday and grab a sandwich or panini.  They looked really good.

Salume Beddu Butcher Shop

September Restaurant Closings and Openings

Here is an recent list found from St. Louis Magazine of recent restaurant closings and over 35 new restaurant openings around St. Louis.  Looks like we'll be having an exciting Fall to dine out!!!

Recent Closings:

• Mosaic Bistro Market: 14 N. Central, August 30
• Houlihan's, 1820 Market (Union Station): September 4
• Momoyama:1637 Clarkson, September 15
• Harry's Bar and Grill: 4940 Southwest,  September 25
• Cusamano's: 1120 Technology Dr, O'Fallon, scheduled for October 1
• Chuy Arzola's (3701 Lindell): scheduled for end of October

Recent Openings:

• Royal Kabob (El Burrito Loco): 3611 Bates, September 1
• Coastal Bistro (Mosaic Bistro Market): 14 N. Central, September 2
• Sombrero’s 636-922-1240 (Bogart's Kitchen & Bar): 1287 Jungermann, St. Peters, September 5
• Crostini Restaurant and Lounge (Mia Rosa): 4501 Manchester, September 6
• Tucci & Fresta’s Trattoria and Bar (Portabella): 15 N. Central, September 6
• The Parlour (Wicked Lady):  4534 Gravois, September 9
• Blood & Sand (Red Moon): 1500 St. Charles, September 17
• Steve’s Hot Dogs on The Hill (Cool Beans Catering): 2131 Marconi, September 17
• Frankie and Johnny's (Bella Sera): 11686 Gravois, September 20
• Kabuki Sushi & Fusion: 15015 Manchester, September 21

Coming Soon:

• Mosaic Modern Fusion: 11927 Manchester, early October 
• Dao Tien Vietnamese Bistro (Marco's Soul Food): 8600 Olive, early October
• Boodles BBQ  (Wendy's): 10024 Gravois, early October
• Baileys’ Range (City Grocers):  901 Olive, early October
• Dooley's (Shakespeare's): 601 N. Grand, early October
• Mathew’s Restaurant (Del Pietro’s): 5625 Hampton, early October
• Ya Hala (Culpepper's): 12434 St. Charles Rock Road, early October
• Old Blue Eyes (Coco’s/Reuben’s): 731 S. Lindbergh, early October 
• Pita Pit (Baladas Bistro): 200 N. Ninth, early October
• Hooked (Pho Long): 8613 Olive, mid October
• Diablito's (Iggy's): 3761 Laclede, mid October
• The Crow’s Nest (The Red Lion): 7336 Manchester, mid October
• Rhine Haus Eatery & Pub (Spyglass on the Park): 255 Union, mid October
• Filippo’s Italian Kitchen (Tribeca Lounge): 120 Chesterfield Valley, mid October
• Joanie's Pizzeria (Louie's Pizza Co):  5441 Telegraph, late October
• Pazzo’s Pizzeria (La Salsa): 140 S. Kirkwood, late October
• Desserts on the Boulevard: 3949 Lindell, late October
• Blondie’s Coffee and Wine Bar (Velvet Lounge): 1301 Washington, mid October
• Angelo's Chicago Taste (Cusamano's): 1120 Technology Dr, O'Fallon, mid October
• Agostino's Restaurant and Bar (Little Italy): 130 Ludwig Drive, Fairview Heights, Ill.,  late October
• Kelly English Steakhouse (The Range Steakhouse): 777 Casino Center, late October
• Green Bean: 232 N. Euclid, late October
• Tomo (Jive & Wail): 6101 Mid Rivers Mall Dr., October
• BrickTop’s: Plaza Frontenac, early November
• Tahoe Joe's (Home Town Buffet): 17258 Chesterfield Airport, mid November
• Tilted Kilt (Wiliker's Restaurant & Bar): 1566 Country Club Plaza, St. Charles, late November
• EdgeWild Restaurant (Bahama Breeze): 550 Chesterfield Center, late November
• J. Gilbert’s Wood-Fired Steaks and Seafood (PrimeBar): 17 West County Center, November
• Hamburger Mary's (Lush Nightclub): 3037 Olive, November
• Max & Erma’s (Hanley’s Grille & Tap): 79 West County Center, November
• Choice (Gourmet To Go): 7807 Clayton, November
• Epic Pizza and Subs: 1709½ S. 9th, November
• Plush: 3224 Locust, November
• Wasabi Sushi Bar: 134 St. Clair Sq, Fairview Heights, Ill., November
• Tavolo V: 6120 Delmar, early December
• Nico (Brandt's): 6525 Delmar, early December

Monday Night Football at Lesters

When the Rams played to the Giants a few weeks ago for Monday Night Football, Josie, Eric, Jessie and I went to the new Lester's that opened in the Central West End.  Lester's has two other locations, one in Ladue and one in Chesterfield, both off Clayton Road.  Jessie and I have been to Lester's a lot because it is our Dad's favorite go-to spot.  It has great food and is perfect for watching sports because it has TVs in every corner.

If you go to Lester's, you definitely need to get their "Reuben The Great" deli sandwich.  It is awesome!  We get it made with the corned beef and it comes topped with sauerkraut, 1,000 island dressing (which we get on the side), and melted swiss cheese.  The grilled rye bread it comes on is also perfect with the corned beef.  You can't go wrong with Lester's Reuben!

Reuben that Jessie and I split

Sometimes as a side I also get a bowl of Mac N' Cheese; however, I noticed that the menu had a new "Nacho Mac N' Cheese" on the menu and I was intrigued.  I asked the waitress what the Nacho part consisted of, and she said it was basically like Mac N' Cheese with rotel dip.  Interesting... I had to try it!  It was pretty cool, and different than I've ever gotten at a restaurant (then again... it could more of a thing I could just make myself at home).  It had a spicy kick from the rotel, and it was really saucy, which I love.  Pretty darn good.

Nacho Mac N' Cheese

The new CWE Lester's was really fun, despite the Rams losing, and the food was good as always!

Josie and Eric modelling the menu

TVs in Bar Area