News: St. Louis Originals Adds 2 New Restaurants

St. Louis Originals has just announced that it has added two new restaurants to their rapidly expanding All Star lineup, PW Pizza and the Cafe Pintxos as Hotel Ignacio.  For those of you unfamiliar with St. Louis Originals, it is a group of locally and independently owned St. Louis restaurants.  At each restaurant you can even pick up a free rewards card and get points for dining at a St. Louis Original Restaurant.  And now St. Louis Original gift cards are even available, a perfect gift to give to foodies, that you can use at any of the 35 restaurants.

PW Pizza is a new pizza place that just opened up this past May.  It is located on the first floor of Vin De Set's building downtown.  Jessie, Joe and I visited it a few months ago before seeing Jersey Boys at the Fox and it was amazing! (the show was amazing too ;-))  It had a fun drink menu, with craft beers from all over the nation that I've never even heard of.  And the waitress was really nice at helping us choose a beer we would enjoy.  Also, they give you a frosted beer glass to pour the bottled beer into, which I just love!!!  And just like the Pasta Bowl at Lo Russo's, they have an annual Pizza Recipe contest, benefiting Food Outreach of St. Louis!  We ordered the winning dish, which was Spinach, Artichokes, and Meatballs with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese.  It was perfect!!!  I don't know how anyone is going to top that next year.

I've never been to Cafe Pintxos at Hotel Ignacio, but it sounds like a cute breakfast spot!  The website says that by day it is a breakfast cafe, serving muffins, smoothies, and breakfast sandwiches, and by night it is a trendy, contemporary bar.  Definitely go check it out!



Make sure to check out the St. Louis Originals Members:

• Absolutli Goosed
• Baileys' Chocolate Bar
• Bridge
• Cafe Provencal
• Companion Clayton
• Companion Ladue
• Cravings Rest. & Bakery
• Dierdorf & Harts - WSPT
• Duffs
• Eau Bistro
• Eau Cafe
• Eleven Eleven Mississippi
• Harvest
• Herbie's
• Hotel Ignacio
• LoRusso's Cucina
• Massa's
• Mike Shannon's
• Monarch
• PW Pizza
• Ricardo's
• Rooster
• Schlafly Bottleworks
• Schlafly Tap Room
• Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream
• Square One Brewery & Distillery
• SqWires
• Sunset 44 Bistro
• The Scottish Arms
• The Shaved Duck
• Three Monkeys
• Trattoria Marcella
• Vin de Set
• Vito's Sicilian Pizzeria & Ristorante
• Wild Horse Grill

Cheesecake Factory's New "SkinnyLicious" Menu

The Cheesecake Factory just announced plans to introduce a new menu focused on healthy, low-calorie options.  The "SkinnyLicious" menu will list around 40 items, from entrees to desserts, with strict calorie guidelines, and will be a separate insert to their current menu.

Who doesn't love Cheesecake Factory?!  I just can't get enough of that brown rye bread they serve, the menu is like a novel, full of endless types of cheesecakes, and the food portions are ginormous.  However, the average entree at Cheesecake is pushing 2,000 calories (and that's not including the additional 1,500 calories that comes with dessert!).



Earlier this year, Cheesecake Factory introduced Skinny Cocktails
with about half the calories as their signature drinks

Health nuts are dominating society right now and we can see the changes all around us with healthy fast food chain Subway taking over the market and McDonalds trying to introduce healthier options such as fruit and oatmeal and reinventing the Happy Meal (Happy Meals will now come with a choice of apples, or a smaller amount of fries).  If anything, Cheesecake Factory is slow to jump on this bandwagon, but I am glad it did!

So what will the new skinny menu look like?  Fresh veggies will replace potatoes on steak and fish entrees. Tacos will have less cheese. And chicken salad will be made with light mayo. 

Future "skinny" menu item:
herb-crusted salmon with lemon sauce and assorted fresh vegetables.

Between Aug. 8 and the end of September, all 150 locations will roll out 15 entrees under 590 calories and 12 appetizers under 490.  Will you try the new skinny menu? Or will it be impossible to resist the Bistro Shrimp Pasta, at 2,730 calories (the equivalent of 14 Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnuts)?!

Del Pietro's on Hampton will soon be Mathew's Kitchen

It seems that Del Pietro's on Hampton (where Josie, Joe and I ate not 4 months ago) has closed. But good news is coming in that a new restaurant called Mathew's Kitchen will be opening in its place!

This news was just sent to me by my city alderman:

Mathew and his wife Maggie are long time city residents wanting to start their new business in the city. They will be serving comfort food with a twist along with Napa Valley wine. Their menu looks awesome. They are planning on being open October 1.