Bracket Challenge: St. Louis Breakfast Spots

The polls are in!  The Winner of the St. Louis Magazine online Bracket Challenge for best breakfast spot in St. Louis is Jilly's Cupcake Bar and Cafe, beating out 31 other local eateries.  In a shocking final round upset over St. Louis favorite Uncle Bill's Pancake and Dinner House, Jilly's win has proven that the cupcake craze is still going strong.  Jilly's cupcakes aren't just any cupcakes, this past summer, Jilly's also won the top prize in an episode of Food Network's "Cupcake Wars."  Click the picture below to see a close up of the winners and runner-ups.



Click to Enlarge

 Here are Jessie and my thoughts: 

• Uncle Bills should have won overall, Jilly's cupcakes are good, but way too sugary for a satisfying breakfast. 
• Where is the City Coffeehouse & Creperie on this list?!?!  That is our favorite!!!
• What is up with Rooster?!  It should have in no way beaten Brasserie (their brunch is fabulous...salty, but fabulous!)  At least Local Harvest beat it in the next round.  We love Local Harvest!
• Mud House should have at least won the first round, nobody can beat their breakfast burritos...see our previous review.
• We are glad Half & Half lost first round... see our previous review.
• I really want to try Vin De Set for breakfast now!

So what do you think...Does Jilly's deserve the crown?  Are you upset one of your go-to spots lost out?  Or is there an obvious restaurant place that you think St. Louis Magazine overlooked in their bracket challenge?

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.

The Mud House

Ever try a new place and then return 2 more weekends in a row? Just me? I'm sure you've done it too! That is exactly what happened when I tried The Mud House at 2101 Cherokee Street in St. Louis. 3 visits, 3 weekends in a row, 3 great breakfasts!

The Mud House is located off of historic Cherokee Street in the Antiques District. The all brick town homes are either residences, tiny antique shops or restaurants. Each weekend there were quite a few people out and about on the street either walking their dogs, biking or hunting for antiques. It is a very unique area of the city and I highly recommend you visit.

Visit #1 - 8/27

Joe and I have been in a breakfast rut, going to the same 3 places over and over. Our wedding invitation designer recommended The Mud House to us on one of our visits and we finally took his advice to go! When you first enter the casual dining area you see a large community table surrounded by smaller tables. In the back is the register, menu on the wall, and coffee station. To the far left is a second dining area that is much more casual with couches and chairs near a few of the tables. 

View from my chair. We sat near the front door.

We quickly went to the back to review our menu options. We were tempted by the daily special of biscuits and gravy but each decided on their breakfast burrito. The burrito is a large flour tortilla filled with scrambled eggs, black bean chili, bacon (addition but worth it) and cheese. To our surprise it was also served with a mixed greens salad with a very light lemon vinaigrette and fresh tomatoes. The sour cream we were told would be on the side but in reality it was on top of the salad; not anything to complain about but just beware if you do not care for sour cream. 

My burrito sliced open, yum!

Joe's burrito, can you see how big that thing is?!?

We also each had an iced coffee and they were both delicious. I like my iced coffee heavy on the milk and light on the coffee and that is just how they made it, yum!

Also, to give you a run down on how this place works....you order and pay up at the counter, they give you a sign to put on your table, they bring the food out to you, you clean up your own plates, they call out your drink when it is finished being made, you get your own water up next to the coffee area. Pretty simple!

We left very full and didn't eat again 'till dinner time!

Visit #2 - 9/3

After trying those delicious breakfast burritos last week Joe and I had to go back to try something else on The Mud House's menu! We each stuck with our iced coffees which were delicious yet again on our second visit. This time for breakfast I ordered an egg sandwich which came with bacon, scrambled egg and cheese on a nice large roll. I thought the roll was way too much bread for the sandwich so I removed one of the pieces. Overall it was a great breakfast sandwich and I would probably order it again but still take off one of the pieces of bread.

My breakfast sandwich. Did you notice the canning jar is what they use for their water glasses?

Joe decided to go sweet for his breakfast and ordered the french toast with walnuts and bananas. He definitely got sweet! I couldn't eat an entire plate of this dish but Joe definitely could and did! I think he would go back to his beloved breakfast burrito on a next visit but he seemed happy with his french toast on this visit.

It even looks sweet!

Visit #3 - 9/11

Josie and I were on our last day of our "staycation" and woke up early. We first went to Forest Park to see the thousands of flags on Art Hill in memory of all those who died on 9/11. It was quite a site to see and very moving.

Thousands of Flags on Art Hill in Forest Park

Since Josie made me walk quite a distance to see this, which I was obviously happy she made me do, I worked up quite an appetite. We decided to go to The Mud House for my 3rd week in a row! Josie ordered the breakfast burrito with bacon and no sour cream. She also had a glass of local grape juice (she loves grape juice). I ordered the breakfast burrito with bacon too and had an iced vanilla latte for my beverage. We ventured to their back patio and saw it was packed! Luckily there was an open table in the back that was in the shade and we grabbed it. I would highly recommend sitting on the back patio especially with Fall approaching. Josie and I thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast burritos and I'm happy that Josie taught me it is okay to pick up the burrito to eat it instead of cutting it up. I'm pretty sure we will be heading back to The Mud House sometime soon to try something else on their menu, maybe I can wait an extra week this time!