We had purposefully left our final week in St. Louis free so that we could work in anything we had missed and recover a little of our energy before our next move. We had absolutely LOVED our time in St. Louis so far but we were absolutely exhausted so we decided that instead of scheduling a thousand things we were just going to play it by ear and do things at our own speed for the last week.
For our final Saturday, we opted to make our own little food tour in the nearby town of St. Charles, Missouri. Our first stop was at Loaded Elevated Nachos for lunch. We ordered the Texas Brisket (snack size for Angel) and the Top Nacho (full size for John) and they were pretty good. After lunch, we walked next door to Narwhal’s Crafted for a daiquiri flight (Banana Dave, Strawberry Basil Lemonade, and a Hurricane Tony). We liked all three but the Banana Dave was our absolute favorite.
For our last stop, we went across the street to Hot Box Cookies for an assorted half dozen (gooey butter, cookies and cream, peanut butter, gingersnap, red velvet, and Reese’s pieces).
To walk off some of the calories from our mini food tour, we drove over to the historic part of town. St. Charles is the 3rd oldest city in Missouri (founded around 1769) and served as the first state capital from 1821-1826. They have a beautifully preserved historic district where most of the old homes have been turned into neat little shops and restaurants! We found ourselves stopping at every building to read the historic plaques telling visitors about each place.
We went in so many shops and ended up buying a few gifts for family and some things for ourselves – including a beautiful set of Halloween themed Russian nesting dolls. Everyone that we spoke to was just so friendly! It was also apparently the day for prom so we got to see all sorts of teenagers in beautiful dresses and amazing outfits who had come to the area for photos.
On our way out, we picked up our final sampling of St. Louis BBQ from Salt + Smoke (which is actually Texas style BBQ). We got the sampler platter with brisket, burnt ends, pulled pork and wings with mac & cheese and hush puppies as sides plus the cheddar bacon popover. This was probably our least favorite BBQ yet. They forgot to send our hush puppies (which had been an upcharge) and the food just wasn’t that great. The meat was all a little on the dry side and we couldn’t detect any cheddar or bacon in our bacon cheddar popover but as far as the bread itself goes it was good. The mac & cheese was excellent. We also just felt it wasn’t a good value for the price. We did call to complain about the missing food and they very generously refunded part of our purchase as we were too far away to want to return to pick up the missing item.
On Sunday, we stayed home and started packing up for the move the following week. John has been working on adding solar to the house so he spent a lot of time on the roof making loud noises while I comforted the animals inside and let them know that the world was not ending- it was just John trying to make the house better for all of us.
We also took some time this week to investigate something that had been bothering us since we pulled into town- a restaurant called “St. Louis Bread Co” which looked suspiciously like Panera Bread. We were confused at first but then we learned- the chain we all know as Panera actually started out as the St. Louis Bread Co in 1987! When they expanded out of the St. Louis area, the name was changed to Panera but the locations here still bear the original name. We picked up a half dozen bagels and enjoyed them for breakfast.
I also made a trip back to Fitz’s for a few cases of sodas to take with us to Ohio as souvenirs for family and friends.
Finally, for our last little bit of St. Louis – we got some kolaches from St. Louis Kolaches in Arnold to snack on during our drive to our next stop. Of all of the amazing things we experienced in this city – the kolaches were probably what I would miss most as we drove off towards Louisville, KY.
