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St. Louis is America’s 2nd Most Romantic City

This designation comes from OpenTable.com, the online restaurant reservation site.

V-day heart

Their criteria: the percentage of restaurants rated “romantic” according to OpenTable diner reviews, the percentage of tables seated for two and the percentage of people who dined out for Valentine’s Day last year.

Here’s their list:

1. San Antonio, Texas
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Providence, Rhode Island
4. Atlantic City, New Jersey
5. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
6. Salt Lake City, Utah
7. Columbus, Ohio
8. Houston, Texas
9. Brooklyn, New York
10. Louisville, Kentucky
11. Austin, Texas
12. Ann Arbor, Michigan
13. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
14. Nashville, Tennessee
15. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
16. Boston, Massachusetts
17. Raleigh, North Carolina
18. Santa Monica, California
19. Portland, Oregon
20. Baltimore, Maryland
21. Kansas City, Missouri
22. Indianapolis, Indiana
23. Miami, Florida
24. Los Angeles, California
25. Phoenix, Arizona

St. Louis ranks high on a few negative lists (which will not be enumerated here), so it’s kind of nice to see our city ranked high on a good list! Thanks, OpenTable.com!

i1035 FW1.1

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“The Sexiest Pie Scene Ever In A Movie”

That description of the pie making scene in the new movie Labor Day comes from Joyce Maynard. She wrote the novel that the movie is based on. So she is not exactly an unbiased commenter.

Pie scene

Still, most reviewers, whether they like film or not, have mentioned the scene in which Josh Brolin’s character connects with Kate Winslet’s character by making a peach pie. The scene has been compared to the pottery wheel scene in Ghost, which resonated with many moviegoers.

A big difference is that Ghost was a better movie than Labor Day. Another difference is there’s also a kid involved in the pie making.

Click HERE to read my review of Labor Day. (For me, it feels like a Lifetime/Hallmark movie with upgraded acting.)

peach basket

Labor Day raises two food-related questions for me: Who puts brewed coffee in their chili recipe? (Brolin’s character does in Labor Day.) And, when will this year’s first peaches be ready at Eckert’s?

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Super Bowl—Guacamole Time!

In the 90’s and early ’00’s, my wife and I enjoyed many meals at the former Casa Grill in the St. Louis Galleria. (That mall space is now occupied by Urban Outfitters.)

One of the things we liked was the way they made their guacamole at your table. That way we knew it was fresh. They prepared it in a stone bowl, like the one in this pic. It was a bit of a chore for the server, so we always tipped generously.

Guac Pic

In 2002, a few days before the Spygate-tainted Super Bowl XXXVI, I visited Casa Grill and talked to chef Fernando about guacamole preparation.

The next day, my morning radio show partners and I (on WIL) shared his guacamole guidance with listeners. We then dialed up my wife to get her guacamole tips. We called her live, right in the middle of her morning trek on the treadmill.

Click on the arrow to listen to the segment. If you’re making guacamole Sunday, you’ll get some useful input! It runs 3:27.

On Super Bowl Sunday 2002, my wife’s guacamole was delicious! But the game (Patriots 20, Rams 17) left a horrible taste in my mouth.

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Busch Heroes: Here’s To Earning It!

Busch Beer has launched a new campaign to salute the working man and woman. It’s called Busch Heroes. The campaign focuses on 8 real people chosen from across the U.S. They were introduced last week at the A-B Brewery in St. Louis.

Busch Heroes pic

(One of the Heroes was called back to his job in Houston, which is why there are only 7 Heroes in the photo.)

I spoke to Busch Hero Damian Sharbowski of Troy, Michigan about how he found out that Busch wanted him as one of its Heroes. Click below to hear his response. (Runs 3:25)

Damian Sharbowski picI spoke to the lone woman among the group, Jackie Gabelein of Langley, Washington about the work she does. Click link to hear her response. (Runs 3:17)

Jackie GabeleinNate Scudieri, Brand Director for A-B’s Value Brands, talked about the Busch Heroes campaign and the selection process for the 2014 group. Click below to hear his remarks. (Runs 3:00)

Busch bottle pic

Here’s To Earning It is the slogan of the campaign.

Below are several videos from the campaign, including mini-documentaries about 4 of the Heroes:

Busch Beer is looking for candidates for the 2015 Busch Heroes group. For info, click HERE to go to their Facebook page.

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Would You Be Able To Make A Donation???

A few weeks back my wife wanted a steak. I suggested [restaurant X]. We had gone there 10 years ago and it was great. She said no.

Since that visit she had called them, soliciting a donation for a charity event. They indicated they would love to help and kept telling her to “check back next week,” again and again. After being put off several times, she concluded there would be no donation.

In St. Louis, trivia night season is heating up. Charity golf tournaments and walks/runs are being organized. Gala committees are being chosen. And bars and restaurants are being hit on mercilessly for donations. What to do?

Based on my experience as both a donation solicitor for various organizations and as a PR rep for restaurants, here are some suggestions regarding charity donations.

For restaurant and bar owners:

  1. Give if you can. Giving back to the community that supports you is a good thing to do.
  2. Be selective. You can’t give a gift certificate to everyone who asks. You may have to turn down friends, family, neighbors, vendors etc. If you cannot make a donation, say clearly, “No, we’re sorry.”
  3. Be aware that your donation may end up on a silent auction sheet in a far corner or maybe paired with a competitor’s donation in a gift basket.
  4. Consider making a donation that requires the user to spend at least a little bit of money at your place. If dinner + drinks for 2 runs 80 bucks, you might give a 40 dollar gift card.
  5. If you donate to a church/school/charity, it’s likely that this group will expect you to make the same donation next year.
  6. Your donation to a charity event is not a good form of advertising, even if you get a half page ad in the auction booklet.
  7. If your donation is particularly generous, you may want to specify that it may not be redeemed on Fridays or Saturdays.
  8. If you are unfamiliar with the organization, ask the person asking for a donation to send all the details in an email.

For solicitors:

  1. Don’t be shy. Call and ask. Be nice.
  2. If you receive a 25 dollar gift card, don’t say, “Is that all you can give?” Restaurants may not be as prosperous as you think. Many have a much smaller annual budget than your charity/school/church and the restaurant owner may be taking home much less money each week than your executive director/headmaster/senior pastor/etc.
  3. If your organization is given 200 dollars worth of certificates and you misplace them, don’t call the restaurant and ask them to replace them. (A certain local organization actually did that.)
  4. If a restaurant says, “Yes, we can help,” make an effort to pick up the donation in person as soon as possible. Unless they offer, don’t say, “Can you just mail it to me?”
  5. Realize that just because a restaurant owner gave your group a chef’s dinner for 4 last year, this does not mean that he or she can or will do it again this year.
  6. Don’t solicit a generous gift card contribution for your golf tournament from an independent liquor retailer and then go buy all your beer from a grocery chain. (A certain local organization actually did that.)
  7. Be patient. Soliciting donations can take a while. Don’t call during busy service times. Ask for the best time to speak to the decision maker and follow up at that time.
  8. Don’t take it personally if the restaurant does not make a donation. They don’t owe anything to you or your organization. Be gracious. They may be able to help next time.
  9. Most importantly, remember to thank your donors for their gifts, large or small. Without their help, your event would be less successful.
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Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant

Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurant is new in West County at Town and Country Crossing. That’s the center on Clayton Road, just west of 141, that has Whole Foods.

CH entrance

Yes, it’s a winery. No, they don’t make wine in West County, but they sell it. In fact, the first thing you see when you walk in is their wine store.

CH Store

The wines Cooper’s Hawk sells in the store are made at their winery in suburban Chicago. (Grapes are sourced from all over.) But, first let’s go inside the restaurant.

CH Dining AreaDecor is modern, with wood, stone and lots of earth tones. It’s bright in the daytime, thanks to windows all around. I like the way they use the wine bottles as part of their room divider.

photo-238Cooper’s Hawk has a beautiful bar (shown below) which offers a decent selection of beer and cocktails, as well as wine.

photo-239

I enjoyed a glass of Lux Meritage Red from their wine menu.

Wine glass

From the Beef and Pork portion of the dining menu, I had the New York Strip (shown below) with Betty’s Potatoes and mixed veggies. (Sorry, but I cut off a bite of the steak before I snapped the pic. Hungry!)

CH steak

Cooper’s Hawk also has a Winemaker’s Barrel Reserve red wine that skips the bottle and goes straight from the barrel (shown below) to your glass.

CH barrel

As you leave, you pass through the store again. If you enjoyed the bottle of wine you had with lunch or dinner, you can buy a bottle or three of that very wine to take home with you—at a lower price than you paid in the restaurant.

Cooper’s Hawk in Town and County is, by my count, their 13th winery/restaurant. It’s a clever concept, in a beautiful space. And it adds to the ever growing list of better restaurants in the county. Click HERE to go to the Cooper’s Hawk website.

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Centennial Beer Festival, 2014

For beer lovers, the 6th annual Centennial Beer Festival brings more beers than you ever could possibly sample within a three-hour session to Moulin Events at 2017 Chouteau in St. Louis. Dates for the Festival are February 20-22, 2014.

Crown Valley

Just about every craft brewer in metro STL will pour their brews. Beers from around the state, the region, the U.S. and the world are also represented among the 200 or so beers available for sampling. Crown Valley from Ste. Gen will be on hand again, as pictured above from the 2013 festival.

Beer Fest crowd

The festival begins with a beer dinner on Thursday, February 20, 6:00 p.m. featuring beers from 4 Hands Brewing paired with food from Moulin. Cost for the dinner is 67.50. In years past, the dinner has sold out.

Local bottles

For 2014, the Festival will have 3 tasting sessions: Friday, 2/21, 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.; Saturday, 2/22, 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Tickets are on sale now. They run 26.50 to 36.50 depending on session. For ticket purchases, click HERE to go to centennialbeerfestival.com. (See website for VIP ticket info.)

Beer T-shirts

The site for the beer fest is part of the long gone Schnaider Brewing Company, which was kind of a big deal in St. Louis back in 1876 when the building was constructed. The structure at 2017 Chouteau served at the Malt House for Schnaider.

Beer Bottles

The Centennial Beer Festival brings together beers from across the country including Deschutes, Founders, Boulevard, Sam Adams, New Belgium, Avery, Rogue, Tallgrass, Left Hand and more. Click HERE for a link to the 2013 beer fest lineup.

Jason at Fox-2

Jason Arnold, who started the beer fest in 2009 to create a fun event for Moulin in the middle of winter, is the man who puts everything together. That’s him above, along with a small sampling of the beers that will be poured come February.

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Tenacious Eats: Dinner, Drinks and a Movie!

Liz

Chef Liz Schuster (above) loves movies. And she loves to cook. She combines her passions into unique presentations that combine movies with food and drink. Her Tenacious Eats events have been happening for about a year and a half. (Changes are coming, as detailed below.)

Empty theater

Her venue is Meyer’s Grove, on Manchester at the west end of The Grove neighborhood in St. Louis. (Above pic shows the room before it was filled. Photo below shows the room with people in it.) My wife and I recently enjoyed National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, along with food courses and cocktails matched to movie segments.

Tenacious Crown

The first course, shown below, was a tasty Midwestern Scotch Egg. It’s a boiled egg with sausage around it, plus cheddar grits and grape jelly BBQ sauce. This was paired with a Pumpkin Bloody Mary. Both were hard to beat, but there was much more to come.

EggTenacious

The other courses were Christmas Cabbage Rolls, Hickory Smoked Pork Belly (my wife’s favorite), Turkey Pot Pie (below) and, for dessert, Eggnog Cheesecake.

pot pie

As I pondered the minor challenge of eating (and taking food pics) in the low light, I considered Liz and her two sidemen who were cooking (!) in the low light. They made it possible by wearing miner’s lamps on their heads.

Chefs in dark

Christmas Vacation is a movie that’s best watched in a group, whether it’s with your family at home, or with the sold-out crowd of 54 or so folks at Tenacious Eats.

Clark

If you go, be prepared for a leisurely evening. Emcee Jeremy started the party at 8:00 p.m. with giveaways of movie swag. With pauses to describe each course, plus an intermission and followup comments at the end, we left for home at around 11:00 p.m.

The next Tenacious Eats feature is Gremlins on Tuesday, December 17. Click HERE to order tickets. (Remember the 3 rules for Gremlins: no water, no bright lights and no food after midnight.)

The food is delicious, the booze is creative and the movies are winners. It’s a fun night out! Check out Tenacious Eats online by clicking HERE.

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A Memorable Thanksgiving Meal

I’m not sure I could ever write the detailed food memoirs that our best food writers entertain us with, but I do recall some personal favorite meals. As with most food memoirs, the food itself is important, but the people and the circumstances are what make the meal especially memorable.

We’ve had many wonderful Thanksgiving dinners. I’m fortunate that my wife is an excellent cook and that she has had the good sense to use my mother’s dressing recipe.

dinner plate

For many years, my parents would trek up to St. Louis from Birmingham to join us for the feast. Those were always great visits, especially when my dad was more spry and would head out for early Black Friday shopping with my wife. My dad pulled a Clark Griswold one year and got lost in East St. Louis, but the friendly ESL police pointed him back onto the right road.

thanksgiving-snoopy3

One Thanksgiving in the 1980’s we entertained a pair of visiting British Navy men whose ship had docked in Philadelphia after a visit to the Falkland Islands. They loved everything about our wonderful American holiday meal—except pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin pie is very popular among one certain member of my family. For many years, my wife has baked two pumpkin pies: one for the family and guests and one for my daughter, who can finish one off in a hurry.

Pumpkinpie

One of our more memorable Turkey Days came in the mid 1970’s. I had just taken a job in Erie, Pennsylvania. I had been hired by an old acquaintance from Alabama. He and his wife and kids were living in a motel while they were looking for a house. We had recently moved into an apartment and had limited furniture.

We invited them to join us for the Thanksgiving meal. My new boss’s dad, in town for a visit, was an additional guest.

This was my wife’s first big production solo Thanksgiving effort. She performed beautifully. The meal was a success and we scored important points with my new boss.

I recall driving to work that night as the first snowfall of the season fell, comfortable in the fact that I had a turkey sandwich with me for a late night encore.