In honor of the 150th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address, the first 150 people to order a “Gettysburger” at Blueberry Hill today (Tuesday, November 19th), will receive a collectible copy of the Gettysburg Address and the history behind this historical speech.
Blueberry Hill is located at 6504 Delmar in the U City Loop.
I’m from Alabama and I love pecan pie. Just don’t overcook it!
Click HERE to get Food Network’s recipe for the Pecan Pie pictured above.
You can see some of your favorite Food Network personalities on Thanksgiving Live! Saturday, November 23, 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Ina Garten, Alton Brown, Bobby Flay and Giada De Laurentiis will answer Thanksgiving meal prep questions from viewers via call-ins and social media.
Along with TV content delivered to your home via Charter, U-verse, Dish and Direct TV, Food Network has useful resources online at FoodNetwork.com.
These buns were prepared in my home over the weekend. I can report that they taste as good as they look!
Francine Segan is a food personality who will be bringing her chocolate expertise to St. Louis this week. She will be participating in a number of classes for Dierberg’s School of Cooking and popping up on local TV shows. She is the official chocolate instructor for Perugina chocolate.
Here is a photo of Francine about to eat a cannoli.
Friday night (11/15), 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., she’ll host Date Night: For Chocolate Lovers at the West Oak Dierberg’s on Olive at Craig in Creve Coeur. It’s a demonstration class for couples that features Pasta with Pork Ragu, Chocolate Cheesecake and a Chocolate Martini. Perugina chocolate, natch.
On Saturday night (11/16), 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., she’ll be at Des Peres Dierberg’s for A Chocolate Extravaganza, which includes tastings of a number of items featuring Perugina chocolate. She will also present classes on dessert making (with chocolate!) at Edwardsville (Thursday night), Bogey Hills (Saturday afternoon) and Southroads (Sunday afternoon).
Click HERE to view Dierberg’s November-December School of Cooking brochure with costs and registration information.
Francine Segan is also an expert on pasta!
Her newest book (she’s written six) Pasta Modern is available now. Click HERE for the Amazon link.
So, yes, you could have it delivered in time to get her to sign the book this weekend at a Dierberg’s event. If you opt for the download, maybe she could sign your Kindle. (Or maybe not.)
Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers opened today at 12215 Manchester Road in Des Peres.
I give Raising Cane’s credit for being bold enough to open just down Manchester Road from a Chick-Fil-A that’s always busy. They’re also across from a McNugget-serving Mickey D’s. (Maybe that’s good strategy—to be near a competitor but not right next door.)
But are chicken fingers a big enough deal to format a fast-food restaurant around them? Apparently so, as Raising Cane’s opened its 150th location earlier this year. Personally, I tend to take a pass on chicken fingers. I think of chicken fingers as the ultimate kid’s menu item. My mother-in-law loves Dairy Queen’s chicken fingers and would eat ’em every day if she could.
I plan to take her by to sample the chicken fingers at Raising Cane’s soon, although not at lunchtime. That strip of Manchester just east of I-270 can get seriously congested during the noon hour. Edward Jones HQ, West County Mall, the Epic Schnuck’s and the Mondo Dierberg’s are all close by, all generating cars.
Raising Cane’s has locations in food courts in the Galleria, Mid-Rivers Mall and in Chesterfield Mall. This is their first free-standing store in metro STL.
In this era where so many fast food and quick serve places are trying to cover their competitors’ offerings and be all things to all people, I admire these folks for putting all their (hatched) eggs in one basket, so to speak. All chicken fingers, all the time!
On the web at raisingcanes.com.
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.
On a Saturday night in October of 1983, my wife and I and three other folks descended on Café Nola in Philadelphia for drinks and dinner.
Nola refers to New Orleans, Louisiana. Café Nola was on South Street in the 80’s. The place was dark. The margaritas were strong. And the food was excellent.
Joining my wife and me were my friend Greg Bass (who had flown up from Birmingham to catch the World Series), Charlie Steiner (who was in Philly covering the series for WOR radio and RKO network) and Bobby Rich (who was my new boss as program director of WWSH radio). Greg is a University of Alabama and WTBC/Tuscaloosa radio chum. I had worked with Charlie and Rich at KSTT in Davenport in the 70’s. They had each worked together later in Hartford and NYC.
When I think of Café Nola, I think of my wife’s favorite appetizer: Angels on Horseback. They were oysters wrapped with bacon and served with an amazing sauce. I generally ordered a seafood entrée, usually a shrimp dish, but I also recall getting their jambalaya. (This was before blackened redfish became a national rage, thanks to New Orleans chef Paul Prudhomme.) On occasions when I wasn’t stuffed, I remember enjoying their pecan pie.
Our evening was filled with baseball talk and radio stories. The Phillies had lost that afternoon and were down 3 games to 1 to the Orioles. Our radio station was fighting a tough uphill battle after transitioning into what would now be called Hot AC station, but Bobby Rich was (and still is) a master at generating buzz. (At one point during my tenure at WWSH with Bobby, we had a “No Michael Jackson” weekend, just to be contrarians at the height of the Thriller album’s popularity.)
Greg is still working in Birmingham making radio spots, Charlie is now doing play-by-play for the Dodgers and Rich has become a radio legend in Tucson. Café Nola has moved a few times and is now on 2nd Street in Philly.
Below are some photos from last Sunday’s Harvest Festival presented by Sauce magazine at Laumeier Park.
Up first… Vegan Nachos from Local Harvest:
The Sweet Potato Hash from Alumni had bits of duck and bacon mixed in. Delicious and colorful for fall!
The Pulled Pork Sandwich with Slaw on a Pretzel Bun from Cleveland-Heath was a crowd favorite.
1111 Mississippi brought a tasty Pumpkin Whoopie Pie with Cream Cheese Filling. Yum!
Local Harvest also served up Chicken and Waffles.
Great weather, a great venue and great food and drink (plus some good music) made for a nice fall event which, based on what I saw and heard, was a big success. And big fun!
You may have seen barbeque teams and caterers with mobile smokers. You may have seen food trucks with ovens for cooking pizza. But have you ever seen a mobile wood-fired pizza oven?
Working Fire Pizza trailers their pizza oven every Saturday and Sunday to Sugar Creek Winery in Defiance where they offer pizzas topped with cheese, pepperoni, sausage or tomato and spinach.
The Working Fire Pizza crew is (L-R) Pat, Ken and J.R. who are also actual Wentzville firemen.
On Thursdays, they bring their oven to Barrett Woods office complex at Manchester and Barrett Station Roads (where these photos were taken as they were setting up on 10/17). They begin serving pizzas—fresh from the oven—around 11:00 a.m.
They have also cooked pizza on the tarmac at Lambert Airport for employees of Southwest Airlines. You can see photos of that and other Working Fire activities by clicking HERE to go to their Facebook page.
Goose Island Migration Week is underway in St. Louis. The Chicago based craft brewer is bringing its beer and its people to town to meet local beer drinkers and share some special brews.
A schedule of Goose Island Migration Week events is posted below.
I chatted Tuesday at ITAP in the CWE with Patrick Reisch (pictured), a Goose Island brewer who has St. Louis roots. In the first segment he discusses what’s different since Goose was purchased by AB/InBev. I began by asking if he is related to George Reisch, brewmaster at the St. Louis A-B brewery. (Segment 1 runs 3:16)
Of course I asked Patrick “where’d you go to high school?” but in the second segment we also discuss various Goose Island brews, including their Bourbon County Stout. He suggests a favorite food to pair with BCS. (Segment 2 runs 8:18)
In segment 3, Patrick Reisch talks about Sophie, Matilda and Lolita. He begins by talking about the difference between being a brewer and being a brewmaster. (Segment 3 runs 5:02)
Here are some of the week’s highlights:
Goose Island Tap Invasion – Wednesday, October 16, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Llywelyn’s Webster Groves, 17 West Moody Avenue, Webster Groves
Beer Geek Tap Invasion – Wednesday, Oct. 16, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Shamrock’s, 4177 Veterans Memorial Parkway, St. Peters
Goose Island Tap Takeover – Thursday, October 17, 6:00 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Three Kings, 6307 Delmar Boulevard, University City
Cheers!
Rick Browne traveled 46,000 miles over three years to visit America’s oldest restaurants. He has included 100 of them in his new book A Century of Restaurants: Stories and Recipes from 100 of America’s Most Historic and Successful Restaurants. (You may know Browne from TV’s Barbeque America.)
Did anybody from St. Louis make the list? Sadly, no. Crown Candy Kitchen turns 100 this year and it’s apparent that the author and his editors assembled the lineup of one hundred eateries before 2013 began.
There is one Missouri restaurant included. It’s the Savoy Grill in Kansas City. (Hey, the book is published by Andrews McMeel whose HQ in KC is just a few blocks from the Savoy!)
It is admirable that Rick Browne included funky joints in out-of-the-way places along with classy establishments in large cities. M & M Cigar Store in Butte, Montana and Hudson’s Hamburgers in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho are included along with Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn and Columbia in Ybor City (Tampa-St. Pete metro), Florida.
I have dined at two of the featured restaurants, Antoine’s in New Orleans and The Bright Star in Bessemer, Alabama. In fact, my wife and I threw a 50th anniversary party for my parents at The Bright Star.
The book is leans a bit to the northeast in its choices, mainly because that is the oldest part of the U.S. The state of New York has 12 restaurants, Massachusetts has 8 and Pennsylvania has 6.
When thumbing through A Century of Restaurants, I thought of the country song recorded by Hank Snow, Asleep at the Wheel and Johnny Cash called I’ve Been Everywhere (click title to hear it). Rick Browne has been everywhere, even to Winnemucca, Nevada (made semi-famous by the song) to spotlight The Martin Hotel.
A Century of Restaurants has gorgeous photos—Mr. Browne takes great pics to go with his words—along with recipes that look amazing. If you love food and travel, get this book! List price is 40.00. Amazon has it for 24.00, with a Kindle version for 7.99. Available 10/15/13.
Food Talk STL 