Category Archives: st. louis

Not only did we contend with 95 degree weather during our visit to Busch Stadium. The Cardinals and Nationals game lasted 11 innings after they tied in the 9th and then in the 10th. So it was a long hot game, although this didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of our two Cardinals fans (dirck and Noah). One of the better deals: a free shuttle bus to the stadium from Duke’s, a sports bar in Soulard. Other area bars also offer shuttles. All you do is buy a drink (and only 2 of the 4 of us did). The bus was ready and waiting after the game. Amen! We saved time, money, and aggro.

We wandered around City Foundry, a post-industrial entertainment complex with a food hall, retail shops and entertainment options. The highlight was Golden Gems, a women-owned gift shop with attitude.

Near the World Museum of Chess (home of the world’s largest chess piece), we had brunch at chess-themed Kingsbury Diner. (Thinking of our chess-crazy friend Russ!)

Then onto the imposing St. Louis Art Museum, in an elegant building built for the famous 1904 worlds fair here. It sits high on a hill overlooking a huge reflecting pool/lake with fountains, and the city fanning out beyond it.

The first thing encountered as we walked in the main entrance: five enormous and spectacular floor-to-ceiling paintings by german painter Anselm kiefer commissioned by the museum and installed in 2025, inspired by his visit to the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers here and the Rhine from his native land. Rivers flow into and become the sea, hence the name of the installation: Becoming the sea.

We spent time in American Art with familiar regionalism artists from this part of the world including Thomas Hart Benton (of Kansas City) and John Steuart Curry (he painted the famous murals in the Kansas state house in Topeka).

The car weather gauge clocked in at 102 degrees as we drove into St. Louis, over the Mississippi and past the famous arch, reminding me of an earlier trip here with searing heat and humidity.

We’re staying in a beautifully renovated red brick building in historic Soulard, a tight neighborhood of streets lined with w/19th and early 20th century red brick buildings in various stages of restoration.

We stopped at the famous Ted Drewes along Route 66 for frozen custard (what else!), then has a very old fashioned Sicilian dinner (toasted ravioli, eggplant parm, lots of red sauce) on The Hill at Gian-Tony’s.

Today we walked up the street to the Soulard farmers market in the oppressive heat, trying to stay on the shady side of the red brick streets, where we had some beignets and bought another local delicacy, “gooey yellow butter cake.”

Lunch, Noah’s pick, was very good bbq at Bogart’s (in Soulard (owned by the same folks as Pappy’s BBQ) and pretty good ribs, burnt ends and brisket.

We attempted to walk around the central west end neighborhood by Maryland and Euclid (home of the world chess hall for fame), past gated streets with elegant mansions (Pershing Street) near the green-tile domed basilica. We also drove down the even fancier Portland place, lined with huge mansions on enormous lots and gated shut at either end (we got in through a side street). Also drove around the beautiful homes adorning Lafayette square.