We started our day in St. Louis at Iron Barley, a restaurant in south St. Louis that we heard about from the lovely Adam Richman on Man vs. Food. See this post if you need to be reminded how much we love Adam and his fine television program.
We walked in and immediately loved the atmosphere and the selection of beers on tap. We found ourselves a cozy two-person booth and prepared ourselves for the eating experience that awaited us. We knew we were going to love it when we saw this omen sitting directly on the wall to the left of Mark's head.
My apologies for the crumby quality. I only had my cellular device and
I think it has a whopping 2 megapixel camera.
It's Adam with the owners of Iron Barley. He wrote:
"Absolutely one of the best restaurants in the USA."
With Adam's blessing we ordered our food and let's just say that although we had high expectations, the food went above and beyond. I ordered the "Ballistic Elvis" which is (prepare yourself): strawberry preserves, cheddar cheese, peanut butter, banana, crushed red pepper and BACON between two slices of texas toast. It was the most intense sandwich (or sammiche, as Iron Barley calls 'em) that I've ever had and it was phenomenal. Mark got oak-roasted pork served with toasted barley. It was heavenly. We got, to share, the Monte Cristo dog as well because Adam spoke its praises on the episode we saw. We were not let down by these two hot dogs, served open-faced on buns smeared with strawberry preserves and covered with swiss cheese. We washed it all down with 6th Row Brewery's Strong Porter. If that paragraph above isn't food porn, I just don't know what is.
After lunch--the leftovers of which became dinner as well--we headed to the City Museum. I had heard wonderful things about this museum from numerous people and thought that Mark and I should check it out before we left the midwest. When we pulled up, we knew we were in for a treat:
a museum, but a jungle gym as well. AMAZING.
The highlights of this fine establishment were (in no particular order):
- 10-story slide
- Man-made caves and caverns that adults are allowed to crawl and play in
- Werlitzer organ accompanying us on our trek to the top of the 10-story slide
- Old school photo booth where Mark and I got cutesy couply pictures
- WORLD'S LARGEST PENCIL
- 3-story slide
- Aquarium where Mark fell in love with an armadillo
- "Baleout"--a vintage clothing and accessories store (yes, inside the museum) where Mark got a new flannel and vest and I got a lovely sweater
- The crazy jungle gym
Also, as we were about to leave, we thought of having a beer at one of the many snackeries in the joint (all of which served alcohol...insane, right?) but we were met with a daunting crowd of Santas. Yes, Santas. We assumed they were having a Christmas party and instead of trying to bob and weave through 30 Clause's, we decided to walk down St. Louis' Washington Street to see if we could find a cool pub.
Not only did we find a cool pub, The Dubliner, but along the way we found a hat-erie (aka--a store devoted to hats) where we tried on some fantastic styles, and we found out why the Santas had left their Christmas party at the City Museum and were not following us down the street. They were part of a yearly tradition in STL and other major cities entitled SANTARCHY. There was "Mad Santa", "Tranny Santa", "Super Clause" and many others that made our time at the Dubliner very entertaining. After a pint of Magner's with black currant (me) and a pint of Guinness (Mark), we decided to head home. Along the way we stopped at the Gelateria--where one of friends formerly worked--and got some lovely hot beverages (Mark: Peppermint Bark Mocha, Me: Mocha Bianca) to keep our cold selves warm on the way back to the car.
All in all, one of the best days I've had in a while and one of the best daytrips of all time!
Need more proof? Well I shall leave you with this:
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