Backup Central

St. Louis & San Antonio: Places to eat

Written by W. Curtis Preston Thursday, 19 February 2009 16:26

I just finished the St. Louis and San Antonio dedupe schools, and had a great time.  I actually ate at 3, count them, THREE restaurants covered on The Food Channel's "Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives."  Wanna hear what I thought of them?  Click Read More.

In St. Louis, I ate at the Iron Barley.  I had the Barley Paella and the Peanut Butter Blaster, which is a Peanut Butter/Cayenne pie with a strawberry habanero glaze.  Both were INCREDIBLE.  I've actually eaten there before and had to go back.  Had the same thing both times.  Boy, does it look like a dive, but MAN is the food good.  Don't miss it if you're there.

I got to go to three restaurants in St. Louis, two which were on the show, and one which was not.  I went to Tip Top Cafe, which has been there for 70 years.  I had the "hot pork," which is a roast pork that was covered in the show.  Yum, yum, yum.  Very tender and delicious, covered with brown gravy with just a hint of spiciness in it.   I also had the onion rings which I really enjoyed, but I didn't think they were as good as the ones I had at the Studio Diner in San Diego two weeks ago.  Those were the best I've ever had. 

Next I went to The Cove, which is -- get this -- a combination car wash/laundromat/restaurant with live music every night.  I knew about the car wash/laundromat thing, but the music just blew me away. Wednesday nights are big band jazz every week.  Awesome.  I had the Bello Burger that's made with portobello mushrooms and fresh spinach.  I am NOT a vegetarian by any means, but if all veggy food tasted like that, I could be convinced.  It also comes with fresh cut fries, which were very tasty.  I finished that off with a Spicy Poblano Chicken soup, which was green, very spicy, and very yummy.  The NEXT day (Yes, I went back), I had the fish tacos and Jalapeno Carrot cake.  Both were good, but I'd have to say the peanut butter pie from Iron Barley was better.  Everything that I saw and tasted was made with fresh, organic ingredients.  I was going to have the lamb burger, but -- get this -- the local butcher who supplies the meat hadn't been to the processing plant, so there wasn't any.  I would have liked to try that.

Finally, I topped it all off with a 3.5 lb cinnamon roll from Lulu's Cafe.  Now that was just crazy.  Yummy.  But crazy.

If you're a traveller, I highly recommend checking the show out for interesting places to eat.  Anyone have any others like this?

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