St. Louis & San Antonio: Places to eat

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?



Written by W. Curtis Preston (@wcpreston), four-time O'Reilly author, and host of The Backup Wrap-up podcast. I am now the Technology Evangelist at Sullivan Strickler, which helps companies manage their legacy data

2 comments
  • Well, naturally I’m jealous. :s But, the food sounds great. Really, though, a 3.5lb cinnamon roll!!! That IS crazy.

  • Thanks for the information on the restaurants. Next time you are in the DFW area, you need to try “Love and War in Texas”. They have 2 locations, one in Plano off of 75, and the other is in Grapevine just north of DFW airport. I’ve been to the Cove and it is GOOD! Keep adding good travel info like food to this blog. I know a lot of people in backup roles don’t get to travel as much as some other positions, but this kind of knowledge is helpful when you do.