Friday, December 25, 2020

Where we are quaran-dining in December 2020

December 4th = Patience had a red meat craving so she chose Biggie's steak sandwich with some zucchini sticks on the side. 

Biggie's Steak Sandwich and Zucchini Sticks

December 11th = I know that Patience was really craving a good burger, and luckily I had just read about Mission Taco's "pop up" called Off the Wall Burgers inside their Kirkwood location. I highly recommend you schedule your pick up time in the morning on their website: https://missiontacojoint.e-tab.com/offthewallburgers#!/order-type

Off the Wall Burger and Fies

December 18 = I never thought I'd say "thanks to the virus", but we finally tried an Ethiopian restaurant for the first time from Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant!

Special Chicken Tibs

I ordered the Special Chicken Tibs, which included cubes of chicken breast seasoned with garlic, onions, green peppers, and tomato finished with awaze sauce. Patience ordered a lamb dish. SO much food it took us 2-3 attempts to finish it all.

December 25 = We just HAD to order Chinese in honor of Jewish Christmas. Thank you Chinese Express for helping us complete our lazy day.

Chinese Express

PW Pizza Urban Chestnut Brewing Beer Dinner 2020

The last PW Pizza Beer Dinner of the year and no better time to avoid cooking than the week of Christmas!

I have to admit that the draw for this week's pizza and beer dinner was totally the pizza! Once a year, PW Pizza will make ONE fancy "beef pizza" and this time they offered a "Roast Beef Pizza"! This was quite the funky flavor pizza with wild mushrooms and blue cheese accompanying the beef. This was smartly paired with one of Urban Chestnut's heavier beers, the Dorfbier, which is a Dunkel style. This beer also brags a 6.7% ABV and 55 IBUs!

Breaded Chicken Pizza (top) and Roast Beef Pizza (bottom)

Of course, I prefer Urban Chestnut's lighter beers, and luckily there were two on the menu. The well-known Schnickelfritz, a Weissbier, was paired with a Romaine salad topped with walnuts, sundried apricots, feta cheese, red peppers, with a raspberry vinaigrette. I just love their salads!

Romaine Salad 

Next up, Urban Chestnut's Stammtisch Pilsner was paired with the first pizza, a Breaded Chicken Pizza, was topped with pineapple, red onions, mozzarella cheese, and a lemon-garlic butter sauce.

The Winged Nut Chestnut Ale, well-balanced and well-paired with a Gooey Butter Cake dessert an matching Hazelnut Crema Glaze. This could have been a meal all by itself!

Gooey Butter Cake with Hazelnut Crema Glaze


Urban Chestnut Menu

Can't wait to see what pizza and beer dinners come in 2021, and hopefully a return to in person dinners.

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Urban Chestnut Brewing = https://www.urbanchestnut.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Monday, December 14, 2020

PW Pizza Main Street Brewing Beer Dinner 2020

This was only the second time we have had Main Street Brewing (over in Belleville, IL) for a PW Pizza beer dinner. 

Here was the first time: https://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2017/09/main-street-brewing-pw-pizza-beer-dinner.html

A couple of the beers were a repeat, but we got to try two new flavors as well...

Main Street Brewing Can Lineup

Instead of a salad, PW Pizza mixed it up with Buffalo Chicken Dip and pita bread as the apptizer course. This was paired with Main Street's Off Duty Lager, which is light enough for me to drink all the time, and helped to cool off the buffalo dip flavor. 

The first pizza of the night was a Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza and it was just as good as it sounds. So cheesy! Also, this was paired with Main Street's best known (IMO), Pecan Brown.

The Southwest Chicken Pizza, the spicier of the two, was served with a black bean salsa on the side and of course paired with their 2 Hop IPA. A whopping 6.7% ABV! 

Southwest Chicken (left) and Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza (right)

Another highlight was the dessert course: Bread Pudding with a blueberry sauce. (Luckily, there was sauce leftover and will be great on some pancakes!) This was paired with their new Blueberry Juele, a blonde ale with blueberry puree in it. This got a little too sweet at the end, but perfect for dessert.

Bread Pudding with Blueberry sauce

Menu

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Main Street Brewing Company = https://www.mainstreetbrewingco.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

PW Pizza Farmhouse Wine Dinner

Unfortunately, this was supposed to be an Excelsior South Africa wine dinner, with a choice of Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay, but they were out of the Cabernet. So the back up red wine was Cline Cellars Farmhouse Red. 

Cline Cellars Farmhouse Red

Instead of a salad, we did get to start with Dry Rubbed BBQ Chicken Wings. I would really love to order these again!!

Roasted Dry Rubbed BBQ Chicken Wings with Chipotle Ranch 

The wine was pretty tart and full of baked cherries, but that worked out fine with the Chicken Caprese pizza and strawberry glaze that came with the Chocolate Chip cookies.

Chicken Caprese Pizza

Always happy to have a Wednesday night off from cooking! Back to beer and pizza next week!

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Farmhouse = https://clinecellars.com/farmhouse-wines

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Sunday, November 29, 2020

Where we are quaran-dining in November 2020

Looks like we'll be doing this take out thing for some time...

November 6th = I finally let Pai pick for real this week and she was feeling "Greeky". She knows that I always want the Moussaka when she orders from Olympia.

Moussaka

November 13th = I think it's turned chilly for good now so a hot "Hebrew Hammer" ramen from Nudo was a good pick this week.

Hebrew Hammer from Nudo

November 20 =  My turn to pick again and I had INDO on my list for a while since I keep hearing it in the news winning so many awards! They are offering their full menu online so definitely wait for a special occasion night since it is pricy. I miss eating in the actual restaurant for the ambiance and a curated experience, but luckily, most dishes were properly labeled.

From top to bottom: Goyza, Japenese Eggplant, Chili Garlic Noodles, Palm Sugar Ribs

Nigiri, Poke, Crab and Fried Rice,and Benitoro

November 24th = Thanks to Thanksgiving leftovers, we skipped over "Take out Friday" this week and instead, we ordered Katie's Pizza and Pasta for "Give Back Tuesday". Katie's now delivers too!!

Margherita Pizza

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

PW Pizza 4 Hands Brewery Beer Dinner 2020

PW Pizza 4 Hands Brewery lineup

We went back to beer later in October for PW Pizza's Beer Dinner, and 4 Hands Brewery is a favorite in our household. I am happy they have added a light, easy-drinking lager, Full Life, for someone like me! Of course it was paired with the Kale salad course. 

Kale Salad - roasted sweet potatoes, bacon, walnuts, red onion

The second beer is one of Pai's favorite, the Peanut Butter Chocolate Milk Stout, also known as Absense of Light. I think it would have been better as the dessert beer because it is so thick. I feel like it completely covered the flavors of the Chorizo Taco pizza (shown on the left below).

The City Wide Pale Ale is a classic and I would have put this one second, moving up the Brown Ale with the Roasted Chicken Pizza. This was my favorite pizza of the night, shown on the right below.

Chorizo Taco Pizza (left) and Roasted Chicken (right)

The Apple pie was delicious all on its own and went well with the Cast Iron Oat Meal Brown. This pairing got me ready for pie season!

Apple Pie


4 Hands Beer Dinner Lineup

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

4 Hands Brewery = https://4handsbrewery.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Where we are quaran-dining in October

October is Pai's birthday month so I made her pick where she wanted to eat on her birthday. Normally, we narrow down birthday picks to one of the hot, new restaurants that just opened up, but there isn't quite the same hype going on these days. Even after reviewing an article about recently opened restaurants, a lot of them were closed on Tuesday, her birthday night.

Luckily, there was a neighborhood favorite, Boogaloo, that helped fill her craving for mussels, while I ordered the jumbalaya!

Jumbalaya

Then Pai had to pick again as it was her turn for "Take Out Friday"! Again, Pai struggled with what to choose so she asked an English Tik Tok friend who felt "fish and chips" should be represented. So we ordered from one of her favorite hangouts, Nick's Pub.

Fish N Chips

Not exactly a "dining" event, but we tried a new virtual activity by joining Feast Magazine's "Virtual Oktoberfest" beer tasting. They delivered nine cans of beer and some swag so you could drink along with the brewers online. Pai and I quickly learned that we should only open a few of the beers so as to be able to enjoy all the beers at a later time.

Oktoberfest Lineup

Chatting with Cat Neville and the brewers

The Urban Chestnut "O-Katz" Oktoberfest Lager and the Six Mile Bridge German Pilsner were my favorites so far. The Public House Brewing "Giddy Goat Coffee Milk Stout" and O'Fallon Brewing's "Knotty Pretzel Beer" were Pai's favorites.

From the "new restaurant" list, I wanted to try the new O + O Pizza! Take note, the pizza is VERY thin and VERY St. Louis-style. So be prepared! We got our usual variety of Pepperoni, Sausage, and a Margherita pizza along with toasted ravioli (SO filling, must order). We also ordered two salads; a regular Italian style and Brussels Sprout slaw.

Margherita Pizza with Chopped Salad

My original plans fell through the following Friday, but luckily we live near enough delicious restaurants that I was able to order Trattoria Marcella very quickly! They are known for their plump Toasted Raviolis. 

Toasted Ravioli from Trattoria Marcella

And for the last Friday night in October (there were five of 'em!), Gioia's Deli was staying open late on weekends so we took advantage and got the world-famous "Hot Salami". 

Hot Salami and side salad

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

PW Pizza Kenwood Wine Dinner Oct 12 2020

Since the beer dinners are every other week, PW Pizza decided to fill in the other slots with virtual "wine dinners", because sometimes you want wine with your pizza!

Ernest approves!

Again, the dinners are very affordable and you don't have to worry about which wine to pair, since it's already done for you. But you know the best part is taking a night off from cooking!

Kenwood Virtual Wine Dinner Menu

The Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc is a winner and has all the citrus and crisp taste that you expect. 

Kenwood Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2016

This definitely paired well with the Lemon-Sage dressing and shrimp pizza. 

Zesty House Salad with Lemon Sage Dressing

The actual name is hilarious: "Shrimpy Shrimpy Bang Bang Pizza", which explains the heat that I got from the pizza. 

Shrimpy Shrimpy Bang Bang Pizza

Luckily, I was able to cool off with the Gooey Butter Cake, which came drenched in a raspberry sauce.

Gooey Butter Cake

Resources:

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Kenwood Winery = https://kenwoodvineyards.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon


Monday, October 26, 2020

O + O Pizza

LOOK!!! A new restaurant!! I know it's only pizza, but it has been a VERY long time and I need to celebrate these small excitements during these hard times. 

Their pizza is VERY thin... definitely "St. Louis style".

We ordered our usual three favorite flavors of pizzas so that everyone is happy: Margarita, Pepperoni, and Sausage.

Margherita with Chopped Salad

OG Pepperoni Pizza

Sausage, Ricotta + Giardiniera Pizza

If nothing else, the toasted ravioli is amazing as the stuffing is like a meatball with cheese. I think I would have loved to have made that my own meal!

We also tried a couple salads... the Chopped Salad was my pick, while the Shaved Brussels Sprouts was demolished by the other side of the table that did not include me. 

We ate the toasted ravs fast so no chance for pictures, sorry.

I appreciated the quick and easy pick up from outside of what is "The Clover & The Bee", right on the corner. You can pull up right next to the restaurant and they'll bring your order right to you.

Resources:

O + O Pizza = http://oandopizza.lh-stl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

PW Pizza Six Mile Bridge Virtual Beer Dinner 2020

Ernest could not WAIT for this week's PW Pizza beer dinner! His mouth was watering...

Ernest licking his lips

It smelled SOOOO good...

Ernest getting all the smells

He thought we saved the last piece for him! hehehe

Ernest ready to eat!

As much as I love the salads during these virtual beer dinners, I didn't mind PW Pizza mixing it up this time for the first course. We really enjoyed the Red Pepper Hummus and Crostinis along with the Blood Orange Wit Beer...so easy to drink, definitely a patio pounder. Only 4.7% ABV!

Red Pepper Hummus

The Lemon-Pepper Shrimp Pizza was pretty intense and the Double Dry Hopped Citra IPA couldn't quite keep up since it wasn't overly hoppy. Probably one of the best IPA's we've had in a long time. Only 30 IBUs!


Lemon Pepper Shrimp Pizza

The Chicken Mole Pizza had a lot going on too, with the spice from the mole sauce and red onions. It probably would have been a better fit for an IPA, but we still enjoyed the Irish Red. Very smooth.

Chicken Mole Pizza

The best pairing of the night was the Raspberry Gooey Butter Cake with the Double Berry Berliner. I love fruity beers that are a dessert by themselves!

Raspberry Gooey Butter Cake


Six Mile Bridge Lineup

Menu

Resource:

Six Mile Bridge = http://sixmilebridgebeer.com/

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon