Tapped

Even though it's not "A Pizza Story" anymore, I was excited to get the chance to try out the next version of the restaurant a couple of times during the holiday season.

Tapped Signage

Yet, I am still a little bitter, not just because they replaced one of my favorite small pizza joints, but because they are one of the first to offer up the self-service taps in St. Louis.

I had visited my first self-serve taps at a wine bar in Ames, Iowa and was blown away by the awesome concept. I wondered why there wasn't such a thing in St. Louis! I had visions of opening up my very own wine bar with this unique twist! I emailed the STLWinegirl and she explained to me that Missouri law did not allow customers to serve themselves. So sad. Dreams crushed.

Then, a few months later, sure enough, Tapped opened up with the very same concept and when I asked STLWinegirl again, she said the laws had changed. (Or someone's wheels got greased suddenly.)

So now I'm out of my favorite pizza and my million-dollar making idea.

Our friends invited us to a holiday get-together held at Tapped, and since we recently moved to the city, just south of Maplewood, it was a very short drive! And while they do not take reservations after 6pm on the weekends, they will hold the table just as easily at 5:45pm with "Reserved" signs.

With all the taps on the wall, this is not your typical sit down restaurant. There are a lot of people wandering about to get their own beer or wine, and this worked out great with our large party that took up two large tables so we could mingle between them.

When you're ready to order food, you just walk up to the "food ordering station". While there are no fancy pizza flavors like "eggplant"....yes I LOVE eggplant...the pizza is actually good!

Margherita Pizza

We tried the Honey Roasted Almonds (perfect snack with beer!) and the Tapped Wings as well! The wings had only a small amount of heat, but were definitely well-covered in a "sweet spicy bourbon glaze" sauce and very messy. (Plenty of wet-naps were available!)

Honey Roasted Almonds and Tapped Wings

The best part is that the beer taps are organized by style so Patience was happy going to the left for her stouts, while I stayed more towards the right for the lighter beers. It's pretty easy to hold up the white disc (a bracelet worn on your wrist) to the "Tapped" sign for the tap you wish to draw from.

Wine lovers, your area is in the far corner. I haven't looked to see what types of wines or the quality that they offered, so I'll have to check back.

Just watch out for the water dispenser...the ice comes out very fast and the water will spill if you don't hold the glass just right.

P.S. We went back a second time already to introduce more people to it. It IS a fun way to hang out!

Resources:

Tapped = https://www.tappedstl.com

Modern Brewery PW Pizza Beer Dinner

I am pretty familiar with Modern Brewery since they opened VERY close to where Patience works, and the Citrapolis, the first beer of the night, is very popular around town. Even though it's an IPA, it's actually pretty easy to drink.

It's so easy to drink... it was actually paired with a salad course with a slightly spicy dressing, a curried apple vinaigrette!

Butterhead Lettuce with Curried Apple Vinaigrette with Citrapolis

Since it's November, we had a traditional Smoked Turkey Dinner Pizza, which is always a huge hit. This was paired with the Winter Lager, my favorite beer of the night. It reminded me a lot of an Oktoberfest style of beer and it has low ABV (5%) and IBUs (15).

Smoked Turkey Dinner Pizza with Winter Lager

The second pizza of the night, Spicy Chorizo & Black Bean Pizza probably would have gone better with the Citrapolis, as the All Black (referring to the New Zealand rugby team) was very malty.

Spicy Chorizo & Black Bean Pizza with All Black

A better pairing was the Dark Chocolate Mousse (why yes I did offer to help finish my neighbor's dish!) and the McFly Rye (named after Marty McFly from Back to the Future). The thick, dark beer could be described as a dessert beer, although it isn't too sweet.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

Menu

Resources:

Modern Brewery = http://modernbrewery.com/

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Ludwig Farmstead Creamery

While attending a beer event at Larder & Cupboard in Maplewood, a woman from Ludwig Farmstead Creamery was handing out free samples.

Sales rep, Stephanie Peace (great name), offered me a couple of cheeses to taste and write about! Stephanie let me take home Jake's Habanero Havarti-Style and Jake's Dutch Garden Herb cheese.

Who's Jake you ask? According to their website, Jake Ludwig was a 2009 University of Illinois graduate  who developed a passion for cheese making using the morning-fresh milk from his family's Holstein dairy cattle. Unfortunately, Jake died before creating his first cheese and his father, Dave, hired a Dutch Cheese maker to carry out Jake's dream of producing award winning European-style cheeses.

Ludwig Farmstead Creamery Cheeses

Luckily, I had a day trip to Hermann scheduled to drink wine with the girls and I shared the cheese samples with them. Both flavors were snatched up quickly!

I was most nervous about Jake's Habanero Havarti-Style, but the spiciness was only felt a little bit at the back end of the bite. Instead, you mostly get a creamy flavor to help balance out the heat.

The fullest-flavored cheese was actually the Jake's Dutch Garden Herb where you get a lot of dill and garlic with each bite.

Try a taste test for yourself! Stop by Larder & Cupboard to stock up!

Or, you can order online from the Ludwig Farmstead Creamery, located just east of Champaign, IL.

Resources:

Ludwig Farmstead Creamery = https://www.ludwigfarmsteadcreamery.com/

Old Bakery Beer PW Pizza Beer Dinner

Patience and I have tasted a lot Old Bakery Beer thanks to Larder & Cupboard, but we have yet to stop by the brewery since they are way up in Alton. It looks like they are worth a visit some time for sure!

I think the first course might be the winner overall, believe it or not, this was no regular salad! Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushroom with the easy to drink Citrus Wheat. Eric Weber, head brewer, said this is their most popular beer that pays the bills. I am not surprised at all!

Crab Stuffed Portobello Mushroom

My favorite pizza of the night was the Steak Burger Pizza. It really did taste like a cheeseburger pizza with "Sambal ketchup" as the sauce, giving it a tart flavor. I do admit that the North End IPA was a good pairing since it cut through the pizza toppings to help mellow it out.

Steak Burger Pizza

The Pulled Pork Pizza was definitely heavy on the pork so I didn't have too much of it, but it didn't really matter since the Oktoberfest is easy to drink by itself.

Pulled Pork Pizza

Another top pairing was the Smoked Chocolate Donut Holes, but unfortunately there was bacon mixed in to the Salted Caramel. The donuts definitely had a smoky flavor that was perfect with the Porter. A perfect dessert beer...although I personally recommend it with chocolate of course!

Smoked Chocolate Donut Holes

Menu

Hopefully, someday we'll actually make it to the brewery and not just pass by!

Resources:

Old Bakery Beer = http://www.oldbakerybeer.com/

PW Pizza = https://pwpizza.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Evangeline's

For Patience's birthday in early October, I had been planning on taking her to Evangeline's for a long time since it's a NOLA-themed restaurant. With River Bend closing several months ago, we were due! I had previously attended a crawfish boil earlier in the year while Patience was out of town so I really owed her big time.

To make things easy, we just sat at the bar even though I had made reservations, but it was still pretty quiet at 6pm on a Friday night.

I let Patience order all her favorites, although we ended up going with the pasta special instead of having a more traditional gumbo or jambalaya dish, but that just means we want to go back!

We started off with cocktails and mussels, both were winners. The cocktail was a bartender's choice, but since it's Patience, there was definitely some bourbon in there.

Bartender's Choice...with bourbon!

Mussels

The seafood pasta special meant even MORE mussels with shrimp and pasta - not too spicy so we could split it.

Seafood Pasta Special

The bartender and owner were very generous and put a candle in our pecan pie birthday dessert!

Bread pudding...with a birthday candle!

This kind of hospitality made me wish we lived in the neighborhood so we could stop in more often. We really felt at home there and can't wait to go back.

Resources:

Evangeline's = http://www.evangelinesstl.com

Photos by Patience Scanlon