Cafe Napoli

I am very late reporting back on my birthday dinner and I'm sure I will get a lot of those "you haven't been there yet" responses as well. Sometimes the long-standing restaurants get forgotten among all the new and trendy places.

But this is definitely a restaurant that is doing it well consistently and it met all my expectations, between the dishes and the service. Definitely a good go-to place to take out of town company or a romantic date. Always a winner.

We all made it easy and went with the specials of the day, one of several three courses dinners. I selected one of my all-time favorites, Chilean Sea Bass.

Chilean Sea Bass with broccoli and potatoes

Again, an easy choice for Patience since she went with the scallops and she was even kind enough to share one with me! (True love!)

Scallops with pasta

Of course, no birthday dinner would be complete without a chocolate dessert! Chocolate lava cake! (This makes me think of the movie Chef now. hehe)

Chocolate Lava Cake

Resources:

Cafe Napoli = https://www.facebook.com/CafeNapoliSTL

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Atomic Cowboy Brunch

When I hear "Atomic Cowboy", I have to admit I usually don't think of it as a foodie destination, much less brunch, but a bunch of us decided to try it out a few weeks ago. Brunch is served every Sunday morning from 10AM-3PM. We actually found the most about it on their Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/AtomicCowboySTL

We got there a few minutes before 10AM so they let us sit at the bar and immediately tempted us with morning cocktails. They offered a unique take on Bloody Marys and instead served it with tequila! I was up for trying it and it went down smooth...my friends were too scared to take more than a sip.

Once everyone arrived, we grabbed a big table and I'd say by 11AM, it was pretty filled up. The more people in attendance meant a lot more things to try and everyone got something different.

My selection was really easy because I went with my favorite, Eggs Benedict, but with salmon!

Smoked Salmon Heuvos Benedict

Patience went with one of her favorites, French Toast, and this came with ice cream and a lot of powdered sugar on top to make it more like dessert for breakfast!

French Toast

Since the menu had a Mexican flair to it, there was the usual Heuvos Rancheros as well.

Huevos Rancheros

Yet, they still offered up a Vegetarian Slinger...

Vegetarian Slinger

 The crowd favorite easily were the doughnuts from Vincent Van Doughnut, since we ended up getting all of them. All the doughnuts were served with a glass of milk too. The one with chocolate chips on it was my favorite of course, but everyone else preferred the caramel.

Caramel Doughnut

Chocolate Chip Doughnut

Poppyseed Doughnut

If you're up for a new adventure, it's certainly worth checking out "the morning after".

Resources:

Atomic Cowboy = http://www.atomiccowboystl.com/

Vincent Van Doughnut = http://vincentvandoughnut.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Katie's Passport Dinner: Tuscany

Two of my favorite things, STLwinegirl, Angela Ortmann, and Katie's Pizza and Pasta got together to create a "Passport Dinner" series featuring different areas of Italy. Each dinner consists of five courses paired with Italian wine, of course.

Even though I am a long-time lover of all things Italian, I had no idea there the were so many different areas of Italy with unique dishes. Katie has really challenged herself with this dinner series, and it has to be one of the best meals I have ever had in St. Louis.

Since this was the first in the series, I didn't know what to expect. Here is a short video of what the evening was like: http://vimeo.com/116987663

Unfortunately, my Katie's film debut didn't quite happen, so we'll go with how things looked from my point of view. And my view was pretty much nothing but large amounts of food and wine!

We were all spread across three separate tables, which made it easier to converse with your new friends for the evening. Each setting had a "passport" and a course listing on paper from the Tuscany region. On the other side (not shown) is a "postcard" picture - so beautiful. Even some of the ingredients had to be shipped over from Italy. Talk about going all out and paying attention to detail. I was really blown away.

Each course was introduced by Katie herself and the wines were explained by the STLwinegirl, Angela. My table mates were shocked at the level of service at a casual restaurant located in a strip mall. It was like fine dining...but at your friend's house.

Passport and Menu

While we waited for everyone at our table to arrive, we were served an appetizer of three crostinis, Now when I think crostini, I think small...like the size of a silver dollar. These crostinis were the size of my hand and there were three of them.

Crostini Trio - Liver, Bean & Sage, Pecorino Toscano & Pear

My favorite was the chicken liver in the middle because it was not that far off from my step-grandmother's chopped liver. I could have just eaten a bowl full of the liver and ended my night there.

Yet, another favorite was the Pecorino cheese paired with the sweet pear. This Pecorino came from Italy and was much softer than any version I had ever tasted. I actually pulled out the cheese just so I could taste it by itself. OK...chicken liver and a plate of the cheese and that would have been enough.

The second course, Cacciucco, was another huge favorite and another huge portion. This reminded me a lot of a cioppino, a fish stew, but in a creamier broth. It came piled with mussels, clams, and shrimp and I ate every single one of them!

Cacciucco

At this point in the evening, I was feeling full and would have loved a nap, but the party was just getting started.

I'm sure you're wondering where the pasta is, right? Well, instead we had hand-rolled farro pici covered in a wild boar ragu. Katie turned the farro into long, thick noodles to hold up against the heavy sauce. It will be hard to go back to regular spaghetti after this. And do you see the cheese shaved on top? I learned from Katie that they don't sprinkle Parmesan on top like us Americans.

Hand Rolled Farro Pici, Juniper Berry Wild Boar Ragu

At this point, I probably should have hoisted a white flag because the next dish was a very heavy Bistecca Florentine, but the beef was perfectly cooked and covered with shaved Pecorino and I couldn't stop.

Bistecca Florentine, Shaved Pecorino, Lemon

You can't have a Tuscan wine dinner without a Chianti and it was perfectly paired with this beef dish.

The last course, dessert, was a Castagnaccio or a chestnut cake. The cake was dense and crunchy and reminded me a lot like holiday fruitcake. Since it was a little dry, I enjoyed spilling the dessert wine, a Vin Santo, all over the gelato and cake and eating them together in one bite. Not that I could have that many at this point.

Castagnaccio (Chestnut Cake) with Gelato

Forgive me for not going into more detail about the wine as they were all wonderfully paired with each course and let the food shine. Of course, I preferred the white wines and shared most of my reds with my new friends at the table.

In addition to losing out on my fifteen seconds of fame, I also failed to write this in time for you to register for the next dinner in February featuring the Veneto region. If nothing else, you will be prepared for the announcement for March, and according to the "passport" I received, there are still many more regions to eat your way through.

Resources:

Katie's Pizza & Pasta = http://katiespizzaandpasta.com/

STLwinegirl = http://www.stlwinegirl.com

Hiro Asian Kitchen Brunch

We got invited to a brunch for "January birthdays" and since we needed to eat breakfast before another birthday party, I thought we'd try it out. If nothing else, we definitely got to try very different food...food with an Asian flair.

Heading down to Washington Avenue is not bad on a Sunday morning and we were easily able to find parking on the street. It was a little tough waiting until 11AM though, so we were pretty hungry.

The interior looked really beautiful with high ceilings and there is even a party room upstairs. But we just sat at the bar, which is so pretty with the way that it's lit up. There are very unique light fixtures everywhere!

Owner Bernie Lee was kind enough to come over and greet us even though he was very busy. I really appreciated his kindness.

I had a hard time picking out just one cocktail, since there are a couple of unique "Bloody" drinks and a couple of champagne drinks. I went with the Mango-Mosa, which had a small scoop of mango sorbet at the bottom.

I also had a hard time picking out an entree because everything on the menu was so unique and different...all with an Asian twist.

Patience chose the Taiwanese Chicken Fried Steak with a fried egg on top and corn on the bottom.

Taiwanese Chicken Fried Steak

I ordered the Shiitake Rice Porridge since it had the most vegetables: chicken, fried egg, eggplant, spinach and adorable crispy Chinese donuts on top. Bernie told me this was like "chicken noodle soup" - a comfort food. The texture reminded me a lot like grits, which I just love and it was very warming..

Shiitake Rice Porridge

I do hope to get back to try out the dinner menu for sure...

Resources:

Hiro Asian Kitchen = http://hiroasiankitchen.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Pappy's Smokehouse

To kick of my birthday weekend, and to make up for not getting to follow through last year when it was way too cold, I went to Pappy's on my day off. I was afraid to make dinner plans there in case they ran out of food, so I was waiting for the right time to go for lunch.

Since it was the middle of a work day, I had no trouble finding a parking spot at a meeting nearby, but it turns out there is a fairly large parking lot behind the building!

When I walked in, the line was not quite to the door, but long enough so that it gave me time to figure out what I wanted to eat, and post on Facebook where I was eating. I probably only waited 10-15 minutes so that was not bad at all. I'm sure the line is much longer on the weekends though!

I loved that it was extremely organized and they had someone assign you a seat when you got close to the front. Then when your meal is ready, they'll call out your name and find you.

I wish I could have tried one of everything, but I did go with the two meat platter (brisket and turkey) just so I could try a couple of things at once. (Really, one meat would have been enough!) The platter comes with two sides and they were plenty filling since I went with baked beans and potato salad. The potato salad was a little too tart for me so I almost finished the beans, but I got full quickly.

Brisket and Turkey Platter with Potato Salad and Baked Beans

I really hope to get the chance to go back and try their ribs, but I just hope it's not my last time! Maybe a birthday lunch tradition?

Resources:

Pappy's Smokehouse = http://www.pappyssmokehouse.com/