Ferguson Brewing

A long time ago, in this very galaxy, I had put Cork Wine Bar on my "restaurants I must try" list. Then after meeting Patience, I also added Ferguson Brewing. After a slight delay of the political nature, our friend Julia finally moved it to the top of our list and set a date to make it happen.

Ferguson Brewing is definitely a neighborhood happy hour hot spot because the large restaurant was already packed when we walked in at 6pm. Since it's a brewery, we didn't mind waiting at the bar for a table, and we started off with house Pub Chips and fresh made onion dip. I could have eaten a whole bag of the chips and took the extra onion dip with me to our table. Luckily, I got some more chips with my entree later on too.

I played it safe and went with the Golden Blonde beer, which is their lightest brew at 4.5% ABV and 12 IBU.

Patience tried their bigger beers, the Oatmeal Stout, Khaldi's Coffee Brown Volume 2, and her favorite was the Pecan Brown Ale. Top choices from our friends include a Imperial Vanilla Bourbon Porter and the Irish Red. (This is only the second time I have seen a "red" beer made by a St. Louis brewery!)

You can also order a four-taste flight to try multiple beers.

Flight of Beers: Golden Blonde, Hefeweizen, Irish Red, Oatmeal Stout

We got to finish our first beers just in time to sit down at our table about 45 minutes later (due to have a party of five). We all were starving and ordered quite a lot to eat.

I couldn't resist the sliders (you can also order Pot Roast, Pulled Pork, BLT, or Brat versions!) and it came FOUR on a plate. Angus Beef topped with American cheese, pickles (hanging out the sides) and a chipotle mayo all on fresh baked dollar rolls. I also dipped them into my leftover onion dip!

Beef Sliders

Patience got a full-sized Brew House half-pound burger with swiss cheese and sauteed onions. Massive!

Brew House Burger

Julia and Leslie opted for the nine-inch flatbread pizzas...

Flatbread

Margherita Flatbread

...while Megan had an interesting mix of Bavarian Pretzel Bites to start with (served with cheese sauce and a spicy mustard, but I used my onion dip) and a sensible plate of Fish Tacos.

Bavarian Pretzel Bites

Fish Tacos, rice and carrots

No one goes away hungry here! That was probably a good thing since a lot more beers followed...

If you are a beer nerd, you definitely have to stop here. These are some of the best beers in the Lou!

Resources:

Ferguson Brewing = http://www.fergusonbrewing.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Winslow's Home Breakfast and Lunch

Shortly after moving in to the University City neighborhood, I would try to take walks in different directions to see what I could see. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Winslow's Home is within a ten minute walk of our new place!

Also, when I walked inside to check it out, I was pleasantly surprised a second time when I saw Josh from Home Wine Kitchen as the General Manager! Talk about feeling at home!

I was really impressed at how different this restaurant was since it also serves as a small shop so to speak. It's part coffee bar, wine bar, and then local beer, cheese, and bread are in stocked in cases at the back. The length of another entire wall serves as a book store. It's all quite cozy.

For breakfast and lunch, you pick up a menu and then stand in line at the counter to place your order, while drooling over a small case of pastries and other fresh breads. Whereas for dinner, it's the usual sit down service. I was planning on going by for dinner so I held out on writing about it for a while, but then I realized that it will have to be a separate post for the future.

Since I work from home a couple of days a week, it's the perfect spot for meeting up with friends for lunch because it's so close. While I don't have pictures, I was impressed how hearty the Turkey Sandwich was... piled high with a turkey breast, pickle relish, pepper jack, and mustard mayo. Choice of fries or salad on the side. It was quite filling.

The Pulled Pork Sandwich my friend ordered was almost falling out the side as well. My goal is to keep going back so I can work my way through all the sandwiches.

Recently, we were ready to venture back out for weekend brunch, and again this close location made it an easy pick. The menu for breakfast is even lengthier so there is something for everyone.

I ordered my favorite, the Egg Sandwich, adding avocado and turkey sausage on top! I also got more than enough breakfast potatoes on the side.

Egg Sandwich with Avocado and Turkey Sausage

Patience got her favorite... pancakes!

Buttermilk Pancakes

But they also serve a good ole Basic Breakfast of two eggs, any style, potatoes, bacon, or sausage, along with toast or buttermilk biscuit. I promise you we didn't need lunch that day.

Basic Breakfast

So if you're around University City and need a quick and filling brunch or lunch, this is a quaint spot for you. Feel free to invite me too since I'm right up the street!

Resources:

Winslow's Home = http://www.winslowshome.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Robata

Patience wanted to try one of the new ramen restaurants and it was a perfectly chilly night for some over the holidays. I had never been in the building that used to be a Church's Chicken and I thought it was funny how now there are no parking spaces available.

The building still looks like a fast food joint and it's quite small, but they have squeezed in two rows of counter spots as well as quite a few tables in the main dining area. When we walked in, we crammed ourselves in the doorway area with a handful of others who were waiting for a table as well as for orders to go. Robata was prepared and provided a couple of heaters outside for those who waited there as well.

We were very lucky and only had to wait about five minutes for a table for four, so you may want to try off peak hours. Or perhaps wait until it gets warmer so it's not a chilly wait outside.

It was a little overwhelming to be handed two menus since the sushi menu is quite long and then the ramen menu is a large plastic page as well. For the ramen, they give you a marker so you can circle your choices right on the menu and then it's erased later for the next customer. Quite clever!

There are actually only two real choices for the ramen though... first decision, type of noodle. I'm guessing it's mainly a noodle size difference, but I went with the "Rice Noodle" since those are the clear, glass noodles that I love, even though they cost a little extra.

The second choice is much harder since you must decide the style of your soup. It seemed to me that only difference was pork broth vs chicken broth, although both included roast pork, green onions, hard boiled egg, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, nori, red ginger, and mushrooms.

Then it was broken down even further to with or without corn, miso, or soy.

So I decided to go with the last option, which was Yashi, or vegetarian. That way I got all the veggies and just added chicken on top at the end, which is your last decision...any extras you might want.

Yashi Ramen with Chicken

You really don't need any of the extra toppings unless you want something special. Patience went all out and added scallops and kimchi in a miso-based broth.

Miso Ramen with Scallops and Kimchi

The soup really reminded me of Pho a lot and nothing like what I used to have in college. I managed to eat most of the soup and all the goodies inside, but with the sushi on the side, I filled up rather quickly. You won't go home hungry! Then I had a delicious lunch for the next day as well.

Now that it's winter, I definitely recommend hitting up one of these new ramen restaurants, but this is probably the smallest location so be prepared to wait if you going during the rush.

Resources:

Robata = http://www.robatamaplewood.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

STLCheesegirl Top Posts 2015

It's that time of year to do the Top 10 posts of 2015 and there was definitely a beer theme that stood out the most as well as repeat top ten location from last year!

Some cool facts: This was my busiest year with 62 posts with March being my busiest month with 12 posts! Funny thing is that is when I changed jobs and started working on putting my condo on the market with less trips to the gym. More time for dining out I guess? I'm definitely paying for it now!

This year I went to several "cheese and beer pairing" classes at Dierberg's Des Peres that was new this year and those posts were very popular, probably due to the rise of craft beers. Although at this point, I am not sure you can still call Goose Island and Sam Adams craft beers, but I really enjoyed the pairings because you don't normally think to add cheese when you're chillin' with a beer!

Hopefully, there will be more cheese pairing class in 2016!

Dinner Lab - Crawfish Boil - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/03/dinner-lab-crawfish-boil.html
This was my first Dinner Lab and this was a great way to try one out even though we weren't members. I had heard about it from fellow food blogger Whiskey & Soba, which I read religiously. Since crawfish is one of Patience's favorites, it was worth the price to try this out and they kept bringing out MORE crawfish until we cried uncle. If you're a foodie, definitely worth trying out at least once.

Cheese and Beer Pairing - O'Fallon Brewery - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/04/cheese-and-beer-pairings-ofallon-brewery.html
I'm sure folks wanted to support a local brewery and there was a lot of hype about the new location being built in Maryland Heights. It was nice for me to finally get to try all their beers since I was only familiar with their Wheach.

Cheese and Beer Pairing - Sam Adams Part 1 - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/02/cheese-beer-pairings-at-dierbergs.html
This was the first of three Sam Adams pairings, which surprised me because I didn't realize they had so many beers! This first one covered their year-round beers, while the later two focused on their seasonal selections.

Cooper's Hawk Winery - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/09/coopers-hawk-winery.html
The winery is a big hit since you can have your own decanter at your table. It is super cool to watch and the service was right up there with the ambiance. Oh, and we started in the lobby with a wine tasting while we waited for our reservation. My friend was right, a destination spot for any wine lover!

Cheese and Beer Pairing at Larder & Cupboard - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/04/beer-and-cheese-tasting-at-larder.html
This pairing class was held at Larder & Cupboard to help feature their cheese case and it was hosted by The OG: St. Louis Women's Craft Beer Collective as well as Femme Ferment. After sampling 11 beers, I really hope they'll do another one. Definitely a good time was had by all and I learned a lot from these ladies!

Cheese and Beer Pairing - Urban Chestnut - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/01/cheese-beer-pairings-at-dierbergs.html
This was the first class in the cheese and beer pairing series and again, a local brewery was featured. I also quickly learned that I would be full just on cheese for these classes!!!

Libertine Clayton Restaurant Week - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/07/the-libertine-clayton-restaurant-week.html
Libertine was the top post of 2014 for me where I talked about their fried chicken. This time, the Libertine has a new chef and a new menu so we had to check it out and support Chef Matt Bessler. Even with all the changes, it's still one of the top restaurants I recommend to people here. Their cocktail program is still killer.

Cheese and Beer Pairing - Sam Adams Part 2 - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/06/cheese-and-beer-pairings-sam-adams-part.html
For the second Sam Adams pairing, we got to taste their summer seasonals and they included Angry Orchard in the list as well. Plenty of porch pounders!

O'Fallon Brewery - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/07/ofallon-brewery.html
I wanted to go and support the opening of the new O'Fallon Brewery right away since it was right in the backyard of my condo when I lived in Maryland Heights. Opening night was insane, but I was able to attend a couple of weeks later. I love all the space for happy hour and plenty of tables for sit down dinner. Definitely upscale bar food and plenty of TVs for Cardinals baseball. Maryland Heights is very lucky and I wish I still lived over there to visit more often.

LuLu's Local Eatery - http://www.stlcheesegirl.com/2015/03/lulus-local-eatery.html
This small, vegan-friendly restaurant was recommended to us by foodie friends and it took us a couple of tries to get there after the winter, but it was worth it. Now I know what the hype was about and I was really impressed with the whole place. It's small and busy on the weekends, but it's a place you feel good about supporting.

PW Pizza Six Mile Bridge Beer Dinner

I had been really curious about Six Mile Bridge brewery since they started up in Maryland Heights (right after I moved out) so this was the best way to check out their beers.

Menu

Instead of a light salad, we had a unique starter of Eggplant Rotolini. Breaded eggplant shaped like a cannoli with goat cheese inside. This was a great pairing with the easy drinking Bavarian Hefeweizen, which was so smooth and refreshing.

Eggplant Rotolini

The ultimate course was the Thanksgiving Pizza... I have never had turkey on a pizza before! But it really did taste like thanksgiving dinner with the celery, corn, mashed potatoes, and cranberries on top of the turkey and brown gravy. I was shocked how deliciously "Thanksgiving dinner" this was. Also, I thought it was perfectly paired with the well-balanced Irish Red Ale. Most creative pizza yet!

Thanksgiving Pizza

Of course the Session IPA was paired with the Spicy Sausage Pizza, but the IPA was not too hoppy at all, so the spicy sausage definitely dominated. I definitely prefer this style of IPA myself with only 50 IBUs.

Chocolate Strawberry Cheesecake Chimichanga

The dessert course was also well paired with a Chocolate Strawberry Cheeseake Chimichanga and an Irish Stout...both were thick and rich!

Make note that half the schedule for 2016 have been set!

2016 Schedule

Resources:

PW Pizza = http://pwpizza.com/

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