Casa Don Alfonso

The whole reason I started this blog 12 years ago is because I had an amazing once-in-a-lifetime restaurant experience and I wanted to document it. 

So here I am again, trying to find the right words to describe a late Mother's Day celebration at Casa Don Alfonso, the latest restaurant inside the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Just saying "the Ritz" already sets the bar extremely high and although it was expensive, it was a great opportunity.

Menu

Sure, anyone can make a reservation (they book up quickly), but not everyone can have their experience catered by the STLwinegirl, Angela Ortmann, as she was hired on to work the floor on a temporary basis as their in-house sommelier.

We managed to get a last minute spot at the seats that face the kitchen, which is  acompletely open kitchen behind glass partitions. I cannot imagine people watching ME work, so kudos to those chefs! But it is a beautiful workspace as the copper theme shines throughout the restaurant. (Including the  entire ceiling of the kitchen and all the silverware!)

Full Kitchen

Copper utensils

Also, if you think to look up over the dining room, there are blown glass leaves hanging from the  ceiling there that make it seem "other-worldy".

Dining Room Ceiling with blown glass leaves

And if you can swing it, walk by the giant glassed wine room and check out the cigar room. Both are just as impressive.

I haven't even talked about our meal yet either!

We started out with a glass of palete-cleansing Italian bubbles along with a warm bag of homemade bread that my stepmom just loved. She tried so hard not to fill up on it, but it was hard to resist.

Italian bubbles...

Homemade Italian Bread

We all wanted to taste the appetizers, or antipasta, and any of them could have been a meal. I don't think we were in shape for what was to come! We warmed up with a truffle pizza, which again, is made in house.

Truffle Pizza

Patience and I split the Farmer's Board as well...all Italian cheeses of course.

Farmer's Board

Patience selected the Beef Carpaccio, while Linda tried the Tuna Tartare.

Beef Carpaccio

Tuna Tartare

My Dad got his very own baby pot of Tomato & Basil soup. It's so cute!

Tomato & Basil Soup

Then more wine was had...

Primitivo!

Finally, here are our main courses. I accidently let slip that I really wanted the Baked Tiny Gnocchi (so cute AND delicious), even though I volunteered to help Linda with her choice of the Housemade Fresh Tagliatelle, with shrimp, which was very rich. 

Baked Tiny Gnocchi

Housemade Fresh Tagliatelle

Patience ordered the Lasagna Napoletana, which is a Tomato Beef Ragout, and Green Peas, Eggs, and Ricotta stuffed inside. So decadent!

Lasagna Napoletana

Somehow there was still more wine.

Nero D'Avola

Not that we had any room left, but then dessert happened. I was ready to explode... 

Adorable cannolis...

Cannolis

Three flavors of gelato...

Gelato

Lemon Profiteroles...

Lemon Profiteroles

And to top it off, literally, the special dessert that Casa is known for...your picture on top of tiramisu!

Tiramisu

Even my Dad's coffee got the special picture too!

Coffee

Chef Sergio is the best!

Patience, Sergio, and I

STLwinegirl ain't too shabby herself. I really owe it to her for a fantastic evening.

Angie and Patience

The whole experience may have been a bit TOO fantastic, because now my stepmom wants to go back!

Resources:

Casa Don Alfonso = https://casadonalfonsostlouis.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Salvage Yard Pizza

Since it is Joey's last few weeks before he goes off to college, we hurried up and had a family pizza night again. I had heard about Salvage Yard Pizza from NextDoor.com as it recently took over for Louie's, really close to my bank!

What's so special about Salvage Yard...CHICAGO STYLE!! 

Meat Deluxe Pizza with sausage, ham, pepperoni, and bacon

Fortunately or unfortunately, I ordered three pizzas at the largest size, which was way too many!!!

Three Chicago Style pizzas

Since it's Chicago-style... it's more like 1-2 pieces per person and we ended up with almost 2 pizzas leftover since we also had large salads (half sizes are available!) and wings (bone in or boneless) available as well!

I ordered an Italian salad although my friends said the Caeser dressing was the best.

Italian salad

Not that anyone was still hungry, but we still tried the "Dessert Cup Flight" of baby mousses in small, plastic cups. (While they didn't have all the flavors, you know the chocolate was the best!)

Dessert Cups

Boy did I really enjoy having so many pizza leftovers!!

Note: They do offer St. Louis-style pizza, but why bother. They also have burgers and sandwiches, so maybe I'll have to check those out another time?

Resources:

Salvage Yard Bar and Grill = https://salvageyardbarandgrill.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Take Out July 2021

I was hoping there would be less emphasis on "Take Out Fridays", but I don't think we'll be rushing out to TOO many restaurants just yet. 

We've actually been doing a lot of take out and other food adventures as we at least are meeting up with friends outside more.

So I wanted to at least give a shout out to the places we've been to in July...

July 2nd = Actually a Saturday since we had wine club on Friday night, but I made a whole post about J. Smugs Gastropit here.

July 9th = Can you tell it was Patience's pick? It's Asian again! We mixed it up and ordered from Nami Ramen.

Shrimp Ramen

July 16th = I had been trying to get the deli sandwiches from a certain high end place in Clayton, but they sold out before I could order. (Lesson learned.) So I had to come up with a deli place on the quick! Luckily, I had Bubba's Deli on my list and they are super close in our neighborhood. So easy to order online too!

Bubba's Deli Sammich and spicy chips

July 23rd = One of the more popular Thai restaurants in the STL is the King and I. Even though Patience had ordered from them before, I wanted to try the Pad Thai with scallops! Pai's fried rice dinner was the prettier picture though.

Fried Rice and veggies

July 25th = Ordering on a Sunday! Gasp! I had good reason since it was our annual celebration of BETHFEST! (Beth's birthday.)  I owed her another visit to her front porch, so I brought her dinner from Nomad. While Beth and I got the burgers (messy good fun!), Patience ordered the Pastrami Poutine for the second time.

Pastrami Poutine

July 30th = My turn to pick again and of course I ordered local again with a new BBQ joint called Smoke N Bones BBQ. Easy to order online! 

Ribs, sausage, potato salad, green beans, and garlic bread

August 1st = Even though this was technically in August, Patience and I took advantage of the food trucks in the monthly Lindenwood Park event. We both ordered the special, a Reuben from New York Tom's Foodtruck!

Reuben Sammich with homade chips

Photos by Patience Scanlon

Nathaniel Reid Bakery

I'm not sure when we were talking about it...perhaps it was one of those discussions where we were listing all the things we want to do when the pandemic was over, but on my bucket list was visiting Nathaniel Reid's Bakery. It seems like a fun thing to do on a birthday and dive into a lot of treats at once, but I really don't feel like going out much in January cold.

Julia had the brilliant idea of saving the date for my half birthday, as I'm much more willing and pumped to go out in the middle of summer!

Visiting the bakery was everything I thought it would be as I wanted one of EVERYTHING! 

When we arrived late morning, there was a line out the door, but that gave us time to review the menu from our phones. Even if there wasn't a restriction on the number of people in the door, I felt it was better this way to give more space to view the cases while in line. This also led to more organization to go through the display cases one by one.

There were chocolate bars on the side, and then four cases full of goodies.

Cases full of goodies!

I want to say that Nathaniel Reid's is best known for their macaroons, but you should plan on getting some no matter what. To ensure there would be peace in my home, I opted for the box of 12 so that Patience and I would have an equal of our own without having to share. While you may think you can share these, why would you want to?

Macaroon case

Macaroons

Next up was the pastry case and they are all so beautiful. I restricted myself to one chocolate item for me and then a couple more decadent beauties. Almost too pretty to eat!

Pastry case

Chocolate dessert

Raspberry dessert

Caramel dessert

Next up were cookies and croissants...

Croissants and cookies case

I picked an Oatmeal Raisin cookie out for Patience and a Chocolate Almond croissant for us to share since they were the size of my head! I'm sure you know the Double Chocolate Brownie was just for me. No sharing there either. HA!

Oatmeal Raisin cookie

Chocolate Almond Croisssant and Double Chocolate Brownie

Since we got up "early", I still wanted something for breakfast as they have a few savory items too. I felt it was most appropriate to order the Egg and Cheese quiche from a French bakery! The egg was so light and fluffy!

Egg and Cheese quiche

It really is such a treat to have a bakery of this caliber in our town, not to mention in a strip mall in Kirkwood. Be sure to make it a stop at least once a year for that special someone...especially yourself!

Resources:

Nathaniel Reid Bakery = https://www.nrbakery.com/

J. Smugs GastroPit

With wine club moving to Friday night this past weekend, we had to shift to "Take Out Saturday" and that was organized last minute since we were at a pool party earlier in the day.

My first couple of ideas were shot down, but I thought I found a winner with Original J's BBQ, which we had been to only one time before. Unfortunately, they have shut down until September due to lack of staff. (DARN YOU COVID!)

I went with the BBQ theme on Postmates and came across something new! J. Smugs GastroPit appears to be on the Hill, not far from us, and has quite a diverse menu...not just BBQ!

I was in the mood for Double-Cooked Smoked Wings, and although Patience thought they were dry, I loved dipping them in the Memphis BBQ sauce. There were several sauces to choose from too. 

And of course I ordered the Mac N Cheese for my side!

Smoked Wings, Mac N Cheese, and Crispy Rolls in a cheesy sauce

Patience was the adventurous one and ordered Shrimp Tacos and Crispy Rolls, which reminded me of Mexican Flautas. They're stuffed with chicken and pork, along with cheddar cheese, and it came with a fresh corn salsa. It was all too much for her, so luckily, some of it landed on my plate. 

Shrimp Tacos

Actually, Patience was just saving room for Cannolis (at a BBQ joint?!?!). Definitely not your typical menu!

Cherry Canolis

Since we only tried a few things, hopefully we can order from them again and try a few more.

Resources:

J. Smugs GastroPit = https://www.jsmugsgastropit.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon