Delmar Loop

“Ms. Blueberry Suede”

While driving through the Delmar Loop yesterday, I noticed a lot of mannequins lining the sidewalks, dressed mostly in unusual ways. I learned that this is part of annual art exhibit entitled “Mannequins on the Loop,” in which artists team up with local businesses to adorn a mannequin with recyclable materials. I didn’t see all of them, but this one caught my eye, and quickly became my favorite!

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“Ms. Blueberry Suede” was created by Cameron Tesson, and represents Blueberry Hill. I thought there was something really cool about this funky, futuristic take on an old classic!

So…Where Did You Go to High School?

One of the most recognizable and unique parts of living in St. Louis is constant asking of this ubiquitous question: “Where did you go to high school?”

I have to admit, as an outsider in the high school department, I find this amusing. Since I didn’t attend high school in the St. Louis metro area, I can never satisfactorily answer this question. Having lived here for over a decade now, however, I have come to realize how important this question is. There’s something about the way the school districts are set up around here that allows you to guess a lot about a person based on the answer to that simple question: “Where did you go to high school?”

One of my favorite of the Stl250 “Cakeway to the West” installations (the one outside the University City Lion Gates), deals directly with this important issue:

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Not only does this cake ask the question, but it allows people to answer! Much of the cake is chalkboard, and there’s even a chalk receptacle attached, so that you can fill in the answer to this famous, often-asked question. I, of course, didn’t bother, because nobody around here would be familiar with my suburban-Chicago answer. But I love that this cake not only highlights one of the truly iconic things about growing up in St. Louis, but is also an interactive piece of art, allowing passerby to leave their mark and answer the question, “Where did you go to high school?”

What a fun way to celebrate the 250th birthday of a great city!

Tasty Tuesday–Lunch at Fitz’s

Last week, when we picked Ryan up at the end of his in-town, but not at home, business trip, we went to lunch at Fitz’s in the Delmar Loop in University City. We were very excited to go to this St. Louis icon, as the children and I had never been there before, and Ryan had only been there once the previous week with his co-workers.

The inside is bright and colorful, and I was surprised to learn that there are two floors of seating. The music of choice being played in the restaurant was, of course, oldies, which was very fun. You can even watch the soda being bottled through windows in the back of the restaurant!

I loved the menus. They, like the restaurant, are also colorful and fun, and I love the creative names for the various beverages Fitz’s serves. I think the Ginger Rogers wins both for most creative name, and most creative drink!

The food was delicious. I had the “Black and Bleu Burger,” which, as the name suggests, was Cajun blackened, and had bleu cheese on top. I was surprised to see that there were also two whole, (huge!), onion rings on the burger.

I couldn’t pass up the chance to indulge in one of their frozen concoctions–I chose the root beer shake, which was, of course, made with Fitz’s own root beer. It was so delicious–I wish I could go back there just to have another one of those!

The children’s favorite part of the meal was watching the soda bottling. After we were done eating, we went over to the windows to get a closer look. We saw the whole process, from the bottles being filled and capped, to the syrup and carbonated water being mixed, to the labels being applied. It was really interesting. We were slightly surprised that they weren’t bottling their signature root beer while we were there–instead they were bottling cream soda, which was what Ladybug tried at lunch, (Moose went with the standard root beer; Turkey and Bunny choose the slightly more adventurous grape soda).

It was a pretty expensive meal, at least for us, so we probably won’t be going back there often. Still, it was a fun St. Louis experience, and I’m glad we finally made our way down to Fitz’s!