The Top Five–St. Louis Area Restaurants

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Ian Froeb has recently come up with the STL100 list of the 25 best restaurants in the area (ranked), along with another 75 great restaurants to round out the top 100 places to grab a bite to eat. This inspired me to come up with my own list…my five favorite non-chain (unless it’s a local place that has added locations over time), restaurants in the area (in no particular order), plus five honorable mentions, because I can.

Seamus McDaniel’s, Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis–Best burger I’ve ever had, in a really great neighborhood. Seamus will always be number one on my restaurant list!
Beast Craft BBQ, Belleville, IL–This is a new location on the St. Louis area restaurant scene, and it’s the place that really got me interested in BBQ. The burnt ends (an item hard to find in Belleville) are fantastic, and their “Big Sammich” series always leaves me wanting to try whatever they think up next!
Amighetti’s Bakery and Cafe, The Hill neighborhood of St. Louis–The Amighetti Special, made with turkey pastrami and Amighetti’s secret dressing, is the best deli sandwich I’ve ever had. They also make fantastic cannoli!
Olympia Kebob House and Taverna, St. Louis–Best saganaki in town!
Eckert’s Country Restaurant, Belleville, IL–If you’re looking for country-style food, this is the place to be. The fried chicken and chicken fried steak are both excellent, and the side dishes (available to pass family style) are just what you’d expect. If you’re still hungry after dinner (doubtful), you can walk next door and get a frozen custard for dessert (in season).

Honorable mention:

El Maguey, multiple St. Louis area locations–Great Mexican food on the Missouri side of the Mississippi.
Ted Drewes, St. Louis–Sometimes, you just want dessert, or to celebrate a Cardinals win. If so, Ted Drewes is the place to be!
Llywelyn’s Pub, multiple St. Louis area locations–Bonus points go to the St. Charles location, where you can actually eat in an old bank vault!
Schlafly Tap Room, St Louis–If the great beer selection isn’t enough of a draw, the food is also excellent. I’m partial to the schnitzel. And while you’re there, make sure to try the sticky toffee pudding for dessert!
Gordo’s Margaritas, Millstadt, IL (of blessed memory)–There are other restaurants named Margaritas around town, but my favorite was Gordo’s in Millstadt. The food was excellent (especially the chimichanga!), and the people who work there were great. I’m really sorry to see it closed…we’re going to miss eating there a lot!

Where are your favorite places to eat in St. Louis?

Throwback Thursday

One year ago today, our big Stl250 “Cakeway to the West” cake hunt began. We still hadn’t realized that we would attempt (and eventually succeed!), to find all of the cakes (that decision was made on March 15th of last year, if you were wondering, when Ryan posed it as a challenge that I could not back down from), but this cake at Eckert’s was the first one we went looking for, and one of the closest cakes to our home.

It’s the third month of 2015, and I do still miss our cake-hunting trips…it was a great way to celebrate St. Louis’ birthday, and get to know the history of the city even better!

Another Year with Eckert’s

2014 has been another good year for our family at Eckert’s. It all started in March, when we stopped by to see their STL250 cake. We went on to visit it many more times, and enjoyed seeing how it changed with the seasons, but there was something special about seeing it that first time with the snow around it.

In May, we went strawberry picking for the second time…but it was the first time for Chickadee! She loved it because the strawberries were right at her level.

June found us picking blueberries for the first time ever. I loved the way the nets covered the bushes to protect them from birds…it looked like a fog over the blueberry patch!

We picked blackberries more times than I count from the end of June through July. Most of them were eaten plain, but I did make a few special desserts with some of them, including the conclusion to our Fourth of July feast!

Sadly, due to weather-related reasons, there were no “pick your own” peaches this year. Eckert’s made up for that with “pick your own” vegetables, though, and we had a great time doing that in July. Picking corn was everybody’s favorite, although it was also fun to find ripe tomatoes, summer squash, and cucumbers!

In September, we finally visited Eckert’s restaurant. It was the first time for the children, and the first time in over a decade for Ryan and me. The biscuits and apple butter were just as good as we remembered, and all of the food was delicious!

Of course we had to go apple picking in September…another first for Chickadee!

And October found us in the pumpkin patch, where we picked a family record of 70+ pounds of pumpkins!

In November, we celebrated a family birthday at the restaurant for the first time…Moose has decided it’s one of his two favorite restaurants.

And the end of November meant time for the Holiday Open House, where we got to try lots of samples, see all the pretty Christmas decorations, and do some crafts.

Eckert’s has become such an important part of our family’s year that I can’t remember a time when we weren’t constantly visiting and doing something fun there. I still haven’t taken an Eckert’s class yet, but that’s about the only thing left on my list of things I haven’t done at Eckert’s yet, and I look forward to finding a fun learning opportunity to take part in sometime in 2015!

The First “Golden Birthday”

Today we celebrated Moose’s ninth birthday, which makes today his “golden birthday,” the first one of those we’ve celebrated in our family. Now, I’m not really sure how you’re supposed to make a golden birthday special, especially for a nine-year-old boy, so it looked pretty much like any other birthday in our house, although we did have a tea party yesterday at Moose’s request, and celebrated St. Louis’ birthday along with his. It was a fun day…he got lots of Lego movie sets to build:

We went out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants (Eckert’s):

And he had a green bus cake with his favorite colored-flame candles:

I think Moose had a really good birthday, and I’m very thankful to be celebrating another year of our younger son’s life!

Wordless Wednesday

Pumpkin Picking 2014

Today we headed out to Eckert’s, and the most sincere pumpkin patch we know, to find the perfect pumpkin times five. I think we set a new family record–Turkey picked about 21 pounds of pumpkin, Bunny picked 17 pounds, Moose also picked 17 pounds, Ladybug picked 11 pounds, and Chickadee picked a whopping five pounds–over 70 pounds of pumpkins!

We’re about out of fun family activities for this year at Eckert’s, but I’m sure there will plenty more fun to be had next year!

Apple Picking 2014

This afternoon, the children and I went to Eckert’s to pick some apples. This is the first time we’ve gone apple picking this year, but it probably won’t be the last…we only picked about eight pounds! It was just a little too warm to get into the proper fall spirit, but that certainly didn’t make the apples any less delicious!

We’re hoping to go back to Eckert’s this weekend to pick pumpkins…it’s just one of our very favorite places to visit, especially during fall!

Tasty Tuesday–Eckert’s Country Restaurant

Even though we’ve lived in Belleville for eight years now, we hadn’t been to eat at Eckert’s Country Restaurant since I was pregnant with Turkey 12 years ago, and we happened to visit the farm to pick apples. We figured that the time was right to go back, especially since Eckert’s has been chosen as a finalist in US Foods “Family Friendly Restaurant” contest. Much has changed at the restaurant (and country store), since then, especially the building itself!

The decor is exactly what you’d expect at a country restaurant…very homey. The pails of crayons on the tables (along with paper table”cloths” perfect for a little pre-dinner art), were very popular with the children…and perhaps with their mother, as well!

There are several different dining rooms. We were in the back room, which is equipped with long tables perfect for a large family. I especially loved the sliding barn doors!

The menu at Eckert’s is seasonal, which I think is fantastic. Right now, they’re in the process of switching over to their fall menu. The thing you notice right away on the menu, however, is their famous fried chicken.

The one thing both Ryan and I remembered from our last meal at Eckert’s was the biscuits and apple butter. We weren’t disappointed…they were as delicious as we remembered!

The main course also did not disappoint. I ordered the fried chicken, because I figured I might as well get their speciality. It was among the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, and the side dishes were also excellent (who can complain about mashed potatoes and green beans made with bacon?).

Everybody else enjoyed their various meals, as well, and it was decided unanimously that we’ll be going back, hopefully sometime soon. More than one child mentioned this as a potential birthday dinner location!

And just in case you didn’t order dessert after dinner ( I hear the pie is excellent!), and you’re visiting Eckert’s between April and October, you can walk next door and get some delicious frozen custard!

Eckert’s was already one of our family’s favorite places, and truly a place where we’ve made lots of memories. It’s nice to know we can add “favorite restaurant” to our list of things we love about Eckert’s!

Vegetable Picking

Sadly, Eckert’s peach crop was stunted by the cold winter, so there are no pick-your-own peaches this summer. They do have something new, however…pick your own vegetables! I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I heard about it in May. We had a choice from three sizes of boxes to fill…we picked the middle size, which cost $15.

We started out with corn, which was the vegetable I was most looking forward to picking, since I’ve never gotten to do that before. It was like being in Field of Dreams, walking through (and almost disappearing into!) those rows! I also enjoyed seeing the beautiful corn flowers.