St. Louis: Pizza and Beer from the Ol’Midwest

Here I am in the great Midwest, writing from St. Louis, MO!  This is a much needed trip, just to get away from the crazies in my life right now. Wedding planning, house hunting, house buying, and still trying to go to work and live a normal life besides. So it’s nice to get away for a few days. We’ve only been here one full day so far, but we’ve packed it in!  

We started off the day wandering around Forest Park, while my parents were attending to some logistical stuff, and my sister and I found some pretty trees to climb!  The grounds were quite pretty, although you could see cars/streets around all the areas we walked. About half an hour was all the pollen my allergies could handle so we spent the rest of the morning in the Science Center. It was fun, there was lots to do and see, though I’d say geared a little more toward kids than 25+. Then again, we managed to entertain ourselves for several hours, so maybe not. 

For lunch we went to Pappy’s, famous for some St. Louis barbeque!  Overall the ribs, burnt ends, and sweet potato fries were A+, the brisket was fairly non descript, and the other sides (green beans, slaw) were “meh” by comparison of the A+ items. I wasn’t bummed to eat them, they were just rather non descript and I’d prefer to fill my belly with the good stuff. 

Then we swung by a free brewery tour of anheuser busch brewery, aka home to Budweiser, but also the parent company of Natty Light (throwback to those college parties), Shocktop, Bass, Goose Island, and plenty more!  It was an informative tour, though also very commercialized, much more stock than microbreweries tend to be, from the stationed microphones, to the photos for purchase, and the permanent visual aids littered throughout the tour. Still, for a free tour, you get a tasting of Budweiser, and a token for a free drink in the Biergarten, so can’t really complain much!  Plus you get to see the Clydesdales. 

So we took a little cheers with our lime-a-Rita drinks and my dad’s beer, holding down the fort. After we’d packed so much into one day already we took it easy in the evening and went for a St. Louis style pizza. 

I hadn’t heard of such a pizza before: St. Louis style. Thin crust with Provel instead of Mozzarella as the cheese. What is provel you ask?  Well it’s a processed cheese blend of provolone, Swiss, and cheddar. While I’m glad to say I’ve tried it, I’m a Yankee through and through, give my a NY style pizza anyday. Honestly even prefer Chicago pizza over this one, but I didn’t hate it, rather just enjoy the other versions better. 

Well, that’s a wrap on Day 1, so keep an eye out for at least one more post, because there’s another barbecue place on the bucket list!  

Related posts:

St. Louis (Part 2): An Arch and More Beer Chicago: Deep Dish Pizza, Yum Boston: Ice Cream, Italian Food, and Beer