#TheCrossingSTL #PastariaSTL #halfandhalfstl Taste of St. Louis, Missouri!

Nice pic with my trusty iPhone! I made Natalie go up in the Arch!

Last weekend after hosting our gourmet dinner club and jumping up early Sunday morning to ring handbells in all three services, I left Dallas that evening to meet my oldest daughter in St. Louis. As everyone knows now, she and her family are moving there from Bakersfield, CA at the end of May. AND she is very excited to say the least!

I arrived at 9:30pm knowing that her flight had been delayed in Houston until who knows when. But she Ubered it out to HOU, jumped on another airplane and made it to STL about 11:15. I waited for her at the Airport Marriott Hotel in the bar, the only thing opened late a night for food.

Lobby of the Marriott

We had three and a half days to look for homes, private schools, apartments if we couldn't find a home, and SHOP! Private schools being the top priority, then shopping, we quickly found both! Our home search was in vain, but places to eat, shop and go to school we scored!

Upscale shopping in STL

My focus in this blog are the many restaurants and wines we tasted while in STL. The first chance to dine was Monday at Pastaria in STL (sorta close to Italy)! 

Pastaria

We had crispy risotto balls, a chopped salad, and a shaved kale salad. With that we had a 2012 Cantele Chardonnay ($10) from Italy. Notes of lily, magnolia, juniper, and linden are followed by ripe fruit and herbaceous aromas. A very good wine.

Another day we ate lunch at The Zodiac in Neiman Marcus. There we had the wonderful popovers and strawberry butter with our salads. We had the most wonderful mimosas made with St. Germaine I have ever tasted. The waitress gave us the recipe for it.

For Cinco de Mayo, we discovered a restaurant near our hotel called the Canyon Cafe. After a movie, we had a late snack of table-side guacamole, chips, and salsa with amazing margaritas!

Another day we drove over to St. Charles, a nearby suburb of STL. This is where Mr. President Bowers' hospitals are located. Natalie took me to a historic part of the town near the river on Main Street to a wine bar and tapas called Bella Vino. 

 I read the reviews on Yelp and every bit of it is true. This is not a place to be missed. The wine list is excellent and the flavor of the foods offered are fantastic in every way! We had a bottle of 2012 Bastianich Pinot Grigio ($14). Natalie and I had had this in Bakersfield at Luigi's Restaurant last year. So good with hints of ripe apple and pear!

Another restaurant we ate at was one ranked by Urban Spoon to be the #1 restaurant in Clayton. The Crossing is fine dining at its best combining French and Italian influences and techniques and using the best local produce, vegetables and meats available. Seafood is hand selected fresh daily. Check out the wine lists! We chose one of the three unique tasting menus along with a French rose'.

2012 Commanderie de la Bargemone Rose' ($16) A very pale rose' but loaded with flavors of melon, orange peel, and flowers. Oh my, so fine!

Our last morning, we ate breakfast at Half & Half, a place that serves breakfast, lunch and brunch. Cute, upscale, small downtown winner!

 They have amazing foods, cocktail, and beer-just check out the menus! We had mimosas, blueberry pancakes, bacon, egg white omelets, fresh fruit with fresh whipped cream and a ham biscuit! UGH! Full to the brim!

St. Louis is a fun place with MANY things to do and the people were so nice everywhere we went. At least my granddaughters will be closer now. 

630 feet above the city!