Big Daddy Fred and I are regulars at Blues City Deli in Benton Park. Vinnie- the owner, makes the best sandwiches in the St Louis metro area. I am a total sandwich snob- I admit it. I can't stand a mediocre sandwich - I would rather eat at McDonald's than endure a bad sandwich.
It all starts with the bread- it you aren't using good bread - just forget about it.
Vinnie uses several different breads- my favorite is these round loaves with tiny sesame seeds - they are light and crusty - perfect. Vinnie calls it a toasted muffuletta bun.
This bread is used on my two favorite sandwiches - the Memphis Stax and the Panino Fresco (pictured above). The Memphis Stax is a pulled pork bbq sandwich with the slaw served on top- you can have your choice of sauce - either sweet and smokey or hot and spicy. I prefer the sweet and smokey. The Panino Fresco is a vegetarian sandwich - fresh mozzarella with homemade olive salad, tomato and onion with some vinaigrette. Both are sheer heaven and
I am usually in the mood for either at any given moment.
And it doesn't end with the sandwiches - there is a huge array of potato chips and sodas. I love Cheerwine- a soda that puts Dr Pepper to shame. Everything is top notch- including the great artwork and blues performers that play on Thursday nights from 6-8pm and Saturday from 1-3:30pm. Even Big Daddy Fred has discovered blues musicians that he has never heard of -Vinnie just doesn't disappoint on any level at all.
check out Vinnie's joint at http://www.bluescitydeli.com/
also check out www.funkybuttbrassband.com - pictured above
So what sounds better than a warm Irish pub on a freezing Saturday night- are you with me?
We headed down to McGurk's last night and I was dreaming of a hot steamy plate of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. It was warm, the fireplace was going, it smelled good and we were anxious to order our food. Fred got the Irish Stew and I did order the Corned Beef plate- however the food was so mediocre we could not believe it. Corned beef was cold and seemed leftover, cabbage not properly steamed and creamed and the Irish stew was way too salty. We were so disappointed but we enjoyed the environment and made a note of not going back here for food again. This was the second bad food experience we have had here. We suggest sticking with drinking in this establishment.
However, we made our way to Broadway Oyster Bar and found ourselves enjoying some fabulous live music (5-8pm live music for us earlybirds) and eating a hot steaming plate of bread pudding (the best in town next to Cyrano's), a glass of whiskey and a decaf coffee.
So the night ended on a good note.
Well, after procrastinating long enough, Fred won and the blog is up and running. It needs lots of tweaking. But at my age, I am over perfecting it right this very minute. It is good enough for now and as I learn how to tame this beastly thing- it will look better.
I was making pink chicken chili this morning, not white chili because I must have tomatoes in my chili- and isn't pink a much more interesting color than white anyway. Plus, chili just ain't right without tomatoes! So Fred is yelling into the kitchen and asking all sorts of questions and generally aggravating me, meanwhile he is signing me up on blogger- sneaky devil.
So here we are- I think we should get this party started.
