Last month, Alex and I flew to Missouri to see the Florida Gators play the Mizzou Tigers in Columbia. Before we had kids, we used to try to go to one away game each year. We love the camaraderie of going to an away game and it’s fun to explore other college towns. At this point, we’ve been to most of the schools in the SEC, but we still hadn’t been to Mizzou and with the conference changing, we decided this was the year to go!

Before we arrived in Columbia, we spent 24 hours in St. Louis. Fun fact: I spent my four years in college in St. Louis. I hadn’t been back to the city to visit since 2011, so was excited to take a walk down memory lane as well as see how St. Louis and university had changed in the last decade. Because it had been so long, I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of new (to me), highly recommended restaurants, on top of all of my favorite destinations from when I lived there. I always thought St. Louis was very underrated as a culinary destination. There are many unique neighborhoods with fantastic cuisine – from Italian to modern American to Mexican to Thai. There are far more restaurants than you could ever try in a short visit, so we narrowed down our choices by deciding to try something we knew we didn’t have at home.

That is how we settled on dinner at Olio, an Israeli restaurant in the University City area housed in a renovated 1930’s filling station. We ate in the peaceful garden patio area. The food is rustic, flavorful, and vegetable forward, which I love! We ordered the Israeli bruschetta, Olio salad, and whole-roasted lamb shank for two, along with fantastic cocktails. We enjoyed ourselves so much that I forgot to take a photo, but you can check out their Instagram here.

After dinner, we drove to the Delmar Loop to walk around and see what is new in the last decade. There are still staples like Blueberry Hill (where Chuck Berry used to play), Pin-Up Bowl, and Fitz’s Root Beer, along with plenty of thrift shops and record stores. One of the most interesting new places was Magic Mini Golf, which features 18 holes of miniature golf, two full-size shuffleboard courts, a five-car Ferris wheel, pinball, and basketball arcade games, food, a full bar, and a stage for live entertainment.

Next, we had cocktails at the Rooftop Garden Bar at Moonrise Hotel. The hotel is worth a stop, not only for the panoramic views of the Loop and St. Louis from the rooftop, but also for all of the space memorabilia on display. We really enjoyed looking at the many displays of lunar toys, jewelry, figurines, and spaceship replicas. I was also impressed to learn that the Moonrise was the first restaurant and hotel roof in America made entirely of solar panels!

From there, we decided to make a stop at McGurk’s Irish Bar. While it wasn’t exactly a Wash U destination, I had been a few times in summer and had a great time, and knew it was a place Alex would love too. McGurk’s is a sprawling bar with Irish beer on tap, live Irish music nightly, and a huge courtyard. National Geographic named it one of America’s Most Authentic Irish Pubs. Having been to Ireland ourselves, we would agree!

Our final stop of the evening was Union Station to have a nightcap and see the light show in Grand Hall for the final show of the night at 11pm. The website says shows run nightly on the hour from 5pm-10pm, but the final show was 11pm when we were there. The show was really neat, but it’s worth noting that it was only about 10 minutes. The website makes it sound like it’s a lot longer!

We spent the night at the Hyatt Regency Arch Downtown. While I had initially thought we should stay near Wash U in Clayton, I was very glad we stayed downtown. For $20, we upgraded to an Arch View and it was well worth it for the incredible panoramic view of the Arch! It was also convenient to be able to walk to visit the monument in the morning.

Before our tour, Alex walked nearby to grab breakfast at Pharoah’s Donuts, which was excellent! I loved the seasonal fall donut. Our next stop was a 9:40 am tram ride to the top of the Gateway Arch. Alex had never been into the 630 foot tall marvel of engineering before and I hadn’t visited in about 20 years. The ride to the top itself is just a few minutes. You’ll then spend about 10 minutes viewing St. Louis from the tiny windows at the top. I learned that the reason the windows are so small is that a larger window wouldn’t have been able to withstand the pressure from the steel structure.

The tram ride only takes about 30 minutes, including the tour, but you’ll want to devote another 30-60 minutes to the National Park Museum. Gateway Arch National Park honors and memorializes St. Louis’ role in the Westward Expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century. The museum spans 200 years, beginning with Colonial St. Louis and provides a fascinating peak into the city’s history. One of the things I was most intrigued to learn is that the waterfront used to be a populated, wealthy area, but due to a shift from boat to train travel, and a fire that took out much of the waterfront, the downtown area never really recovered. Another part of the National Park, which was closed during our visit, is the Old Courthouse, where Dred Scott sued for his freedom from slavery.

After our morning at the national park, we were ready for lunch, so we drove to Clayton to go to two of my favorite restaurants from my college days. After studying abroad in Spain for a semester, my friends and I fell in love with BARcelona, an authentic Spanish tapas restaurant. I introduced my family when they visited me and it became one of their favorites as well! Luckily for us, BARcelona had reopened just a few days before after a two year closure due to building construction in the area. Serendipitous timing!

Next we headed to City Coffee & Creperie, a favorite brunch destination for my college girlfriends. The Creperie is a cozy café with indoor/outdoor seating that serves traditional savory and sweet crêpes. The restaurant offers more than 40 different crêpes, along with other menu items such as pastries, quiche, sandwiches, soups, salads, coffee, espresso, tea and smoothies.

After lunch, we walked around campus for a bit before heading to Columbia for the next part of our trip. We sure packed a lot into 24 hours! Stay tuned for my next post about gameday in Columbia!

Have you ever visited St. Louis? What were some of your favorite restaurants? Please share in the comments.

RECAP

Eat/Drink

Olio, 1634 Tower Grove Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110

Moonrise Hotel Rooftop Bar, 6177 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112

McGurk’s, 1200 Russell Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63104

Pharoah’s Donuts, 202 N 9th St, St. Louis, MO 63101

BARcelona, 7810 Forsyth Blvd, Clayton, MO 63105

City House Creperie, 36 N Brentwood Blvd, Clayton, MO 63105

Stay

Hyatt Regency Downtown Arch, 315 Chestnut St, St. Louis, MO 63102

Visit

Union Station, 1820 Market St, St. Louis, MO 63103

Magic Mini Golf, 6160 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63112

Gateway Arch National Park, St. Louis, MO 63102