Should you find yourself in St. Louis

St. Louis is like our second home. Family, friends, old haunts. We may live in Chicago, but we spend a lot of time in good ol' St. Louis. Though we spend the vast majority of our time with family, we've recently starting venturing into the restaurant scene. First, we had date night last year at Home Wine Kitchen. It was fantastic. We highly recommend it and I wish I had blogged about it last year because, of course, we can't remember much about the food right now.

And then on New Year's Eve, we took advantage of grandparent babysitting and headed out to Basso. This new gastropub is getting rave reviews. It's been open only a year and it's located in the basement of the Cheshire Inn bar (more on that place in a minute). 

It's dark and warm with a huge open kitchen and a large fireplace. The food is designed to be shared in small plates and we found it to be very reasonably priced (though we're probably jaded by Chicago prices). Our first course was curried orzo with pine nuts and currants and a bowl of shishido peppers (Japanese peppers, not too spicy) that you pick up and eat whole. 

We had a main course of crunchy meatballs and an order of fresh made pasta over pork cheek in a celery puree. And we might have also tried the maple bourbon cheesecake. But who can remember these things?

Mike had stumbled upon Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA at a specialty grocery store the day before and picked up some to take to a friend's house. When I saw it on the menu, I knew I wanted to try it also. Very hoppy, but good.

If you're in St. Louis and want to try something a bit more "foodie" and a bit less "White Castle" then you should consider Basso. We already want to return and try the rest of the menu. 

And, by the way, we booked a night at the Cheshire Inn. For those of you near St. Louis, did you realize the place has had a total makeover? It's a British lodge, complete with stuffed bear, roaring fireplace and English paintings. Every room is named for a British author and you can find a book by that author when you arrive in the room. 

I found myself thinking this place would be fun to take the kids to because it really does feel like an old English lodge. Don't get me wrong, the rooms themselves are quite modern and this is in no way a "kid" place. But can you imagine reading Jane Austin or Sherlock Holmes and then going to stay in that room? It could be fun for a kid who loves to read, I think. 

So should you find yourself in St. Louis with a little time to spare, consider these restaurants. We thought they were terrific.