St. Louis City Garden & Unique Eats

I had the opportunity to visit my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri last week. I had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends, eating some of my favorite foods only available in St. Louis, and visiting some of my favorite places.

One of the most special places for me to visit in St. Louis is the City Garden. 

It is an urban sculpture park located in downtown St. Louis between Eight, Tenth, Market, and Chestnut Streets.

The City Garden is open year round and is free for anyone to visit. They even have an iPhone app to find food, parking, events, art, and water fun. 

The app is really well done. It’s a wonderful tool to use when visiting the City Garden. It even provides you with your own narrated tour of the garden. 

You can find a free download of the app and other information by visiting 

www.citygardenstl.org

One of the reasons that I love City Garden so much is because I only lived one block away from the garden when I lived in St. Louis. Who doesn’t love a park right in their own backyard? 😉

It was dedicated in 2009. That’s the same year that I married my #CuteCajunHubby . I love the fact that we all share the same anniversary. Here are a few shots I found of my #CuteCajunHubby and I visiting the City Garden in 2009. 

I had a wonderful time visiting the City Garden last week with my Mom, my Brother, and my niece Wafffles. Huge thanks to my Dad for being our chauffeur that day! I promise he was with us! 

I would like to share some of my favorite pieces with all of you. 

Untitled (Two Rabbits) Artist: Tom Claassen

Big Suit  Artist: Erwin Wurm

2 ARCS X 4, 230.5 Degree ARC X 5

Artist: Bernar Venet

Untitled Artist: Martin Puryear

Zenit Artist: Mimmo Paladino

Kiera and Julian Walking  Artist: Julian Opie

Four Rectangles Oblique Artist: George Rickey

Samarkand Artist: Jack Younger Man

Aesop’s Fables Artist: Mark di Suvero

Big White Gloves, Big Four Wheels

Artist: Jim Dine

Eros Bendato Artist: Igor Mitoraj

Scarecrow Artist: Donald Baechler

A trip to the City Garden isn’t complete unless you play in the waterfall, splash in the fountains, or grab an ice cream from the Serendipity Ice Cream truck. 

City Garden is one of the MANY 100% free activities that St. Louis has to offer. (Yes… I said it again!) If you are visiting the downtown area for any reason at all you should make some time to check it out. 

You may not know this fun fact about St. Louis, we have have food that you can only find in St. Louis. I have a a list of yummy things that I must eat when I’m visiting my hometown. 

I always have toasted ravioli 

It’s a ravioli with a combination of pork and beef inside. It is breaded and deep fried and served with a side of maranara sauce for dipping. They are delicious!

Another must for me is provel cheese. I use the term cheese loosely. Provel is actually a white processed cheese that is a combination of cheddar , Swiss, and provolone. I even think that it has a mild smoky flavor. It melts like a dream ! It’s almost always found as a topping on our pizzas. St. Louis pizza is traditionally thin with a crisp cracker like crust. 

Our salads are topped with provel, too. A traditional St. Louis salad has LOTS of ice burg lettuce, pimentos, heart of palm, artichokes, black olives, and a sweet red wine vinaigrette dressing. 

Two of my must visit places in St. Louis for food are Blues City Deli and Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. 

Blues City Deli is located on McNair Avenue in St. Louis and it’s the place to get Po’Boys and Muffuletta sandwiches. Naturally my #CuteCajunHubby loves it! The line is always out the door. The day my Dad and I visited for lunch was no exception. 

Rounding up my list is Ted Drewes Frozen Custard. It’s been a staple in St. Louis since 1930. My family has been visiting there since long before I was born and it’s really fun to share the experience with my niece. 

Ted Drewes is known for their frozen custard “concrete”. The custard is so thick that your spoon will actually stand up when you tip your cup upside down. 

I hope that you enjoyed this taste of my hometown. If by any chance you find yourself in the Show Me State you should pop over and check a few of these places out. 
Aloha & Xoxo, 

Kate 

Current Song on Repeat:

You Belong To The City

Artist: Glenn Frey

Album: Miami Vice Soundtrack