Bright Lights, Big City

Pardon the little lapse here without the usual “to do” Friday edition. Well, there is a lot “to do”. Various fireworks programs, concerts (Sotterley, Hollywood VFD, La Plata, Chesapeake Beach, the Solomons, on and on…) figure it out for yourself..

So last time we checked, we were heading north from Jackson to St. Louis. We night before departure, while we were dining at Ray’s, St. Louis was getting dunked with multiple inches of rain with road closures, power outages, and flooding. But, the next morning by the time we finished breakfast at Jone’s Farm and were on the road, most things had returned to normal. We had three enjoyable food experiences in St. Louis, including a couple with FOJTE and MFOJTE.

We arrived in the St. Louis area around one or so, and in the course of navigating I270 toward St. Charles, some mysterious force made the MOMSTER turn into West County Mall and next thing we knew, we were in Nordstrom’s. The poor company is struggling so much we felt compelled to leave large sums in various clothing departments.

But eventually we checked into the Fairfield Inn in St. Charles and had a little rest. Then the FOJTE’s picked us up and we drove to a little neighborhood place in Ferguson (kind of just south of the Airport) called Cork Wine Bar. Ferguson is one of those towns that sort of slid and now is coming back up the other side. Cork is a pleasant little informal neighborhood bar I suspect was resurrected from a former life, with booth/benches, tables and a rather nice long bar that looked like it had been there for a while. It reminded me a bit of what we called a “coffee house” in my day. There is also outside seating when weather permits. Even though it was Sunday night, there were pretty many people there, families, young folks, and mixed parties such as ours (youngsters and the elders). They not only have a stunning selection of wines from all over the world, but a pretty respectable list of beers and specialty cocktails. They do “flights” of wine as well. On the food side they have cold and hot plates, sandwiches, and pizzas. Being sort of a warm day we ordered a bottle of ’09 Russian River Valley Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay, a pretty reliable bottle and vineyard. The wine produced a nice time to “catch up” with “the kids” and we learned about their recent trip to San Diego, and sigh, The Hotel Del which still stands as the Grand Dame of Coronado Island, albeit the seeming endless progression of “changes” continues.

Eventually we got around to the food and ordered up “snacks” of Parmesan Popcorn and some “Green Potatoes” which were described by our server as “ugly but good”. For bigger plates MFO had a brisket plate, I waffled a long time and finally settled on some Sliders, MFOJTE took a Greek Plate and FOJTE tried a Crispy Salmon dish. Of course by this time the bottle of Chard had become empty, so another replaced it. After one of those “just a little too long” period the snacks appeared, and indeed the green potatoes were very nice, but how can you go wrong with spinach and blue cheese! The salty popcorn was a nice pair. The mains arrived, well at least three of them, as somehow MFO’s brisket had been overlooked but was replaced fairly quickly. Without going into even more verbiage I would have to say the food was okay. Not bad, not wonderful but maybe what one might expect. Go for wines and take what the food gives you. And, oh by the way be sure to go with friends or family. That’s what’s good!!

Our second “big city” meal was taken with our “financial planner” guy a meeting about the state of our economy (okay) but really only an excuse to go to lunch. I had seen a very positive review of Oceano Bistro in Clayton (our old home town) in Sauce Magazine and suggested that as a good place to try. Turns out it has been there for a long time occupying the old “Ramon’s” spot across from Cardwell’s in downtown Clayton. It features seafood. A good thing we had reserved as we arrived at half past noon and there were very few tables, which were predominately occupied by the normal Clayton well turned out crowd at lunch. We arrived before our friend, and were offered our choice of the last three open tables. We took one in the corner near the entrance to the enclosed seating on the “sidewalk”. Since this is getting long, I’ll just say that this is one of the places you enjoy because they do everything right. Wine by the glass? Sure, bottle is brought to the table and you get a pour before your glass is filled. Service? Right on. Since our table was on the way to the porch, I noted that every time our server passed on his way out, his eyes darted to our table. Upon return, the dish was cleared, the water glass filled without any banter. Another roll sir? Sure. A fresh dish of olive oil (and roasted pepper coulis?) was also brought not leaving you to sozzle the remains of the first one. The cream of broccoli soup was consumed by the feeder where broccoli doesn’t rate high in other forms. Our friend had the “Maryland Lump Crab Cake” starter with the soup as the complete lunch, MFO had a “Smoked Salmon BLT”, and to compliment my soup I had the “Lemon Crab Risotto”. Being an opinionated Marylander I would have to say that although good, the crab cakes weren’t outstanding, and the lumps were not in my stolen fork full. A great meal, excellently served. A little nuance that I had not seen before was that as we were about half way through the meal, the server approached and said “at lunch place we usually leave the check early so people don’t have to wait”. I can live with that. No other contact regarding the check until we were ready.. Good place. Go.

The third meal was taken at the “new” Balabans, which opened a “branch” in Chesterfield in a mall of which there are many out there. I don’t recall the original (still existing in the Central West end andnow called Herbie’s or something like that), but it is a combination of wine cellar and (French) Bistro. You walk in through the shelves of wind and select one of the tables or sit at the bar. We chose to sit there. The menus include Tapas, soups and salads, small plates, larger entrees, flatbreads, and desserts. They have wines by the glass (big selection) or you can wander the aisle and select your bottle and consume it (with a corkage charge). On the night we were there, a Monday, corkage charges are waived. Our first bottle was an Argyle reserve Pinot and was quite lovely. We chose appetizers of a cheese plate and another of Jamon Serrano & Manchego. Incidentally, the wine had a screw enclosure (of which I am a great fan, by the way), and my joke of there could be no corkage because there was no cork was received coolly by the barkeep. I thought it was pretty cute. Anyway, the starters were delivered and apportioned among us. There could have been a bit more cheese on the plate, and the ham was a bit tough. However we did manage to consume it somehow. More good conversation until the mains arrived consisting of Lobster Ravioli (FOJTE); Margherita Flatbead (MFOJTE); Roasted Chicken Breast (MFO); and Paella for moi. These dishes were all very enjoyable. The paella was full of chicken, jamon, shrimp, clams and the rice was not blown out. Nice dish. This course was accompanied by a Siduri Pinot which had more body and fruit than the Argyle and was quite nice. I made no more comments about corkage having learned my lesson. (I still think it’s cute). Besides wines by the shelf, they do tastings, and the gentlemen next to us did same with Port. We all thought they didn’t need it, and hoped that they got home safely. We thought the quality of the main courses out classed the two starters we tried, and are the reason I would recommend the place. I’m sure others on the small side are good, so experiment around. And if you go on a Monday you can use my line about corkage, no royalty charged.

The next day, I was dropped at the aerodrome in St. Louis, still sporting plywood windows from the tornado of last month, and after an hour delay I was delivered to BWI, and a short drive later, back in the digs. MFO and her MOMSTER continued north to LaCrosse, Wisconsin to see mom and sister. This week is her mother’s 96th birthday. God love her.

As I’m sure all parents know, it is so enjoyable seeing your offspring as adults, and being pleased on how they are conducting their lives. And, as I’m sure all parents know we wish it could be more often..

And so another journey is in the memory banks along with the five meals, but the best part is of course just being with family. Thanks FOJTY&E

And of course being

DFD as appropriate..

Thanks for listening, and now we can look forward. Have a great 4th.