What to tell your friend of a friend's family to do in St. Louis?

You guys! It was hard!

How did I do? Family of 4 with 2 kids around 10 years old. INTENSE!

***

Hi again, Lauren! Here's the last of my tips! This month sure enough flew by! It's a lot of info, and let me know if you need any specifics on places.

If you're doing the St. Louis Downtown thing, Cardinals Game + Arch Visit is good. The Budweiser plant is alright, its a little boring though. There's a better brewery with MUCH better beer (well bud light is great, too) -- but that brewery is in one of the boroughs of St. Louis that's about a 20 minute drive from downtown. It's the Schlafly Brewery, but you can go to the Schlafly tap room to try the best local micro-brews...if you're staying downtown you can walk there. Here's my dream 4 days in st. louis. (I usually end up doing most of these things when I visit, too) - I probably get a little wordy, but hope it's more helpful than overwhelming to you!

Top 4 must do:
City museum
Forest park (and allllll that's there!)
The Royale
Cherokee Street

DREAM ITINERARY:

FRIDAY - settle in hotel (I'm assuming its downtown, and I'm assuming you'll get in around the evening time). If you feel like ice cream, hop in the car and go to Crown Candy kitchen (I'm recommending the Fireman's special, so delicous) and be sure to visit the cafe next door if it's open.

But you'll probably want to walk around near your hotel!! Washington ave is the primary business strip, Flamingo Lanes is a bowling alley, might be interesting....anyway, take a walk down there and then to the city garden, its a brand new public garden that just completed about a year ago. Its fun for kids to run around in. Then walk down to Laclede's Landing (its down by the riverfront) just to look at the only remaining cobblestone part of downtown St. Louis - it gets to be a pretty big nightlife scene so after dark, expect it to get a little bit of a party-vibe. Walk down the arch grounds, look at the river. Its awesome! Picture time, etc... have dinner at either the Broadway Oyster bar (on broadway by the white castle) or at BBs Jazz Blues ans Soups.
If you feel like it, take the car further south to eat in Soulard, the french neighborhood - I'd suggest Mcgurks - they've got live irish music every night and a lovely garden.

If you get in on Friday during the daytime - head straight to the City Museum! it's the "recycle museum" you've heard so much about. It's THE place to go if you want to make your kids (and yourself) tired. So you might want to save it for Saturday or sunday.

I'd also reccomend downtown - the Schlafly Tap room is a very cool place, and it serves our local microbrews if you're into the beers! The building was also featured in the lovely movie Escape From New York...though the block's gone through a bit of rehab there since it was scouted as the set of a post-apocalyptic new york! ;)

SATURDAY - Wake up early early early and head to the arch? Or maybe that's a better bet to head to the Arch on Monday. This morning might be a better time to go to Soulard - there's the Soulard Market (just go south on broadway, you can walk - pretty far ...like 15 minutes - or drive) Maybe you're going to the baseball game today? Then go visit the Budweiser Brewery - the tour's not all that exciting at all, but the grounds are really pretty. In the afternoon, I'd recommend a visit to the Central west end, then Forest Park and then the University City Loop. You can drive from downton to the Central West End, forest park and walk around. There's shopping and generally just a city neighborhood to look at, grab lunch. In the Central west end there's some st. Louis style pizza to be had at Cecil WHitaker's pizza (its my preffered St. Louis style pizza shop - get the supreme with bacon, so good). If you like perfume, go to Cassie's, its on euclid.

Forest Park has a lot going on, especially for kiddies. There's the Zoo (free!) or the Art Museum (free! be absolutely sure you see the reservoir in front of the art museum, its a total photo op) and a planetarium (free!) which has a bridge over the highway to the St. Louis Science center, which is also free (!). You can visit the Muny Opera Grounds (its a huge outdoor theatre, BIG tradition in town) and rent bikes and ride them all around Forest Park. The park is bordered by big ol stately homes the likes of Meet Me in St. Louis, so that's fun to look at. There's also the Missouri Natural History Museum in forest park - it's pretty cool...its got some Charles Lindbergh stuff and all that if museums strike your fancy. On one end of the park is the Central west end, and on the other Washington University. I'd suggest driving to the middle of forest park (the muny parking lot is really near where you can rent bikes) and once you're through with Forest park, head in your car down lindel to Skinker and head to Delmar for the University City/Delmar Loop. There's fun shopping and hamburgers and a record store etc...be sure to check out the St. Louis Walk of Fame! A good little urban strip to walk around. Blueberry Hill is a burger place where Chuck Berry (yes, chuck berry - he's from st. louis!) performs one Wednesday a month.

SUNDAY - I would make this a South Side day - you could also switch this with Saturday. South side is where St. Louis locals hang out but there's PLENTY for tourists type stuff - it just doesn't get all that much press (untill now!) It's got some great neighborhoods! You have to go to the south side, it's the best. You can go early to the Missouri botanical gardens, and go to brunch at the Royale (its a bar/restaurant that a friend of mine owns and it's VERY st. louisy and the folks are very friendly and will give you tips if you need'em).
After you've met the folks at the Royale, head to Morganford Mini business strip. (its off of arsenal, a street which borders Tower Grove Park, another park...not a lot going on, but there are some funny pavillions b/c it was supposed to be structured originally as a British walking park-apparently Brits like pavilions) On Morganford is good vintage shopping (super cheap super quality!) - the Vintage Haberdashery and TFA are must sees for shopping. If you want st. louis syle pizza, there's an IMOs pizza on Morganford. Its made with special cheese that's only made in St. Louis! I'd get the supreme. From morganford, head to Grand South Grand - it's basically a city business strip for about 5 blocks, but I like walking around on it. Lot's of Vietnamese folks and some bosnian restaurants in this area. Pho Grand is good as is the City Diner (get the toasted ravioli!). Also there are donut shops everywhere. Go in one if you see one! Also if you like italian food, the south side is home to The Hill, our italian neighborhood at the top of a hill.

Another must visit section of town is CHerokee street. There's a LOT more walkability going on here. I'd drive to cherokee and Jefferson (I'd recommend visiting around lunchtime), park down by the old dairy store - head to mississippi mud coffeeshop, walk to the Purple Cow for some crazy antiques (say hi to grouchy jim), Cherry Bomb vintage for some really good vintage shopping, then cross over to visit Foam, new coffe/food shop. Go further west on Cherokee to the Mexican business area of the street, I recommend the quesadillas at La Vallesanas or the fish at El Bronco, and go down a bit further to the Firecracker Press for some really great prints of St. Louis -- from forest park, to just lovely graphic prints of town. Plus, its in a section of the street that's basically printers row - the folks here use actual printing presses so it might be fun for the kids to see. Near there are some other vintage stores. It's definitely the artsy part of town, so there's all the spoils of that! If you're looking for good st. louis clothing, hop back in the car and drive further east on Cherokee to STL-Style's storefront at 3155 Cherokee St.. Its a tshirt company owned by a couple brothers and they make good tshirts.

This might also be a good day to head to the Schlafly Brewery in Maplewood and take a tour, its about a 20 minute drive down highway 44.

You should also visit Ted Drewes Frozen Custard (I HIGHLY recommend getting a raspberry, chocolate shell and pecan sundae) on your SOuth Side day, its an ice cream joint on the Old Route 66 - now Chippewa.

MONDAY - The Arch? Ride up in there look around! Pick some ideas from above! Enjoy yourself!

For local whatever happenings, the Riverfront Times http://riverfrontimtes.com is your friend. It's free and you can pick it up anywhere.

Don't be shy about asking me questions etc...!!

Now for trivia:
Here's famous people from st. louis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_St._Louis
And here's some local specialties you should try!
http://stlplaces.com/stl_foods/

You definitely shouldn't leave without trying toasted ravioli - its also a really good kids food.
I would suggest looking up these places and others on http://yelp.com - it will give you hours they're open etc...addresses and alllll that!

Have fun! Eat! Be a little quirky! It's the st. louis way!
This was a fun walk down memory lane for me.

All the best,
Lori


Below there's some notes I took on places I like before I tried to make them make a little sense - might have more details!


FAVORITE PLACES:
Downtown:
- Cardinals Stadium
- Schlafly Tap Room (good food, local beers)
- The City Museum (that's the "recycle museum" -- go early on a saturday....you'll easily want to stay for 4+hours. And you can't beat the views or the ferris wheel on the roof!!! I love this place, I've gone with my 3 year old baby cousins and I've gone to parties at night with my friends and its always so magical and very quintessential St. Louis funky, don't miss it)
- the Rooftop is open on the weekend! There's a ferris wheel, its so cool!
---- they also do a nighttime thing where you can run around the place with a flashlight - http://www.riverfronttimes.com/events/city-museum-by-flashlight-914547/ in case you're looking for something to do with the kids at night
- Crown Candy Kitchen (my mom's best friend used to date the owner....take a cab up a little bit to visit or drive there, get the Fireman's Special...its in the middle of a neighborhood on the up and up, i like to go and look at the development...friend of mine just opened up the neighborhing coffee shop -- but the kids will LOVE THE CANDY. As a kid who visited this place when I was around 9, i loved it.)
- Broadway Oyster Bar, Beales, Bb's -- take the kids for an afternoon of blues/zydeco/hippie/r&b music, depending on the day. Its just south of the baseball stadium. St. Louis is a live music town, so you gotta sample some of that local flavor.
- Soulard is our french neighborhood...this is about a 10 minute walk south of the baseball stadium. St. Louis was a french king! Its about a 15 minute walk south of the baseball stadium, 5 minute cab ride, since we haven't quite worked it out so its the most friendly walk in the world.
- The Soulard Market happens on Saturdays and its got that crazy market vibe that should keep the kids entertained, plus you can imagine what it's like during mardi gras, where st. louis has the 2nd largest celebration in the US.
( also if you love irish music, you MUST go to mcgurks - live irish music 7 nights a week, usually played by actual irishfolks - and they have great food in the daytime)

Southside:
- The Royale - i always go here first to find out what's up. I know the owner, Steven Smith. Everyone's very friendly there, and dont' be shy about mentioning that you know Lori White (me!) or The White Sisters! Especially if you see Steve. If you're good, you might even get a tour of the town in his Cadillac. But especially be sure to ask the folks around and working there about what's going on in town, they're always in the know and happy to share.
- Botanical Gardens - it's gorgeous and if it's nice outside it's great to run around in. For the kids, visit the greenhouse with all sorts of rainforest stuff, the shrubbery maze and feed teh fish in the aj
- Tower Grove Park
- Cherokee Street - antiques
- Little Bosnia - this is in the Bevo Mill neighborhood, an old German Neighborhood that now has the 2nd largest population of Bosnians...2nd to Bosnia! How crazy is that?

Forest Park, Central West End and The Loop:
- The Hill
- Dogtown
Central west end:
Forest Park:
-Blueberry Hill
- Wash U
- zoo
- science center

WildCard
- Schlafly Brewery


***


whew.

conviction, table of everybody

I miss blogging, y'all.

Do you think it would be possible to create a site that effectively gives a city infrastructure where it does not have it? A sortof "if you build (online) it they will come" philosophy? Is Outsite.in already doing this? What of cities, small and large, who don't have Four Square or the locals who even care about exploring, but would like a bus system? Could you integrate some sortof CityApp with an Urban Planning firm on execution? (omg this would combine everything i ever loved ...well only if someone wrote a song about it, too) Could it be scalable to other smaller/less infrastructured cities (memphis, detroit, cincinnati)? And I'm not talking like, autocad model lets look at it an dream. Something alive! Something useful. Pre-reality stuff. Hm. I always look at online communications like a small town (i'm not the first, i believe I got the idea from gonzo mkting - lawd i felt like such a bad-ass reading that book on my marathon french speaking,teaching/self study extravaganza of 06-07...masters degree in school of hard-ish knocks and improrevising) so ...how to extrapolate that out...?

I have been wondering about this. I feel as though it may be my destiny to answer these questions. This of course fits in with my destiny that I've had to somewhat (impro)revise -- improrevise! That's a word made by me, for me -- that involves technology, cities, St. Louis and other fancier-schmancier cities. All of which I am embracing at once, though at times...remotely. (here's looking at you, St. Louis) In the meantime I am moving *back* to Brooklyn (yay!) to return to my fighting quaker (code for UPENN friends!) bretheren. Hey-o!

I feel presumptuous to talk of things like I'm anything but a dreamer, but as the magical and wonderful Ben Zander says, "one of characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the peaople he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming... imagine if martin luther king* said 'I have a dream! ... of course I'm not sure they'll be up to it!"So I present you with some conviction, take it or leave it. It is genuine. We will see where it leads.


*not implying that I am as cool as MLK, & though such thoughts did not stop beyonce (upgradeU)...they will stop me...i am humbled!

St. Louis - A Place for Entrepreurs and Investors

Hm.


St. Louis - A Place for Entrepreurs and Investors* from lori white on Vimeo.

Made by Invest Midwest, and found (along with a long list of Venture Capital firms in St. Louis ...actually they're mostly in Clayton... via the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association. So many old white guy networks, SO LITTLE INTERNET!)

UPDATE: The whole video's up. If you can sit through it.

wise, old words from TS

St. Louis needs to welcome creativity, encourage it and support it. If we try to create and manage creativity, we’ll end up stifling it. In The Dry Salvages, Eliot wrote, “The river is within us.” The strong brown god of creativity is within us as St. Louisans. We shouldn’t make the mistake of attempting to control it. We should simply stay out of the way and let it flow.

Nooooo, not TS Eliot... fellow "Quaker," Tom Schlafly!

I owe ya

Again with the being very busy!

Much to relate, pictures and high-heeled adventures to share. I had the most fun ever this weekend! A very lovely St. Louis weekend.

This blog will just have to wait a couple days, though!

Newspaper vs. Newspaper

I don't like the looks of this.

So, I went to hear Bob Dufy of StLPlatform.org (and others) speak at WashU's New Media Symposium.

Heard that the St. Louis Post Dispatch recently trademarked "The Platform."
This means that now the *original* platform has to find a new name b/c they didn't think to trademark. Not trademarking - ok, so it was a definite miss-step on the part of stlplatform.org... but does it have to come to this very shady and disappointing conclusion? Some sortof patent office game of capture the flag? Oh geez.

Still, I don't like to look for bad things. I really really really don't! It's just bad vibes. So I go, ok, let's look at the dates, I'm sure they will all line up and it will be all a very funny story!

Let's play calendar:

• December 07 (right after I found out the thing even existed -- through a high school connection, guilty) article on stlplatform.org in St. Louis Magazine.
• Fast forward to March 08 - The Platform(tm) on St. Louis Post dispatch goes live.
  

Ooo, I don't like that 3 month difference there. It makes me go, "hmm."

Now, I can't quite figure out how to work the US Gov't's trademark search, found HERE, to see when exactly the trademark was registered for the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I'd like to know that date!

I learned, quite excitingly at the symposium, that news outlets have been opening up things like files (notably, the JFK files, oooo), etc... to their readers, saying - "We can't find anything! See if you can find something."

I don't think I've disclosed this, but I named my favorite cat, Nancy Drew - so I'm guessing it goes without saying that I love a chance to sleuth!

So hey Scott and Blythe (my two readers -- if you're not one of them, you try, too! and email me) - can you figure out how to search for a trademark's date? I don't want to point fingers, I don't want to scowl at anyone, I just want to know. And if anyone is in the wrong here (I'm no lawyer, so I'm talking about breaking Natural Law here I guess), I just want them to know that we the people, know.

Hrmph.

A more appropriate about me section

"I'm from St. Louis. I live in St. Louis. I like to dance. That's me on the left. I like to talk to you about the StL, cities, and cool things. I like to dream of a futuristic St. Louis that's kept an eye on its past. Does that make sense? I don't know. This is my blog." is out.
Though it is true.

Time to simplify.

I am St. Louis.

Good News!

Do-Nuts Drive-In St. Louis, MO on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flickr has improved my life today.

THE Donut sign on Chippewa is returning!


From agilitynut on flickr -- (it pays to see if anyone's responded to your comments, as I did for the first time today):
"It's some sort of Route 66 grant. But since my post, I've spoken to the sign shop. The guy working on it is very much a preservationist and he assures me that the sign will be back up, one way or another, in June."

Yay! This is good!

Moonvertising

It's not real!



It is kindof brilliant though. It's for Rolling Rock Beer! Those beer advertisers. What do they do all day? Can I do it, too?

What the heck is a schmoopie?

I dazzled and I stretched

at Joe's last night! (i finally made it)

It was so fun. I called in the gang to come see&dance to our staple, Hudson and the Hoodoo Cats, and let me tell ya - we tore it up! (politely) It was just so great - people digging the music, watching the dancers...all sorts of folks who wouldn't otherwise have chatted really talkin' it up. Wonderful stuff. Live music and dance are really really important to bringing fun people/communities together, did you know that? Met this terrific gal from the UK, too - we had ourselves a time! She really got to see what StL people are all about last night, I think.

The owner was a real sweetheart, too. One of those quiet, dignified elder(in this case) statesman types with not too much to say, but a lot to do (and already done). A good type, I'd say. He seemed glad to see people just appreciating the music and really giving the stage the attention it sometimes doesn't get enough of. I loved looking over to see him smiling contentedly at this thing he created. Must be one of the greater feelings to have. Great stuff.

St. Louis is a wonderful town. So much opportunity to be great, and so much greatness already there for us!

Makes me wondah

Some people are funny. I wish he'd do the second single - the one that rhymes "bed" with "dead" and whose video makes no sense at all, but seems to be some copycat of that one beastie boys video where they wear mustaches and act like cops. Lots of freeze frames, it was cool.

I found this lil' video courtesy of this gent - he lives in a town called New Orleans. He runs a little operation for which I have a great deal of respect. He's an operation running kindof guy, and I like his worldview. I think it is spot on.

I also like his operation's tshirts - though they seem to make people think I'm from New Orleans. Wouldn't be the first time, strangely enough. At school in Philly, everyone seemed to hear "New Orleans" when I said I was from "St. Louis." I'm thinking it was mostly b/c they were from the east coast and get the flyover cities mixed up - it happens. (I even got calls from friends --and seriously bless their hearts -- asking if I was ok after Katrina)

I, myself, know the difference between StL, and say, NOLA -- still, I know some similarities...feel'em at least. I think that's sortof funny, spooky, awesome... powerful, even -- this mississippi river valley connection -- and I'm not the only one drawing this conclusion.

StL, Memphis (where I learned to walk!), NOLA - we should talk.

There's a lot to talk about.


Now lets looks at a cat driving a car!!

Where the news comes first?

My cousin and I like to say that baby boomers are ruining our country. Ok, fine - so its not the actual baby boomers lets say - but whatever's goin' on in some of their minds is makin' me a little angry.

First, the whole 407 E. Argonne -- we hardly knew ye ballyhoo, and now -- Newschannel 5's shut down PubDef on youtube??!?! What is up with The Man, and why can't he not hate, but appreciate? Concerning this Channel 5 business, is it suspicious that this happens just as they're rolling out a new online video center ... or is it just me? I'm no conspiracy theorist and I really hate to be a drama nerd, but there are things that make ya go, "Hmmm" - and this is making me do just that. What is UP with the 4th estate these days?

Hmm.

To think I once memorized that cheezy christmas song they had in commercials as I dreamed of cameramen coming to my school so I could do the "5-1" hand signal!

Hmm!

So ----- humble a weapon as it may be -- certainly nothing compared to shutting down channel 5 news...a comparable rebuff -- it's letter/email time!

Here's the email I've sent to KSDK (and you can bet they'll be getting a stamped envelope with an actual, satisfactual paper letter copy, too! Snailmail represents, goodbye 41 cents.)


Subject: PubDef, Youtube and the news I trust(ed)

I just heard about your channel's part in the removal of the entirety of PUBDef.net's videos from YouTube.

Imagine how many viewers you could've gained to your programs if you'd partnered with Pub Def and given their meticulously local newsmaking a wider audience - paired with your station's reputation and corporate news know-how, what a match it could've been!

Imagine a dialogue complete with criticism as well as praise. Sounds like great news to me.

I'm saddened that instead you've chosen to remove the videos - pushing aside any hope of compromise or even creativity -- and completely shut down what could've been an incredibly rich, comprehensive and fascinating dialogue and really great news.

Would you rethink this? Could you? Have you? You'll have regained this once loyal viewer if you do. We're all better than this YouTube bullying -- especially when the action you've taken is to the detriment of actual, satisfactual NEWS --- news which I recall, comes first at KSKD.

I wish you'd think about what you're saying by not saying anything.

Sincerely,
Lori White

Hmm?

The Time I Almost Went to Joe's

Darn.

I almost made it to this speakeasy/band venue/? place last night called Joe's Corner. I got the name of the place from a shopowner in the city, and when I called the number to get the 411, I literally had to say, "Jim said to call."

It was about as close as I'll ever come to being a mobster, though there's nothing illegal about it. Maybe I'll come closer though...if I can do it without being a bad guy - I could be a mobster for good. Wait, there aren't girl mobsters are there? I'll think about it. I think some variant of Nancy Drew is as close as I'll get ... yay.

I think my buddy Adam's been there, as this shot leads me to suspect.



I'll do more investigation next thursday.
In the meantime, I'm hoping to hit Sandrinas/see if it exists still this weekend. It sounds old school, and the jukebox alone sounds amazing. You know how I love my jukeboxes. Especially MINE. It's so cool, but it won't mind if I see other jukeboxes - we have a very little jealousy in our relationship.

Good point

cities on other planets

July 6th, 2007

NYC is the capital of the planet.
To find a more important city
you’d have to go to another planet.

St. Louis is not a very important city.
To find a more important city
you just have to go up to Chicago.

But no city is that important—
not even NYC. And there aren’t
really cities on other planets.