Let’s talk beer

So it’s American Craft Beer Week. There are so many “beer weeks” in America these days, why bother talking about this one? Welp I got a badge today on Untappd…

Social Media Beer drinking!

So that was pretty exciting. (Actually it was) I’m kind of a badge junkie.

Saint Louis might be known for Budweiser the beer that shalt not be named, but we actually have many craft brewery’s in and around town. Not as many as Portland, but it seems like the trend for indie brews is getting fierce here in the gateway to the west.

Old-ish Hat:

Schlafly Beer – 21 years young this brewery is the tops of the craft beer selection in STL. With their annual Repeal of Prohibition Beer Fest, Cabin Fever outdoor beer festival in January, weekly farmers markets in the summer, dual fantastic locations and delish food this is one not to miss.

Favorite Beer: Special Release – Tasmanian IPA (Oct-Jan).

Morgan Street Brewery

Urban Chestnut – This 2 year old brewery just announced that they are building a “green” brewery in The Grove neighborhood of STL. Projected to open in the early part of 2014.

Favorite Beer: STLIPA

Six Row Brewing Company – Midtown Brewery located in the old Falstaff Brewing Corporation’s Plant No. 1. With a full menu and Special Release Beers this week… barleywine and killer whale OMG.

4 Hands Brewing Company – Located in the LaSalle Park neighborhood and self described “Ales Without Borders” this local brewhouse is also only 2 years old.

Favorite Beer: DIVIDED SKY RYE IPA

The Civil Life Brewing Company

Perennial Artisan Ales – Another 2011 noob. Actually haven’t been here yet. #beerfail

Square One Brewery – Brewery, distillery and restaurant since 2006. Flights of beer, beer of the month club, food, live music, events – overall a good time in Lafayette Square.

O’Fallon Brewery – This 13 year old brewery hit the nail on the head with its Pumpkin Beer. A sure sign of fall is seeing these black and orange jack o’lantern labels everywhere.

Favorite Beer: 5-Day IPA

Trailhead Brewing Company – Located in St. Charles this draught only brewery is also a restaurant serving American pub fare. Fun Fact: The water wheel was added for decoration and was never used.

Favorite Beer: Trailhead Red Amber Ale

Augusta Brewing Company

Cathedral Square Brewery

Kirkwood Station Brewing Company

NEW:

Buffalo Brewing Company

Alpha Brewing Company

Scratch Brewing Company – Illinois

Ridgebrook Brewery – Illinois

In progress:

Modern Brewery – Not quite up and running yet 5/16/13

Heavy Riff Brewing Company – Not quite up and running yet 5/16/13

Shaw Brewery and Beer Garden – Hoping for a spring 2014 opening.

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I guess all we need now is some more room so DJ can make more home-brews.

DJ (and I) really like this poster…

 

South City Love – Lindenwood Park

I live just over the county/city line in Saint Louis. My neighborhood is full of young families, older couples and charm. Red brick gingerbread houses and multi-family flats abound. There is minimal new development; outside of some facelifts to buildings the neighborhood hasn’t changed much in 17 years, probably more. Lets just say I grew up visiting this awesome South City neighborhood since my dad moved there when I was in middle school.

I spent parts of my summers walking to the library, Ted Drewes, Huck’s corner store and the sno-cone stand. I played at Lindenwood Park before it was renovated and the slides still burnt your legs. I loved the church bells that went off at 6am and 6pm daily (still do). I love the grid set up and the walkability and well, the neighborhood.

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Now, this map isn’t an exact representation of L-park. It bleeds into Saint Louis Hills and the Hampton ‘hoods, just go with me.

Sweets & Treats:

The Pint-Sized Bakery

Only a year new, this teeny-tiny bakery occupies the space of what was once our 3rd favorite pizza place. Seriously- go there. Muffins, cupcakes, cookies everything is amazing. Their salted caramel croissants,

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which they only make on Saturday mornings are hands down the best pastry I’ve EVER eaten. In my life and travels they are just yum. They make 2 batches now, 9am & 10am.

Ted Drewes

Do I have to say anything? Route 66, Frozen Custard, a STL tradition.

Favorite concrete combo. Heath bar & Tedad’s Scotch Oatmeal cookie.

Murray’s Shaved Ice Shack

South City is full of quality sno-cone places, this one is the best. The shaved ice is almost soft it’s so fine. Tons of flavors. Doggie sno-cones made with bacon grease. On a hot summer day this place rocks.

Pro-tip. A kiddie or small will do ya, otherwise it’ll be brain-freeze city.

Donut Drive-in

Fresh donuts. Daily.

Gooey Louie

From scratch gooey butter cake in a multitude of flavors. Nothing from a box here. They sell them in small, single serving sizes as well as full square cakes.

Italian

Stellinas Pasta Everything but bread from scratch in-house (the bread is made locally though). Lasagna OMG!!!! Nice wine list, tiny place (and they renovated within the past 2 years to make it bigger). Reservations only for parties of 6 or more, otherwise come early. A good friend of mine finally went and raved about this place.

Trattoria Marcella

Bigger, fancier? Delicious. They also have renovated since I’ve lived in the neighborhood.

Shopping

There is more shopping in L-Park, but I’m not a huge shopper.

Bayer’s Garden. Great local nursery, employees are super helpful and a really good selection for not a lot of space. The owner loves hot peppers. Want something hotter than a ghost pepper? Go here.

TFA

The Future Antiques. Used to be located off Morganford now it’s a hop, skip and a jump away from me. Danger for all the mid-century modern enthusiasts out there, myself included.

Other noms

Pizza-a-go go

St. Louis style or “deep dish” (aside: can we teach St. Louisians what New York style vs Chicago style is?). This place is BYOB. Order some pies, bring some cold beverages and have a good night.

Biggies

Tons of sports memorabilia. Yummy food. Sports bar & grill with an Italian flare. Great for a quick dinner or for when you can’t decide where to go. Try: the steak sandwich or roast beef on cheesy garlic bread.

El Paisano

Better than El Maguey. Fantastic queso. Killer tequila selection. Mariachi band on Wednesday nights. Stumbling distance home…

Had a birthday fiesta here a couple years ago and these guys are great.

Pro Tip. Do NOT get the el cucaracha shot. Flaming badness.

Farmhaus

Expensive for dinner. Blue plate special for lunch is where it’s at. I personally love the bacon wrapped meatloaf. Check out the menu online, it changes seasonally for dinner.

Deli’s

Mom’s Deli

My old(er) deli love. Get the Mom’s special. Cash only.

LeGrand’s Deli

More of a bodega. Crazy awesome STL inspired sandwich selection and a Boar’s Head deli counter. Cheddar brats are amazing. Also the purveyor’s if the 22 Reasons I’m not a vegetarian shirt.

Booze

3500 Winehaus

Local wine bar. Great selection thats friendly to dogs, book clubs, bridal showers… They have a wine of the month club that I really don’t know much about. On the weekends (seasonally) they have live music on the back patio that lends a great ambiance to the neighborhood.

 

I won’t explain the library. It’s just the best one close to me.

Let’s talk about the library

I can’t begin to tell you how often I have a conversation about eBooks or audio books that ends with people *shocked* that you can rent them from the library. Hyperbole. I can. It’s once a week.

Most recently it was at Easter. The whole family (except Zach?) floored by the fact that you can download these things for free.

At my library you can set your rental time at a default for 7 or 14 days. After that time they disappear. Easy peasy. If the book you want isn’t available place it on hold. The library-bot emails you when it’s ready and you have 72 hours to download it before it’s released to the next person on the list. So simple the laziest among us can accomplish this!

People of the interwebs, go to your local library. Get a library card and pin number. Go online and then download the appropriate app to your phone/computer/schnoodle reader. Behold the beauty that is literature.

I love listening to audio books. I get that it’s not for everyone but at least give it a try. Find a book you’ve wanted to read but haven’t gotten around to because of lifeschoolworkchoreskidswhatever and see if your library has the audiobook for it. Give it a listen.

I would recommend:

·Bossypants by Tina Fey. She reads it herself and it’s wonderful.
·Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe. He also reads it himself and its lovely.
·Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. I started listening to this on a run and it was invigorating.

Audio books are kind of made or ruined by the reader. If you hate the reader in the first 5 minutes you will not get past that. Sorry. Keep in mind that the women who read men’s voices do a better job than the men who do women’s voices. Usually that is just creepy.

For the naysayers.

Listen when doing a mundane task. I like to listen to audio books when I’m hand washing our millions of dishes in our dishwasherless apartment. Or cleaning. Or walking the dog. Or running and music isn’t doing it for me. Or driving to/from work in stupid St. Louis traffic. Or when I’m at Target and don’t want to interact with anybody. (ditto for basically all stores.)

So I listen to them a lot of places. But seriously give it a try.
#bookloverforlife

On Staying Hungry

Sometimes life happens. Just boom and you’re on your ass looking for the bus you’re certain just hit you. Other times you’re swimming about with no drive or end goal pulling a Dory from Finding Nemo. (Aside, did you hear they are making a sequel called Finding Dory.)

I like planning. Planning trips, workouts, shopping lists, books I want to read, you name it – I will find a way to plan for it. Just call me Listy McListerson.

A couple of years ago I developed a workout strategy so when my family took a trip to Hawaii I could take surfing lessons and then not die after. It worked in that I wasn’t sore at all and had a great time, but I had a really hard time “popping up,” my little bro who did nothing in preparation did fine/felt great blah blah blah. Don’t get me wrong, that’s pretty awesome, in some ways I wish I could just go with the flow/pick up on stuff like that.

I’m also a fitness trend junkie. I like trying everything. Zumba, Spinning, Treading, Body Pump, Pilates, Yoga, Yogalates, Tai-Bo, 30 Day Shred, Wii Fit, Running, Bellydancing, Pole Dancing Fitness Class, Bikram (Hot) Yoga, Rock Climbing – etc. If I’ve read about it and it comes to St. Louis and is decently affordable I will try it.

For the past year or so I’ve really wanted to try Barre classes. I grew up taking dance (tap/ballet/jazz(modern)) classes and for years have missed it. I know for a fact that my early exposure to dance made me flexible and extremely comfortable in exercise classrooms with their intimidating wall-to-wall mirrors. Since Zumba hit the scene I have belonged to 3 different gyms and have never had a problem randomly showing up to class and picking up the steps. I love it.

The gym I currently belong to has 2 Barre classes at stupid times (10am for the SAHMs). They have another location that is less convenient but does have Barre after work. I’m thinking about switching but messing with my routine drives me nuts. < ---CrazyPlannerProblems.

I’ve also wanted to train and complete a triathlon since 2010. My then gym had a 30 day Iron Man challenge which sounded like a great way to go into the heat of summer and stay after it. I got a work sheet, the distances (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bicycle ride and a full marathon of running- 26.2 miles) and went to town logging every week and working harder than I had in a long time.

At the time I hadn’t swam (swum?) in years. Not laps anyway. It took 2 weeks to get my stroke/breathing right and the first time the breast stroke felt right again I was hooked. I did all of the biking inside. Yes, 112 miles of bike riding on stationary bikes. This is when I really got into Spinning class (they stated that 1 Spinning class = 14 miles) and decided I wanted a bike again. There is something about riding a bicycle outside that really makes me feel like a child again, once your butt gets reused to the seat. Ouch.

About running.

I am not a born runner. I am not a natural runner. I am still learning. That said, I am a runner.

I am a runner because I run. Not because I run fast. Not because I run far. I am a runner because I say I am. And no one can tell me I’m not.

-John Bingham

On that same family trip to Hawaii I got it into my head to buy some Vibram Five Finger Shoes and start running. I didn’t know that much about them but I figured I could also use them for surfing since the coral can mess your feet up pretty badly. I truly think those silly aqua shoes taught me how to run.

In high school I ran track. Well I did all of the jumping events and barely ran track. Every year I would develop horrible shin splints and hobble through the 4 x 400 meter relay we were required to do at certain meets. I was awful to say the very least. Handing off the baton scared me and have I mentioned that for most of my life I’ve had reoccurring nightmares about being chased and not being able to run?

I started running in 2010 with Vibram shoes and haven’t had a problem with my shins since.

I only use those shoes now for walks in the trails around my office. But in terms of teaching my feet how to strike and my body to adjust I think there is something to the barefoot running stuff.

I finished the Iron Man Challenge, got my t-shirt and decided that I wanted to run a half-marathon. In St. Louis the large marathons and half marathons are in the spring and fall, when the weather is somewhat bearable. When I finished this challenge it was the middle of July and the next half was in October. I didn’t know if I could get to 13.1 miles of running in 3 months. I bailed until spring 2011.

I didn’t know much about training for running events. I did know that I really enjoyed my Ironman workouts. So I kept at ‘em. I was swimming regularly and feeling pretty great. I did my first race less than a month before the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon, the St. Patrick’s Day 5 mile run. Man, did I hurt. You see I’d been only training inside on treadmills and the small indoor track above my gym. My body wasn’t remotely ready for the pounding that running on asphalt is. I adjusted. I started running outside. Thankfully daylight savings hit so I could safely run outside after work. I am so not a morning person. I ran on trails. I found that runners are some of the nicest, happiest exercisers out there. This old man would be running on my normal Queeny Park day, he had to have been in his 70’s, every time I would see him it made me stronger. “If he can do it, so can I!” I’ve lived a lot of my life by looking to others and saying to myself that very thing. The week before the half I was ready. I hadn’t read all the literature so I didn’t know about tapering, but I was kind of doing it naturally. Until disaster struck that is. I went for a swim the Thursday before the race. Felt great. A friend needed a girl sub for their indoor soccer league. Okay. I grew up playing soccer; I’m in great shape what can possibly go wrong? Famous last words. I ended up spraining my left foot pretty badly, twice during that game. Stupid, stupid, stupid. My boyfriend got a giant Tupperware bucket thing and bags and bags of ice- which is where my foot lived for the next 2 days while I decided what to do. I went to the marathon expo and saw one of their docs who said I could run on it. DING DING DING, that’s all I needed to hear.

To make a long and rambling story not even close to shorter I finished the half, slowly. And with a giant, squishy sprained ankle/foot thing going on. It’s still not quite right. Do not run 13.1 miles on a bad ankle sprain. It is not smart.

I took a month off, had x-rays done and felt pretty stupid. I continued to run the rest of the year. The problem was that I was bit by the running bug. I didn’t want to stop.

Last year I spent a lot of time strengthening my foot/ankle. The only race I did was the zombie themed Run for Your Lives 5k Obstacle course with my boyfriend in August. I survived, he did not.

Otherwise last year I was fitness bored. I didn’t have a goal. I was turning 30 and lost some of my joie de vivre. I got chubby and kinda said “eh.”

So I think for me I really have to stay hungry. Not for food, but for life. For dance and fitness and moving my body. Our bodies are amazing and they do not want to be stuck behind desks all day to be followed by sitting on couches at night.

DJ and I are going to play some tennis at the amazing parks in our neighborhood. I’m running again and my foot is better than it was. I’m dancing and swimming and stretching and swinging and I hope you do the same.