Best of St Louis

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We have spent the past 4 weeks in St Louis, and done our best to tap into the stomach of this town. First we have to say that we have had a great time here. It is a charming city with all sorts of gems. Here are some of our favorites, illustrated for you in the slide show above:

• Slow cooked pork a la Super Smokers. We did this two ways---with their sauce on our own grill, which was good, and at their restaurant which was great. We recommend: the PORK STEAK. Amazing. Ribs good too. Stick to the pork though. Other things weren't great.
  
• Beers at the Boat House in Forrest Park. And not just any beer, but the local Schlafly's Unfiltered Wheat Hefeweizen.
  
• DIY bloody mary's at Brandt's on the Loop. Don't shy away from the clam juice. Second place bloody mary goes to some place whose name we can't remember off of Euclid Ave that made them with gin and balsamic pickled onion. Dee-lish.
• Burning calories by touring the Arch (it really is impressive), Museum of Westward Expansion, and Old State Courthouse.
  
• Beef brisket sandwich at BBQ spot in Busch Stadium. I'm tellin' ya, it was really good! Much better than Super Smokers brisket, which was dry and tough. You can find the BBQ spot at Busch stadium near Ford plaza on the first floor by right field.
• Sitting in the gorgeous garden at John D McGurks Irish pub in Soulard.
  
• Not pictured here, but dinner at Charlie Gitto's in the Hill. Wow. Living in New York, we foolishly tend to think that we've seen it all when it comes to Italian cuisine. But the food here really exceeded expectations: slow roasted pork shank with dark fruit reduction over porcini risotto. Etc. And the dining room was perfectly rat-pack-eqsue, but in a tasteful and welcoming way.
  
• Being able to drink beers while touring the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I mean, it's sponsored by Anheiser Busch, you know? The jungle room in the climatron was a particularly good accompaniment to a Bud Select. The Chihuly and Niki sculptures were really cool too.
• Our take on St Louis pizza: we tried the local standard, Imo's, known for square slices and a very thin (Matzo-esque) crust. Cyrus prefers a bit more chew than crackle in his crust, and the pizza here was more the latter. But overall not bad.