ten twelve

May 31, 2012

Yesterday was a very, very exciting day!

My interview with Chef Harold Jurado at Chizakaya made the homepage of Huffington Post Chicago! It can now be seen in the Restaurant section.

I wanted to run around the house, jumping up and down. Pretty freaking excited! :)

11:43am | URL: http://tmblr.co/Z3W7SyMUWl3n

May 29, 2012

my stiletto heel ;)

thanks for sharing, Rex! <— check out his blog!

3:43pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/Z3W7SyMNPXFS

Filed under: catwoman dark knight rises movies poster

May 21, 2012

{mini} weekend getaway: STL

The hubby and I took a weekend road trip to St. Louis and enjoyed every minute of it!

Historic Route 66 Road Stop

White T’s & sunnies

Bling + Neon

After a 5hr drive, we reached downtown St. Louis. Not bad!

After lots of food research, Pappy’s Smokehouse was the first stop on our list!

We read many, many reviews that noted the long lines at Pappy’s that start as soon as the restaurant opens… but wow, they weren’t kidding! We arrived at around 11:25, and there was already a line at least 50 people deep.

The food…. TOTALLY worth the wait!

Pulled Pork, Brisket, Slaw & Sweet Potato Fries. The Pulled Pork was delicious. The brisket did not make me a happy camper. It was dry, chewy and just not good. The sweet potato fries, however, made up for it. Easily the best sweet potato fries ever.

The Hubby definitely chose the winning combo - half slab of ribs, hot links, fried corn on the cob and barbecue beans.

One bite of the ribs from Pappy’s and you instantly know why this place is on the top of everyone’s list, and why you see slabs and slabs of ribs being brought into the kitchen from the smoker outside. AH-MAZING. The hot links - yum!

After we indulged in BBQ, we checked into our hotel (Hilton Ballpark) and realized it is right next to the Cardinals stadium. Too bad there weren’t any home games.

City Garden

I didn’t blame these kids for running around in the water… It was 100F that day, and I was very close to doing so myself.

The hubby & Gateway Arch

Date night!

I picked our date night restaurant based on reviews, articles, etc… Brasserie by Niche did not disappoint - a quaint, romantic, utterly French restaurant in the middle of the Central West End neighborhood. The atmosphere, service, food and wine were all excellent.

Chicken Liver Pâté

The hubby’s Bœuf Bourguignon

My Bistro Steak (excellent!!)

Chocolate Mousse for dessert

After dinner we stopped by Taste, next door to Brasserie, to try some of their very creative cocktails. Our mixologist, Shannon, was awesome (and took this photo for us)

After drinks at Taste, we went back to our hotel and checked out the 360 bar/lounge thinking we’d end off the night with a quiet cocktail…. it was a Rooftop Partyyyyy up there! We had a blast, and tipsily (sp?) made it back to our rooms around 2am. :)

Sunday morning we woke up early to go check out the Gateway Arch again and wait in line to visit the Observation Deck on top. The tram ride up was claustrophobic and scary for me… but the view from the top was pretty amazing (even if I was about to have a panic attack)