The Gift of Adventure – Sam’s Birthday Trip to The Hill

You hear us talk about the “Gift of Adventure” a lot around here at Lagom and for Sam’s last birthday (yeah I’m a little late in blogging about it) we took her on a “food adventure.”  Sam is a foodie and so is her friend Reese, so they are always more than willing to drive for food. This is the third year that we have done a food related birthday and the second time for a “progressive” style adventure.

In St. Louis when you think of adventure worthy food, The Hill has to be at the top of your list. A while back, I had noticed that there were walking food tours offered through The Hill Neighborhood. I wanted to do this for Sam’s birthday, but when I checked the availability they were all booked up. So I had still had the intentions of doing a food walking tour, but I was going to have to do a little more leg work on my own. I’m fairly good at research and planning,so I was up for the challenge.

As most of us do these days, I initially went to Google and search “St. Louis Hill Food Tours.”  I found the one that I was interested in but it was sold out. But then I also found a couple lists of places to visit on The Hill – both food and historical stops. I started compiling my list. I then moved my research over to TripAdviser and Yelp and found a few other possible stops.  

With some places in my mind, I started a list of what each place had to offer and started narrowing down my choices based on their menus and location. When it was all said and done I had eight different places on my list.

So Saturday morning, Sam, Reese, Aaron, and I set out for a Lagom worthy food adventure.  The girls didn’t know of the plan until that morning, and I didn’t give out the specific details until each stop.  That being said our first stop was for an appetizer.

1.  MAMA TOSCANO’S RAVIOLI AND DELI – These are handmade ravioli that takes a three day process to finish.  And did I mention it was featured on FoodNetwork’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”?

We went in placed our order for one order and then went outside under the umbrella and waited for them to cool.  They were extremely hot, as well as, the weather. If it had been a little cooler, this could have been a walking tour, but being in the upper 90s with the Missouri humidity we decided to drive the few blocks between places.

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These were a pleasant appetizer for our first stop.  A little lighter and less dense than the frozen restaurant one or store bought ones we might normally get. We were pleased with stop one on our food tour of the The Hill. On to stop number two!

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2. Gioia’s Deli – First off this deli has been in business a 100 years (1918 -2018) and is a James Beard Foundation Award Winner, so I had no worries that this would be good.  It was a busy Saturday morning, but we were able to squeeze in the door and decide on what we wanted. Due to my prior research, I already had in mind what we needed to order, but I was going to let the others have a look.  

They are famous for their Hot Salami so that was a must, be were were going to choose two sandwiches to share.  Aaron picked the second and he wanted an Italian Trio. If anyone was watching us this day, they probably thought we were nuts. Everywhere we went we ordered a few things and split them between four people. When doing these type of food adventures, you can’t be afraid to share!  People looking in from the outside must have thought that I was a real cheapskate by making everyone share, but we were really trying to just sample and save room for all our stops.

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These sandwiches were big and did not disappoint.  We probably could have just shared one and it would have been enough, but we wanted to sample two. There was a split between us on which one we preferred. At some point, we will be back again!

3. Across the road from Gioia’s is a nice little neighborhood park, so we stopped to read about the history.  If it had not been so awfully hot, it would have been nice to eat our sandwiches over here. We saw the name Berra Park and assumed it was named after Yogi Berra who grew up on The Hill, but after reading the placard we realized that was incorrect.  But I’m guessing that assumption it made quite often. “The park was named Virgo Park when the site was purchased by the city in 1945. In November, 1965 it was renamed in honor of the late Louis G. “Midge” Berra, who was a long time political force in the area, in November, 1965.”

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At this point let me just say that we could have chosen to have eaten a nice “fancy” dinner at one of the expensive Italian restaurants on The Hill (think Prom 1993  at Zia’s). Aaron and I have both eaten at some of the nicer places in the past and will again, but for this day we wanted An Adventure. We wanted the girls to really get a taste (pun intended) for what all The Hill had to offer and to experience the feel of the neighborhood.  We thought this was best done by sampling several different places throughout the area.

With that being said, up next . . .

4. Adriana’s on the Hill – “Adriana’s is a small family owned lunch cafe nestled in St. Louis’ Italian section of town, known as “The Hill.” The restaurant opened its doors in December of 1992 and is run by Adriana Fazio and her daughters.”

This was very crowded on this Saturday afternoon with the line wrapping along the inside of the building.  It moved fairly quickly while one lady sat on a stool and took orders for the others behind her to fill. Again it is deli style, so we studied the menu, while waiting in line.

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You can’t go to The Hill without eating pasta, so we were definitely getting the lunch special of pasta – Pasta topped with our Tomato Basil Sauce– and a side, which we chose the salad.  And we were fortunate enough to grab one of the last orders of the Sicilian slice with an order of olive salad for the olive fans.

These were both fantastic!  I am not much of a straight red sauce lover without the extra cheese, but this was great.  And I think Sam and Aaron mentioned that it was the best sauce they had ever had. I found my extra cheese on the Sicilian slice and it was just what I needed.  Needless to say, we will be returning at some point.

On this one block, I had three different stops planned.  

5. The first being Adriana’s and the second being J. Viviano’s and Sons Grocery store.  We wanted to shop an authentic store and take a few mementos home with us to have later.  One of the main reasons that I chose this stop was because of the olive bar. Did I mention Sam is an olive lover – like serious olive lover?

This is an “old-fashioned, family run” grocery store for the last 65 years  and “Sauce Magazine just Voted Us Top BEST International Grocery Store in St. Louis!”

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I believe I have mentioned before that I like to “wander and peruse” the aisles of the grocery store while not necessarily shopping for anything particular but just seeing what is available and catches my eye, so I was intrigued by checking out what this authentic store had to offer.  In addition to the canned and dry items, it offers a nice selection of local made meats and sausages, wine, fresh and frozen pasta, and did I mention the olive bar? The olive bar is a deli section full of 5 gallon tubs of differing varieties of olives that you can miss and match and by buy the pound. Sam was in heaven.  She and Aaron spent a bit of time sampling, discussing, and finally deciding on which selections to take home. We all made a few selections, including Reese, and left with our boxes of Italian groceries.

We dropped those purchases in the car and headed to our third destination on this block.

6.  Shaw’s Coffee  – “Shaw’s Coffee was founded in 1999 as a micro-roastery in the historic Italian neighborhood of St. Louis known as “The Hill.” The company’s origin was based on a real passion for coffee, and Shaw’s Coffee maintains an absolute commitment to the highest quality coffees and personal service.”

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Sam may love olives, but Reese and Sam are both developing a love for coffee or on this particular day iced coffee. We had done quite a bit of eating up to this point, so we decided take a few minutes and rest and enjoy the smell – the smell of fresh roasted coffee beans.  The girls and I placed our orders – them iced coffee and me just a “regular” cup. We also bought a pound of coffee to take home. We couldn’t forget Mrs. Pinkley’s love of coffee, so bought her some too.

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We took our drinks and joined Aaron at a table by the window, so we could rest and people watch. We sipped and shared and relished in the company.  The fact that two teenage girls were still willing to be seen with the adults.

After our brief intermission, we were on to the third act of our food adventure  – dessert! I knew we needed to visit an Italian bakery and my research did not disappoint.  No matter what site you look on, you will find rave reviews about this bakery.

7.  The Missouri Baking Company was a bit overwhelming upon entering – just because of the amount and variety of selections.  We took a minute to take it all in then we connected with a worker, and I began picking and choosing with input all the way.  We chose an assortment of Italian cookies, pastries, cannolis, napoleans, and macarons. Two boxes and a bag later, we were headed out the door.  We didn’t plan on eating these at the moment, but to take them home. Let’s just say we made a fairly good dent in them once we got into the car. I can also say it is here that my love affair with the French macaron began – sigh.

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My new love affair may have been the French macaron, but my oldest is with ice cream.  Our last stop was to experience the Italian version of ice cream – gelato. I’ve had gelato before, but never from a shop solely dedicated to gelato.  Today was going to be the day to do so. We were headed to our last stop which was in walking distance of the bakery.

8. Gelato del Riso – If I fell in love with macarons then this is where Aaron fell in love with gelato, specifically the grapefruit gelato.  When we entered it was a tad bit crowded with the reason being that this was the last stop of the food tour that I initially wanted to book.  (The tour doesn’t list the specific stops, so this was purely luck on my part. I would like to credit it to my trusty research.)

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Again we had a decision to make – what flavors were we picking.  We all decided on the piccolo size of two flavors with each person getting different ones so we could sample.  (Remember these are community meals.) I don’t remember the specifics of what each person ordered, but I do remember the lemon was a favorite and then the grapefruit that Aaron still mentions.

 

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As we were scraping the bottom of our paper cups trying to get every last lick of the gelato, we took a few minutes to reflect on the day.  IT WAS A GOOD DAY! A good day for food, a good to wander a historical part of St. Louis, a good to appreciate something different, a good day to celebrate a teenage girl, a good day of adventure.

So if the next time you are looking for adventure – a Lagom Adventure , one that puts the spotlight on the food offering of The Hill in St. Louis, then try out some of these places.  Or even better, surprise someone and give them the gift of adventure and hit every stop!