Day Trip: Staunton & Mt Olive Illinois

Two weeks ago I wrote a post called Please Enjoy The Weekend, I didn’t give the details of our planned day trip. Today I want to share with you what we did that day. We crossed into Illinois on the Eads Bridge and took state roads through Pontoon Beach, Edwardsville, and other towns on the way to our first stop.  A detour near our destination forced us onto I-55 for about a mile.

We’re going to repeat this day trip when there’s no snow or water out. As car guys looking at classic on historic Route 66 is a fun interest. We have more fun planned for this weekend!

Spring starts this afternoon at 5:45pm.

— Steve Patterson

I’d Love An Eataly St. Louis

During my nearly week-long visit to Chicago I shopped at three very different grocery stores: local chain Treasure Island, national chain Whole Foods, and Italian-based global chain: Eataly.

The only other Eataly in North America is in NYC. Most are in Italy, other cities with a location include Tokyo , Dubai, and Istanbul.

The Italian businessman Oscar Farinetti opened the first Eataly in an old vermouth factory in Turin, Italy, in 2007. Twenty-six outlets later, the word Eataly has been spoken so many times from Turkey to Tokyo—and now in River North—that you may have forgotten how silly it is. An Italian superstore called Eataly! That would be like an American food bazaar called United Plates. [Chicago Magazine]

Investors such as Mario Batali are looking to expand to cities like Boston, Philadelphia, etc.

i doubt we’ll see an Eataly in St  louis, but I also didn’t expect us to get an IKEA  The best location for an Eataly in St. Louis would be Ballpark Village because it offers a high concentration of people much of the year. However, Eataly seems to prefer going into existing buildings.

— Steve Patterson

Still In Chicago To Avoid Snow In St. Louis

My husband and I had planned to return to St. Louis from Valentine’s weekend in Chicago via Amtrak late Sunday night — well technically just after midnight Monday morning. Sunday we realized the weather would make it difficult for me — arriving so late there wouldn’t be MetroBus service and getting the nearly 3/4 of a mile home on un-shoveled sidewalks in frigid temperatures wasn’t an option.

We tried to reserve a wheelchair taxicab from both companies that offer that service — but cited the coming storm as to why they couldn’t pick me up. My husband needed to be able to go to work Monday, so he left on our scheduled train but I changed my ticket to Tuesday morning — today. I’ll arrive later this afternoon.

The temperature will still be frigid and the sidewalks unusable, but I’ve arranged for a wheelchair taxicab to pick me up.

As a first, this post was started as a note on my iPhone Sunday night and finished at a Panera on my iPad Monday morning. The snow was good in that it forced me to learn to post from my iPad on the go.

— Steve Patterson

Happy Washington’s Birthday or Presidents’ Day?

So which is it: Presidents’ Day or Washington’s Birthday? What about Abraham Lincoln? The best answer I found online is from Snopes.com (recommended):

Claim:   The federal holiday observed in the United States on the third Monday of February is officially designated as “Presidents’ Day.”

FALSE

Their post is long and detailed, but the following is a good summary:

President Nixon is frequently identified as the party responsible for changing Washington’s Birthday into President’s Day and fostering the notion that it is a day for commemorating all U.S. Presidents, a feat he supposedly achieved by issuing a proclamation on 21 February 1971 which declared the third Monday in February to be a “holiday set aside to honor all presidents, even myself.” This claim stems not from fact, however, but from a newspaper spoof. Actually, presidential records indicate that Nixon merely issued an Executive Order (11582) on 11 February 1971 defining the third Monday of February as a holiday, and the announcement of that Executive Order identified the day as “Washington’s Birthday.”

Executive Order (11582) makes no mention of the title’s of the holidays:

(a) Holiday means the first day of January, the third Monday of February, the last Monday of May, the fourth day of July, the first Monday of September, the second Monday of October, the fourth Monday of October, the fourth Thursday of November, the twenty-fifth day of December, or any other calendar day designated as a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order.

Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is the 12th — my husband and I were on a Lincoln Service Amtrak train to Chicago on his birthday. Washington’s birthday s the 22nd — this coming Sunday.

— Steve Patterson

Repurposing Gas Stations As Restaurants

The other day, while waiting at a red light, I noticed a business had opened in an old filling station at Eichelberger & S. Kingshighway. The ice cream shop is called The Filling Station.

I haven’t patronized the business so I can’t speak to the food or service. However, I can say I love the building and its use as a restaurant. Before the light turned green I was thinking about the lunch my husband and I had in Kansas City, at a place I thought was a former gas station.

A hugely popular restaurant operating out of a current gas station? Here’s part of their story:

Later that year [1996], experience and commitment intersected with opportunity and serendipity at the corner of 47th Avenue and Mission Road in Kansas City, Kansas, where the owner of a little neighborhood gas station and convenience store, not far from the Stehneys’ house, closed the little fried chicken counter he had been operating inside the store. “It seemed like a pretty good place for a barbecue joint,” Jeff says. “Inside a gas station. Plus there was a liquor store next door, in the same building, which was kind of cool. But the main thing was that it was close to home. I knew we’d be putting in some long hours, and being close to home would be a really good thing. We put together a proposal, made an offer, and all of a sudden we were not only in the barbecue business, but also in the gas station business.” (Joe’s KC)

As a vegetarian I don’t visit BBQ places, but I’d read about their portobello sandwich: The Portobello Z-Man Sandwich $7.39 (smoked portobella, smoked provolone cheese, topped with two crispy onion rings, on a toasted Kaiser roll).

The operating gas station in KC doesn’t have the architectural charm of the older & smaller building in south St. Louis, but the idea is great. What a great way for someone wanting to get into the restaurant business — opening up inside an existing gas station. I’m curious how many gas stations we have in the region that have lunch counters inside. If you’ve got a great product, you could do well.

Have a great weekend, see you at 8am Sunday for a one day poll (8am-8pm).

— Steve Patterson