Still in the middle of my crazy busy spring event calendar! Since I drew some of the tasty Des Moines meals I had, it only felt fair to do the same for the excellent food I had visiting St. Louis.

St. Louis was a much shorter trip, and I didn’t really leave the Central West End much while I was there. That was ok: 25 years ago, I lived in St. Louis, and the Central West End was my neighborhood! I walked past my very first grownup apartment there, and felt very nostalgic.

There weren’t very many places that I recognized from my days there, but Dressel’s Pub was one! I encountered my first Welsh rarebit at this place. They’ve expanded and opened a neat microbrewery, but the bar room felt largely the same, and I even recognized a lot of the art on the walls! Grilled chicken sandwiches don’t usually leap off the menu for me, but this one was actually pretty spectacular: just really well executed all around.

There are a lot of “-Tiger” named places in Chicago (Mister Tiger, Crying Tiger, Lilac Tiger, Kaiser Tiger. I’ve been to one of them!), and so Lazy Tiger caught my eye when I was walking down Euclid. The menu looked fun, so I stopped in for a cocktail and a snack after my signing at Left Bank Books. The drinks were phenomenal! The St. Louis Catholic (lol) was a delightfully herbaceous black manhattan made with raicilla (!) and mezcal (!!) and cynar (!!!) and it works exceptionally well. I wasn’t hungry enough to demolish the whole menu, which was a shame, as it all sounded great. But the crab fritters were absolutely delicious.

Before I caught my flight home the next morning, I stopped in at the Kingside Diner. When I lived in the Central West End, this place was my beloved Coffee Cartel - either that, or it was the evil Starbucks that maliciously opened across the street from my beloved Coffee Cartel, I couldn’t remember. Either way, now it’s a charming and extremely friendly diner with a few different locations and a bustling breakfast and brunch crowd. I got there very early, and sat in the window so I could people-watch. The breakfast tacos were a special, and the crispy pork belly was so tender it absolutely melted. An excellent final meal before leaving town.

In other news, I had a fabulous time at CAKE Chicago this year, and even moderated a panel there! If I saw you at CAKE this year, thank you so much for coming by, it was great to see everyone and be surrounded by so much amazing artwork. :)

Upcoming Events:

Saturday, May 9, I will be at Republic of Letters in Mineral Point, Wisconsin! I’ll be leading a recipe comics workshop followed by dinner and special cocktails! You can get tickets to the workshop here. I am super excited for this event, and we might even try to hit up the House on the Rock on our way out of Wisconsin. :) More events here!

Shameless Self-Promotion:

I was on WGN Daytime Chicago!! This was such a huge thrill!! I was nervous as hell, but it was so much fun. I’d never been on TV before, and it was fascinating to watch everyone working behind the scenes. Everyone at WGN Studios was so friendly and cool and kind! I was so excited to talk about recipe comics with the hosts. I still kind of can’t believe this happened. I also still can’t bring myself to watch the segment myself, but if you want to watch it, it is here.

What I’m Into Lately:

I’ve been so busy traveling and book-promoting that I haven’t had much time or bandwidth for anything besides playing Pokopia. (T_T) My book club is starting a new book, though, so hopefully I can write about that soon.

What Toki’s Into Lately:

Toki is nowhere to be found, but someone left a perfectly round Tribble in his place.