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Published: August 26th 2015
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Stone Hill Winery
Now you're really talking old Seems like lately we traveled a lot to attend events of friends or visiting friends. This trip was no exception. When I first came to the States I ended up in Kansas City, Missouri. I had no clue where it was, what it was, or what it was gonna be like. I also had no clue it was gonna be 10 below with a wind chill on my first day and in the summers close to a 100 degrees with pretty much 100% humidity. I met some exceptional people who helped me get through that year (the Getchells from KC) and helped me out a lot. Naturally I was pretty excited to go back and show Nikkie my "first US city".
Flights to KC was pretty expensive for November so it turned out much much cheaper to fly into St. Louis and rent a car and drive to KC - just more of an excuse to do a mini road-trip. As always we just can't go straight to our destination so we planned a little detour. We landed in ST. LOUIS fairly late in the afternoon and as always food was the first thing on our minds. Nikkie found "The
St. Louis
First thing we saw in the airport. Yes!!! Block" in one of the suburbs of St. Louis. It was a farm to table concept. We are always open to trying these to see what they can come up with. We had the:
1) flash fried brusselsprouts w/ bacon, caramelized onions, lemon and toasted almonds (really good)
2) boulevard tank 7 beer (good)
3) ribeye w/ fries (one of the better pieces of meat I've had)
4) pork burger w/ garlic herb fries (good)
A really good meal with refreshing food and a nice little ambiance and some good beers. I am always hesitant to get steak/meat because it's very hit-and-miss, but this was really well prepared, cooked and seasoned. Well we had places to be but before heading off we made a quick stop at TED DREWES FROZEN CUSTARD FOR ICE CREAM, THE CRATER COPERNICUS AND FROZEN CUSTARD. We did not get all of this at once. We made another stop on the way back from KC. The Crater Copernicus is just a hodge-podge of sweety goodness - devil's food cake topped with custard, hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry. Yeah - good stuff. The ice-cream and frozen custard was awesome as well. This is just
The Block
Enjoying a beer. Cheers to vacation. one of those institution places where people come no matter what the time or temperature is. Well worth the stop.
As mentioned our plan was to make a quick detour on the way to KC. Detours only we would generally make. We decided to hit up MISSOURI WINE COUNTRY on the way. Hang on what? Wine-country in Missouri? Yep - you heard that one right. HERMANN Missouri. I made a reservation at the WINE VALLEY INN - a beautiful old red brick building restored and turned into an inn in the middle of Hermann. We got there very late and even hit some pretty bad fog on the way so the innkeepers were gracious enough to leave us the keys. Old, creaky and with a street lamp shining directly into the adjoining room turning it into this yellow creepy, eerie scene. The room was massive though and full of character so we don't mind. We did get some good sleep.
The next morning we were up and ready to go, but not before we were treated to a really hearty breakfast - sausage and eggs with french toast made with fresh home-made bread and fresh fruit sliced up
- quite the send-off. We walked around Hermann for a little bit and enjoyed the old ARCHITECTURE and SHOPS. We stopped in at a couple shops and also at Rickey's Chocolate Box. The chocolates were ok. We enjoyed walking to the bridge crossing the Mississippi river and watching the mighty Miss slowly flowing by. Time for some wine so we drove around and saw plenty of VINES growing outside and around town. We headed straight to STONE HILL WINERY. We were pretty much the only people there (it was a rainy Friday morning after all) so we did a tour which was pretty informative about the property and also stories from prohibition when they had to pretty much empty all the "stock" they had. Pretty amazing all the alcohol that they had to dump. Afterwards we got a tasting of the wines and bought a pretty good stock of wine - Norton (signature), reserve Vignoles, and Chardonel. We really liked the Norton so that is highly recommended. After this we walked over to the VINTAGE RESTAURANT AT STONE HILL WINERY FOR SAUSAGE. The hot dog was really good with sauerkraut and mustard - this is a German town after all
so I would not expect anything less. We also did another wine flight and tried the sparkling grape juice that they make on the property. Overall we were really surprised at the quality of the wine actually.
One of the "drives" in our books is the VALLEY WINE COUNTRY. The above area, including HERMANN TOWN, makes up the majority of the drive. The HERMANN WINE TRAIL is actually laid out and we definitely did not do the entire trail since there are quite a few vineyards, but we definitely hit the main one. It really is just a beautiful area to explore with the fields, the river and everything else surrounding it.
The rest of the day we just pent slowly making our way towards Kansas City while chasing after eagles along the river. We would spot one and immediately take off after it trying to get close enough. We got close on a couple and saw one glide over the river and catch a fish from afar. These are the things we do. Driving through back-country Missouri was also an experience. Rolling hills, old abandoned houses, beautiful trees and river scenery. We did finally make it to
Hermann
Welcome to wine country in MO!! Kansas City and found a really cheap Hilton hotel just across the river in Kansas. The Plaza area which is the most popular part is pretty expensive when it comes to hotels so this is a much cheaper alternative.
The next morning we met up with the Getchells and had a good time catching up and enjoying brunch. The Getchells pretty much took care of me the first year I was in the States so I will forever be very, very grateful for what they did for me. I am a big KANSAS CITY fan - especially the barbecue and the music. This was a very short trip so the visits were pretty quick too. First stop Friday night was at ARTHUR BRYANT'S BARBEQUE (we did make another subsequent stop the following day). Well you go to ARTHUR BRYANT'S BARBEQUE FOR BURNT-ENDS and for SHORT RIBS and for SKIN-ON FRENCH FRIES. Good food. Good barbeque. Friendly service. Got to try it out. It is located just off of 18TH AND VINE - an area now known for music and museums. The AMERICAN JAZZ MUSEUM was our first stop. Really cool museum with interesting displays where you can stand at these
Wine Valley Inn in Hermann
Sending us off with way too much food stations and listen to songs from all the different singers/ performers. The BLUE ROOM AT THE MUSEUM DURING THE DAY is also part of the museum, but at night it springs to life with some good old time classic jazz performances. The NEGRO LEAGUES BASEBALL MUSEUM is right there (seems like it really is just on big museum since they are in the same building). As a pretty avid baseball fan and knowing a bit about the history of the sport it was a pretty neat learning experience. The history of the league, the players, how good some of them were but were never able to truly showcase their talents, the stories. Once again a very interactive museum where I learned quite a lot. We were here for a wedding and the wedding was beautiful and in an old converted warehouse. The drive back was uneventful and we got some dinner at Frontera Grill in the St. Louis airport (a Rick Bayless restaurant). We got the chorizo and pork and fig tacos (extremely sweet) which was actually really good for airport food.
Not too much in the way of likes, dislikes and advice. It's like travelling anywhere else in
Stone Hill Winery
The aging process the US. We loved the food and the wine country was definitely quite the surprise so we would recommend that.
Well - just another state down. We were actually able to complete 5 things in our books during this short visit including Arthur Bryant's Barbeque, Missouri Wine Country, 18th and Vine, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard and Valley Wine Country. So 258 down and 5,523 to go.
Til next time from an unexpected source of red wine and a very expected source of really good BBQ
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sarvesh
non-member comment
Great information
Thanks For posting about Missouri little bit if Kansas . it is great post for all travelers. give keep it up for next post. thanks http://www.seair.co.in/