Little Fox in Fox Park area of STL 8-26-23

Fox Park is an area that is located where some swanky old homes used to be, but is is a run down somewhat scary area, now.  

Little Fox sits on a corner in a residential area of homes that are trying to change the demographic.  They are taking the old homes and investing in renovation and hoping to change the neighborhood.  

Little Fox started out rather small and then was nominated for a James Beard and everything changed.  People from all over St. Louis were coming to Fox Park.  

The night we visited the clientele was almost 100% white and only eclectic in its sexual orientation.  

The neighborhood is similar.  There are housing projects on the outer areas of Fox Park and that's where there is greater diversity.

Little Fox is a "fancy" restaurant in an old building. You have to plan ahead for Little Fox, as they only take reservations about 3 weeks in advance and it fills up fast.  You can make reservations for inside or outside.  Since you never know about St. Louis weather in August, we made our reservations for inside.  

We began our night with cocktails.  They have a variety of very interesting cocktails.  We started with 2 of them.  

We started with a Prospect Park (left) which has Oaxaca rum, Caribbean rum, aloe liquor, curacao, lime, agave, and egg white. And a Cab Fare (right) which has white rum, aperol, dry vermouth, pineapple, lemon and clarified milk.

I ordered the Cab Fare and Mike ordered the Prospect Park, but it ended up that Mike didn't like his drink.  The Caribbean rum has a distinct mint aftertaste and he didn't like it.  So, we switched cocktails.  

I agree, the Prospect Park was a weird drink with too many flavors and the Cab Fare was light and refreshing and easy to drink

For an appetizer we ordered the 'Nduja Corquetas.  This is made with 'Nduja sausage, rice, prosciutto, fontina cheese, Grenada pepper aioli.  They are very like arancini but with sausage.  

There was too much fatty things in this.  The sausage, the cheese, the prosciutto.  They needed something to balance out all the fat.  Mike liked them, I didn't. 

For dinner Mike ordered the flat iron steak.  It comes with crispy potatoes.  It is a very safe dish and he said it was fine. 

With dinner we had a bottle of red wine.  It was just OK.  It was a red blend from Italy.  

I had mussels.  The mussels are technically on a "small plates" menu.  I knew they wouldn't be a big dinner, but that was OK.  They came with grilled bread with aioli.  The mussels were good.  The broth they were in was fabulous.  The bread was just OK.  I wish they didn't have the aioli.  It was too thick, it gets cold and then it is kind of gross.  It would have been nice to be able to use the bread to sop up the broth.  

After dinner we split a piece of flourless chocolate cake with candied lemon zest.  I really liked that lemon zest on top (Mike didn't).  

Overall this restaurant was fine.  The server was fine.  I definitely wouldn't put it in the "fine dining" category.  The dishes were interesting and good, but nothing to rave about.  

I'm glad we tried Little Fox, but the distance, the neighborhood, and the difficulty getting a reservation, will probably keep us from returning. 

Wentzville Family Diner 8-25-2023

 I had read online about the fact that the Wentzville Family Diner had moved to a new and bigger location.  It was now across from the Wentzville Ice Arena.  So, on a Friday night, we decided to give it a try for supper.

The menu was large.  They serve all their breakfast items all day long.  

We decided to go with supper items.  Fish and chips was a special for the night.  I ordered that and asked if I could have onion rings instead of fries.  Mike ordered chicken fried steak.  Both came with a veg and soup or salad.  I asked for soup and Mike asked for a salad.  

The waitress brought Mike's salad with a bunch of salads for the table next to us.  She said that she accidentally had an extra salad with ranch dressing and gave it to me.  I don't really like salad with onions, and tomatoes and ranch, but I picked at it.  At one point I think a waiter was brining me my soup (chicken  and dumplings) and saw that I had a salad and figured he must have been mistaken and took my soup back to the kitchen.  I never got my soup!

My fish (cod) was good.  They onion rings were find.  

Mike's chicken fried steak was just OK.  He thinks the "steak" was pre-made from a pre-purchases vendor and then fried here.  The "gravy" seemed pre-made too.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. 

Mike said we would come back here and try their breakfast, but their dinner wasn't worth coming back for.  

Chillax in Cottleville 8-19-2023

 We had friends in town from Minneapolis.  We were looking for something to do on a Sat. afternoon and came across a post that said that this was a fun way to spend an afternoon.

It is situated in the end of the Triad strip.  There are a whole bunch of small businesses in the Triad strip mall and then it stops and there is Chillax.  A friend of ours said it used to be a donut shop.

It is very odd when you walk in.  There are 2 separate businesses.  The bar (drinks) is one business and the food is a 2nd business.  So, we found a table and looked at the menus.  Mike went and ordered drinks and I went and ordered food.  We got a shrimp platter.  It had butterflied fried shrimp and fries. We also ordered some toasted ravioli. They have many different beers on tap in small and large glasses.  

Tim and Vicki ordered drinks and then ordered some fried fish and fries.  Everyone (except me) ordered some type of beer on tap. Tim got some kind of blueberry beer that Mike really liked, so Mike then ordered a 2nd glass of that.  

They text you when the food is ready and you go pick it up at the food counter.   The butterfly shrimp was good but would have been better if the shrimp hadn't been butterflied.  Yes, butterflying them made them look bigger, but it dries they out.  The coating on the shrimp was good and flavorful.  I liked it.  The fries were just OK.  The toasted ravioli were fine, nothing exceptional.  

Tim said the fried catfish was really good.  

The place was loud and very casual.  The cement floors and super casual tables didn't lend to an ambiance that made me want to return.  Because there was friend chicken on the menu, there were families here to enjoy the food.  It was a cross between a restaurant and a bar and it was just and OK place to spend a few hours.