beSTL

beSTL helps former St. Louis residents maintain connections to the Gateway to the West when they've moved to a new city.

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There once was a film called Life is Beautiful about Nelly's "Hot in Herre" being looped on a radio station for 24 straight hours. Now, that movie has come to life.

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Congratulations Boston

beSTL has been hibernating a little in recent days as we've been focusing on the Cardinals and their World Series quest. While, we're disappointed in their lost, congratulations to Boston, the home of many proud ex-pats.

The Post-Dispatch featured two of them in an article this week: Two Cardinals fans resist Harvard's bubble, root for a win

But Cardinals fans at Harvard? “I can’t think of any grad students who are Cards fans,” Pettigrew said. “There’s one professor in the department who’s a die-hard Cards fan, but he can get away with that because he’s tenured and started his career teaching in St. Louis.”

It hasn’t deterred Nightingale and Holthouse. They’ve gotten some grief for St. Louis hats and shirts. A cafeteria worker even threatened — in jest? — to withhold food.

But most, so far, have been friendly about the burgeoning rivalry.

“It’s a little easier when the Red Sox are winning the Series,” Nightingale said, “to wear your Cardinals hat around.”

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Née

The Burlington, Chicago

October 8, 2013

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Relocating to Detroit was absolutely the right decision for me. I don’t know whether I’ll stay here beyond the next several years, but even if I move, it won’t be to St. Louis. But a flipside to the wonderful possibility and novelty of relocation is that you don’t have people around that you go back with. Nobody knows the things you were content to leave behind, but they also don’t know what you’re capable of and where you’re from.

Our friend Claire on unexpected shared heritage and what makes a hometown. 

Hometownness: Old guitars and shared stories

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October Calendar

Oct 8: Née @ The Burlington

Oct 10: Doom Town @ Undisclosed Location

Oct 12: Water Liars @ Schubas

Oct 19: Kentucky Knife Fight @ Tonic Room

Oct 24: Troubadour Dali @ The Burlington

see ya there?

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"You can taste the Gateway Arch"

-Jon Hamm eating Imo's on Jimmy Kimmel Live

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From the Lou to Lakeview: Paddy Long’s

Paddy Long’s: 1028 W. Diversey

Summary: This friendly neighborhood pub offers beer and bacon pairings as well as a refuge for stranded St. Louisans.

On a recent Saturday evening, the beSTL team went on a research expedition to Paddy Long’s. A little birdie had informed us that the pub harbors artisan ales by the brewers at St. Louis’s Perennial Beer. We arrived seeking the Perennial Recital and found it featured as the evening’s special. I’m told that the Recital is a double dry-hopped Belgian-style Imperial IPA, but all I know for sure is that is that it tastes mighty nice.

The friendly bartender noticed our strange fixation on our beer and informed us that a few months ago Perennial had taken part in a Missouri tap takeover at Paddy’s during the Chi Beer Week. The takeover included several brews from Perennial as well as Second Shift and Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewery. beSTL loves this idea for spreading the word about Missouri’s tasty exports beyond AB products.

Apparently, Paddy Long’s rotates their STL beer selections. According to the pub’s website, they are currently offering the Perennial Violet and the O’Fallon Smoked Porter. We began wondering: Why would a Chicago bar have such dedication to STL brews? It seems that owner Pat Berger is originally from St. Louis and still embraces his roots.

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All Over Uptown: O’Fallon Beer

The Uptown Lounge: 1136 W Lawrence Ave, Chicago

Fat Cat: 4840 N Broadway St, Chicago

Summary: O’Fallon beers in Uptown are a perfect way to celebrate a Cubs loss on a warm summer evening.

The next time you're looking for a nice place to spend an evening, consider hopping on the red line and heading to Uptown at the Lawrence stop. Here you will find the nexus of the universe of big old movie houses, an incredible jazz club, and a couple nice lounges serving up O'Fallon beer. 

O'Fallon Brewery is located just west of St. Charles, MO, and head brewer Brian Owens' accolades include a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival as well as a diploma from Fort Zumwalt North High School. The beer tastes great and their considerable distribution throughout the midwest and south allows the beer to be enjoyed by more than just STL-area residents.

After watching the Cardinals defeat the Cubs last Saturday we headed to the Uptown Lounge. Get there early to have a quiet place to yourself. Get there late to have a rowdy time til 4am. O'Fallon's Weach and Hemp Hop Rye are both available. The Weach combines the flavors of peaches and wheat beer in a nice mixture that is not too sweet - it's a perfect summer evening drink. The Hemp Hop Rye is smooth and flavorful. It's not as hoppy as you might expect. 

After the Uptown Lounge started getting noisy we moved around the corner to Fat Cat where we finished our night with the O'Fallon 5 Day IPA. The 5 Day is is a nice American IPA with a big hoppy finish. It was a great way to end a summer night. 

O'Fallon beer is available in other stores and bars outside of Uptown. We recommend using www.beermenus.com as a way to start your search for STL beers near your home. 

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beSTL Features: The Beers of St. Louis

Shortly after moving to Washington, DC, I walked into a convenience store and noticed a six pack of Schlafly beer staring at me from behind frosted glass. It was completely unexpected and helped lubricate my transition to a city primarily known for crack-smoking mayors and traffic congestion.

After moving to Chicago, I was disappointed to find Schlafly was not available whatsoever (for the time being...). While researching Schlafly distribution, I learned that numerous other STL area craft brews are available at bars and stores across both Chicago and the great states of America. 

This week beSTL will begin a series detailing STL breweries and the establishments that promote and serve the Beers of St. Louis.  

Here's a sneak peak of an O'Fallon 5 Day IPA I enjoyed while celebrating the Cardinals victory over the Cubs this past Saturday. (Photo credit: P. Nappier)

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Gooey Butter Cake at Gingersnap

Location: Gingersnap, 1416 West Irving Park Road, Chicago

Date of consumption: July 13, 2013

Summary: A sweet and cute butter cake prepared by another expat longing to share their home. 

If you've followed our first two explorations (here and here) into ex-pat gooey butter cake, you may remember the upside down, heated gooey butter cake at Sedgwicks. Well, we found the origin of that butter cake, and it's quite delightful.

We stopped by Gingersnap: Sweets & Stuff on Irving Park to try out their interpretation of Gooey Butter Cake. Gingersnap baker Jen Templeton grew up outside of St. Louis and has a soft spot in her heart for our favorite baked good. It turns out that Jen had been selling her treat to Sedgwicks but stopped when she found out about the inappropriate serving techniques.

  The ambiance at Gingersnap defeated any of our other destinations by far. Sweet and sunny, we sat at a round table in the front window. Our drinks were delicious and refreshing, and the presentation of all the treaties was adorable and enticing.

There were two flavors. Now, you might be a gooey butter cake purist and argue that the traditional style is best, but some of us lean more in the Park Avenue Coffee direction. We believe that multiple flavors can enhance the experience. We ordered both the plain and the blueberry. 

And then, there were the cakes themselves. They had a nice flavor with a touch of powdered sugar. They were not especially gooey, which for some is great, if they're turned off by eating a mixture solely consisting of butter and sugar. This was disconcerting at first taste, but after a few bites it was clear the goo was still there but had sunk down into the cake. Our reviewers tend to be in the camp that there should be some goo to cake distinction. Another departure from traditional style is that each was baked individually, kind of like a cupcake. 

The blueberry was officially deemed the favorite cake — it was flavorful, rich and came with a beautiful story about Jen bringing gooey butter cake to the people to Chicago, and we thank her for it. 

Head over to Gingersnap to support Jen and watch out for her future St. Louis creations. We would like to start a rumor that Jen may soon be baking giant toasted raviolis!

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So Many Dynamos all across the Upper Midwest. 

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Sleepy Kitty

The Tonic Room, Chicago, IL

Friday August 2, 2013

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St. Louis is the author. I love this city. It's teeming with beauty and talent and I think it's about to burst open. I would like to serve as a catalyst to this.

Henry Goldkamp

http://www.ksdk.com/news/watercooler/article/390732/71/Local-artist-looking-to-unite-St-Louis-with-typewriter-project

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This Friday there is a great band playing at the Tonic Room. Would you like to come? They are an excellent music and screen printing duo from south city called Sleepy Kitty. Their music is the primary reason to come. A second reason to come is that they are great ambassadors of the spirit of St. Louis to the rest of the country. The event is a Lolla counter-fest eloquently titled Fuckapalooza. Sleepy Kitty are headlining the show. 

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Bo & the Locomotive

Cafe Mustache, Chicago, IL

July 27, 2013

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It's great to see Pokey Lafarge making his network television debut on Letterman! 

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The Stage at KDHX

Those hard-working community-minded radio folks over at KDHX are cooking up a new idea. In their new building just down the block from the Fox Theater they will have a public concert space where they can broadcast live over the airwaves and across the web. Great idea, right? However, as a non-profit community station KDHX needs your help. They've been crowndsourcing the station for years through pledge drives, but this time they're doing it on Kickstarter. Check out their video and consider giving a few dollars to make it happen in the Lou.