Meet Me In Saint Louis - One Very Busy Week!

Time for another Tour Update! This week we rolled into Saint Louis after a trio of long travel days with stops in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis. Indianapolis deserves mention as I got the opportunity to have an incredible meal at St. Elmo's Steakhouse. The city's oldest restaurant, founded in 1902, they know how to prep a steak!
We arrived in Saint Louis on Wednesday and the group immediately scattered to begin exploring the city. We were staying at the Westin directly across from Busch Stadium, a perfect central location for all of our planned expeditions. After dinner of smoked ribs, turkey and brisket at Joe Bucks, I crashed pretty hard. Thursday was a free day and I had big plans. After exploring the city around the hotel in the morning, a group of us took in the Saint Louis Zoo in the afternoon. I was really impressed with the facilities, especially consider that there is no admission charge for the public. It is entirely funded through government grants and private donations. While we didn't quite have time to explore the entire 19 acres of exhibits, I did get to see a large percentage of the animals that they have on display. While not as impressive as the Toronto Zoo, it is obvious that the staff and community take great pride in their facilities.
Thursday night was the highlight of our week. I had organized and arranged tickets for 15 of us to see an NHL game at the Scottrade Center. The St. Louis Blues were hosting the league leading Colorado Avalanche. The Blues group sales department cut me a great deal on the seats. We were in section 103, up and to the left of the visitors net, 14 rows off the ice. By far, these were the best seats I have ever had at a hockey game, and they were only $75 per person. The simple fact that average people could afford to see the local NHL team play, and not have to mortgage their house to sit in the lower bowl was a shock to a Leafs fan like myself. The hockey game was absolutely explosive. The Blues ran up the score 7-3, and every time an Avalanche player attempted to start a fight, hoping to shift the momentum, the Blues enforcers beat them to a pulp. It was amazing to cheer for a team that actually had the potential to win for a change!
As an added bonus, one of my cast members had an in with the Blues Assistant Coach, Brad Shaw, and was able to get us backstage guest passes, which allowed us the opportunity to meet the Blues, get autograph's, shake hands, and then get a full tour of the locker room and training facility. Pretty amazing stuff! The entire staff of the Blues were great with us, indulging our wide eyed excitement at this behind the scenes look into their organization.
Friday was also packed full of entertainment as I booked in on tours of both Busch Stadium, home of the 2011 World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, and Anheuser Busch Brewery. Both tours were both informative and a lot of fun. One gave me the opportunity to stand behind home plate on Major League Baseball stadium, the other gave me free beer. Win, win. Also the supply and demand facts that I learned on the Budweiser tour made my head spin. For example the American Mid-West drinks 2.5 million cases of Budweiser product every 12-18 hours. Also for an individual to drain the contents of one of their massive beechwood aging tanks you would have to drink one beer an hour for over 127 years. FYI Budweiser has over 300 of these tanks on site at this brewery. That is a lot of beer. My favorite fun fact from Busch Stadium was the cost of entry to their exclusive Cardinal Club. These are special reserved seats directly behind home plate that also grant access to an exclusive club house restaurant before and after every regular season home game plus priority parking. Cost: $12,000 per season, minimum purchase 2 seats
($24,000), minimum contract 10 YEARS (total cost: $240,000) Sweet Jesus! If I ever change careers I am going to work for a professional sports team! I would be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that we also played 5 wonderful shows at the beautiful Peabody Opera House, a 3000 seat auditorium staffed by great people. I took the time to get to know a few of their staff over the course of the week (including the Head of Marketing, Production Manager, and General Manager) and everyone was really phenomenal to work with.
Other fun anecdotes: While we were in town we also shared our hotel with the Carolina Hurricanes and the Bosnian National Soccer Team. The NHL stars were very low key, not so much for the soccer players. Mobs of soccer fans swarmed the hotel hoping for autographs and photographs, necessitating added police and private security. At one point late one night I ended up on an elevator with about 6 of the soccer players, after having been told all day that we were not to be allowed anywhere near them by their private security force. I'm not a soccer fan, so I couldn't care less, but after their head of security waved me onto the elevator I kind of wondered what the big deal was. I also discovered a bar with more than 80 varieties of beer on tap, apparently the most anywhere in America. Be sure to check it out if you are ever in town. The Flying Saucer.
It was hard loading onto the bus this morning to leave St. Louis, but more adventures await. Next stop: Wisconsin, land of cheese...?!? Check back soon for more updates.

K/W Ribfest and Craft Beer Show

Yesterday I once again  had the pleasure of attending the annual Kitchener / Waterloo Ribfest and Craft Beer show in Victoria park.  Just the wife, the thief, and my current Padawan: Charles, were all along for the ride.  Once again the weather was amazing, and a good time was had by all, especially the Thief.  This year I decided it would be fun to live tweet/ Facebook update the entire event.  What follows is a basically unaltered transcript of the day, with a few added comments thrown in for context:

9:16am - Up and excited for ribs and beer!

11:58am - En route to Ribfest!  I can almost taste the beer.

12:36pm - Beer #1 - Flying Monkey- stereophonic wheat. Bitter and very hoppy for a wheat beer.  But a nice change up on a classic idea.

12:38pm - Beer #2 - Mill street - Walker's Blueberry Wheat - subtle blueberry undertones with a smooth finish.

12:54pm - Beer #3 - Nichol Brooke Brewery: Headstock IPA: a solid hoppy take on an old favourite with a smooth clean finish.

1:08pm - Beer #4 - Cameron's Brewery:Sirius Wheat Ale: smooth and clean with a fresh citrus finish.

At this point in the day I took the Thief for a walk over to the midway and won her a neon orange puppy dog stuffed animal at the balloon toss by breaking 3 balloons with 3 Darts.  First try.
Best Dad Ever.

1:31pm - Beer #5 - Beau's Brewery: Seasonale: a nutty creation with a very rich full bodied flavour.

Just the Wife took the Thief to the nearby Victoria Park Splash Pad to frolic in the sprinklers.  Charles and I held down the fort.

1:45pm - Standing in line for ribs at Camp 31, last year's winner.  Charles is fetching more beer.  Perfect day.

1:48pm - Beer #6 - Beau's Brewery: Lugnut: An interesting malt finish that is a delight to the palette.

2:12pm - Camp 31: Incredible sauce, with a super delightful BBQ zing! (These ribs were uber delicious, I really can't stress this enough).

2:14pm - Beer #7 - Lake of Bays Brewery:Crosswind Pale Ale: Clean and Smooth with a delightful fresh finish. My favourite so far.

2:35pm - Beer #8 - Stone Hammer Brewery: Premium Pilsner: Surprisingly light and refreshing. Clean and Crisp.

2:57pm - Beer #9 - Wellington Brewery:Trailhead Vienna style lager: Crisp and light with a slightly nutty aftertaste.Delightful.

Just the Wife and the Thief return from the splash pad, and The Thief decides it's finally time for a nap.  Just the wife wants ribs so I'm off to fetch us more.

3:05pm - 1/3 Rack from Blazing BBQ Ribhouse, winner of Best in Sauce, and Best Ribs.  Amazing.  Like consuming magical baby pig.  (My ability to use metaphors and similes was obviously broken by this point in the day).

3:13pm - Beer #10 - Railway City Brewery:Honey Elixir: Dark and Bitter with a strong finish.

3:22pm - Beer #11 - Railway City: Iron Spike Pale Ale: Hops, hops, and more hops, yum.

3:40pm - Beer #12 - Big rock: Traditional Ale: Dark and nutty with a smooth clean finish.

3:49pm - First rain at Ribfest in 3 years.  REFRESHING.  We were smart enough to score a table with an umbrella.

The Thief wakes up and takes the rain in stride.  It really only lasted about 10 minutes, and certainly didn't slow us down.

3:54pm - Beer #13 - Nichol Brooke Brewery: Green Apple Pilsner. Like biting into a Granny Smith Apple of awesomeness. Cider in beer form.

3:56pm - The Thief is dancing to the band, I am hammered, Charles is a step ahead of me, and Just The Wife is highly amused.
6 tokens remaining.

I am learning that the Thief loves live bands, she is a total groupie.  She was the center of attention with her awesome dance moves.

4:10pm - Beer #14 - Wellington Brewery Special Pale Ale: mmm...beer is still tastey...might be drunk...have to have another beer to be sure...

4:17pm - Beer #15 - Wellington Brewery Bootchuck IPA: Solid. Dark and Fabulous. Best IPA so far.

4:44pm - Beer #16 - Amsterdam Brewery:Thunder Alley Belgian Style Ale. BEST IN SHOW. Hands down. Incredible. My new favourite beer.

5:01pm - Beer #17 - NOT sure. CHARLES forgot what he got me.  It was good. Beer fail...or success...wait.  It was apparently an Amsterdam bootchuck again. Solid. Again. (Poor Charles, he didn't have access to my extensive notes, so he didn't realize that he was committing the cardinal sin of re-beering me with a brand I had already sampled and reviewed.  He was punished accordingly by being made to fetch our next beers.  Also, Amsterdam brewery doesn't even make the Bootchuck IPA, but this is what Charles told me it was so that was what got recorded.  Silly drunken padawan).

6:16pm - Beer #18 - Was apparently the Flying Monkey Amber: I will take Charles word for it. (good. Maybe even great - assuming it was infact the Flying Monkey Amber).

It was now time to go so we started to collect ourselves and work our way through the crowd.  I totally played "So, have you met Charles?" with a lovely blonde on the way out, as I am an excellent wingman.  They had a quick chat, and everyone laughed about it.

At this point we bundled ourselves back into the car, don't worry, the very responsible Just the Wife was driving, and headed out for our next adventure.  Once again it was a great day with great company, and I look forward to doing it again next year.