Old Railroad Depots - Eastern Missouri

When we launched our May 2015 journey through several states to visit family and friends, one goal was to visit and photograph historic locations and railroad depots along the way.

The St. Louis Metropolitan area is a fertile location for railroad depots, trains and railroad history.  In addition to 14 depots old and new, the Museum of Transportation is a major attraction for railroad fans.  By far the major part of this museum is railroad focused.  To learn more about this over-the-top railroad museum which is located at 2967 Barrett Station Road in St. Louis County, go to http://transportmuseumassociation.org/.

This was our first stop in our search for the many depots in the St. Louis area.  This is the former Missouri Pacific Railroad passenger depot at 44 North Gore Street in Webster Groves Missouri.  It’s currently being used by the Faith Academy of Montessori.  There is an old caboose on the opposite side of the old depot that has been integrated into the overall structure.  

This depot at 8835 Big Bend Boulevard is also located in Webster Groves Missouri.  It’s the 1910 passenger and freight depot for the old St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, which was also known as the Frisco Railroad. 

Webster Groves' location on the old Pacific Railroad line led to its development as a suburb.  In the late 19th century, overcrowding, congestion, and unhealthy conditions in St. Louis prompted urban residents to leave the city for quieter, safer surroundings.  As a suburban municipality, Webster Groves originated as five separate communities along adjacent railroad lines.  Webster, Old Orchard, Webster Park, Tuxedo Park and Selma merged in 1896 to create the ‘new’ town.  Currently, Webster Grove has a population of about 23,000.

 

In 1994, the depot was saved from the wrecking ball by the Big Bend Railroad Club.  The club is a 2-Rail O Scale (1/4" to the foot) model railroad club that started in 1938.   The group has been in this building since the club started. To learn more about the club and public access or events, just go to http://www.bigbendrrclub.org/.

Since our visit I’ve learned that there is yet another old depot located in Webster Groves.  That depot, called the Tuxedo Park station, dates back to 1890.  I’ll have to find it during our next trip…

Note: Phyllis Diller and former Director of the FBI and CIA, William Webster are both from Webster Groves.  Then there's Karlie Kloss, a model from Webster Grove who made over $4 million in 2014.  

This is the former Missouri-Pacific Railway depot at 128 Front Street in Labadie Missouri.  Although the railroad laid tracks through Labadie to Washington Missouri in the mid-1850s, it’s believed that this combined use (passenger and freight) depot was built ca. 1890s. 

The tracks were later rerouted past Labadie and today this old depot serves as “Labadie Station – An Emporium of Curiosities/Art and Antiques”.  The building is in good shape and it looks like it’s being appropriately utilized!  To find out more about today’s Labadie Station, just go to http://www.labadiestation.com/.

Labadie is an unincorporated community but it’s been around since a post office was established here back in 1855.  Laurie and I remember stopping at the shops and eating at a restaurant in this little tourist town back in the late 1970s. 

Just click on any of the photographs to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Italian Cuisine with The Chairman of the Board

We took advantage of our recent friends and family visit to Kentucky, Missouri and Nebraska to try a lot of different restaurants… They ranged from upscale to diners…and from quite pricey to a real bargain. 

One type of cuisine that we really lack in East Tennessee is high quality Italian.  Since we were visiting the St. Louis area…a mecca for Italian food…we decided to take advantage of that fact!

This fairly non-descript looking storefront with blacked out windows in a modest strip center is the home of Paul Manno’s Café.  The fact that it’s in a suburban area instead of near the “Italian Hill” neighborhood of St. Louis might throw off some out of town diners.  But I did a little research… Trip Advisor ranks it #1 out of the 188 restaurants in the Chesterfield Missouri area.  It had a ratio of 92 Excellent/Very Good reviews vs. 2 Poor or Terrible reviews.  82 of the 92 positive ratings were ‘excellent’!

The interior of Paul Manno’s Café is dark…with sparkly lights…and with The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, on the walls and as background music.  The atmosphere reminded us of an old time Italian restaurant on the “Hill” or up in Chicago…

We did have a hard time taking photos.  Lighting was a major factor and we tried to minimize the use of our flash.  So the pictures aren’t the greatest, but don’t let that negatively impact our food related observations.

To start, our server brought us some crusty bread and a nice dipping sauce.  The bread was decent and the dipping sauce was very good. 

We both ordered a nice glass of wine with our meals.  Laurie had the Pinot Noir ($10.00) and I had the Sauvignon Blanc. ($8.00)

Instead of the usual Fried Calamari, we opted for something we’d never tried before.  The Calamari Luciana ($15.00) sounded great and it was different and perhaps even bit healthier than the usual version.  In this instance the calamari is cooked in a spicy tomato sauce with capers.  As usual, we added a lot of parmesan over the top… This was an excellent choice!

Frank Sinatra is everywhere in Paul Manno’s Café… But he wasn’t the only celebrity in the dining room.  Bob Gibson, the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame pitcher was having his supper at the table next to ours! (Laurie pointed out that Bob Gibson is a very good looking man to this day!)

For the uninitiated, Bob Gibson played for the Cardinals from 1959 – 1975.  Among his many accomplishment, 'Gibby' was on 2 World Series winning teams, won the Cy Young Award (pitching) twice, he was the National League’s most valuable player on one occasion plus he was voted into Baseball’s Hall of fame with 84% of the vote on the first ballot.

For her entrée, Laurie went with one of her favorites, the Veal Piccata. ($26.00) This dish, consisting of thin slices of veal with wine, lemon, capers, and mushrooms was excellent.  ($26.00)

OK… I admit it!  This is a terrible photo.  Nevertheless, it was a great entrée!  I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp, or more properly the 'Gamberoni Fra Diavolo'…very large prawns in a spicy tomato sauce. ($29.00)

Since other than the bread and spiced oil for dipping, we’d had a fairly healthy meal and relatively modest quantities of food, we decided to split an order of tiramisu. ($8.00) It was excellent and it was a perfect ending to a very nice meal…

I did think that service was a bit slow.  We do expect slower service in upscale dining establishments because everything is being prepared to order.  In addition, the restaurant was very busy despite the fact that it was a Wednesday night. 

Paul Manno’s Café is located at 75 Forum Shopping Center in Chesterfield Missouri.  Phone: 314-878-1274.  To the best of my knowledge, this restaurant doesn’t have a website.  To view additional reviews, you can go to http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g44233-d441445-Reviews-Paul_Manno_s_Cafe-Chesterfield_Missouri.html.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave

Time for a Family Visit (A 101 year age difference!)

Laurie’s family lives in the St. Louis Missouri area…a sizable drive from East Tennessee.  So whenever we head over that way, we do whatever we can to maximize our opportunity to visit with her extended family.

We also have quite a few shared memories from our 3 + years that we lived there together.  It’s where she got stuck with an ‘old man’ 10 years her senior on a blind date…and it’s also where we were married.  While we wouldn’t trade our life in East Tennessee, it’s always great to return to our roots…

On to our St. Louis family visit!

This is Laurie’s Aunt Lois… She celebrated her 101^st birthday this past January and she has a better memory than I do!  Aunt Lois is Laurie’s mother’s (Doris) middle sister and the two of them married a pair of brothers.  Everybody is a double cousin!

Standing behind Aunt Lois are two of Laurie’s sisters, Karole and Glenda with Laurie on the right.  Aunt Lois has 3 sons and a plethora of grandchildren!  She is the ‘Skip Bo’ champ of her retirement center, ensuring that she won enough candy bars for our visit…and she regularly trounces Karole when they play.    

This is Laurie’s middle sister Karole with her husband Bob.  Bob just recently retired.  They have 3 sons, the youngest of whom just got married, as well as 3 granddaughters.

Glenda is Laurie’s oldest sister.  Glenda and her husband Ken recently moved into an apartment in Friendship Village, a retirement community located in St. Louis County.  They love their new life and all of the conveniences that their new home offers…

While visiting Ken and Glenda in their new apartment, we had a chance to see their daughter Judy and Judy’s grandsons, (Ken and Glenda’s great grandsons), Liam and Isaac. 

A little later, we had lunch with family members in Friendship Village’s expansive Dining Room. 

Laurie’s mother had lived in this same retirement community and back in those days, able residents went through a buffet line for their meals if possible.  Now the service has been upgraded with diners selecting their meals from a menu with waitstaff in attendance.  We couldn’t help but notice that the food had improved and that all of the personnel we encountered were very polite and helpful.  Thank you Ken and Glenda for the delicious lunch!

Our next family visit was at Bonnie and Bill’s house, Laurie’s youngest sister and her husband.  Their son Kyle, his wife Melissa and their two children Collin and Keaton arrived while we were there…further expanding our family circle for the visit.

Later during our St. Louis family and friends sojourn we stopped by an area restaurant for a meal with other members of the family.  Kasey has her back to the camera…then from the left, there is her husband Kevin, Kevin’s mom Carole, then Kyle, Collin, Bonnie’s husband Bill, Keaton, Laurie’s sister Bonnie and last, yours truly. (Laurie took the photo).

Remember the title of this blog post?  It included a “101 year age difference”.  I think that you can deduce my meaning when you take a look at Kasey…our mom to be!

Kasey and her mom Bonnie were relaxing on Kevin and Kasey’s patio.  This baby will give Bonnie her 5^th grandchild!

Kasey did let her Aunt Laurie down a little bit… She had promised to ‘see what she could do’ to give birth during our 4 day stay in St. Louis.  It didn’t happen, although by this stage in her pregnancy, Kasey was really ready for it to happen!

Luckily for Kasey and Kevin, Kevin’s mom Carole was able to take the time necessary to stay with them and help with their two older daughters, Delaney and Avery and with the new baby, watch the couple’s other 2 daughters and keep an eye on their 2 dogs, Bailey & Oshie. This is Oshie.

And this is who the focus was on!  Baby Charley Kate arrived a few days after our visit.  Charley was born May 31^st at 2:09 am. (Weighing  7lbs. 9oz. and 20 inches long) Mom looks great and so does her daughter Charley!

This photo was taken at their home right after Kevin and Kasey brought Charley home from the hospital.  We hope that Kevin is ready for sleepless nights and lots of diaper changes!

Laurie loved this photo of Charley that was taken a couple of days after she arrived home.  What a beautiful baby girl!

Finally… Here’s Charley with her very cute sisters, Avery and Delaney.  We have a feeling that this little addition to the family will be spoiled and totally doted on! 

So now you’ve seen the ying and yang age wise!  Aunt Lois is heading for her 102nd birthday in January of 2016 and little Charley will be 1 year old next May!

That’s about it for now… Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing our family with us!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave and Laurie 

DeVeaux School Classmates – 54 Years Later!

Although I was from Michigan, I attended high school at an all-boys Episcopalian college preparatory school in Niagara Falls New York.  DeVeaux School had a long history that stretched back to the early 1850s.  For about 100 years, it was a military prep school but by the time that I joined the student ranks in 1957, our ‘uniform’ was a suit or sport jacket and tie. 

The class of 1961 consisted of 27 students.  While most of my classmates were from New York, (some were day students, not boarders), we also had others from my home state of Michigan as well as from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.  After graduation, we scattered to the wind as we set forth on our life journeys.  DeVeaux was closed in 1972 and the core of our high school experience…the touch point…was gone for good.

However, I’d posted a blog in memory of DeVeaux School back in February of 2013.  In late 2014 I was contacted by a member of my class!  Bill Dunn had found my blog posting… He and I talked at length and I discovered that another classmate, also originally from Michigan, had retired to somewhere in East Tennessee.  My better half checked the directory…and I discovered that Jere Krieg lived only 9 miles from us.  Since then Jere and I have gotten together and exchanged stories a few times...

Bill and I had talked on the phone and via email several times and we’d agreed that the next time that we headed for St. Louis to visit Laurie’s family via western Kentucky we would stop and have lunch with Bill and his wife, Cheryl. 

In May we headed west from East Tennessee and Bill had chosen a restaurant in Grand Rivers Kentucky.  This is the back entrance to Patti’s 1880's Settlement Restaurant.  By the time I got around to taking a photo of the front it was pouring rain…so this is the only ‘entrance’ photo.

Patti’s 1880's Settlement is a very popular tourist stop with 2 restaurants in Western Kentucky close to Kentucky Lake.  There are extensive gardens, miniature golf, an animal park, playground and remote controlled boats as well as special events throughout the year.

 

Grand Rivers Kentucky has a population of about 350 but the restaurants serve over 350,000 guests each year!  Locals from the area to include Paducah Kentucky regard this location as one of the best restaurants in this part of the state. 

This is what Bill and I looked like when we graduated from DeVeaux School back in 1961…54 years ago this month!

…and this is what we look like today.  Two retired guys, one from trucking and transportation and one from retailing.  I’m a bit jealous as Bill still has his full head of hair!

It was a 2 hour lunch… After all, we had a lot of catching up to do after all the ensuing years!  We talked about family, careers, and life experiences.  Plus of course, we told lots of stories about our years at DeVeaux School.

Patti’s 1880's Restaurant is a big place and it is decorated with a plethora of odds and ends, lights, etc.  From what Bill told us, during the Christmas season, the decorations are truly over the top!

In reality, there are 2 restaurants at Patti’s 1880's Settlement.  The second one is Mr. Bill’s.  It serves the same food but it’s designed to handle large groups and tour buses.

These are Patti’s Loaded Potato Chips… The homemade chips are smothered with chili, bacon, cheeses, diced tomatoes, green onions and red peppers and served with sour cream.  Cheryl ordered these as they’re one of her favorites.

This was Bill’s ‘Patti Brown’.  This version of a Kentucky Hot Brown is an open-faced sandwich made with toasted homemade bread, topped with a half-pound charbroiled hamburger patty and sautéed mushrooms all smothered in homemade cheese sauce.  Then it’s baked and topped with Patti’s potato chips.  Looks good!

I ordered the Turkey Club sandwich… Its homemade toast with lettuce and tomato, hickory smoked bacon and mesquite smoked turkey. This sandwich is served with mayonnaise and Patti’s special hot and sweet mustard on the side along with chips and coleslaw.  I skipped the chips…sharing Laurie’s instead.  I thought that the club sandwich was very good.

Laurie decided on Anthony's Artichoke Chicken Spinach Wrap.  This creation consists of grilled chicken, fresh spinach and tomato, rolled up in a spinach tortilla with Anthony’s artichoke spread.  It was served with chips and coleslaw.  Laurie liked her lunch a lot!

Note to Self: Patti’s is renowned for its pies!  There are no less than 15 varieties listed on the menu… The next time we pass through Eastern Kentucky, it will be pie for lunch!

Laurie took this photo of Bill and his wife Cheryl as we were getting ready to continue on our journey… It was fun catching up with Bill!  We plan on seeing them both again this fall when the Class of 1961 has a reunion in East Tennessee.

Patti’s 1880’s Settlement and Restaurant is located at 1793 J. H. O'Bryan Avenue in Grand Rivers Kentucky.  This is a good stopover in this part of Kentucky.  Patti’s is just a few blocks from Kentucky Lake to the west and the Cumberland River reservoir to the east.  Phone: 270-362-8844.  Website: http://www.pattis1880s.com/.

That’s about it for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Chicken Wings and More!

Laurie and I are always looking for new places to eat… If a restaurant had to count on our regular visits, they’d go belly up.  Even our most favored reasonably priced dining restaurants probably don’t see us more than 5 to 7 times a year.

We do like chicken wings!  We also have a couple of favorite restaurants that serve up quality versions of this popular bar/snack food.  Our favorites have been Wild Wing Café in Farragut Tennessee, (http://www.wildwingcafe.com/locations/knoxville-tn) and Mexi-Wing III in Madisonville Tennessee. (Despite the fact that there are at least 7 Mexi-Wing locations in East Tennessee, they don’t seem to have a website)

So, a little over a year ago a new ‘wing’ focused restaurant opened in Farragut Tennessee.  This is Big Kahuna Wings.  The good news is that it’s right on our way to Knoxville’s Turkey Creek Shopping Area.  Still, it took us more than a year to finally stop and try out the food.

The interior is a little industrial but the look is softened with the dark wood ceilings.  Both the outdoor patio and the dining room were busy and it’s obviously become a popular local destination.

BKW Seasonings which operates the restaurant is a family-owned business. Starting in the early 1960’s, the seasoning was created to produce a unique buffalo-style wing that the family used for years cooking wings for friends and customers at football games, parties, and gatherings.  Then they opened a small take-out restaurant near the University of Tennessee campus called Big Kahuna Wings.  Two weeks after opening, the company competed with more than 2 dozen local, regional and national wing restaurants!  The result was that they were voted as the “Best Wings” in Knoxville at the annual “War of the Wings.”

I’m of the opinion that BKW…aka Big Kahuna Wings would like to grow into a regional or national chain.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see some new company owned locations or franchised operations in the not too distant future.

The menu isn’t just about wings!  On the other hand, we couldn’t try out their menu without sampling their specialty

. 

Customers must choose between “Traditional Wings” (cut into 2 parts), Boneless “Wings”, or the “Famous Big Kahuna Wings”.  The latter consists of whole wing sections instead of the common cut up wing segments.  Your second decision is whether or not you’d like them rubbed with the original BKW spice mixture or the “Fire Blend Seasoning”.  As anyone who follows us on this site would know, we went with the Fire Blend!

We ordered 10 of the Traditional Wings. ($10.99) Note that the middle part of the wing and the tip are attached.  The carrot stick and celery looked tired but the wings were big, plump and juicy. 

The wings were just right but as far as we’re concerned it’s all about the flavor.  Both Wild Wing and Mexi-Wing deliver wings to the table that have been fried with your choice of sauce already coated on them. 

At Big Kahuna Wings, it’s all about the dipping sauces.  With 10 wings, you get one free dipping sauce.  Extra sauces are 50 cents each.  You can chose a pre-set ‘flight’ of 4 sauces or you can make up a flight from the restaurant’s list of 17 different varieties.  From the one’s we selected, we liked the Spicy Garlic and the Sweet Chili Lime the most and the Fiery Cayenne the least.  The latter was just about heat and we thought that it lacked any distinctive flavor.

Bottom Line… Big Kahuna serves really good wings and it’s now part of our East Tennessee “Chicken Wing” restaurant “Trifecta”!

Now to move on beyond the namesake chicken wings… Laurie ordered the Garlic-Ranch Wrap. ($8.99) This sandwich is described as follows: “Classic golden brown chicken tenders seasoned with our Original seasoning, juicy tomatoes, fresh cheddar cheese, and our Spicy Ranch sauce.  Wrapped to perfection in a garlic-herb tortilla.  Served with side of choice.”

Laurie decided to try the BKW chips as her side.  In our opinion, the chips are nothing special.  However, Laurie loved her wrap!!  After eating 5 of those big wings she could only finish half of her sandwich.  The good news is that the remaining half was just as good the next day for lunch!

I ordered the Jalapeno Bacon-Cheddar Burger with Kahuna Fries. ($10.49) It is described as a “Half-pound Certified Angus Beef burger topped with our homemade cheddar cream cheese blend, Applewood bacon, crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes and jalapeño slices.”

Despite the fact that the burger was a little overcooked for my taste, it was still fairly juicy and flavorful.  This was a balanced burger in that I could actually taste the bacon, the cheese and the beef.  The bun was a good quality as well… The cheddar cream cheese spread is a “brilliant” mix that really enhances this sandwich!

As with the BKW potato chips, we weren’t dazzled by the Kahuna fries either.  They were OK but they weren’t special.  I’d asked for mayonnaise on the side but it was slathered on the sandwich.  Nevertheless, this was a very positive casual dining experience.  We will return…with company in tow!

Big Kahuna Wings is located at 12828 Kingston Pike in Farragut Tennessee. Phone: 865-288-7891.  Website: http://www.bigkahunawings.com/.  

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave 

Searching for Quality Chinese Cuisine…

We had just finished having our car serviced at a dealership near Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport and it was time for lunch.  It was a choice between an Applebee’s or another attempt to find some quality Chinese food in East Tennessee.  Laurie felt adventurous so we headed for the latter luncheon destination…

This is Ming Tree Restaurant on US 129 in Alcoa Tennessee.  It was only about 11:15 AM so we were among the first customers of the day…

The interior of Ming Tree was clean and aesthetically just about what you might expect for a local Asian dining establishment.  Business did pick up quite a bit while we were having lunch. 

Our waiter started us out with the usual fried crisps and plum sauce.  They were OK but the plum sauce was much sweeter than usual.

Laurie’s favorite Chinese restaurant appetizer is Crab Rangoon so we ordered some to accompany our lunch. ($5.95) The price was right for 6 pieces…perhaps because neither of us could detect any crab in these appetizers!  If you forget the alleged crab content, for straight-forward fried cream cheese wraps, they were OK.

I like to eat my Crab Rangoon with spicy Chinese mustard.  I asked the waiter if he could bring me some…but he forgot.  By the time he came by again so I could ask again Laurie had eaten her share.  Eventually…apparently in no rush…he did bring what I’d requested.  

We almost always order hot and sour soup with Chinese restaurant luncheon specials.  This version wasn’t very distinctive or very spicy either.

I ordered General Chow’s Chicken for my luncheon entrée. ($7.25 for dark meat or $7.75 for white meat) The waiter didn’t ask me if I wanted dark or light meat.  I’d requested extra spicy but apparently either the waiter didn’t pass my request to the chef or the chef didn’t believe that I knew what I really wanted.  In any case, I now had to flag someone down to bring me some hot pepper sauce…as our waiter didn’t come by to see how we were doing.

Now back to the meal itself… Luncheons come with the diner’s choice of either an egg roll or one of 3 different soups plus fried rice.  There was plenty of rice for us to share and you could see bits of egg in it… As for my “chicken chunks coated in a light batter”, I must say that Ming Tree must define “light” much differently than I do.  The batter was thick and a little gummy…and this was not a great entrée.

For her lunch, Laurie selected the Chicken in Szechuan Sauce. ($6.95) There was plenty of food but, even more than with my lunch, the extra ‘heat’ that we’d requested was lacking.  Her entrée was almost completely bland…

Our waiter was indifferent at best although he was running from pillar to post… We doubt that he’d ever had any training as a server.  Obtaining our bill so we could pay and leave was as difficult as it was getting my hot mustard and the hot pepper sauce!  I had to ask a nearby waitress for her help and even then our server ran around a bit more before delivering the bill…

Leaving out our inefficient and inept waiter, the food at Ming Tree Restaurant is best classified as ‘fuel stop only’…and in hindsight, Applebee’s looks like gourmet cuisine.  Ming Tree Restaurant is located at 2754 A Alcoa Highway (US 129) in Alcoa Tennessee.  Phone: 865-984-3888.  Website: www.themingtree.com.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave