Hi southern arfcomers.  I am soon to visit your fine state and escape the Narnia-Winter for a couple of days.  I already posted a quick thread on logistics in GD https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/Need-some-advice-about-St-Louis-Airport-rental-cars-and-things-to-do/5-2100054/
, and got great answers, but I want to ask you about things to do with my free evening.

I'm willing to drive, or more likely uber anywhere in St. Louis that you recommend for food or beer.  I don't really much time for any tourist stuff on this trip, but I'm willing to listen to suggestions.

Thanks!

Pappys or Bogarts for bbq (Bogarts runs out just after lunch on weekdays). Lots of options on 'The Hill' for Italian. Raggazi on the cheap side, Zias, Gittos, or many others on the more expensive side. PWs for pizza.  Schlafy, 4hands, urban chestnut, civil life, perennial for beers. Blueberry hill or fitz's root beer in the loop or around the central west end if looking for pub grub. Keep your wits about ya if you are in the city in the afternoon or God forbid after dark.

For food go to the Shaved Duck for original twists on smokhouse foods. You can thank me later!!!
Shaved duck St Louis

What night of the week will you be in town?  Also, some pretty good advice above, except for Rigazzi's.  I can not recommend them at all, terrible food these days.

Seoul Garden by the airport for Korean, or La Tejana Taqueria on 67 for mexican.  If you like seafood or weird Asian stuff like me, there's Seafood City over on Olive Blvd.  I always fill a cooler before driving back to Springfield.

To me, Rigazzi's never was any good.  It just gained popularity with the lunch crowd for the fish bowls of beer.

Crown Candy is definitely a nostalgic place to stop by.  They have a BLT that will stun you.

https://crowncandykitchen.net/

Op, you are headed to columbia which is a straight shot down 70, easy drive.  I'm going to give you food and attraction ideas that are along your route.  On 70 you can do 10 over the speed limit and be ok as everyone is flying.  Just watch the center median and on ramps and cresting hills and you'll be fine.  Highway patrol has solid color chargers, explorers, and lowered (obvious) tahoes.  dark grey, dark blue, or white.

Now once you land in terminal 1 head out the main door to the rental car shuttle pick up.  As someone smartly mentioned in the other thread go with national as they have the nicest not fucked with cars and get you on your way FAST.  Once you get your car I'm not sure what time of day you'll be going out or coming back but here's both food and cool gun store related stuff along the way.  *note OP that I fly a lot for a fortune 100 and am at an "exec" level meaning I eat and stay and top notch shit all the time so I'm picky as fuck when it comes to restaurants and hotels, get it? lol

HOTEL
If you want a hotel in the airport area, there is only ONE that I would stay at and it's the Hilton garden Inn (below link).  All of the other hotels are old, and just "meh".  This hilton is like 6 years old, the others are 30+.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hilton+Garden+Inn+St.+Louis+Airport/@38.7274777,-90.3273919,15.75z/data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x87df35c26c566c55:0xcf1fff2249c7a041!5m1!1s2018-04-27!8m2!3d38.7221192!4d-90.3191453?hl=en

Note that being near the airport you are on the doorstep of Ferguson, so be aware of that.  Now since you are coming back from columbia my advice would be to stay to stay in downtown St. Charles (literally on the other side of the Missouri river) which is only 10 minutes to the west of the airport.

Food
Near the airport
- near national rental car off woodson is a mexican place called Las Palmas, it's pretty good
- in the same shopping mall is an italian thin crust family pizza place call Erios - also good
- If you are staying at the hilton garden inn near the airport you can also hit up the Ferguson Brewing Company (fuck why not go sight seeing right?)  It's pretty good.  I'd just not be down there after dark.

Now as we head west on 70 to the green zone (area west of highway 270) you have more options
10 min west of airport
- Historic downtown St. Charles (Main street) is a historic Lewis & clark louisiana purchase starting point.  The historic part is still brick streets and all of the restaurants on it are great!  its a very fun area.  My recommendations are Bradens, The Old Mill Stream Inn,  llywelyn's pub (inside an old bank)

Further west we'll talk about attractions
15 min west of airport St Peters off hwy 79
- Ultimate Defense gun store and fireing range (has a HUGE rental wall - have fun)  -  high end shop with pretty much every Glock, and SIG pistol made in stock.
- Also at 79 we have Pirrone's Pizza which is a GOOD version of St. Louis thin crust style pizza  (they are on the south side of the exit in front of Dierbergs shopping center)

25 min west of the airport in Lake St. Louis we have Eagle Eye USA gun shop and shooting range.  Now these guys have full auto and belt fed machine guns you can rent as well as suppressed weapons.  they are right on 70 (south side) with a big Deuce parked out front

30 min west of the airport in Wentzville if you like BBQ I have a BRAND NEW KICK ASS TOP NOTCH BBQ place for you that I swear to you will be featured on TV as soon as they find out about it.  
Dukes BBQ in Wentzville.  GO HERE
also in Wentzville, if you want a burger that's high end food truck quality check out the Tatooed dog.  bad ass gourmet burgers.  if Dukes hadn't opened up I'd be telling you to check this one out.

Once you get past Wentzville the highway bumps up to 70mph which means 80-82mph with no problems all the way to Columbia.

For reference I drive this route daily and actually used to work right by the airport in Ferguson for the fortune 20 that's right there.

Makes sense, I pretty much have only been there for lunch.  I had dinner there last year and could not believe how shitty the food was/how crowded it was.  Crown Candy's BLT is legit, but not sure I'd go there for dinner, at least not without a full size and some reloads.

Yeah, I went to Rigazzi's back in December for a family dinner with an uncle who was in from California for the holidays and got the daily "special" which was lasagna.  It was so bad that I couldn't force myself to eat most of it.  My sister asked me if I wasn't hungry.  I told her that wasn't it - it was just that my food was that bad.  She asked me how you can mess up noodles and sauce.  I told her to try it.  She did and agreed that it was terrible.

If you go to the Hill, pick a place other than Rigazzi's.  There are lots to choose from.

Zia's is awesome for salad with a side of Toasted Ravoli.

Amighetti's (spelling?) has some bad ass italian sandwiches, and of course, the ice cream when you're done.

Bartolino's, another bad ass salad.  Get the Big Bart Salad with house dressing and you won't need anything else to eat.

Giovanni's if you're a high brow type.  Never been there.

Those are 4 good restaurants on the Italian Hill.

Almost forgot... Charlie Gito's is good too!

If you want something low brow, not for the kids/family...

http://www.socialhousesoulard.com/

Thursday.   Thanks for all the help so far!

OK, now that's some serious help, I've posted in HTFs before trips before, and usually got one or two semi-useful replies, then hilariously, a bunch of them after the trip.

I already booked with the national fast pickup program.  I'm not checking a bag, so that should speed things, but means I'll be unarmed and not interested in touring the shittier parts of town since it will be after dark by the time I'm back in the area.

Leaning towards stopping at Dukes on the way back from Columbia, since I'd probably like to have awesome local BBQ, as opposed to, even if quite good, food styles available other places (italian, burgers, asian, etc).  If they're closed/sold out, I'll move to another recommendation.

Currently torn between staying in downtown St. Charles or the Hilton Garden Inn.  I have a morning, but not insanely early flight at 9.

What's dropping off a car/security (TSA Pre) at STL like in the morning?

Which terminal/airline?

Usually there is almost no line at all for TSA-Pre in Terminal 1 (Main Terminal - all airlines except Southwest).

I flew Southwest out of Terminal 2 (East Terminal) at the end of January and the TSA-Pre line was longer than the regular security line.  I don't fly Southwest as often so I don't know if that was just a one-off or not.  I still made it through security in a reasonable amount of time though.

Terminal 1, 9am flight on a Friday?  I'd say be at National around 7am to turn the car in and you'll have plenty of time to ride over to the airport, get through security and grab some breakfast before your plane starts boarding at 8:30.  If you stay in St. Charles you'll be at the beginning of morning rush hour which isn't a problem as long as there isn't any accidents, the highway flys at a minimum of 60mph and it's a 10-12 min drive.

Have fun man and let me know if you have any more questons.  Let me know how you like Dukes and go shoot some guns!  Even if you don't eat in St. Charles on Main St. it's still a cool place to visit just cause of the history.  Good place to get a beer later that night.  Oh and as mentioned, best gas stations along the route are QT (Quiktrips).  In my travels they are the cleanest, best stocked of any I've ever seen.

Flying out on United, so I believe that's Terminal 1, and should be fast.  I don't have status on United, and will be flying steerage, so the only thing I have going for me is TSA Pre and not checking bags.

Leaning towards Country Inn & Suites by Radisson in St. Charles, since it looks walkable to the downtown area.

Thanks again guys!

If you stop in St. Charles on main street try Tony's on Main for the best filet or their Chicken Anthony.  You can thank me later.  Lewellyns just typical bar food and Lewis and Clark changed hands three or four years ago when Bob sold it and isn't as good.  Frankie Toccos has real Italian food made with real cream and top quality cheeses (Provel, provolone, mozzarella).  The chicken piccata (or veal), calamari is fresh and not frozen breaded crap, all parta dishes and, of course, the Pizza are fresh and not frozen.  They are just south of Tony's.  Across from Tony's is Quintessential's with crab cake sliders and bison burgers.  Brayden's had too much fat in their rib-eye sandwich the last two times I tried it.  Trail Head brew house food is not very good.

If you exit at Hwy 94 off of 70, right west of 5th street exit (heading south about 4 miles) you will hit Spiros Greek restaurant.  Excellent steak/lamb/fish and moderately high priced.  Next exit past

94 exit is Zumbehl and if you turn left over hwy 70 you will make a right into the big shopping area where Dierbergs is located.  Fratellis is on the right and has great pizza and strip steak.  You'll love the salad and dressing as well.   This is a few of the good ones.

Since you will be in St. Charles, Big Woody's BBQ.

Phenomenal, puts that Pappys recommended above to shame.

In STL the zoo and art museum are free. Both highly recommended.

Landrys is decent seafood.

Zia's is decent Italian.

Stay in St. Charles, it's safer and nicer plus you can walk to a bunch of places. PM me when you might be going, maybe I'll show you around.

Check out Q, Tony's, Frank Tocco's, Pio's for food. Kubrick's on main for an amazing cocktail.

Well, your week here is up...  What did you get to do?

CBR is spot on with Big Woody's.  Andy is a friend and knows how to smoke meat.  If on the weekend get in early as he sells out pretty quick.

@p3590



LOL, how'd we do with our recommendations? Did you make the journey to columbia ok?

Sorry for not reporting back.

My flight in to STL was over an hour late leaving, so I got in late.  I grabbed a Cadillac from the row at National and drove the piss out of it to get to Columbia and actually made my meeting in time.  I was very lucky not to get an opportunity to pay the state of Missouri for that, but waze and the advice in this thread about what MO state police cars looked like worked.



On the way back, I stopped at Dukes, and had a brisket sandwich, mac&cheese, and a cool beer that the whole top pulled off. They threw in a free cookie, not sure if they do that for everybody or not.  The brisket was excellent.



I stayed at Country Inn & Suites in St. Charles, which was fine.  Walked down to llywelyn's for a beer at the end of the night.  Its OK, but the bartender I had was pretty clueless:

Me: What local beer do you have?
Bartender: We just got in a new one, Founder's All Day IPA!
(That's a Grand Rapids MI beer)

Traffic was backed up on the way to the airport in the morning, but only cost an extra 10-15 minutes, and I made my flight fine.

THANKS for all the really good advice guys!  @SShockwave @Brassaholic13 @BlueNoteExpress @Ballard @cash50 @AeroE @showmeballer

Country Inn & Suites is in a cool spot.

Nice!  glad it all worked out for you!