Adam and I took a short road trip to St. Louis to visit my sister and see the sights just over a year ago. In the days leading up to it I was obsessive about a restaurant I had found online, as well as a museum my sister had told me about. In fact, obsessive may be a bit of an understatement. The entire trip ended up becoming quite the palette pleaser, except for Adam’s idea to eat at White Castle for lunch on our drive up. From wine and nuts, to soul food  OMG-ness and custard, this post is best read not on an empty stomach.

The restaurant was “Sweetie Pie’s at the Mangrove” and the owner was a former backup singer for Ike and Tina Turner [So umm, yeah. Cool!!!]. Food Network had featured it on “Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives” so I had high expectations. It was fantastic.

Served cafeteria style, you had your choice from 5 entrees coupled with 2 sides of your choice, cornbread, and an optional dessert. Here you see (clockwise) the crispiest and flakiest catfish I have ever put my lips to, the cheesiest 4 cheese mac and cheese cooked to perfection, a big hunk of moist cornbread, and the buttery deliciousness of mashed potatoes. For dessert I had an amazing peach and apple cobbler and a nibble of Adam’s INSANE banana pudding. I think I said OMG around 100 times while consuming this. The portions were HUGE, so huge in fact I had to take about half of what you see to my sister. Words cannot describe how great this meal was. I think this was the first time in my life that I was too full to clean my plate, and that was the biggest disappointment of this meal.