it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

Benton Park, Saint Louis

Last Saturday, Matt and I celebrated the kickoff to the holiday season with his family - for the 11th year in a row - with a "calories don't matter" meal at one of our favorite Saint Louis restaurants, Sidney Street Café. With its cozy atmosphere (exposed brick, ambient "street lamp" indoor lighting) and its freaking delicious food (Matt's and my Death Row meals both include Sidney Street's veal dumplings), this is the perfect place to toast to family and eat our faces off.

This year, Matt ordered the special, pork belly, and it damn near killed him. Seriously, halfway through his meal, I thought I was going to have to carry him out. Yet, I'm still having dreams about the risotto that came on his plate. I went rogue (i.e. meatless) with my order of "smoked sweet potato perogis." (Hey, I'm Polish, what can I say?) They were heavenly, and let me just say this: my plate featured three homemade sage marshmallows. That is really all you need to know about that.

Sidney Street Café

Sidney Street is so popular this time of year that my father-in-law makes our reservations in September. No joke. Even without my usual red wine-induced warm fuzzies this year, I still felt the familial love, sitting around the table for hours, telling stories, passing around bites of food, and watching grown men try, to varying degrees of success, to make "music" by rubbing their fingers around the rims of wine glasses. In public.

Until next year...