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At last year's competition, a camel named Coco proudly sported a Cardinals cap her owner trained her to wear.
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Tom Coghill's Iron Barley is one of two local restaurants representing StL at the Louder than Life Festival in Louisville, KY on Oct. 4 and 5. Bill Kunz' Highway 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen is the other.
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The September flavors of the month from Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe are, clockwise from top: Apple Butter, “PB and Jilly,” White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice, Gooey Butter Brownie, “Penguin.”
SLM contributor Byron Kerman weighs in regularly on local food events, happenings, and dining news of note. Look for his wit, wisdom, and whimsy every other week both here and in SLM's e-newsletter, On the Burner.
The Camel’s Name is Coco
Full disclosure: I have been asked to be one of the judges at the Fourth Annual Falafel Eating Competition & Hummus Bar Block Party at Cafe Natasha next week (6 p.m. Tues., Sept. 9). So I may not be objective when I write this, but the live camel, high-speed falafel eating, Mideast buffet, and cocktail competition are worth a gawk. The block party includes an all-you-care-to-stuff-in-your-face buffet of hummus, falafel, Persian Basmati pilafs, sautéed mushrooms, pomegranate-eggplant dip, and more; a three-tier cocktail competition courtesy of Natasha’s Gin Room and the Spirits of Saint Louis Distillery; an extended happy hour; belly-dancing; and a block party with a petting zoo (café owner Natasha Bahrami loves animals) starring a camel, a llama and a baby alpaca. About that falafel-eating contest: the record is 22 falafels in five minutes.
Lumberjacks Welcome
If you’re a dude who likes heavy metal, bourbon, and “gourmet man food,” there’s a new festival you might want to put on your radar. The Louder Than Life Festival, happening in Louisville, KY, from Oct. 4 to 5, caters to those who produce testosterone by gathering vendors of potent booze, high-fat eats, craft beers, and hard-rock acts like Judas Priest, Korn, Kid Rock, Mastodon and Stone Temple Pilots. St. Louis restaurants repping at the new fest include the iconoclastic Iron Barley and the N’Awlins-inspired Highway 61Roadhouse.
September Scrumptiousness at Jilly’s
This month's Cupcakes of the Month at Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe offer more of those huge, luscious dollops of buttercream that make the world go round:
Apple Butter is applesauce cake with a filling of apple butter and a topping of caramel-apple buttercream, plus a dark-chocolate straw and fondant leaf that make it look like an apple.
“PB and Jilly” is peanut-butter flavored cake studded with chopped peanuts, filled with strawberry Jam, and topped with a peanut-lover's mountain: peanut-butter buttercream, strawberry buttercream, honey-roasted peanuts, and a generous piece of peanut-butter-and-jelly bar.
White Chocolate Pumpkin Spice is made with a vanilla/pumpkin swirl cake studded with white chocolate chips, a filling of white chocolate mousse, and an elaborate topping of pumpkin-spice buttercream, white chocolate buttercream, curls of white chocolate curls, candied pumpkin seeds, a vanilla glaze, and a dusting of cinnamon and nutmeg.
Gooey Butter Brownie – a bit of a departure for Jilly's – is a gooey butter brownie topped with a squeeze of ganache and a dusting of powdered sugar.
“Penguin” is a cute concoction of chocolate cake and ganache filling, with a topping of cream cheese icing, mini chocolate chips and ganache.
