St. Louis Neighborhood – An Evening In Grand Boulevard

St. Louis, Missouri is a town of considerable historical importance, especially as it was the frontier for the western exploration of America. Somehow it has never reached the size and buzz of the bigger metropolises of the United States. It does have its own unique charm, and some neighborhoods provide an opportunity for walking, shopping, eating, and people-watching.

Grand Boulevard near SLU is a great place to spend your evening. You can start by taking a leisurely stroll in Tower Grove Park. If you want to sweat it out, you can join other joggers and bicyclists that dot the park.

Places to Eat

Photo by @jaywennington on Unsplash

After the stroll, head over for a coffee at the Indie coffee shop MoKaBe’s Coffeehouse.  A poster on the entry door proudly claims – “We support the other 99%” and you have to just look over your shoulder to the neighboring brownstone to realize that you are next to the local “Occupy Wall Street” movement!

From Arsenal Street to Humphry Street, Grand Boulevard has some of the most popular restaurants in town. Some of the ones that I have tried and I recommend are:

King and I for Thai Cuisine ï¿½ Try any of the traditional Thai curries. The quantities are relatively large, so be prepared for leftovers. On weekends, you can expect a waiting time of 10-15 minutes, if you do not have a reservation

The Vine Mediterranean Caf� and Restaurant ï¿½ This totally unassuming eatery serves some of the best shawarma and hummus that I have eaten in St. Louis.

Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant – It’s not out of the ordinary to say “Let’s order a Pizza” or “Let’s have Chinese” or “Let’s do Indian food,” is it? However, I am sure none of us ever think of, “Oh, I feel like eating Ethiopian!”..Well we should! This is by far the closest I have ever come to eating cuisine that is so familiar ( being an Indian) yet new. The Ethiopian bread is the fermented Injira served with a collection of well-cooked vegetables, meat, and lentils. Conceptually, it’s very similar to the Indian cuisine, but the flavors so entirely distinct and wonderful.

Notable Stores

If you don’t feel like eating, there are a bunch of interesting stores to check out in Grand Boulevard. Now I make it a point to go to all book shops in a city (no, seriously!) and I cannot recommend the Dunaway Books enough. The store is massive and in a cool non-chain store kind of way. The books are lined up cleanly, and the collection has a lot of breadth. It’s entirely possible that you may find some obscure titles here. We had a little chat, with who I assume to be the owner, and he was so friendly and pleasant and British! He joked about his visits to India and how his Jain friend makes him eat vegetarian food. If we hadn’t moved from Saint Louis, this would have been my new favorite place in the city.

If you are in the mood for bleeding a little, head over to the tattoo parlor or if you are in the mood for a bit of fun then head out to “CheapTRX” – a kinky novelty store. I have never been inside (honest!) but there is some element of poetry in seeing leather and lace-clad mannequins amid aspiring-to-be-posh restaurants.

Grab That Dessert

However, you chose to spend your time at South Grand Boulevard you can round off your evening with some gelato at Gelateria Del Leone.  

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Note: This article was originally written and updated in 2019. We are no longer locals to the area, but if you have any great suggestions on must-see things to Grand Boulevard or St. Louis, please add it to the comments.