Here in St. Louis

[stevebody]

Raves for the friendliness of almost everybody we've met since arriving in St. Lou Sunday. Some lady I didn't know from Adam responded to my request at craigslist.com about wine tastings by making us a "care package" of treats from her kitchen and local gourmet food shops. I met her last night, a short, round firecracker, originally from Minneapolis, who is spending her retirement years in the Central West End district of St. Louis and loving it. And the staff at the Rehab Institute already has Judye popping off bump-over transfers like an old pro.

Rants, however, for the first two wine shops I visited Monday. "Modest" wouldn't even begin to describe the selections and the staffs were clueless, to a man. It's dicey, I know, to just open the yellow pages and start visiting shops you have no info about but I don't know anybody here who's a "serious" wine geek, so it's trial'n'error, baby. Fortunately, with two weeks to kill, time to explore won't be a factor.

Any further suggestions are VERY welcome.

P.S.: Had the toasted raviolis last night. Nice, quirky stuff but nothing that I'd travel out of my way for.