Craving Mac-N-Cheese

This was supposed to be a story about twinOak, a local restaurant where I had Mac and Cheese for lunch today, but somehow, I feel the need to share with you my adventures getting to twinOak rather than how tasty lunch was.

You see, I could walk to twinOak from my apartment in about ten minutes, but it took me almost an hour to get there.  The real story starts yesterday when I went for a drive, attempting vainly to locate a pet store that carried my preferred brand of kitty litter.  However, I neglected to actually write down the addresses for any of the pet stores that I had googled and ended up driving around in circles in the rain. 

Somehow, I ended up on Delmar Blvd, which I took all the way from Big Bend to KingsHighway Blvd.  This takes you from a very trendy University district (locally known as the Delmar Loop) through some very rough neighborhoods (where I locked my doors).  It was while passing through the Loop area that I noticed a fun sounding restaurant: Cheese-ology Macaroni and Cheese.  Not being particularly hungry, and not feeling like finding a parking spot and walking in the rain, I made a mental note to come back. 

I never did find any of the pet stores that I was trying to locate, but I did come home and curl up with my cat and enjoy a good book. 

Fast forward to today:

Feeling like I had been particularly lazy this weekend (I spent a lot of time curled up with Holley and enjoying books), I decided that I would go out and run a couple of errands and maybe try out that cheese place.

So, I hop in my car and head north, this time on Skinker.  I get to Delmar and discover that there is a hold up at the intersection.  There’s a traffic guy waving traffic through, and suddenly, with the first jogger, I realize that it is the St. Louis Marathon.  The thought briefly crossed my mind again that maybe I should consider trying to run a 5K this summer, but I quickly squashed it.  I also killed my thoughts of trying to go to the Mac-and-Cheese place for lunch.  Traffic on Delmar was going to be a snarl for hours.

Not sure where to go from there, but certain I don’t want Arby’s or McDonald’s, I crossed Delmar and headed west on Olive, and proceed to drive in circles looking for someplace to eat.   I made it up to the airport and back before I remembered a place that is just a few blocks from my apartment that I’ve been thinking about trying.  I really wasn’t sure if it was pizza or steak or burgers, but since their claim to fame is “wood fired fare”, I figured it would be something up my alley…

And so, I had a very nice lunch at twinOak.  Unable to even get past the appetizer menu to the real food (next time, I’m trying one of the pizzas), I had their Wood Fired Dough for Dipping, Mac-N-Cheese, and an order of Chicken Wings.  The Dough for Dipping was the best part- it was liberally sprinkled with seasonings and sea salt and came with a dipping sauce that consisted of olive oil with sautéed red peppers and crushed garlic.  Next time, I might just get that and skip to dessert – but if I do that, I might have to decide to run a 5K after all….

twinOak: www.twinoakstl.com