Sopapilla, sopapilla, penzaway

I was home last week for some much needed R&R, and with 10 days off I had two days to myself. I had a lot of fun in Chicago, Nashville, Illinois and St. Louis, so it's good that things have slowed a bit here in MN. I flew home on the 24th, and then I turned around the next morning and flew to Chicago and back for a Cubs game with friends on the 25th. Then I drove to Nashville for a weekend with my friends, Scott & Natalie. After a much needed trip to the dentist, I drove to Illinois to visit family. My sister, Jennifer, and niece, Sheradan, came down this past weekend for fun in St. Louis at City Museum (I honestly think I have more fun there than my niece does). Oh, I finally got a couch for my apartment! To end my week, I went out for dinner to a new restaurant down the street from my place, Beso.

This brings me to my first restaurant review (I previously have reviewed a burger, but not the restaurant). This is the worst Mexican restaurant I've ever been, and strongly recommend never going there. They seem to be a popular sidewalk cafe downtown, but it was 98 degrees Sunday evening and I like air conditioning. So, I decided to sit at the bar, but the bartender was immediately disgruntled that I was his only customer. He also served me the wrong beer, and I had to send it back. I ordered the guacamole with chips as an appetizer, since the measure of any Mexican restaurant is as good as their guac and they claimed to make theirs fresh upon ordering. Unbelievably awful, slimy guacamole. I didn't know it was possible to screw it up that bad, but it had more cilantro than avocado. I didn't even finish it, and I believe they pretty much sealed their fate from that point forward. I ordered the pork chimichanga which was okay (but no sour cream!?), but I will say the only bright spot of the meal were the refried beans. I like beans, but these were delicious refried. There was some kind of spice mixed in that really added flavor. After all that, could it have been worse? It was. I don't think they have air conditioning, and I was dripping by the end of my meal. Dripping. I think my swass was showing on my walk home (through one of the trendiest and busiest districts in St. Louis on a game night).

The next day upon arriving back in Minnesota, I had to eat lunch at Don Pablo's to get the taste out of my mouth from the previous night. I will drive to Illinois or West County for Casa Gallardo from now on, where I've never had a bad meal (only a bad date). Also, I have since discovered that St. Louis has a Little Mexico district with supposedly great food. I'll need to check that out in the next few months.

Not to mention I will probably never try the new Senior Julio's in Union Station, since they can't even spell Senor correctly. They even included the tilde over the n, but they still added an i?