Fancy Brunch and Some History

It was a crisp January day in St. Louis.

Someone left a beer outside our door the night before and it had frozen over amusingly.

Avid JMAA readers may recall that there was some wrangling over the price of our New Year's celebrating at Cinder House at the Lumière Place Casino. The product of my wrath was a good size gift certificate to be used at Cinder House on a later date. And we just so happened to find ourselves there on a later date today. What a coincidence. I've brunched at Cinder House once before and liked it a lot, so we invited my parents along for the ride this time.

You got wooden nickels that you could spend on brunchy drinks. Bloody Marys for me please.

The set up is a brunch buffet, so some bacchanalian magic was about to take place.

Waffles and French toast at the same time? I'm a madman.

Mocha mousse dome, anyone?

Sangria was in attendance.

Tuna steaks

Croissants and ricotta & spinach pastries

Orange carrots are for poor people.

After stuffing our faces to the brim we waddled over to the Missouri History Museum to say adieu to a temporary exhibit that was about to end: In Focus: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Photographs. This photo may have been my favorite.

"Fandom Starts Early

Unknown Photographer 1944

It's not often that the World Series is played between two teams from the same city, but in 1944 the St. Louis Cardinals faced the St. Louis Browns. These young fans, whose pennants seem to show split loyalties, were lucky enough to see Game 4 on October, 7 1944.

The Cardinals won this game, evening up the series at two games apiece. They would go on to win the next two games--and their fifth championship."

"First of Many

Unknown Photographer 1926

On September 24, 1926, Cardinals fans packed downtown to celebrate the team winning the National League Championship Series for the first time. It wouldn't be long before fans were back on the streets: A couple weeks later the Cardinals would win the 1926 World Series after beating the New York Yankees in seven games. To date, the Cardinals have won 19 National League pennants and 11 World Series titles."

"Short-lived Spirit

Wayne Crosslin ca. 1975

Compared with the Cardinals or the Blues, there aren't many photos of the Spirits of St. Louis. That's because the team only existed for two seasons. The Spirits were part of the American Basketball Association and moved to St. Louis from Raleigh, North Carolina, for the 1974-1975 season. The Spirits reached that ABA playoffs in their first year, but their second one was dismal. Few St. Louisans felt like turning up to see the losing team play at the St. Louis Arena.

In 1976 the American Basketball Association merged with the National Basketball Association. The NBA brought four ABA teams into its organization, but the Spirits were one of two teams that were dissolved, ending St. Louis's brief moment on professional basketball's court."

"Honoring Kennedy

Jim Rackwitz 1963

More than 30,000 people marched in downtown St. Louis on November 24, 1963, to pay their respects to President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated two days earlier in Dallas, Texas. Captured here is part of the group seen through the columns of the Old Courthouse. The under-construction legs of the Gateway Arch are visible in the background.

The local Conference on Religion and Race had originally organized the march to promote racial harmony in the wake of recent protests about unfair hiring practices at Jefferson Bank and Trust Company. When Kennedy was murdered, the group said it would go forward with the march, saying the assassination gave the event "new meaning and depth"".

"Prohibition Clampdown

Unknown Photographer 1922

On December 6, 1922, federal agents found two still inside a four-story building located on S. 3rd Street. They shut the distillery down and drained thousands of gallons of mash into the sewer. Agents said the still were still capable of producing 500 gallons of whiskey a day and called the raid one of the biggest since Prohibition had been enacted two years earlier.

Although St. Louis has always been known as a beer town, it also has a fascinating whiskey history. In addition to being the home of smaller- and sometimes illegal-distilleries, St. Louis was briefly the home of Jack Daniel's. The famous distillery moved to St. Louis in 1910, when Tennessee passed a law banning alcohol. After Prohibition took the ban nationwide in 1920, Jack Daniel's held about 900 barrels of whiskey at a plant near Vandeventer and Forest Park avenues."

I've been working on my stylish food photography as Lydia has been posting some them on her glamorous Instagram account.