It’s time for Budget Crunch, wherein intrepid reporter Byron Kerman offers 10 tips on delicious menu items and sweet deals happening now. Got $10? Grab a friend and sample, split and stuff yourselves with these steals.
1. Leftovers get some serious love with the Holiday Mostarda for around $12 a pound at Salume Beddu. With cranberries, Bosc pears, currants, fresh ginger, white wine and mustard seeds, this relish makes the average cranberry sauce crawl back in the can. Slather some on a turkey sandwich (maybe with a little stuffing, even), and you’ll become a convert.
2. About 10 steps from Kakao in Clayton, a collaboration with Pastaria has yielded a winner: maple-roasted parsnip gelato with crumbled Kakao Big Squeal Bacon Brittle mixed in is a wonder. The crunchy delight of the brittle and the strong bacon flavor in the creamy gelato make for a sweet-savory triumph. Get a double scoop for $4.
3. The newly opened Avenue Restaurant has burst from the blocks with a nighttime happy hour that offers classy eats for small bucks. The new Monday Industry Night features drink specials and half-off the items from the bar menu from 9 to 11 p.m. Check out the half-pound burger with cheese on a brioche bun ($7), grilled ham and Swiss with grain mustard on Cuban bread ($4.50), macaroni-and-cheese ($5), French onion soup gratinee ($3 to $4), Parmesan biscuits ($1.50) or a spinach salad with blue cheese and walnuts ($4.50).
4. The Q-icide sandwich at Vernon’s BBQ & Catering has “one of every meat.” That’s pulled pork, brisket, smoked turkey breast, ham, corned beef, sausage and smoked bologna, all piled to a vertiginous, Dagwood, fork-and-knife-height on the bun. The Friday special weighs more than a pound and goes for $12.
5. 5 Star Burgers has officially moved beyond its namesake menu item and added a whole new tubular section: hot dogs. Wenneman’s beef-pork blend hot dogs are split, grilled, bedded in brioche buns and topped three ways. The 5 Star Dog is simplified a Chicago style with house-made sweet relish, diced red onion and tomato ($6). The Ballpark Dog reposes beneath sauerkraut, griddled onions and bacon ($6.50). The Triple Dog Dare Ya, inspired by the restaurant’s Southwestern Dad’s Green Chile Cheeseburger, is a dog under Angus beef chili, cheddar cheese and crispy New Mexico Hatch chile peppers ($7).
6. The Whitebox Coffee Break is a new, afternoon pastry happy hour at Whitebox Eatery. Pastries, muffins, scones, cookies and sometimes even those simply ass-kicking Vincent Van Doughnuts are all half-off, dropping to $1.50 to $2 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Add a medium cup of Blueprint’s drip coffee for $1.25 with your selected pastry at the cafe or the sweet little Whitebox kiosk in the building next door.
7. Snack cakes referencing a certain childhood treat are waiting at Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop. “Twinkles” (ahem) are sticks of vanilla sponge cake filled with light vanilla fluff. They’re available on some weekends (call ahead) and for special orders at $2 each.
8. Should you find yourself at the River City Casino at 7 a.m. (and you know who you are), consider gambling on the lobster frittata. Available at the Casino’s Lewy Nine’s Café, the generous breakfast offers a big ol’ mound of lobster meat for a friendly price ($12). The dish consists of a three-egg lobster fritatta topped with a warm lobster salad with a touch of garlic and served with toast on the side.
9. Been to Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream lately? The Webster Groves scoopers have holiday flavors like eggnog, peppermint and a sugar-plum sorbet. Speaking of sugar plums, Serendipity’s new Nutcracker on Ice Cream flavor features coffee ice cream with pistachios, almonds and pecans and a fudge ribbon. The nutty creation gets its name in honor of the Metro Edge Figure Skating Club’s upcoming performance of The Nutcracker on Ice. Grab a single scoop for $3 in a cone or bowl; quarts are also available for $7 to $9.
10. The $2 Chocolate Chewy Goodness cookie, baked by Sarah’s Cake Shop, is not like other cookies. Melted marshmallow and butter caramelize around its edges for an ambrosial chewiness. Pick it up at United Provisions in The Loop.
This article appears in December 2014.