Budget Crunch: 9 delicious dishes and sweet deals to try right now

Welcome to Budget Crunch, wherein intrepid reporter Byron Kerman offers 9 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. The new Cookies and Cream Frozen Toddy at Crepes Etc. is a cold, blended coffee drink that starts with dark roast cold-brewed Kaldi’s coffee. Both condensed and skim milks are added, and the mixture is blended with ice, Ghiradelli white-chocolate syrup and a scoop of freshly crumbled Oreo cookies. A second scoop of Oreo crumbles is mixed in gently, and the final product is a thick liquid dessert for $6. Mmm…

2. The new One Buck Shuck deal at Bristol Seafood Grill in Creve Coeur means oysters on the half shell are $1 each during daily happy hours. The chef selects about a half-dozen varieties of bivalve for you to hoover, and look for specials on beer, wine and cocktails, too.

3. Is there a traffic jam of cyclists outside Café Ventana for free beignets? This eco-cool promotion seems like a real winner. Just bicycle up to the cafe and tell the barista you did so, and he or she will give you a daily free beignet. This freshly fried square doughnut, dusted with powdered sugar, is the cafe’s sweet reward to for you not burning fossils fuels that day. Were I a Saint Louis University student, I’d be all over this one.

4. Is the phrase “upscale slinger” acceptable? If so, try one out at Onesto. Simply called the Onesto Slinger, home fries are topped with marinated grilled skirt steak, a locally-laid fried egg, house-made smoked chili, shredded cheese and jalapenos for $14. It palliates your hangover, while also making you feel refined, yet unpretentious. Available on the new brunch menu from 10 a.m.to 2 p.m. Sundays.

5. Any excuse to eat at Juniper works for us, so news of the avant-Southern eatery’s new Happy Hour is more than welcome. Available from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, the half-price happy-hour Snackies include deviled eggs in two flavors, andouille corn dogs with spicy ketchup, and a wild creation called Nashville hot fried chicken skins made with strawberry buttermilk. New $6 happy-hour cocktails priced at $6 include Tim’s Gone to the Keys made with rum, sugar, maraschino juice, and vermouth; and the Tea Julep made from bourbon, sugar, tea and fresh mint.

6. The new St. Louis Bacon Meet-Up Group is celebrating the joys of bacon addiction at its first Bacon Potluck at the Heavy Anchor Friday, July 25. The free event promises all kinds of porky awesomeness, including bacon-themed games and prizes, “bacon karaoke,” and treats made with an obscene amount of bacon. Look for bacon-peanut butter cannoli (pictured), among other dishes – and bring a creation of your own. RSVP here.

7. We have tried the sorbet of the summer, and we pronounce it excellent. Both area locations of Whole Foods (Brentwood and Town & Country) are scooping up a stellar Root Beer Sorbet at the gelato counter. Does it actually have a touch of that fizzy root-beer carbonation about the edges? (No, said one sorbet-scooping dude, we are imagining things.) The root-beer flavor rotates in along with the rest, we’re told, but it is sufficiently popular that it’s usually in the lineup. Look for a Wednesday special of $4 for 12 ounces of any flavor.

8. Amy’s Corner Bakeshop’s Clear the Cases deal is a two-for-one sale on everything in the joint at 2 p.m. Sundays. The staff needs to sell the day’s baked goods before they’re consigned to oblivion, and you benefit. Look for cookies in flavors like white chocolate chip-pretzel and the Monster Cookie, studded with a dozen or more types of candy. Also submitted for your consideration: the coffee cake, the turtle brownie, the tart cherry scone, and the Strawberica cupcake with strawberry cake, vanilla frosting and strawberries on top.

9. Mid-Week Martinis on the Patio at Kirkwood’s Sapore Italian Café has a lot going for it. Two Wednesdays a month, Sapore offers free passed appetizers, $5 martinis (thanks to local sponsor Mastermind Vodka), and live music, from 5 to 7 p.m. The next Mid-Week Martinis on the Patio, billed as a “happy hour, networking and business appreciation event,” is scheduled for Wed., July 23.

This article appears in Readers’ Choice 2014.