Welcome to 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. They are literally paying it forward at Rise Coffee House in The Grove. The Coffee for the People free board is an array of cup insulators tacked to a bulletin board. Each one offers a free drink – for the right person. For instance, a customer can purchase pay for and write on the insulator “bottomless cup for anyone job-searching,” orffering liquid refreshment for the beleaguered soul who finds and redeems it. More ambiguous designations include things like a free cup “for a short poppy amongst the tall ones.” It’s a nice way to spread a touch of kindness and good karma.
2. Dessert for less than a dollar? That’s right in this cheapskate’s wheelhouse. Hyde Park’s Sun Cafe & Market offers peanut butter bombs for a meager 50 cents each. These cute little jawbreaker-sized guys taste like extra-dense, moist peanut butter cookies.
3. Pumpkin-flavored foods of autumn, you may have just met your match. The Patch Burger at Stacked is ground chuck topped with bacon, goat cheese and sweet potato puree that was braised in Ferguson Brewing’s Pumpkin Ale. Can hamburger and pumpkin be friends? The Patch Burger is the October Burger of the Month at Stacked, so you have just a two more weeks to try it out.
4. Building your own sushi roll is a tech-filled good time at Flying Rolls. You choose the roll size, wrap, protein (crab, tuna, yellowtail, etc.), rice (white or brown), veggies and sauce (eel sauce, orange sauce, lemon mayo, etc.) and punch it all into the touchscreen kiosk in the dining room. The sushi chef behind the counter makes it to order for $7 to $9.
5. I Scream Cakes‘ Kerry Soraci is having fun with fall. New beer-based autumn flavors of ice cream at the shop include Butter Pecan Ale made with Ferguson Brewing’s Pecan Nut Brown Ale and brown butter. Goat Figure is a mix of pumpkin ice cream made with Schlafly’s Pumpkin Ale and pumpkin puree, plus Baetje Farms goat cheese and a citrus-fig swirl. Chocolate Milk Stout Ice Cream incorporates 4 Hands’ Chocolate Milk Stout and a caramel swirl. They’re $2.69 for a cone at I Scream, but you can order them a $6 flight of four mini waffle cones at the St. Louis Brewers’ Guild Harvest Festival at Lafayette Park Nov. 1 or the Ballpark Village Brew Fest Nov. 8.
6. We like the prices of the new no-frills breakfast items at the United Provisions‘ Dining District – and the mix-and-match options. You might try an egg sandwich, picking from various cheeses, meats, tomatoes, spinach, etc., on a bagel, croissant or biscuit, starting at $2.50. They also have “eggs in a basket,” two over-easy eggs on toast ($4), biscuits with sausage gravy ($5), biscuits with a pomegranate butter ($4) and a full selection of coffee drinks. Breakfast is served from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday to Friday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends.
7. Drinking margaritas is dangerous. One is a muscle relaxer; two are an invitation to board the fun train to parts unknown. They’re that much harder to resist down at Margs for a Mission at Hacienda Mexican Restaurant. Every Monday, the capacious eatery’s newly renovated margarita and tequila bar donates $1 from every margarita sale and $5 from every cocktail pitcher sale will be given to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Also on Mondays, dig into $2 street tacos to soak up the booze.
8. The new Happy Hour Madness at Central Table includes some sweet deals. From 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, flights of three beer tastes or three wine tastes are $5. Half-off happy-hour treats include full-size, shareable portions of mussels ($6.50), calamari ($6), Margherita pizza ($6), meatballs ($4.50), prosciutto and burrata on warm flatbread ($4.50), and blistered shishito peppers with ponzu sauce and black sesame seeds ($4.50).
9. Other pumpkin coffee drinks bow down before the Baked Maple Pumpkin Latte ($3.75 to $4.75) at Kaldi’s. That’s because the local roaster uses real baked pumpkin puree and steams it with cinnamon, maple syrup, cinnamon syrup and milk for an authentic pumpkin experience. It’s topped with whipped cream and fresh-grated nutmeg, and it’s available at all Kaldi’s locations.
10.There are plenty of wine shops that pour free samples, but Vino Gallery is half wine shop, half art gallery, so you can ogle artsy stuff while you sip. Every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., the CWE shop pours three or four different bottles for complimentary tastings. (Pinot noirs find their way to the tasting table often during fall.) While you’re ogling, ask to see the cool Coravin wine opener, which uses a hollow needle and argon gas to remove wine from bottles without actually opening it, leaving its character intact for next time.
This article appears in October 2014.