Luvy Duvy's

After the market, Sayers and I headed to Luvy Duvy's in Benton Park for brunch. What's great about Luvy Duvy's is the tables on the patio, covered with drawings and notes, including a mustache (below): hipster alert! (What else is great about Luvy Duvy's is the egg sandwich on a croissant with sausage that they made me--that is certainly one of my favorite things--I dare you to stick that in the song, Maria Von Trapp.)

What's great about St. Louis is the number of neighborhoods that pop up out of nowhere. Benton Park is one of those--I hadn't heard anything about it before we went to brunch, but there's a nice park there and some nice restaurants.

After brunch, we stopped at a coffee shop for another special St. Louis food: ooey gooey butter cake. (Smitten Kitchen's recipe here.) Deb describes it (pretty accurately, I'd say):

What is a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake, you ask? It’s two things, actually — a rich yeast cake base (though it is often made with cake mixes; this version hopes uses a yeast cake to cut down on the sweetness) that is topped with a mixture of gobs of butter, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla that, when baked, become nothing short of showstopping.

We got two kinds--the old-fashioned standard and pumpkin, pecan.