Roadtrip to St. Louis MO, Cape Girardeau MO, and Murphysboro IL
Me, Jen, Eiley and Dale embarked on a 1400 mile trip in 50 hours to go pick up our new smoker from Ole Hickory Pits in Cape Girardeau Missouri. We first stopped in St. Louis Missouri to hit up a few barbecue restaurants. We rested up in the hotel before going to Pappy’s Smokehouse for lunch. You walked past 2 Ole Hickory Pits sitting on a trailer next to the restaurant and entered through the back door. The place was packed and we waited in line for 45 minutes to order our food. We order a little bit of everything to try. We found a tabe and a few minutes later they were yelling my name to bring us our food. The food was very good at Pappy’s and the owner came over several times to chat with us. We did not think to bring the camera in so next time we go there we will get some pictures. I would highly reccomed this place as all the barbecue was really good and the fried corn on the cob was excellent. We then went and took atour of the Anheuser Busch Brewery. The tour was free and we got to see the whole place. It was neat to see and we were given some good beer samples at the end. After that we drove around and looked at the Arch and went to Bandana’s for dinner. This is another barbecue restaurant in St. Louis. Bandanas was ok but not great. I wont go into great detail but if you visit St. Louis go to Pappys Smokehouse. We then headed back to the hotel to call it a night. We woke up bright and early because Eiley did not want to sleep anymore and we packed up and headed south 2 hours to Ole Hickory Pits in Cape Girardeau. They were definately busy at Ole Hickory because their lot was full of smokers ready to ship. We finally got to meet Margaret and Penny and David. We hooked up our shinny new pit and got ready to leave. We originally were going to go down to Memphis Tenessee and hit up 4 or 5 more barbecue joints on the way back home but decided that with the floods down there we weren’t going to chance it this trip. Plus I really wanted to go to a barbecue restaurant in Murphysboro Illinois. So we decided to drive an hour to Murphysboro Illinois to visit the barbecue legend Mike Mill’s original restaurant The 17th Street Bar and Grill. When I first got into barbecue 4 years ago the first book I bought was Mike Mill’s book calle Peace Love and BBQ. So I was excited to go to his restaurant and give it a try. Mike also has many other restaurants now including some in Las Vegas but I have always wanted to visit the original one.
We parked across the street from The 17th Street Bar and Grill as we got out a guy started walking across the street towards us. It was Mike Mills and he had seen us drive past his office with our smoker. We ended up talking barbecue for about 2 hours and sharing tips and stories. It was a leaning experience for me as I was able to pick his brain a little bit. I was humbled to be talking barbecue with one of the barbecue Legends. He showed us around his offices, banquet rooms, and catering kitchens. After talking barbecue for 2 hours little Eiley was ready to eat so we went over the restaurant to eat. The food at !7th Street Bar and Grill was very good. Again we got a sampling of everything and it all was very good. I would recommend goint to 17th Street if you are ever near Murphysboro. Mike holds a BBQ competition across the street every fall and we are considering going down to compete this fall.
We headed back to Ohio and on the way back we decided that we were going to name our new pit Millie. We decided on this after getting to meet Mike Mills and inspiring us to keep making great barbecue!
