S2E15: The zoo within the zoo.

Day 15: Sept 24, 2023
St. Louis, MO

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Blueprint Coffee is the OG third-wave coffee purveyor in St. Louis. We usually visit the Delmar venue, but with a new-to-us location nearby, we make that our destination. Housed in a former automotive brake service shop, this newer spot is airy, casual, and friendly.

I can’t coffee anymore due to my eczema and gut dysbiosis issues, so I seek out other options. I see a shrub and soda on the menu. Out of two flavors, I pick strawberry–blueberry, though the lemon–ginger sounds equally refreshing.

One of the staff strikes up a conversation — perhaps he’s the manager or a co-owner — and he’s superfriendly and talks shrubs with me as it’s apparently not a common request. While we wait for Jen’s coffee order, the same gentlemen asks for feedback on the shrub. It’s nice: bright, just the right amount of sugar to tartness from the vinegar. They target a 1:1 ratio of sugar to vinegar here. He digs the response, so he offers up the lemon–ginger for me to sample. It’s smoother — sweeter with a touch of ginger at the end, not overbearing, and honestly, a pleasant mouthfeel. Even a small exchange like that is a nice reminder of how friendly people are as we transit through so many towns, cities, and states.

Pappy’s Smokehouse is an institution and my favorite BBQ place in St. Louis. (Jen once transported back to SF not only BBQ, but a Pappy’s hat signed by the man himself.) We convene here with Jen’s family for lunch, and Kim and Kyle’s kids are dismayed by the accumulating line. The queue actually moves swiftly, and the food is well worth the wait. A table awaits our party of eight, and our food arrives quickly with their ordering and seating system primed for efficiency. It’s always good, always satisfying.

The St. Louis Zoo is next on the agenda since we needed an activity for the kiddos. A thread running though St. Louis is its diverse mix of people. As we wander the zoo, we notice a wide swath of people that traverses race, religion, gender, economic status, and political affiliation. Jen and I contrast these observations with the smaller diversity pools of our home city, and particularly some of the places we’ve traveled through on this road trip. A man with a very pro-gun, very aggressive T-shirt; a young interracial Muslim couple in fashionable attire, pushing a stroller; and a trans person wearing Pride apparel — all in the same line to see the penguin exhibit.

As someone in our party mentions earlier: there’s two kinds of zoos here.