The Hill

For Memorial weekend, my family caravaned to St. Louis to visit some friends with some friends. Make sense? Good! The trip was pretty fun and we managed to cram in quite a few activities while there. Our friends took us to an Italian restaurant located in a neighborhood called "The Hill". We had reservations for a party of 18 or so. Of those 18 there were 5 kids aged 4 and under. Yeah. Uh huh.

We walk into this restaurant located on the corner. I was a little apprehensive as the first floor was a bit cozy. The waitress actually took us to the downstairs or basement of the restaurant and seated us there. We took up two round tables. There was one other table with a family, otherwise the basement was ours.

We asked the waitress what the deal was behind "The Hill". Being from out-of-town we didn't know the history. In a nutshell, the Irish lived in the neighborhood. The Italians came along, liked the neighborhood and basically made it an Italian neighborhood. Now that is a poor interpretation of the story. To find out more, you really should go here to find out more. This place has some history as the settlement of this neighborhood began in 1830. Look out New York! St. Louis has it's own Italian neighborhood.

The waitress told us that in "The Hill" there ain't none of this mass-produced-pasta-noodle-stuff going on. Everything is made from scratch. That should have been my warning that dinner was going to take more than an hour. By the time we got our food, the kids were on the verge of tearing the place apart. I ate quickly (as a parent of a 2.5 year old, i don't taste food anymore) and was planning my next "move". My husband and i have gotten really good at just taking Olivia out for walks while waiting for food to arrive, and then texting the other to say, "food is here".

While we were waiting for the food to arrive, Jason had actually taken Olivia for a spin around the neighborhood. He said there was one house that had a fish pond in the front yard that they spent some time looking at. After i inhaled my food i decided it was a good time to take Olivia for a walk. She had drank all of her chocolate milk and ate none of her dinner, and i could tell she was going well beyond her "tired" limits.

The evening was warm, the streets were relatively quiet, and people were on their front porch chatting. The neighborhood reminded me a lot of what some NY neighborhoods look like, particularly in Queens, near Astoria? I just remember it was a lot like the old neighborhood my sister-in-law lived near.

The front yards are about 4'x4'. The houses are as narrow as a mobile home, and two mobile homes high. The houses have FAR more character than mobile homes but that's the best way i can describe them. They were also an arm's length apart from each other. So if i wanted to borrow a cup of sugar from my neighbor, all i had to do was take my broom handle and knock on their kitchen window.

I really enjoyed the opportunity to wander the neighborhood, and Olivia had a good time. We caught up with a lady who was walking her dog. The dog was very sweet and was all about Olivia. About half a block away, i saw a rather large cat sprawled out on the sidewalk. I thought for sure the dog would go ape over the cat. According to the lady walking the dog it was the neighborhood cat and the dog couldn't care less. The dog wanted Olivia. Pretty cute.

Don't let Olivia fool you. She's not sad and she's not tired. She's just catching her 50th wind of the evening. Really... if you haven't already, go here to read the far more interesting and accurate history about The Hill.