Breakfast in St. Louis

[yarden.saa]

Hi,
My team is going to have over 60 students and adults in st.louis.
I am looking for advice what to do with breakfast, we will be staying at Hilton at the ballpark that is close to the dome.
what do you think about buying food (bread, cheese...) in the supermarket and eat it all together in a park or somewhere else?

Yarden

[jds2001]

Being a Hilton, they are likely to have breakfast available. Not saying that it will be cheap, but I'd think that it's likely they'll have breakfast available. They may or may not have refrigerators in the room available.

There is a Schnucks (local supermarket) that's not very far from EJD. However, they've branded it differently - I'm not sure if it's smaller with a more limited selection than a regular Schnucks or what. I'm haven't lived in STL in 6-7 years, so I'm not familiar with this particular store. Perhaps someone who is more local would be better to tell you what's different about this vs. a regular Schnucks.

[MariOlsen]

Originally Posted by yarden.saa

Hi,
My team is going to have over 60 students and adults in st.louis.
I am looking for advice what to do with breakfast, we will be staying at Hilton at the ballpark that is close to the dome.
what do you think about buying food (bread, cheese...) in the supermarket and eat it all together in a park or somewhere else?

Yarden

That's what our team did when we went to Louisiana for Bayou. Except there were only about 30 of us, so we were able to use a convenient table off the hotel lobby and their patio tables.

[cadandcookies]

2220, my old team, has done a store bought breakfast before, especially back when we had 70-80 people traveling with us. We would buy at home, then bring it with us-- fruit, bagels, spreads, yogurt, and individual bottles of orange juice (we only bought the stuff that HAD to be refrigerated on-site). We'd have the "breakfast room" (one of the mentor rooms, which stored all this food) open an hour or two before we planned on leaving, and students were free to come in whenever during that time and bring it back to eat in their rooms.

This system has worked well for the last 7-8 years for the team, and I'd definitely recommend it.

Edit: I'll leave this here, but my apologies to the OP-- this advice isn't likely to be applicable to your situation.

[GreyingJay]

As the OP seems to be coming from Israel, buying stuff from home won't likely be an option

First, do your hotel rooms have fridges? That will be necessary for storage of milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.

(I live in a city in Canada where it's still hovering around the freezing mark at nights, so I was almost going to suggest you could keep those things in your rental vehicle if you didn't have a fridge... however, I see the weather in STL is MUCH nicer than what we've got here )

My second question is one of timing... I see that events start as early as 7:30am on Saturday. I'm going to consider it a miracle if I manage to get any breakfast at all that day, let alone a nice picnic in a park...

How do you guys all do it?

[April_robo]

My team has never gone to St. Louis in the time that I've been on the team, but for the Michigan State Championship last year we brought milk and cereal with us and had my room open for breakfast before we left the hotel as others have stated already. But I'm sure you can find a place to buy groceries somewhere nearby.

[thatismytruck]

Call the Hilton and see if it offers breakfast included in room rate. I thought it did last year.

[Alex2614]

Originally Posted by yarden.saa

Hi,
My team is going to have over 60 students and adults in st.louis.
I am looking for advice what to do with breakfast, we will be staying at Hilton at the ballpark that is close to the dome.
what do you think about buying food (bread, cheese...) in the supermarket and eat it all together in a park or somewhere else?

Yarden

We do this all the time! We eat in the hallway of the hotel, and we call it the "Ironing Board Cafe." Bring out some ironing boards and set up some cereal, granola bars, bread, etc. Works really well, actually. You just have to stay pretty quiet.

In fact, I think we did this a couple years ago when we stayed at the Hilton Ballpark, because if I remember correctly, they didn't have complimentary breakfast.

[philso]

Originally Posted by jds2001

There is a Schnucks (local supermarket) that's not very far from EJD. However, they've branded it differently - I'm not sure if it's smaller with a more limited selection than a regular Schnucks or what. I'm haven't lived in STL in 6-7 years, so I'm not familiar with this particular store. Perhaps someone who is more local would be better to tell you what's different about this vs. a regular Schnucks.

We visited "Culinaria" (the Schnucks for the high-end market) in 2013, about a half mile walk from your hotel. It is a pretty complete though small supermarket with a deli counter and bakery and the prices were not too high at that time. The web site shows they are open from 6AM to 9PM and has a store map that gives you a good idea of what they sell. The streets in the downtown area (EdJ Dome & hotels) were pretty clean and safe (check use Google's Street View) but it would still be best to go in groups.

[Saberbot]

In 2012 we had got a large suite for some of our mentors that had a kitchenette and several couches. When we flew into Saint Lewis, several people went to Costco to get a variety of dry breakfast ingredients. The room opened up an hour and a half before we were going to leave for the dome. In the night after competition the team was able to meet there for strategy/scouting meetings. It was an ideal setup.

[leeivyca]

Team 766 has been in St. Louis a couple of times and we give a thumbs-up to the Culinaria/Schnicks mentioned above. It is a good place to grab breakfast (both healthy and comfort food) as well as dinner (you can order a variety of sandwiches and other hot food, then they have a nice dining area upstairs that can hold a good sized group).