Not Just Steak Any Longer

I imagine anyone who has been to a Steak 'n Shake in the past 12 months or so has noticed the sweeping changes that have been made to the menu. As far as I can recall, Steak 'n Shake had the same menu from the time I was a child until about a year or a year and a half ago. However, now if you go in there, the menu items are entirely different.

Fortunately, the number of steak burger and melt varieties is close to the same, as well as the chili variety. However, now they offer a vast array of other selections, some good and others not so good. I remember as a kid you had your choice of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry milkshakes. In my teenage years, they added chocolate chip, cookies 'n cream, and a few other flavors. Now there's something in the range of 8,000 (probably an exaggeration) different varieties of milkshake, if you include the side-by-side shakes. And that's just the beginning.

Who the hell thought of putting hot dogs on the menu?? Now, I guess I shouldn't judge until I've tried them, but they have something like 10 different types of hot dogs, most of which weren't available last time I was in there. I mean, the menu keeps changing!! Just today I saw about 6 items on the menu marked as "New."

Another big one on the menu is the "Shooters." Are tiny burgers the new fad in food distribution? I don't know where these things started, but you can now get mini burgers at just about any restaurant, even KFC!! I have to admit the "New" buffalo shooters are damn good. I've been on a buffalo kick lately. I've had probably 15 "buffalo" themed meals in the past 2 weeks. I can't get enough of the stuff. So when I saw the buffalo shooters on the menu, I had to get 2 of them. So right now, I have 2 buffalo shooters, a ketchup and onion shooter, an order of fries, and 2 Cheesy Gordita Crunches in my stomach. I can't wait until tomorrow.

So anyway, is the new menu a good thing or a bad thing? Personally, I think it's a bit strange, and Steak 'n Shake definitely doesn't feel the same as it did when I was a kid, or even when I was a teenager. I've also done a bit of research and found out that Steak 'n Shake is planning on vastly expanding its franchise availability in the next 5 years, so we may see these new, different Steak 'n Shakes popping up all over the country. In closing, I have to admit, the food is still pretty good if you're in the mood for a sit-down fast food type atmosphere.

A Crowded Shopping Center

So on a regular basis, I drive past this shopping center that's on a major road here in Louisville. It's not a big shopping center, and it's not in a great area of town (not a bad area, just not great either). Anyway, I often drive by this shopping center at 1-2 AM, sometimes earlier, sometimes later. I've noticed that most nights after 10PM the parking lot of this shopping center begins to get very crowded. And once midnight hits, you can't find a parking spot...seriously. Between the hours of midnight and 4 AM this shopping center is pretty much a hub of activity. So what's in this shopping center that draws such a late night crowd? Is it a bar, a club...a strip club? Perhaps something a bit more shady? None of the above.

This shopping center is the home of none other than Bingo City!!

Now I had to do a bit of research on this place because I had no idea what was going on, or how a place like Bingo City can draw that kind of crowd after midnight. Well, I looked it up and discovered they have several sessions. They have weekday and weekend sessions at 2 PM, 4 PM and 7:30 PM. But they also have Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday sessions beginning at Midnight. Yes, they have midnight bingo!! Now, I don't imagine this place is unique. I'm sure there was a place like this somewhere in St. Louis, probably within a few miles of where I grew up...but I never saw it.

Now I'm not going to go into too much detail about the schedule of this place or what all they do because I don't know what all the terminology of professional Bingo. But I looked further and further into what seemed like a pretty small website, and found links to Bingo halls all around the city. I was floored by this. There were dozens of them. Again, I realized Bingo is a big time game amongst the geriatric population, but do they really get out their doors at midnight for an all-night Bingo orgy? I guess so. Anyway, here's the link to the site. If I ever have the patience and testicular fortitude perhaps I'll venture into this center of elderly bliss.

As a final note, I've mentioned the Angry Video Game Nerd on several occasions. Well, the creator of that series is seriously a comic genius, so I've attached a brief clip from his website that's fantastic.

Some More Thoughts

This is my one more update saying I'm going to do better at updating. We'll see, but I've just finished another round of schooling and that took up a lot of my free time over the past year so maybe things will be better. A couple of thoughts, and an update.

First off, even though Halloween season is over, I urge everyone who enjoys Halloween and horror movies to keep it going for a bit longer. I mean, until December, what do we really have to look forward to...Thanksgiving? It's an ok holiday, but I've never been a fan at all. It's a boring day in my family and has gotten even more boring since I moved to Louisville. I love spending time with my family, but sitting in the house all day with them and nothing else to do gets to be too much. And everyone else I know always has plans, so what's there for me to do. On the plus side, I can almost guarantee a StLouisville post that day because I'll have very little else to do. So I know I personally am going to celebrate Halloween until December. I just may watch a horror movie tonight.

In anticipation of a likely shitty winter, I've braced myself for an early start. Needless to say I've been pleasantly surprised with how things have turned out so far in November. Into the past week, I've still seen bees and mosquitos alive outside, and that's rare at this time of year. And it's still supposed to get into the 60's next week so things are looking up for the near future.

The Third Annual Krispy Kreme race has been postposed due to a scheduling conflict. I'm not sure if it will be postponed for a day or for 2 weeks, but it is guaranteed to happen very soon. I mean, it's supposed to be 61 and sunny on Saturday. The last two times this has been done, it's been like 30 degrees and windy. I hate the winter weather, but this is an event that just doesn't seem right unless the weather is horrendous.

And finally a major update. I intend to keep StLouisille online for a great long while, but I've also come up with a great idea for a new blog. It's going to be a weekly update (maybe sometime bi-weekly) with a very narrow focus. I'm actually going to go ahead and set up the site right now and put the thing in motion. The plan is to get 4-5 weeks ahead before I put it officially online around the first of the year, but I'm really looking forward to this one. I only had to wait until I was out of school because this was going to require a very small weekly investment on my part and I had no money (still don't but I should very soon). I'll post the link, as I said, right around the first of the year.