We're traveling east for my niece's wedding which will take place in a few days in Maryland. We decided to drive for this trip and spend the month visiting friends and family. Road trips always mean road food and our first stop at a certified road food joint was at Carl's Drive-In in Brentwood, Missouri.
The Stern's recommended Carl's in their latest edition of Roadfood and we were so glad that we followed their advice.Carl's is located on the old Route 66 that snaked it's way into St. Louis and has exactly 16 seats. A tiny place that makes a great cheese burger and a root beer float that took me straight back to one of the great tastes of my growing-up years.
The fries and onion rings were good accompaniments.
The cooking space is half the size of my kitchen, but turns out more good food in a day than I can manage in a year.
Good as the burgers were the best and most memorable part of this stop was the lovely family that we struck up a conversation with as we were ordering and waiting for our food. This three-generation group had been coming here for a long time. Their patriarch--Dad and Grand-dad--had been eating here for 47 years and his daughter was making sure that her children carried on the tradition.
We learned that the rival local high schools, Webster Groves and Kirkwood, will gather here after games and practices. But they always eat on opposite sides of the restaurant. Grandfather took on the role of host as he explained the balanced ballet of the cooks and servers and the timing that allowed one to finish lunch just as the next guest's food was ready to serve. He described a typical lunch time when one would see an electrician, plumber and a stock broker eating together. All chowing down with equal delight on a truly great burger. As we were getting ready to leave, our host extended his hospitality even further and paid for our lunch. Such generosity is almost overwhelming and we were amazed to be treated so kindly.
As we drove on to Indianapolis, I thought about places like Carl's; they are so much more than just eateries. These restaurants, diners and drive-ins function as important lynchpins of their communities. They are places where friends meet and renew their friendships. They are places where families meet to continue a long-standing tradition and create bonds between the generations. They are places where strangers gather to break bread and as they do they are reminded of their common humanity.
Every time we break bread together we share the most fundamental sacrament of our common life.And places like Carl's nourish souls as well as bodies.
We will probably never learn the names of our very dear hosts at Carl's, but we are very grateful for their kind generosity. Indeed, we thank them for our food and for a memory which will sustain us for a long time to come.
