Welcome to Sweetie Pie's

So, does anyone watch Oprah's new network?  I never have (not for lack of caring but for lack of spare time), but a friend of mine mentioned that there was a reality show airing on OWN that featured a restaurant in our fare city of St. Louis.  Say, what?  How did I not know this?  What rock have I been under?  So, of course I had to see if the hype was worth it.  We set out to experience the place for ourselves.  (You can read all about it here)

We arrived on a Saturday morning at about 11:15.  We walked in, and almost walked right back out after we saw the line.  It wrapped around inside of the restaurant a few times.  The price of fame, I suppose.  They were filming that day, and we couldn't back out after we made the trek there.  So, we stuck it out.  Sweetie Pie's is a southern homestyle cooking restaurant, but rather than a traditional sitdown dinner like I expected, it was served cafeteria style.  So, the line didn't take too long.  It was so hard to decide what to eat, so my friend and I just decided to go with a bunch of sides in order to get the most out of our trip.

The place only has certain items available on select days, but I went ahead with the mac and cheese, corn, and mashed potatoes.  Oh, and a side of corn bread.  Sodas and tea and such were all canned, so unfortunately I didn't get the homemade sweet tea that I was craving.  But, I got a strawberry soda, which was pretty yummy.

So, the review:  The mashed potatoes wee pretty good.  Buttery and creamy as expected.  The cornbread and corn were a disappointment, but maybe others would like them.  I am a sweet corn kind of girl, and expected a spoon bread concoction and sweet as sin corn.  The corn was some sort of southwest corn with onions and peppers (not my kind of flavor) and the cornbread was, well...kind of dry and lacking flavor, to be honest.  But the mac and cheese?  Best that I have ever had in my life!  I don't know exactly how to describe it.  It was cheesy and creamy, with the right amount of breading on it (like a mac and cheese casserole).  Oh my gosh, if the place wasn't so darned busy, I would have gone back for seconds!  So amazing and totally worth the caloric intake.  Can't say enough about the deliciousness there.

The staff were all super friendly, and I loved everyone calling me "sweety" or "baby" like my mamaw used to do.  All in all, a pretty neat experience, but to me, not worth the hype food wise.  But would I recommend it to other?  Absolutely.  You can't leave this world without trying their mac and cheese.

A pic of our meals, from my friend's point of view.