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Mark grew up in Springfield, Illinois, thinking it was a big city until he visited St. Louis. After his wife passed away, he started exploring St. Louis again and realized how much it has to offer. He decided to create a podcast called Show Me the Loo to share hidden gems and fun things to do in St. Louis. Most episodes will be family-friendly, but there will be some adult-only episodes as well. Mark plans to cover special holiday episodes for Halloween and December. He reminisces about the Magic House Children's Museum in Kirkwood and shares its current hours, admission prices, and promotions for military and foster families. The museum offers a variety of exhibits and activities for children of all ages. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the inaugural episode of Show Me the Loo, the outsider's inside look at places to visit, things to do, and food to enjoy in the St. Louis area. My name is Mark. I will be your host and your guide during this adventure. me. I grew up in a town about 100 miles northeast of St. Louis called Springfield, Illinois. Springfield has a population of about 120,000 people. For a child, I thought that was a big city. I thought, oh, we're one of the big ones. Awesome. I get city life. I was so wrong. We are not a city as much as St. Louis is. We are more of a town, and we have a lot of farming and agriculture in the area, which is great. Don't get me wrong. I love Springfield. I just did not know how little there was to do until I got older. As a child, my family still had members in St. Louis, and I would come down for a few weeks at a time and visit, and I got to do a lot of fun things as a child that I thought, okay, so this is what St. Louis has to offer. It's about the same size as Springfield. And again, how wrong I was. I grew up. I got married. The woman that I married started coming down here for concerts and things with her mom, and I would get to come down. We would bring her family down, her nieces, and we'd always have a great time when we came down. She unfortunately passed away in 2018, so that was kind of a blow, and I avoided doing a lot of fun things for a little while. And it wasn't until July of 2022 that I really started coming back down to St. Louis. And once I did, due to dating a wonderful woman who lives in the Central West End, I found out just how much St. Louis really has to offer to everyone. And I realized a lot of people don't know just how much exists in the St. Louis area. So I thought, what better way to reach the masses and let them know of hidden gems, remind them of places that are long forgotten, and maybe get some new people in through some doors than to create a podcast that covers some fun things to do. So this podcast is going to do exactly that. I will say the first thing we're going to do is let you know that I would say almost 90% of our episodes will be family-friendly. I say that because these episodes will have something fun for the family to do and someplace that is family-friendly for dining. Whether it's a chain or a one little mom-and-pop place, it's someplace that I feel like families could enjoy being at and having a meal at. There will be some exceptions, of course. I will cover places that may offer things to do as well as food. So for instance, I have an episode on Dave & Buster's I do plan on doing just because it is a great place to enjoy some time in St. Louis. And again, it's a place that's a little loud. Family dining, okay, they do have a bar, but it's not a bar-focused business. For those, I will be focusing once a month. Usually the first of the month, I'm going to try to get those out. They will be reserved for after-dark episodes. These episodes are being done more with the mindset of if you have children, you have a sitter for the kids for the night. You and your significant other want to go out on a date night. You want to do something fun and exciting, but you just don't know what to pick. Those episodes will give you some great date night ideas that will not involve the kids. So if you decide to partake and you have an aversion to children, you don't have to worry nearly as much about the children being there because it will be an adult-only episode and usually adult-only establishments at that point. There will also be some special holiday episodes coming up. I've got some fun things planned for October. Everyone calls it spooky season. I go along with it. It's not my favorite season, but more power to them, but I will get a few episodes of some fun things to do around Halloween covered in those episodes. I do also have a few fun ideas planned for December for the Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa season. I'm going to try to keep it more just generic than holiday-specific, as in I might choose a place that does holiday lights rather than Christmas lights. But all in all, it will be an attempt at non-denominational. If you have a problem with non-denominational or if I make things too denominational, by all means, reach out and let me know and I will find something I can do that will be more in your wheelhouse as well for a future episode. That said, I do want to talk about, like I said, I grew up 100 miles northeast, but I spent my summers coming down to visit family. Today's episode, I wanted to dive into those memories a little bit. I wanted to pull out one of my happy places as a child. I didn't have any bad places, but this was one of the best places I spent my childhood. It was full of wonder and amazement. I got to do so many great things. There's just so much in activities to do. I don't want to quote Step Brothers, but at the same time, there is so much room for activities. It's a sprawling manor at this point. When I was a child, it was a three-story house. It was amazing. It was incredible. It was magical, and that is because we are talking about the Magic House Children's Museum. The Magic House is where I spent at least a day every summer just exploring, and yes, I had done most of the same exhibits. They had some new ones rotate through, but it was still so much fun to do on a regular basis. Now, the Magic House is located in Kirkwood out in West County. Their address is 516 South Kirkwood Road. If you're coming in from 6440, if you're coming in on 6440 West, you will take the Lindbergh exit and turn left off the ramp. If you're coming in 6440 East, you'll take the Lindbergh exit and turn right off the ramp. If you're coming in from 44 West, you'll take the Lindbergh exit and turn right on the ramp or off the ramp, rather, and if you're coming in 44 East, you will take the Lindbergh exit and you will turn left off the ramp. Those are the four easiest ways to get to Kirkwood and to get to the Magic House, plain and simple, because Lindbergh, when it reaches Kirkwood, actually becomes Kirkwood Road, so it's technically on Lindbergh, but it's actually on Kirkwood Road. They're one and the same. Their current summer hours are 930 to 5 Monday through Saturday and 1030 to 5 on Sundays. Ages one and up, the admission is $14. Under one is free, so any of those little littles out there will get in automatically. There are two great programs that I hope families that qualify hear about. The first is their active duty military family promotion. If the family comes in and shows proof that an immediate family member is active duty military, that family will get in for free. It's a great way to keep the kids' minds off of where mom or dad or brother or sister is right now. They get to have a little fun, explore, and not have to think about it, but the parents don't have to worry about paying for it. The other great promotion is for foster families. Foster families who come in with proof of fostering will actually get the family in for free as well. This is a great way to bond with foster children, for foster siblings to bond together, things like that. You all get to play together and explore together and make magic together. It's just such a wonderful place to go. The fact that they offer these promotions is absolutely heartwarming and wonderful. There is something for all ages of children here. Like I said, it could be brother or sister that's off fighting. It could be you've got three littles under the age of five. You could have a four-year-old and a 17-year-old. They're all going to find something fun to do at the Magic House. A lot of times, the adults can have fun with the children in the exact same spots, so you can all play together and really create those fun childhood memories for them and family memories for you. Some of their featured areas right now include their new Storytime Magic Exhibit. They get to basically see the nursery rhymes and children's stories that they're used to come to life. They can go visit Winnie the Pooh or check out Robin Hood's Sherwood Forest. I think there's a princess castle in there somewhere. There's so many great things they've done for that. There's also an area called For Baby and Me. It's another area that is inspired by nursery rhymes, but for the little littles, it won't be as intimidating, so they'll be able to enjoy it more. There's an area called Wonder Works. They build that as an area for exploring the wonders of the world, which to me is just fantastic, getting to explore the entire world in one little building. Well, not so little anymore, but in one building is just phenomenal. It's a great place to check out. The Children's Village includes a market, a pet clinic, a bank, a library, a garage, and a fishing pond. I know when my wife and I took our nieces to go and explore, there was the President's Oval Office in one area. They got their pictures taken behind the Resolute Desk. It was amazing. It's, of course, replicas, but still, for them, they were so excited. There was also a little diner and grocery store connected, and I know our nieces served us pizzas, and the best part was when they brought the pizza out, another little girl walked over and said, I'll bring you the check in a second. We told that little girl, and she was just a random girl. I don't know who she was, but I told her we were told that our meal was on the house tonight. She turned around and looked at us and said, I need to go find out who said that because they're getting fired. It was the cutest thing, and we just cracked up laughing. It was such a sweet moment and so innocent and so wonderful. Like I said, for older children, there are still things to do. There is, in fact, a Make It Workshop. That is an area where they can kind of make crafts that are better than just your normal popsicle stick yarn crafts. I know I saw on the website that they include a loom as well as a 3D printer, so kids can go in and enjoy those, make things, and take home with them. So really, when they say there is something for all ages of children, there's really something for all ages of children. It's a great place for families with children to explore, like I said, create those great memories. The children are learning. They don't even realize it. The best part is it's a wonderful way to introduce a child to what used to be STEM. Now I've heard it adds an A, so it's now STEAM. Either way, whichever one you use, it's a wonderful way to introduce them to that. They're going to love every minute they spend in there. I will say, too, I looked on TripAdvisor. They rate the Magic Houses a four and a half out of five stars. However, here's the funny part. Out of over 1,300 reviews, 944 of them are five star. 272 are very good. 67 average, 17 poor, and 11 terrible. I will let you know the poor and terrible I looked into. Those were posted at least three to four years ago, some even further back than that. So those are outdated reviews at this point. All of the current reviews are great reviews. I looked through some of those just to see. The best part is the Magic House is ranked on TripAdvisor's 543 things to do in St. Louis. It is ranked at number 15, so they rank it very highly as well. I spent, like I said, so many summers exploring. I got to play in a giant bubble room. I got to take a bubble wand and actually create a bubble around myself. I got to touch their electrically charged ball. You can have your picture taken with that with your hair standing out on end. There was a shadow wall where they would flash a light, and you could pose and then step away from the wall, and your shadow would stay for several seconds before fading away. So you actually got to see what that pose looked like. And the best part was there is a three-story giant slide that goes down in the original house that, as of my last visit, was still there. I'm sure it still is because it's a huge attraction there. And it's so much fun to go down this three-story spiral slide all the way back down to the main floor and then climb all the stairs to go back to it again. It's a fun place to visit. It's a fun place to check out. And that is why I am doing the Magic House in this first episode, because they are absolutely worth it. Now, once you've played for several hours, everyone knows everybody's stomachs start growling and everybody starts getting a little hangry, and you start getting a little snippy with each other. So you want to find someplace close to have dinner. There is a restaurant just down the road, about five to ten minutes south on Lindbergh Road, that is called Mellow Mushroom. Now at first you hear that and you think, oh, vegetarian. It is not. It is actually Stonebaked Pizzas, Burgers and Calzones. They are delicious and incredible and very unassuming building. It's a square building with a sign that says Mellow Mushroom, and that's how much you know about it when you drive by. So when you go in, it's a great place. You can watch your pizzas being made. There's a bar area in there so that parents can have a drink if they would like. The pizzas do run $10.50 to $16.50 for build-your-own, with extra for toppings. Specialty pizzas run from $14.65 to $26.95. They do have sandwiches and burgers, as I said. Pizzas run $8.95 to $15.50, with their specialty calzones running $10.95 to $14.25. Now pizzas, sandwiches and calzones all offer a build-your-own, I should say burgers, not sandwiches, offer a build-your-own option, and of course the toppings can run extra on those as well. But it's a great thing if you want to build your own. I recommend going in, starting with something specialty of theirs so that you get a taste for it before you decide to build something and get adventurous yourself. Their pizza is absolutely fantastic. They use a special five-ingredient crust, I believe, that includes single-source Artesian spring water, if I remember, Argentinian, I believe, Argentinian spring water. And it's a proprietary recipe for that, as well as their own mozzarella blend that they do is proprietary. So you're not going to find it anywhere but Mellow Mushroom. They offer pretzel bites as an appetizer, which we had, and those were fantastic. They come with a Pabst Blue Ribbon cheese sauce, where the alcohol, of course, is cooked out so children can enjoy them. The cheese sauce is tasty and gooey and cheesy and oh, so wonderful. And the portions you get are a good value for the price. I've seen some reviews where people talked about, oh, we've got tiny portions. I have not had that experience once there. It's phenomenal. It's tasty. They are ranked number two of nine restaurants because they're technically in Sunset Hills and not in St. Louis City, but of nine restaurants in Sunset Hills, they are ranked number two on TripAdvisor. They have 137 reviews with currently a four-star. Now again, keep in mind, they say four-star, it's going to be between four and four and a half because of those 137 reviews, 53 are excellent, 37 very good, and 27 average with only 11 poor and nine terrible. And again, those are getting outdated at this point. So keep that in mind when you go in that it's a four-star that's really between a four and four and a half. It's delicious. We tried the Great White Pizza, which was absolutely phenomenal. Every bite of that pizza was just so incredible and so tasty. Now to let you know, the Great White Pizza is olive oil and garlic base layered with mozzarella, provolone, seasoned ricotta, roasted tomatoes, authentic sheep's milk feta, fresh Roma tomatoes, sweet onions, and chopped fresh basil. And even though there's no meat on this pizza, the flavor was phenomenal. Now I'm technically more of a carnivore than an omnivore because I prefer meat than veggies. I will eat a few veggies here and there, but I prefer meat and potatoes. That's kind of who I am. So for me to say that a meatless pizza was one of the best pizzas I've had in a long time tells you a lot about that meatless pizza. They are also currently running their 50th anniversary menu. They've got some special pizzas on that menu right now, as well as some wings and salads that really are just part of their anniversary celebration. Again, Mellow Mushroom is part of a chain. They are not just a local restaurant. I believe it's one of those franchised locally, although I could be wrong. But with that restaurant, their chain is celebrating their 50th anniversary. And if they do as good of a job as what we've seen in the future, they're going to be around for a long time. So yes, check out the Magic House afterwards. Go eat at Mellow Mushroom. It's a great combo for a day. You're going to have a great time and really the whole family is going to enjoy everything and they'll talk about it for days to come. That is going to do it for this first episode. I'm glad you tuned in and stuck around to the end. We do have social medias popping up all over the place. Our Instagram and TikTok are already set up. I am setting up the Facebook accounts this weekend. So when I say this weekend, I mean the weekend of recording, which means by the time this episode is released on Tuesday, those social medias will be up and running completely. So TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, I might even get bold and go on X slash Twitter, whatever you want to call it. I was born in the 80s. It's always going to be Twitter to me. That's just me, though. I understand some people change with the times. More than that, I am one that can roll with a lot of changes. I just don't know why the name changed from Twitter to X. But hey, to each their own. And I'm sure I'll get an account set up over there as well. So in the description of this episode, I will link all of those social medias. Feel free to follow us, comment on any activities we post. I will be doing some teaser posts for future episodes. Interacting with our audience. I love interacting with people. Please reach out. I would love to interact with you if you have any ideas for a show or for locations to check out or even just, hey, check out this restaurant. I've heard good things. Or do you have plans to do an episode on this? I would love to hear those ideas. I will give you a little teaser that in about a month, hopefully shorter than that. But in within the next month or so, I am planning on doing our first live recorded episode. That means that it will be recorded on location at a very, very fun place in Tower Grove. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm hoping that some shopping and some tasting will be done at this particular location within Tower Grove Park. That will be coming up in a few weeks. I've got some really great episodes planned until then and then also after that. So we have a lot to go over. I've got at least 20 episodes already planned out with more to come in the future. So if you don't hear me mention a place that you're thinking of, send it to me. I'll let you know if we'll use it in a future episode. If we do, absolutely, we'll shout you out. Otherwise, if it's something that I'm already planning on doing, I will let people know that numerous people have reached out to ask about that location. So with that said, we're going to sign off for this week. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and weekend, and we will see you again next Tuesday. Bye.