It’s all relative. There’s more violent crime there than there is around WashU. The very broad view is that the safest area is West of Skinker and South of Olive. SLU is sort of in no man’s land, East of the park, but West of downtown proper. You know there isn’t much to do there when the #1 cool thing thing to do on SLU’s own website is go to IKEA. 
It’s been a neat trip. This is our last night.
Highlights:
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Ted Drewes: Theirs was the best caramel & almond sundae i’ve ever had. And the prices weren’t bad at all – average prices, outstanding product. We didn’t dare try to drive the ten minutes back to the hotel – we found a bench in front of the gift shop next door and ate our treats in like three minutes flat. lol
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Bogart’s: Best ribs i’ve ever had. And we got our food almost immediately – I hadn’t even found the friggin’ top for my soda before hearing “Tom!”.
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Gioia’s: The way they arrange and cut the sandwiches is key, and the meats they use are just great.
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Fox & Hounds: The only thing not cool about that place is that it’s soooo dark in there, I could imagine myself falling asleep with one more beer. lol. But it is a really cool place for a burger and a drink.
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Wash U: Though it was raining when we drove around and through it (to the best of my ability anyway – had to make a couple of u-turns and y-turns) – so we didn’t walk around the campus – it was still cool getting to see the main hall from four different angles. Other buildings were cool too – nice campus.
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Imo’s: We loved our pizza.
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Zia’s: Ditto the Italian.
All the food, just about, was great.
- The Science museum: It saved us on Monday.
The Arch and Bud Experience were ok, but having done them, I probably wouldn’t do them again.
There were other cool things, but here were some… non-awesome things we encountered.
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Six Flags: Half the rides, and all of the water rides, were closed. That info should have been on the website. Still, I found that i’m not nearly as into roller coasters as I was 20+ years ago. So even if all the rides had been open, I would have probably not gone on another coaster. Water rides woulda been nice on a 90-degree day, though.
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Johnny Rockets at Six Flags: I’m not too into my SO being served a cold $15 cheeseburger on her birthday, but it happened. She ate my (much warmer) chicken tenders instead. But hey, unlimited sauces. Best $5 soda i’ve had outside of Paris.
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Unbeknownst to me, on that rainy Monday, both the art museum and state museum in the park were closed. I’ll dog myself for not checking. The rain caused a major schedule reshuffle.
It’s been a fun trip overall. Some of the traffic lights are maddeningly long, and driving over train tracks most of the way on westbound Delmar was odd. But – every city has its idiosyncrasies. Ahhhh, and the scooters are another of St. Louis’s. I can’t leave them out!
First time seeing one on a sidewalk: “Huh… looks like they’re pretty trusting.”
After a while, we got it.
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I knew that you would like Ted Drewes! All of the places you went are great!! Glad that you had a good time!
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Sounds like a great trip!
I’ve found several secrets to gioia’s success for my palette. It has to be hot, have Italian dressing and peppers, and most importantly…bacon! 
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Great trip report. I’ll have to reference it if we ever decide to visit St. Louis (or stop on there during a cross country drive).
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It was a fun little trip, but we left some things for another day. If feasible, for instance, I would like to try the food at WUSTL. It’s known as some of the best among US colleges, so of course I want to test that reputation. hehe
Anyway, the zoo and science center are free, and you could easily blow an afternoon checking out those. The food was wonderful. I want to try some additional dinner spots to stablish our favorites, but every St. Louis trip forthwith will include a pizza from Imo’s and a sandwich from Gioia’s. I can’t get St. Louis pizza in Davenport, and Gioia’s was just magnificent.
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