A highlight of the fall in St. Louis is our yearly bike race, The Tour de Moose. We've stepped things up this year with a planning board and training rides to accommodate a ridership that has grown from 20 to 60 in three years, with 100 expected this year.
Our first ride of the season was this morning and what started as a quick bike ride with a few adult beverages planned afterward quickly evolved into a culinary and gastrointestinal adventure as well.
Our Sunday morning ride started around 9:30 AM and about an hour later we happened past a
White Castle that my friend Moose (of the Tour de) wanted to put on this years tour as a pit stop. The idea is to offer a break between legs where riders can roll past and grab a slider like marathon runners reaching for bottles of water. As we were already testing our bikes and the race route, we figured it would be a good idea to test our stomachs as well with a mid-morning slider break.
From left to right we have a fish slider, a traditional White Castle, and resting like a king on its orange throne the new A1 White Castle. My impromptu goal was to compare the A1 slider against the original, and truth be told the only difference is a dollop of A1 Steak Sauce and a lack of pickles. For me, the pickle is what makes a White Castle and they are missed on the A1 where the bite of sour would play nicely against the steak sauce and onions.
Both burgers benefited from the early morning visit. While the sign out front states that they are always open, it seemed that the bun was fresher than you would find at midnight visit to White Castle. The freshness of the bread did a good job soaking up the grease and onion juice that usually meld a slider to its box and eventually the bag.
In full disclosure, I added the fish slider because I had skipped breakfast and really, who orders the fish at White Castle? In my opinion it is the best item on the menu, but it too could benefit from the liberal application of a pickle or two, alone or riding in some tarter sauce.
Opinion: Recommended with reservations, usually the morning after.