{"id":3930,"date":"2010-09-07T11:54:47","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T17:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2010-09-07T11:54:47","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T17:54:47","slug":"dining-divas-trattoria-marcella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3930","title":{"rendered":"Dining Divas: Trattoria Marcella"},"content":{"rendered":"

It Must Have Been An Off-Night’ For\u00a0Diva-Favorite Trattoria Marcella<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Lisa Kampeter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been known to have high expectations.\u00a0 Some may say this is a good quality.\u00a0 Others may say I\u2019m high maintenance.\u00a0 Regardless, for this month\u2019s Dining Divas outing, my expectations couldn\u2019t get much higher.<\/p>\n

We had a Guest Diva this month so the Engaged Diva made sure to choose a restaurant that met our level of standards \u2013 excellent food, comfortable atmosphere, and patience (high maintenance!).\u00a0 Well, she chose Trattoria Marcella on Watson in southwest St. Louis.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t necessarily a first for many of the Divas.\u00a0 A few of us had been to Trattoria Marcella on special occasions.\u00a0 A couple of us had even been there with a different monthly dining group a long time ago.<\/p>\n

For me, Trattoria Marcella has always been my answer for \u201cwhat\u2019s your favorite restaurant in St. Louis?\u201d\u00a0 A couple years ago, I reluctantly gave one of my favorite couples my Valentine\u2019s dinner reservations there when they were going through some struggles at the time.\u00a0 It\u2019s their favorite restaurant, too.\u00a0 This past Valentine\u2019s Day, braving the snowy weather, I was able to enjoy a romantic dinner there.\u00a0 Especially with the bad weather, my expectations were high again, but my favorite restaurant answer was swaying.<\/p>\n

The Mother-In-Law-To-Be Diva joined us from Los Angeles.\u00a0 She was in town attending a bridal shower of the Engaged Diva.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what expectations we had of her, but let\u2019s just say she blew them away.\u00a0 She was hilarious and definitely fit into the group.\u00a0 Her only downfall\u2026she\u2019s a huge sports fan but not a fan of hockey.\u00a0 Good thing I didn\u2019t know that before I made the reservations.\u00a0 The reservation would have been for one less!<\/p>\n

Aside from the exciting wedding conversations, the Greek Diva shared the great news of becoming an aunt again the next morning.\u00a0 We got a laugh out of the visitors\u2019 schedule created by the new parents.\u00a0 Not sure the Greek Diva even made the first list (she\u2019s also a few states away).<\/p>\n

Start your meal off with a glass of wine from San Gimignano.\u00a0 Also, get an appetizer \u2013 the toasted raviolis.\u00a0 This was a must-try for our L.A. guest as she\u2019d never experienced them before.\u00a0 The Italian Diva said they were the best she\u2019d ever had.<\/p>\n

The mini-bread loaves served with hummus are extremely tempting but don\u2019t overdo it.\u00a0 We stuffed ourselves too early.\u00a0 The Greek Diva tried the Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad and wished she could recreate it at home.<\/p>\n

The reason the Engaged Diva chose Trattoria Marcella was for her main course \u2013 the Lobster Risotto.\u00a0 In her words, it was \u201cheavenly.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a generous portion of lobster with creamy, cheesy risotto goodness. \u00a0The Rigatoni with large gulf shrimp in a garlic tomato cream pleased even the pickiest of Divas.<\/p>\n

The Grandma Diva was disappointed in her Chicken Spiedini.\u00a0 It was dry and barely warm.\u00a0 The Greek Diva was so excited to order Porchetta Panini.\u00a0 The last really good one she had was in Italy.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it still is.<\/p>\n

We went to Trattoria Marcella with high expectations because we knew what to expect.\u00a0 This time around, the restaurant didn\u2019t meet them.\u00a0 Our waiter wasn\u2019t attentive.\u00a0 We had to ask him for refills multiple times.\u00a0 Most of the food was just okay.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s just okay with us because we still love Trattoria Marcella.\u00a0 It has a great neighborhood feel to it.\u00a0 We realize this may have just been an off-night for them.\u00a0 But now, I really have to think about what my answer would be to \u201cwhat\u2019s my favorite restaurant?\u201d\u00a0 Yet I will definitely go back.\u00a0 I\u2019m not that <\/em>high maintenance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It Must Have Been An Off-Night’ For\u00a0Diva-Favorite Trattoria Marcella By Lisa Kampeter I\u2019ve been known to have high expectations.\u00a0 Some may say this is a good quality.\u00a0 Others may say I\u2019m high maintenance.\u00a0 Regardless, for this month\u2019s Dining Divas outing, my expectations couldn\u2019t get much higher. We had a Guest Diva this month so the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nDining Divas: Trattoria Marcella - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3930\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dining Divas: Trattoria Marcella - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It Must Have Been An Off-Night’ For\u00a0Diva-Favorite Trattoria Marcella By Lisa Kampeter I\u2019ve been known to have high expectations.\u00a0 Some may say this is a good quality.\u00a0 Others may say I\u2019m high maintenance.\u00a0 Regardless, for this month\u2019s Dining Divas outing, my expectations couldn\u2019t get much higher. 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