While attending a conference this week in St. Louis, my boss and I decided to have lunch at Sweetie Pie's. 

If you haven't heard of Sweetie Pie's, it's a local resturaunt owned by former Ike and Tina Turner backup singer Robbie Montgomery and features southern soul food.  Though they've been a St. Louis staple for years, Sweetie Pie's recently landed their own reality show on OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network).  Learn more about "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's" here. 

The food is served buffet style and required us to wait in line with other Sweetie Pie enthuseists.  There was a Baptist convention in town this week also, so our fellow line patrons were from all over the country.  The ladies behind me in line were from Mississippi and were huge fans of the TV show.  When Robbie's son Tim came out from the kitchen, there was a frenzy of picture taking and hugs.  The lady standing behind me shouted "TIM!  TIM!" waving her arms frantically.  It was as though she knew him personally, but instead only knew him as a character on TV.  "I just love that show," she told me.  "I watch it every week."  She continued to tell the other staff members how much she loved the show.  They would smile akwardly at her, probably because they had never had any part in being on the actual show.

As luck would have it, the camera crews were present that day.  Guys in t-shirts and ragged jeans with big cameras and cords hanging from them followed Tim around the resturaunt as he greeted customers, took photos with fans, and went about his daily business. 

After a 30 minute wait in a line that wrapped around the resturaunt and onto the sidewalk outside, we were finally about to enjoy world famous soul food from Sweetie Pie's.  My meat was fried chicken wings, with okra and mac and cheese as my two sides.  My meal was topped off with a piece of cornbread, accompanied by the sweetest lemonade I've ever had in my entire life.  I chose lemonade thinking the sweet tea would be too sweet.  I think both drinks were filled with sugar. 

{Fried chicken wings, okra, mac and cheese, and cornbread.}

Because the resturaunt was packed with people, we ended up sitting with a small group in town for the Baptist convention.  They were also from Mississippi.  After they prayed over our lunch, the Reverand added two more sugar packets to his sweet tea.  I cringed. 

I was able to finish most of my lunch before starting in on my dessert.

{Banana Pudding.}

Though the food was so good, we were given so much of it that it looked like we had barely touched it.  This trip to Sweetie Pie's was definately worth it.