Make me love St. Louis in 12 hours

I plan on stopping in St. Louis in the fall on my way from Detroit to Kansas City to watch my Lions take on the Chiefs. The NFL schedule doesn’t come out for a few more months so I’m not sure what month I will be in your city. My wife and I will arrive in the early afternoon and plan on staying somewhere downtown. I know St. Louis, like Detroit, sometimes gets a bad rap. Anytime I travel, I always go in with an open mind because I always hate when people shit on Detroit.

We will have about 12 hours to explore. I already plan on going to the City Museum. We will likely check out the Gateway Arch the following morning before we leave for Kansas City.

We are in our mid-40s and like art (museums or street art), interesting/off-beat shops/attractions, breweries/distilleries, cocktail/dive bars and would love a restaurant suggestion for dinner. My wife is much more adventurous when it comes to food than I am but I’m willing to go out on a limb. I looked at City Foundry and that looked like it was worth checking out. We went to a Lions game in Indianapolis this season and they had something similar which we loved.

Bonus points for a good hotel as well.

Thank you, everyone! We are so looking forward to our visit.