The English Shop, St. Charles, Missouri 

A statue of a Buckingham Palace guard, complete with red coat and black bearskin hat, greeted the man at the door. Two shelves protruding from the guard’s stomach displayed a blue box of Jaffa Cakes, shortbread cookies and bottles of ginger beer – just a sample of the many food items The English Shop in downtown St. Charles, Mo., sells. 

The man refused what the guard had to offer. Brian Beardsley, of St. Charles, knew exactly what he needed and so did Eileen Prichard, owner of The English Shop.

“Kippers!” Prichard yelled when she saw Beardsley. She bustled out from behind the register to help him.

Kippers, or smoked herring, are something for which most Americans do not develop a taste, Prichard explained.

Beardsley agreed, but he wanted to buy them anyway for his mother. He said his mother loves kippers, but she is not like most Americans. Beardsley’s mother is from Bath, England. 

Outside the Steiger Haus Bed and Breakfast, the cobblestone streets of St. Genevieve, Missouri, are silent. Late afternoon sunlight filters through lace curtains onto hardwood floors, illuminating an antique buffet and several bright landscape paintings.

The stillness is broken as the door opens and a small crowd of people filter in, filling the front room and moving back into a dining area with separate groups of tables and chairs. Dave Thompson, one of the first to enter into the sunlit sitting room, laughs and gestures to the staff, saying, “I’ll give someone 100 bucks to tell me who done it.” A few mysterious smiles light in response, but no one can answer.

Within the next few hours, he and the other guests at the bed and breakfast will take on different personas, enact a fictional art auction and witness deception, drugs and murder. By lunchtime the next day, they will have explained it all.

For the last 18 years, more than 55,000 guests from around the world have taken part in one of more than 72 murder mysteries written by the owner of Steiger Haus, Rob Beckerman, who writes under the alias J. Masterson.

Beckerman, who grew up in the original Steiger Haus location (at its peak, the murder mysteries were run out of three separate houses), converted the house into a bed and breakfast and was searching for a way to increase winter reservations when he heard of another hotel running murder mysteries for guests. So he wrote a mystery and tried it.

Other than a clever pun, it’s hard to decide what to call All Fired Up. To potential patrons, it seems to be a store, art studio and alternative Friday night destination rolled into one. Teddy Wright, All Fired Up’s creator and owner, has a quick solution.
“I would call it a paint-your-own-pottery studio,” she says.

All Fired Up’s environment is hard not to love. Vividly colored handprints cover the right-hand wall, evidence of the children who have enjoyed a birthday party here. Shelves upon shelves line other walls, stacked from floor to ceiling with both finished and unfinished pottery. Every imaginable creation is on display, from a mug bigger than a person’s head to a clever plate with ridges designed to keep tacos upright.

Set up like an old railroad station, the Depot Inn and Suites signals its customers with its friendly atmosphere just as the trains that pass through signal their presence with a blow of a whistle.

The Depot Inn and Suites, located off Highway 63 in La Plata, Mo., first opened its doors in May 2006. Kelly and Thomas O. Marshall, owners of the Depot Inn and Suites, said they discussed the possibility of starting their own hotel for quite some time before actually acting on it.

“Kelly and I, for a number of years, have always talked about how owning a hotel would be kind of fun,” Tom said. “Then when the new highway development started and we knew there was a new restaurant going in and all this new development, we decided that this spot was really good. We’re just a nine-minute drive from Kirksville.”

Nostalgiaville, USA, Kingdom City, Missouri

Somewhere over the rainbow, where tomorrow is another day, Nat King Cole and Dean Martin serenade customers as they shop for poodle skirts and saddle shoes. Inside an eye-catching pink and blue building, tin signs commemorating “I Love Lucy” and “The Andy Griffith Show” decorate the walls, and cars pull away with hula girls or fuzzy dice displayed in the front windshield.

Martha Doyle pulled into the parking lot of Nostalgiaville, USA, two blocks north of I-70 in Kingdom City, Missouri, and asked to borrow a phone book in 2000. She spoke with owners Ron and Judi Dunwoody, who offered her a phone book and a part-time job in the store. Now, after nine years, Doyle is a veteran with her own small collection.

Main Street Inn, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

Among the historic shops and houses of Ste. Genevieve lies a charming bed and breakfast — the Main Street Inn. With its classic architecture and respect for tradition, the Main Street Inn encompasses much of the colonial spirit of its location.

In its early days, Ste. Genevieve was established as a French colony. This explains the names of most streets in the downtown area, such as La Fleur, Moreau and Le Compte.While much of the area has developed along the same lines as the rest of the country, Old Ste. Genevieve intentionally has preserved its colonial style and attitude.