St. Louis Magazine | February 2020

OUR CRIT ICS PICK THE TOP PLUS: 10 SPOTS THE BEST BREA HID KFAS T PIZ DEN ZA, GEM S, D EAL S & MO REp

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February 2020

The LawyerTurned-Standup Who Brought Laughs to the Loop Trolley and Beyond p.74

Two St. Louisans Who Set Out to Make an Eye-Opening Documentary After Their Friends Died

by Suicide p.78

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Syed Abdul-Aziz, MD Memorial Hospital Belleville/Shiloh

Muhammad Ansari, MD Memorial Hospital Belleville/Shiloh

Martin Ast, MD Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

Anne Casey, ANP Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Mark Chin, MD Parkland Health Center

Ann Davis, ACNP Christian Hospital

Sandeep Hindupur, MD Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

Cheryl Hohe, ANP Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

Melissa Kershaw, DO Christian Hospital

Michael Klein, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Terri Kolker, PA-C Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Robert Kopitsky, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Elizabeth Niederschulte, NP Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Brandy Raich, ANP Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Karthik Ramaswamy, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Martin Schwarze, DO Missouri Baptist Medical Center

David Sewall, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Christopher Speidel, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Walter Chris

Deep Chris

Wh ch de ca in ref wo for loc clo

Le BJ

Linda Stronach, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Christine Testa, ANP Christian Hospital

Gus Theodos, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Kenneth Trimmer, DO Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Mohammad Vakassi, MD Memorial Hospital Belleville/Shiloh

Diana Westerfield, DO Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

Bradley Witbrodt, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Sheena Yap, NP Christian Hospital

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Shannon Tucker, ANP Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Erica Uppstrom, MD Christian Hospital

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ACNP ospital

sky, MD aptist enter

eidel, MD aptist enter

Walter Dimmitt, MD Christian Hospital

Jareer Farah, MD Christian Hospital

Michael Fleissner, MD Christian Hospital

Matthew Fraley, MD Christian Hospital

Sultan Hayat, MD Memorial Hospital Belleville/Shiloh

Stuart Higano, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Deepak Koul, MD Christian Hospital

Andrew Krainik, MD Missouri Baptist Medical Center

Marc Lewen, DO Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

Michelle Maloney, ANP Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

James McPike, MD Memorial Hospital Belleville/Shiloh

Michael Missler, DO Barnes-Jewish St. Peters/Progress West Hospital

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FEATURES

VOLUME 26 / ISSUE 2

60 Home Slice The best pizza in St. Louis

By Bill Burge, Pat Eby, Holly Fann, Dave Lowry, George Mahe, Jarrett Medlin, and Brandi Wills

➝ The spinach pizza at Union Loafers

P.

74

The Serious Business of Yale Hollander’s Comedy For this month’s cover, photographer Paul Nordmann captured Pie Guy Pizza’s Mitch Frost. To see the pizzaiolo’s dough-tossing in action, flip to p. 60.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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The lawyer’s modest goal: to bring comedy anywhere and everywhere it hasn’t been before

By Amanda Woytus

P.

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The Wake Up Call

After two friends died by suicide in college, Alex Lindley and Danny Kerth were so heartsick, they set out to help others.

By Jeannette Cooperman

February 2020 stlmag.com

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D E PA R TM E N T S

VOLUME 26 / ISSUE 2

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From the Editor

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49

G AT E WAY

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Dramatic sleeves are making a comeback.

GeoFutures plans for tomorrow.

Mapping Growth

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A closer look at St. Louis’ newest sports league, the XFL

Great Service Two women’s vision for volunteering in St. Louis

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A Priceless Tool How a local organization is threading refugee and immigrant women into St. Louis’ fashion community

Geospatial intelligence’s impact on St. Louis

Game Time

ELEMENTS

The Bigger, the Better

Smart Set

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Malaysian Persuasion Bernie Lee brings the comfort foods of his travels home to Clayton.

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Winter Blues The Cookie Monster at Serendipity

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TASTE

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52 Noto Bene

Mingle

A pizza trailer evolves into authentic Italian cuisine in St. Peters.

Great Futures Gala, The Musial Awards

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This Valentine’s, toast with new-label grower Champagnes.

ANGLES

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RHYTHM

Bubbling Over

Betting the Ranch A ranch dressing–themed menu gets paired with boozy slushies.

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Hot Spots Storming Crab, Sunny’s Cantina, Noto, and more

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Ins, Outs & Almosts Protagonist Café, Little Fox, Jack Nolen’s, and other new additions

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A Place in the Sun A renowned pizza chef puts a refreshing spin on Mexican food in Dogtown.

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St. Louis Sage

Lift Up My Eyes As a critic battles cancer, the choral community offers its support.

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A conversation with STLCC’s Mary E. Nelson 42

Read This Now There You Are, by Mathea Morais

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Living History What it’s like to reside in a storied museum in the heart of the city

The Magic Words Spell #7 resonates 40 years after its creation.

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College Counsel

Agenda Jim Gaffigan, The Lumineers, and more

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A Plum Street A look back at a lively downtown block at the turn of the century

stlmag.com February 2020

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February 2020 stlmag.com

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY

VOLUME 26 / ISSUE 2

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Jarrett Medlin Deputy Editor Amanda Woytus Senior Editor Nicholas Phillips Dining Editor George Mahe Associate Editor Samantha Stevenson Contributing Writers & Editors Kerry Bailey, Philip Barnes, Bill Burge, Jeannette Cooperman, Pat Eby, Holly Fann, Dave Lowry, Laura Miserez, Denise Mueller, Jen Roberts, Stefene Russell, Brandi Wills ART & PRODUCTION Design Director Tom White Art Director Emily Cramsey Sales & Marketing Designer Monica Lazalier Production Coordinator Kylie Green Staff Photographer Kevin A. Roberts Contributing Artists Diane Anderson, Wesley Law, Matt Marcinkowski, Paul Nordmann, Matt Seidel, Britt Spencer, Micah Usher Stylist Ana Dattilo ADVERTISING Sales Director Kim Moore Director of Digital Sales Chad Beck Account Executives Jill Gubin, Brian Haupt, Carrie Mayer, Liz Schaefer, Susan Tormala Operations Director Cheryl Rockwell Sales & Marketing Coordinator Elaine Hoffmann Digital Advertising Coordinator Blake Hunt EVENTS Director of Special Events Jawana Reid CIRCULATION Circulation Manager Dede Dierkes Circulation Coordinator Teresa Foss

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SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscription rate is $19.95 for 12 issues of St. Louis Magazine, six issues of Design STL, and two issues of St. Louis Family. Call 314-918-3000 to place an order or to inform us of a change of address. For corporate and group subscription rates, contact Teresa Foss at 314-918-3030.

ONLINE CALENDAR Call 314-918-3000, or email Amanda Woytus at awoytus@stlmag.com. (Please include “Online Calendar” in the subject line.) Or submit events at stlmag.com/events/submit.html.

MINGLE To inquire about event photos, email Emily Cramsey at ecramsey@stlmag.com.

(Please include “Mingle” in the subject line.)

What’s your favorite pizza place in St. Louis?

“Kevin’s Place. The owner is a South City legend and master of the pizza arts. (Warning: Do not test him when he’s busy.)”

—Nicholas Phillips, senior editor “You really can’t beat Felix’s in Dogtown.

Between the Schlafly pint-and-a-slice deal and their unique specialty pies, it’s always at the top of my list.”

—Emily Cramsey, art director “It should come as no surprise that Union Loafers, bakers of the finest bread in town, also turns out the best pizza.”

—George Mahe, dining editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send letters to jmedlin@stlmag.com.

MARKETING AND EVENTS For information about special events, contact Jawana Reid at 314-918-3026 or jreid@stlmag.com.

ADVERTISING To place an ad, contact Elaine Hoffmann at 314-918-3002 or ehoffmann@stlmag.com.

DISTRIBUTION Call Dede Dierkes at 314-918-3006.

Subscription Rates: $19.95 for one year. Call for foreign subscription rates.

Frequency: Monthly. Single Copies in Office: $5.46. Back Issues: $7.50 by mail (prepaid). Copyright 2020 by St. Louis Magazine LLC. All rights are reserved. Reproduction in part or whole is strictly prohibited without the express written permission of the publisher. Unsolicited manuscripts may be submitted but must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. ©2020 by St. Louis Magazine. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 1600 S. Brentwood, Suite 550 St. Louis, MO 63144 314-918-3000 | Fax 314-918-3099 stlmag.com

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FROM THE EDITOR

VOLUME 26 / ISSUE 2

Capturing Character For this issue, Matt Seidel photographed two memorable subjects: comedian Yale Hollander and the Campbell House’s Victoria L. Schultz.

Class Act

FOR WHATEVER REASON, SLM dives into the subject of pizza

every five years. (If only I ate pizza just that often as well.)

As I flipped through those past issues and talked with our dining team, I was fascinated to see how pizza has evolved in St. Louis.

At one time, the popular pie evoked images of coupons, animatronic mice, and player pianos. Beyond the national chains, families flocked to our town’s pizza pioneers: Rossino’s, Frank & Helen’s, Pizza-A-Go-Go, Farotto’s, Racanelli’s, Imo’s... Over time, little has changed at these St. Louis classics—one more reason we love them.

Yet for years, pizza was typically found at pizza parlors and casual Italian restaurants, many of which used deck ovens.

Then wood-fired ovens made their way to St. Louis, and pizza began showing up at such fine-dining restaurants as Cardwell’s at the Plaza. As the cuisine began to change, flatbreads became a fixture on menus at many non-pizza establishments. Eventually chef Mike Randolph brought the dish back to its Italian roots, introducing many St. Louisans to Neapolitan pies at The Good Pie. With premium ingredients served on that signature charred crust, the style quickly gained traction at Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria, Basso, Louie, and Pastaria.

Following in the footsteps of breweries and burgers, pizzerias began looking for ways to carve out new niches.

Pizzeoli became St. Louis’ first vegetarian-focused pizzeria, with a variety of woods stoking the oven. Twin Oak Wood-Fired Pizza & BBQ was one of the first local pizza joints to align itself with barbecue. (Others also crossed

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stlmag.com February 2020

A teacher at John Burroughs School, Philip Barnes performed in cathedral choirs while living in Great Britain. This month, he writes about how the local choral community is honoring classical music critic Sarah Bryan Miller.

Raise a Glass A co-founder of the St. Louis School of Wine, sommelier Denise Mueller shares perfect ways to toast this Valentine’s Day.

over, including A Fine Swine BBQ & Pizza and Imo’s franchisee Jim Cook, who serves a Sugarfire brisket pizza.)

In The Grove, Pie Guy Pizza earned a late-night following. And in Clayton, the fine-dining chefs behind Charred Crust have taken dough to new heights (p. 68).

At the same time, the fast-casual segment has taken off. For prospective restaurant owners, the lure of pizza seemed a relatively safe bet, given its popularity, high profit margin, and low cost of entry. St. Louis has seen an explosion of national chains: Blaze, MOD, Firenza…

Locally, Crushed Red and ’ZZA Pizza + Salad carved out their own territory, with oblong pies and fresh salads served in minutes. With so many players in the pizza game—and the explosion of restaurant delivery across all cuisines—restaurateurs continue to adapt, with some turning to “ghost” kitchens, which deliver food from centralized locations.

Today, the pizza proliferation continues at bakeries (Union Loafers, Red Guitar), breweries (The U.R.B., Brew Hub Taproom), and even food trucks. In fact, after falling in love with Italy and Neapolitan-style pies, Wayne Sieve and Kendele Noto Sieve rolled out a pizza trailer—then doubled down recently with a brick-andmortar in St. Peters (p. 52). Wayne Sieve now aspires to gain certification from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. “We’re trying to do things as authentically as we possibly can,” he says.

It would mark yet another first in St. Louis’ never-ending pizza progression.

Follow Along @stlmag @stlmag @stlouismag

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts, Pearl Wilson

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SUMMER

AT SLU 2020

70+ K–12 CAMPS AND ACADEMIES summer@slu.edu 314-977-3534 summer.slu.edu GATEWAY_0220.indd 14

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GAME TIME p.18 G R E AT SERVICE p.20

GATEWAY

SMART SET TOPIC

A

WHEN ELECTED OFFICIALS and members of the

GeoFutures plans for tomorrow.

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

Photography by brainmaster / iStock / Getty Images Plus / via Getty Images

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intelligence community gathered in North St. Louis to break ground at the site of the new Next NGA West facility last November, it was a historic moment. With a $1.75 billion price tag, the new National GeospatialIntelligence Agency campus will be St. Louis’ biggest federal investment project. Slated to open in 2025, it will encompass 97 acres of the St. Louis Place neighborhood. The largest NGA headquarters outside of Washington, D.C., the new building—along with the GeoSaurus geospatial innovation resource center at T-REX and the city’s geospatial startup community—is a strong visual indication that St. Louis is ready to take the lead in the geospatial sector.

February 2020 stlmag.com

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for your smartphone that are location-based,’ and they go, ‘Oh, OK, I get that.’” NGA already partners with educators in programs on geography-based learning.

Now it’s seeking to scale them up and make them widely known and available to the Saint Louis Public Schools because the pipeline is not there, Long says. “It’s one of the biggest concerns that current industry, let alone future industry, has in St. Louis.”

The first step, Long says, is to focus on economic inequality and racial disparities in St. Louis: “Tied to that pipeline, the talent, and the workforce, we want to take advantage of all sectors of the population. One of the things we learned is that African-Americans make up 16 percent of the workforce in St. Louis, but they only make up 9 percent of the But important work is also being geospatial workforce.” Geospadone behind the scenes. GeoFutial intelligence reaches across all tures, a group of 29 business, civic, types of industries—from preciData Driven and academic leaders is creating a sion agriculture to e-commerce Saint Louis University unified plan for making St. Louis to financial services. It’ll be cruwill host the 2020 the destination for geospatial cial in the development of autonoGeo-Resolution conference on March technology. It plans to release its mous transportation. “It’s also a 25. Students will findings in March, in conjunction high-tech industry,” Long says, present research on with Saint Louis University’s Geo“so we need to be working with geospatial techniques— and first place comes Resolution 2020 conference. The the students in K-12 when they’re with $750. slu.edu. biggest challenge? Creating a pool making choices on their classes of talent. To do that, GeoFutures so that they’re getting the reqis looking close to home: to the children who live uisite math and science classes.” Regardless of near the new NGA campus, and at the tools and demographics, she notes, children often aren’t skills they’ll need in order to work there if they prepared. GeoFutures will be developing spechoose to. cific initiatives to engage local kids; for examA cluster initiative, GeoFutures isn’t without ple, programs to help them catch up in math a roadmap. It’s looking at how St. Louis previ- and English. ously grew, starting in the 1990s, into a leader The federal investment is a once-in-a-lifetime in agricultural technology through such orgaopportunity for St. Louis, Long says: “For the nizations as the Danforth Plant Science Center. kids, for the future workforce, for the commuAnd it’s tapped former NGA director Letitia nity—every aspect of it, university education “Tish” Long to serve on its advisory committee. and research or the public schools or the entre“You say ‘geospatial intelligence,’ and people preneurs—it’s so exciting to see everyone getgo, ‘Huh?’” says Long, who began her career ting behind this initiative.” building acoustic intelligence collection systems for the Navy. “But you say, ‘Develop apps A rendering of Next NGA West

ONLINE

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BY THE NUMBERS

MAPPING GROWTH G EO S PAT I A L I N T E L L I GE N C E’S I MPAC T O N S T. LO UI S

$439 BILLION

Global market for geospatial location data

$5 BILLION

Geospatial industry’s regional economic impact

$1.75 BILLION

Cost to build Next NGA West

27,053

St. Louis jobs in the geospatial industry

5,000

Jobs at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency West headquarters

350

St. Louis companies and organizations involved in the geospatial industry

29

Partners included in GeoFutures

1.55 JOBS

Created in the region for every one geospatial job

Visit stlmag.com for more about GeoFutures’ initiatives to bolster St. Louis’ geospatial intelligence sector.

stlmag.com February 2020

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Rendering by McCarthy/HITT

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2020 St

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PLAYS/QUARTER XFL VS NFL (BASED ON 4 SECONDS/PLAY)

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

The 25-second play clock will be continuous, except during the final two minutes of each half, when it will stop after every play.

The NFL play clock is 40 seconds.

The points on each team’s football are marked with an X in white and outlined in the team’s color, making it easier for the wide receiver to see the ball coming in on a spiral.

(Each team uses its own ball during a possession.) The balls also have a pebbled finish that makes them easier to grip. It’s hoped that these features will increase the number of completions.

The XFL wants to be much quicker between plays. If there are 25 seconds between plays in the NFL, the XLF is aiming for 11 seconds.

The NFL changed kickoff rules in 2018, requiring players to line up within 1 yard of the 35-yard line.

It eliminated the running start to increase player safety. The XFL plans to move players up even closer. As of press time, it was also considering eliminating gunners—the players whose job it is to tackle the punt returner—in an effort to increase returns.

BattleHawks players L’Damian Washington, Marcus Lucas, and Brian Folkerts each have a Missouri connection. Washington and Lucas, wide receivers, were Missouri Tigers.

Folkerts, an offensive lineman, went to Hazelwood Central.

Players will use helmet mics and cameras to communicate continuously with coaches, making it possible to forgo a huddle.

WR

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L’DAMIAN WASHINGTON

OG

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BRIAN FOLKERTS

WR

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MARCUS LUCAS

A touchdown will still be 6 points, but the XFL is eliminating the extra-point kick. Teams may either score 1 point from a conversion on the 2-yard line, 2 from a conversion on the 5-yard line, or 3 from a conversion on the 10-yard line.

FYI The BattleHawks play the Guardians at the Dome at 2 p.m. February 23. The game will air live on ESPN.

Game Time A closer look at St. Louis’ newest sports league, the XFL

CALLING THE BIG GAME 18

stlmag.com February 2020

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EVERYTHING YOU LIKE about football and nothing you don’t—that’s what the revamped

XFL football league will be shooting for when its eight teams take the field this month.

St. Louis’ team, the BattleHawks—a reference to our city’s history of aviation—will play the first game of the season against the Dallas Renegades at Globe Life Park on February 9. The team’s first home game, at The Dome at America’s Center, is February 23, against the New York Guardians. So how does the league plan to maximize the fan experience? It’s tweaked the rules to encourage faster games, more returns and completions, and enhanced player safety. Here’s a look at the specifics.

St. Louis sportscaster Joe Buck will call Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium, in Miami Gardens, Florida, on February 2. To find out how he prepares for the gig and what he learned from his dad, Jack Buck, visit stlmag.com.

Photography by zz/John Nacion/STAR MAX/IPx via AP Images, courtesy of the St. Louis BattleHawks

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February 2020 stlmag.com

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INSIDE INFO

BY JEN ROBERTS

Kelly Weber, left, and Taylor Dailing

ON THE ORIGINS OF STL SERVES: “When

I moved back to St. Louis, last May, I wanted to start volunteering again, but it was hard to connect with anybody.

I ended up at St. Patrick Center after a long search,” Dailing says. “I love that place and am thankful the process led me there, but it was hard. This gave me the idea to start a website where all the volunteer opportunities in the city are organized into easily searchable categories. I think there are a lot of people out there who are like I was several months ago.”

ON CREATING COMMUNITY: Weber says,

“We want to increase exposure to volunteer opportunities and build a community of supportive people. That’s the purpose of it: It’s deeper than just a website. We want our Facebook group to be a space where you can go and ask others about volunteering with a certain organization. I would love for people to find others to go volunteer with.”

ON A NEW NIGHT OUT: “We created a calen-

Great Service

Two women’s vision for volunteering in St. Louis Taylor Dailing and Kelly Weber share a love of giving back to the community. It’s what brought them together as students at Mizzou, volunteering with the Suicide Prevention Coalition. Each woman had a friend who’d died by suicide, and being the doers that they are, the pair got involved. Though they worked together for three years, they left college as acquaintances, reconnecting in St. Louis when Dailing reached out to Weber for social media help. They realized that they had similar aspirations and decided to join their talents. The result: STL Serves, a website and Facebook group prioritizing connection and community with St. Louis nonprofits and volunteers. On stlserves.com, more than 250 volunteering opportunities are organized by category: animals, education, LGBTQIA+, veterans… After selecting a category, users are taken to a page that lists all of the organizations, with options for volunteering, donating, and getting more details.

“I think it’s innate in most people that they want to do good,” Weber says.

“They just need help figuring out how to do it, because everyone’s busy.

We’re trying to make it simple, a no-brainer for people.”

FYI

20

dar where you can find options for going out besides just going to dinner,” Weber recalls. “In May, I went to a bingo night for Cornerstone, and there was something about going out and supporting that organization that made me want to get more involved.”

ON FAMILY BONDING: “We were recently

asked about holiday volunteering, and we realized what a great idea it is for families to get together and give back,” Dailing says. “We’re hoping more people will use the calendar to search for activities to do with your family.”

ON THE VALUE OF COMMUNITY: “I feel like

St. Louis is on the brink of a lot of good change,” Weber says. “Getting involved gives people a clear perspective on the city. It’s easy to become complacent, but there’s power in getting involved with the important stuff that’s going on in your community. ”

Find more about STL Serves at stlserves.com or facebook.com/stlserves.

stlmag.com February January 2020 2020

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Photography Photography by

by Kevin Kevin A. A. Roberts Roberts

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February 2020 stlmag.com

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PRESENTED BY

Do you know an incredible kid?

Whether it’s a youngster who’s overcome a daunting obstacle, launched an entrepreneurial endeavor, or reached an impressive milestone, we want to hear about it.

VISIT STLMAG.COM/INCREDIBLEKIDS TO NOMINATE AN INSPIRING CHILD.

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TOP 10 EVENTS p.26 THE MAGIC WO R D S p.28 READ THIS NOW p.29

RHYTHM

PRELUDE

LIFT UP MY EYES

As a critic battles cancer, the choral community offers its support.

BY PHILIP BARNES

D. Photography by Matt Marcinkowski

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RHYTHM PRELUDE

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HEN SARAH BRYAN MILLER, the classical music critic

for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, announced with her typical candor that the breast cancer she’d fought back in 2010 had returned, there was a remarkable response from the artistic community. The interaction between performer and critic can be contentious, but occasionally a professional relationship develops in which well-directed criticism can elevate an artist to new heights.

That’s the type of relationship that has been established over the past two decades by Miller, known as Bryan to family and friends. Since 1998, she has covered events great and small, from solo recitals to symphony performances. Her readers are better informed about the scene, and no branch of music has fared better under her gaze than choral music.

So when Bryan revealed that the cancer had traveled to her liver and she would be undergoing treatment at Siteman, several leading choirs—including two Episcopalian church choirs, musicians from Congregation Shaare Emeth, the music department at Washington University, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus—formed a consortium to commission a new piece in her honor, a celebration of all she has brought to the artistic community in St. Louis. For the first time, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus will perform the complete psalm, at 3 p.m. February 16 at the Second Presbyterian Church, in the Central West End. Because Bryan has always looked both within and beyond the city, it seemed only right to identify a composer who might live far from St. Louis but had experience writing for some of its musical institutions. Composer/singer Judith Bingham is quite British, having trained at the Royal Academy of Music.

Although she has written for instrumental groups, it’s in her

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Learn more about the performance, “Einstein Considered Light as Waves,” and purchase tickets at chamberchorus.org.

choral music that she’s found particularly powerful expression. This springs not only from experience but also from a deep-seated sensitivity to text. Early in the composer’s time in St. Louis, Bryan critiqued the premiere of Aquileia, commissioned by the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus. Bryan’s positive response was validated when the piece won the 2004 Barlow Prize for composition.

“Composers don’t often become friends with critics,” Bingham says, “but over the years, I’ve come to really appreciate Bryan’s knowledge of music, her never-failing curiosity in the arts, and her wonderfully dry sense of humor.”

Now Bingham offers her support to the critic during her illness with “I Lift Up Mine Eyes Unto the Hills.” The new work premiered in a reduced choral version in September at the Third Baptist Church and, 11 days later, in a private performance for Bryan. Later this month, it will conclude a program that explores the interplay of light and music.

“I was more than pleased,” Bingham says, “especially when she chose Psalm 121, a favorite of mine as well as one of hers.” The text, based on the English translation by Myles Coverdale, suits Bryan, a committed Episcopalian and lover of The Book of Common Prayer (which includes Coverdale’s Psalms).

This new version is deftly conceived and can be enlarged or condensed in several ways without compromising the composer’s vision. Those already familiar with Bingham’s work will find it among her most tonal pieces, but nowhere is there any sense that she is simplifying or reducing her musical language. The composer blesses and bids adieu to Bryan with the words “The Lord shall preserve thy going out, and thy coming in, from this time forth for evermore.”

“Judith’s music is consistently complex, challenging, and rewarding in every way, so this commission is one of the greatest honors I’ve ever had in my life,” Bryan says. “Choral music of this caliber is a gift to the soul.”

Photography by Matt Marcinkowski

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RHYTHM AGENDA

Feb 10 THINGS TO DO

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

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For two nights, the Lunar New Year Festival celebrates Asian cultures in song, dance, and skits. The show, this year benefiting Variety, is run entirely by students at Washington University, but it’s definitely not amateur in its production. February 7 & 8. Edison Theatre, lnyf.wustl.edu.

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Jim Gaffigan made history in 2019 when he released Quality Time, Amazon Prime Video’s first original comedy special. What might he discuss in his shows here? The clean comic often muses about parenthood, and there’s a lot to talk about: He and his wife have five kids. February 18–21.

Stifel Theatre, stifel theatre.com.

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Ailey II, founded in 1974 by legendary dancer/ choreographer Alvin Ailey, is renowned for its young talent and community outreach programming. Dance St. Louis hosts the company, which will perform Revelations. February 22.

Touhill Performing Arts Center, dancestlouis.org.

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An American in Paris is adored for such love songs as George Gershwin’s “’S Wonderful,” and the story’s romantic, too. Jerry, an American GI, tries to win over Lise in the City of Light—but he’s not her only prospect, and she has a secret. February 12. Stifel Theatre, stifeltheatre.com.

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After the breakup of her band The Nocturnals and her divorce, Grace Potter thought she’d never record music again— making Daylight, her return to the studio, special. “It really feels like a debut album,” she told Billboard. “I just found that at a certain point I was bursting to sing and bursting to create.”

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February 20.

The Pageant, the pageant.com.

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It’s a testament to the legacy of Rent that the Pulitzer and Tony winner, about a group of people trying to create art in the face of despair, still feels fresh nearly 25 years after its debut. February 21–23. Fox Theatre, fabulousfox.com.

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Each year, MoBot’s Orthwein Floral Display Hall transforms into a paradise featuring the best selections from its orchid collection. The good news, for those who’ve never managed to keep one of the exotics alive: The Orchid Show requires only an appreciation of their beauty. February 1– March 22. Missouri Botanical Garden, missouribotanical garden.org.

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For their third full-length album, appropriately titled III, The Lumineers divide 10 songs into three different chapters and three characters inspired by frontman Wesley Schultz’s journal. Every online ticket to this concert comes with a copy of the album. February 5. Enterprise Center, enterprise center.com.

singer/songwriter 8 Remember 10 Ben Folds from Ben Folds Five, then as a solo act? For a decade he’s been playing with symphonies across the country, mixing pop with orchestral music. This month, he returns to St. Louis for the first time since his sellout 2017 show with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

February 13 & 14. Powell Hall, slso.org.

In his HBO show Crashing, creator/ star Pete Holmes played a man who dreams of making it big in standup after his wife dumps him, leaving him homeless. The comic brings his Silly Silly Fun Boy tour to St. Louis. February 28 & 29. Helium Comedy Club, st-louis.helium comedy.com.

Photography by Pamela Neal, Nir Arieli, Danny Clinch, shorrocks/iStock/Getty Images Plus/via Getty Images

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KidS foR CriTtERs CamP!

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S T UQD&I O RHYTHM A

MORE TO SEE Ghost at The Grandel Theatre

THE MAGIC WORDS

Spell #7 resonates 40 years after its creation.

BY SAMANTHA STEVENSON

OU, THE FIRST character to take the stage in Spell #7, tells the audience his unpredictable behavior is best explained by his father’s profession: magician. But in 1958, Lou explains, his father retired from magic after a child asked whether he could turn the boy from black to white. “His father said no, no magician could do that,” director Ron Himes says. “His father tried to impart to the young boy that you are colored, but you should love it.

You should love being colored. There is magic in your blackness.”

Ntozake Shange’s Spell #7, staged by The Black Rep, follows Lou, himself a magician at the moment of the narrative, as he tries to instill his father’s message in the black artists who gather at a St. Louis bar. It’s the 1970s, and race, Himes says, “impacts their lives in terms of the opportunity they’re given, the types of roles that are offered to them, and how they think people in the industry perceive black artists.”

The ensemble cast carries the plot through poetic soliloquies, music, and movement—traits

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of a choreopoem, a term coined by Shange to describe her piece For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf.

After producing For Colored Girls at Washington University, Himes added Spell #7 to The Black Rep’s season of “Civil Rights, Identity and Soul” to honor the playwright, who died in 2018.

The message of Spell #7 resonates with Himes.

“Not many plays today are written in a way that looks at the impact of minstrelsy on black artists and the damaging effects of the images that have been perpetuated throughout hundreds of years,” he says. He first directed the work for The Black Rep in the ’80s, but in this run, he says, “there will be a lot more movement and choreography.” The director also wants to foster understanding in 2020 audiences: “I am hoping that they will look at black artists differently… I’m very interested in unpacking how artists continue to survive in spite of the negativity, in spite of the images, to look at the reality that black artists are forced to have to live with in terms of how they approach their craft and celebrate their culture.”

See Spell #7 February 29–March 8 at the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre.

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Young-adult fiction author Jason Reynolds writes for kids who can’t breathe. That metaphor appears in his novel Ghost, a finalist for a National Book Award, in the sport of running.

Castle “Ghost” Crenshaw is a young man who’s turned to the sport after a traumatic experience and his father’s incarceration. Ghost crashes a track practice, and a coach sees his natural talent and encourages him to join the school’s track and field team. “At first, he’s in danger of being one of the lost children.

He continues to run, but now he’s running with purpose,” says Julia Flood, artistic director of Metro Theater Company. This month, the company, with the Nashville Children’s Theatre, debuts the novel’s theatrical adaptation by Idris Goodwin, author of And in This Corner: Cassius Clay. “When I read the book, I just thought, This is exactly what young people today are dealing with,” Flood says, “this feeling of trying to push through and have your life get on a good path when there’s obstacles all along the way.” It’s a story about finding family and finding community, she adds, and the characters’ struggles reflect much of what today’s middle-schoolers experience. “It’s really about: Are you going to be running toward what you want to be, or are you always going to be running away?”

Metro Theater Company stages Ghost at The Grandel Theatre February 2–March 1.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Read This Now T H E R E YO U A R E

As an author and fifthand sixth-grade English teacher, Mathea Morais spends a lot of time thinking about what her students write and why they write it. For years, Morais, who grew up in St. Louis and now lives on Martha’s Vineyard, had wanted to write about The Loop, her education in University City schools and later at Clayton High School, and hanging out at Vintage Vinyl. She’d started out in University City schools when “a real intention was to desegregate in a meaningful way.” Morais went to school with black and white kids, but that intent to desegregate, she says, “only existed for a short period of time.” Her memories would inform her first novel, There You Are, largely set in St. Louis. In the book, Mina, a young white woman, comes from a less-than-stable home.

Octavian, who is black, has two loving parents, but his mother is sick and his brother is in trouble. Mina and Octavian fall in love at Rahsaan’s Records but leave the city and lose touch after a tragedy. When Rahsaan’s threatens to close, they seek their own closure. It’s a story Morais felt compelled to write after the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Watching the events unfold from the East Coast, she wanted to contribute to the conversation. And she knew that as equitable as things felt growing up, “I also had all my friends getting pulled over the minute they left my house.” Mina and Octavian are also partially inspired

by Morais and her husband, whom she met at age 15 and started dating at 18. “[We] tried and struggled to have an interracial relationship in a time and place where...it was OK in Vintage Vinyl, kind of, but not necessarily outside.”

—AMANDA WOYTUS

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A PRICELESS TOOL p.34 MINGLE p.36

ELEMENTS

TRENDING

The Bigger, the Better Dramatic sleeves are making a comeback.

BY ANA DATTILO

GET THE LOOK

Organza-sleeve top, $35.90. Zara.

Vintage belt, $18.

May’s Place.

Heartloom silk skirt, $79.

Blush Boutique.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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ELEMENTS

TRENDING

A

C

B A. Floral poplin top, $39.90. Zara. Ética distressed jeans, $148. Blush Boutique. KAANAS Bellone open-front snake-print booties, $179. Blush Boutique. Wyeth wool hat, $88. Blush Boutique. Star earrings, $20. Koho. B. Gathered long-sleeve top, $17.90. Zara. Scotch & Soda yellow joggers, $138. Blush Boutique. Clear clutch, $25. Koho. Machete tortoise earrings, $48. Blush Boutique. A New Day black high block heels, $29.99. Target. C. Floral tulle top, $39.90. Zara. Orange jumper, $52. Koho. A New Day nude high block heels, $29.99. Target. Nova Vita Co. earrings, $25. May’s Place. —A.D.

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts; model: Taylor Lewis, West Model & Talent Management

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Day of D

Saturday, February 22 9 a.m. to Noon DoubleTree Hotel ‑ Chesterfield Join the Rhythm Nation for the largest dance party in St. Louis! Learn the latest dance moves and the moves you can make for better health with a morning packed with dance fitness demonstrations, health screenings and health information. Registration is limited.

To register for this free event, visit stlukes‑stl.com. Questions?

Call 314‑205‑6706.

Sponsored by

2-3404

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11/19/19 11:18 AM 1/3/20 8:45 AM

ELEMENTS

A Priceless Tool

How a local organization is threading refugee and immigrant women into St. Louis’ fashion community

BY LAURA MISEREZ

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Learn more about The Collective Thread’s mission and classes at thecollectivethread.org.

Terri Stipanovich

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ERRI STIPANOVICH WANTED to

help women in need. So in 2009, she launched a nonprofit called Faith That Works and began advocating for women’s social justice in Africa. The nonprofit grew into a sewing program called Nala, which provided women in East Africa with free sewing classes and generated their wages through a clothing line. By 2015, Stipanovich had mirrored the program here. After Stipanovich met Annie Miller, the two grew the nonprofit into The Collective Thread, which offers sewing classes to local refugee and immigrant women; it then employs them to make clothes for local fashion startups including Daily Disco and Triflare. This year, the organization will move from the Central West End into a 6,000-squarefoot space on Washington Avenue endowed with both a sewing room and showroom. The new space will accommodate their growing number of clients and students. “At our last free class, we were turning people away,” Stipanovich says. More than 50 women from such countries as Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia have completed the six-week sewing program. “Whether it’s in St. Louis or in East Africa, when you give a woman a wage, she has decisions available to her that she didn’t have when she was dependent on her community,” Stipanovich says. “And you’re not just giving it to her; she’s earning it. There’s real dignity in that.”

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

1/6/20 1:14 PM

Q&A

Why did you create The Collective Thread?

I think the most gratifying thing for me is that when you economically empower someone, you see their life changed. We have one woman who, one day, she just started crying. She said, “I’m just so happy. Before I had this place, I sat at home. All I did was think about the war in Syria and my family that’s still there.

Now, I’m happy because I have a place to come keep myself busy and a community.” That’s why we do the work.

Annie Miller with The Collective Thread student Zohra Zaimi.

What is small-batch manufacturing? With the evolution of social media, you see a lot of fashion startups, and they’re marketing and selling on Instagram.

So these budding entrepreneurs and fashion startups are looking for what’s called small runs or small batch. You can’t go overseas with less than a certain large quantity, so they’re looking for local manufacturers like us who will do 40 or 60 garments. Some customers might come to us, because they do manufacture large quantities, but they need product development and sample making. We help them with their designs and samples. Then they can take those samples to a larger manufacturer. But most of our customers are small-batch.

How does The Collective Thread go beyond teaching women how to sew? My mission is to elevate the status of women who have suffered unspoken atrocities.

Some of our women come from war-torn countries. The nonprofit angle is really to reach out to those who need assistance. I found the best way to do that is through economic empowerment. For many of our women, this is the first job they’ve ever had. It’s a community for them. Healing takes place in creating something beautiful, and they find sisterhood in our shop. The fashion and sewing manufacturing world is a vehicle.

Although all of us love fashion, it’s really about the women.

How are you connecting with women who take the class? We have been collaborating with other nonprofits that work with immigrants and refugees. When

we have classes, we send out flyers to these local nonprofits like International Institute, Oasis International, Welcome Neighbor. We’re one of the only, if not the only, organizations working with immigrants and refugees that is actually doing on-the-job training and providing jobs. Most nonprofits will give a service like English as a second language or help residents get their drivers’ licenses and other services like that. But we’re actually training people that have never sewn to sew and then providing a job for them.

Why move beyond having your own clothing brand? [When we launched our program here,] it was difficult to run the clothing line and manufacturing and marketing and everything. We were approached by Andrea Robertson of

Triflare, who said we need manufacturing in St. Louis. That inspired the whole idea of moving beyond having our own clothing line to producing for local fashion brands.

How can more people get involved? We’re always looking for volunteers with skill in sewing to teach. We already have the curriculum and equipment. We also have internships in design, sewing, business, and more. We’re always offering internships. I have two interns right now. We’re hiring. We do some volunteer sewing, but we need someone in the day to oversee manufacturing. So we’re hiring patternmakers, sewing teachers, floor managers, and supervisors.

February 2020 stlmag.com

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MINGLE

Stephanie Williams, Sherry Sissac

Taliya and Christopher King

Johnny Little, Katrina Scott, Eddie Davis

OCA ACTOR (L NC DA | B U CL OV GROUP | M L EA D | AUTO E G N A OIL CH | EYELASHES SIO FU N A SI |A BU BURGER | Y| DISTILLER ST | GREEK RE R E ES N | JAPA T N RA U A REST D BAR | SALA NT RESTAURA

Mark Stallion, Dave Aplington, Michael KennedyJr.

Taylor Harris, Winston Wright, Marcene and Dart Ford

Morgan Williams, Ali Ingram, Valencia Jones

Michael Schmid, Elisabeth Dunphy, Adrian Bracamonte

LF CARE | GO ID ES PARK (B M RE O O | TATT TO /S TS SE O CL NC HANDYMA PR | HOME IM

SPOTLIGHT Peter Neidorff, Sara and Logan Duncan

Flora Stallion, Christina Bennett

2019 Great Futures Gala ON NOVEMBER 8, the Great Futures Gala, held at The Chase

Park Plaza, celebrated the experiences that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis provide local youth. The event is the nonprofit’s largest fundraiser. Proceeds benefit such initiatives as Career Launch, Diplomas to Degrees, Keystone Clubs, Money Matters, and Mentor St. Louis.

The Musial Awards

John and Jill Farmer

Dr. Flint Fowler, president, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis “The gala showcases the youth who embody the ideals of the clubs’ mission, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens.”

Robert and Christina Jackson, Meghan Sullivan, Dan Kane

API | LANDSC |P Y N COMPA EN D EN INDEP AYE BLUES PL NC SPORTS A C N SPORTS A

D | PET FOO N BA | STORE TE TA ES L REA RE FLORIST/F US & PRECIO O RESALE SH KE A M | SOAP OM SHOP | W FL G IN D WED PL G IN D ED W

Gilbert and Lourdes Bailon

THE MUSIAL AWARDS , named

for Cardinal ic on Stan Musial, were held November 23 at Stifel Theatre. St. Louis Blues superfan Laila Anderson, the Forest Lake Christian School girls’ volleyball team, and Blues playby-play announcer Chris Kerber were among this year’s recipients.

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Photography by Diane Anderson and Micah Usher

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Ask the Expert

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THE TRUTH ABOUT COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

Straining to hear each day, even when using powerful hearing aids?

Feeling frustrated and sometimes even exhausted from listening? Whether it happens suddenly or gradually over time, hearing loss can affect you physically and emotionally. Being unable to hear impacts your ability to communicate with your loved ones, hear in noisy environments, talk on the phone, and may force you to become more reliant on your family members to interpret for you.

Cochlear implants work differently than hearing aids. Rather than amplifying sound, they use state-of-the-art electronic components and software to provide access to the sounds you’ve been missing. They are designed to help you hear better and understand speech in all situations, including noisy environments.

David C. Kelsall, M.D., Cochlear Medical Advisor Dr. David C. Kelsall, a cochlear implant surgeon and medical advisor to Cochlear, the world leader in cochlear implants, answers questions about cochlear implants and how they are different from hearing aids.

Q: How are cochlear implants different than hearing aids?

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1. The Nucleus Freedom Cochlear Implant System: Adult Post-Market Surveillance Trial Results. 2008 June.

2. Cochlear Nucleus Implant Reliability Report. Volume 16 | December 2017. D1175804. Cochlear Ltd; 2018.

Please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary, and your health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome. Always read the instructions for use. Not all products are available in all countries. Please contact your local Cochlear representative for product information. Views expressed by hearing health providers are that of the individual. ©2019 Cochlear Limited. All rights reserved. Trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of Cochlear Limited. CAM-MK-PR-255 ISS6 JUL19

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ANGLES

Q&A

MARY E. NELSON

St. Louis Community College’s General Counsel

BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

Photography by Wesley Law

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ANGLES Q&A

I

F YOU’VE CRUISED down Highway 40 between the zoo and Science

Center lately, you’ve probably spotted it on the south side: The sleek new Center for Nursing and Health Sciences on the Forest Park campus of St. Louis Community College. From big projects like that one, which cost $39 million, to much smaller ones, such as a student play requiring copyright permission, the school’s general counsel, Mary E. Nelson, must ensure everyone’s complying with federal and state laws. And that’s no mean feat.

What’s it like being the chief legal officer for a school with four campuses? They’re like several cities within a city. We have streets, buildings, police. We have First Amendment issues, immigration issues, environmental issues—every time an art class disposes of paint or clay, we have to account for the hazardous waste. Colleges and universities are highly regulated institutions.

You also have to navigate complicated budget and personnel matters. Several years ago, for example, tensions were high after faculty and staff layoffs. I think the college has gone through cycles where our enrollment has been very high, and now enrollment is down. Throughout these cycles, we’ve kept our number of faculty pretty much the same. But when we faced the prospect of a sharp decrease in state appropriations to our budget, it was time to make a right-size adjustment of our faculty so that we could avoid having to increase our costs on a smaller student population and make education less accessible to them… The impacted faculty didn’t like it at all. There continues to be tension.

But the administration does what it does not because it hates faculty or disrespects faculty—obviously we need a great faculty.

It’s just that sometimes we have to make hard decisions about how to control costs.

At the same time, we’re trying to increase enrollment.

Speaking of which, STLCC recently invested $39 million in the Nursing and Health Sciences building on the Forest Park campus.

Why? There’s a huge deficit of trained people in all the health care professions, everything from nurses to dental hygiene assistants. The college needs to play a role in helping fill that gap.

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“WE NEED TO FOCUS ON THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE.”

Any plans to expand into other areas?

We’re partnering with organizations like LaunchCode to get people trained in IT skills so they can have access to great-paying jobs in a short period of time. That’s exciting, that you could take an eight-week class and, starting from scratch, learn to code and be well qualified to apply for a job or be placed into a job that pays $50,000 per year. I think that’s tremendously promising.

There is some debate over pushing all high school grads to college. What do you think?

Not everybody is going to be an intellectual. There are a lot of people whose skills are in a trade. But either way, in the society we live in, you need training to find meaningful, fulfilling employment… We need to focus on the jobs of the future.

What advice do you have for a young person who isn’t sure what to study? You need to be exposed to a lot of different things— even if you do have your heart set on something. Let’s say you’re passionate about nursing. I’d hate for you to find out after you become a nurse that you hate nursing; you just liked the idea of nursing. Maybe what you really have a passion for is helping people and easing suffering. So maybe instead of being a nurse, you should be a social worker. But you don’t know that if you’ve never studied it.

What’s your passion, outside work? I’m a huge soccer fan. I love watching the English Premier League, and I’m so excited at the prospect of having a team here.

There’s a tradition called “march to the match,” where people gather beforehand at a bar, have a pint, then join this huge parade of hundreds or thousands of people. The thought of having that in St. Louis, with St. Louisans wearing our football club’s colors and walking together into that stadium, it’s something that gives me chill-bumps.

At stlmag.com: Nelson on traveling, a tough case, and cooking without recipes.

Photography by Wesley Law

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ANGLES NOTEBOOK

BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

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LIVING HISTORY

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ERE’S ONE OF the quirkiest

gigs in St. Louis you’ve never heard of: weekend manager at the Campbell House Museum, a 169-year-old mansion at the corner of Locust and 15th.

Set aside the curiosity of the building itself—a townhouse among high-rises, its prim façade hiding a truly bonkers display of Gilded Age opulence indoors. Set aside, too, the epic bio of former resident Robert Campbell. He emigrated from Ireland to America in 1822; joined the fur trade out West; battled and befriended Native Americans; built a fortune; settled in what was then St. Louis’ toniest suburb; expanded his holdings in real estate, banking, and riverboats (one of which Mark Twain piloted); hosted President Ulysses S. Grant for dinner; saw 10 of his own progeny—10—perish during childhood, with only three sons surviving him, none of whom married or produced an heir, all of which set off an international scramble to divvy up today’s equivalent of $69 million in assets, including this house, which became a privately funded museum in 1943.

Sound like a unique workplace?

Consider the weekend manager: This employee leads tours on Saturdays and Sundays but lives full-time and rentfree at the back of the property, in the standalone brick carriage house, where the male servants used to sleep.

Turnover is fairly high, says museum executive director Andy Hahn. At least 10 have cycled through in the past two decades: a costume designer, an UMSL undergrad, a St. Louis Symphony Orchestra staffer. When one departs, the museum recruits the next through word of mouth or a Facebook post. Says Hahn: “We’ve had quite a parade over the years.”

The current weekend manager is Victoria L. Schultz, who gave a private tour of the carriage house on a recent morning.

The ground level still affords a whiff of mud and manure; it also has two carriages on display. Schultz lives above them in the second-floor studio apartment. That’s where she spends her off-time, sipping tea and typing novellas in the Photography by Matt Seidel

1/3/20 8:42 AM

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ANGLES NOTEBOOK

BY NICHOLAS PHILLIPS

Weekend manager Victoria L. Schultz

steampunk genre. “I feel culturally fed,” she says, seated at her dining table, the whole unit trembling because a construction crew outside is at work on the museum’s new welcome center. “It’s like my brain is on fire and I don’t have time to extinguish the flames or get the ideas into my laptop.”

The house that inspires her teems with the Campbell family’s original furnishings. They’re staged with historical accuracy, thanks to the discovery of 53 interior photographs snapped in the 1880s. Schultz believes that the place is haunted. In November, she saw the motion-sensor light go on up in the cook’s bedroom but checked the surveillance feed through her phone and verified the house was empty.

David Newmann, who served as weekend manager from 2012 to 2015, says he was content to simply imagine past caretakers.

When he awoke in the studio, he knew that the coachmen and groundskeepers would’ve brewed pots of coffee on a wood stove just steps away. Outside, they would’ve mowed the grass—a chore that now falls to weekend managers. “I did feel a connection to the staff who used to work there,” says Newmann. “Thankfully, we now have power tools.”

Details of that original labor force have emerged. Most were women, many of Irish stock. In the kitchen, they prepared as many as 60 meals a day, their ears attuned to the wall-mounted servant bells that jingled when someone in another room tugged a string (yes, just like in Downton Abbey).

Researchers also recently uncovered the story of Eliza Rone, who arrived as a slave—the only one known to have lived at the house. She worked as a nursemaid. Robert emancipated her in 1857 (possibly at the behest of his mother-in-law, Lucy Ann Winston Kyle, who had just moved in and, as a Quaker, abhorred slavery). Even after Rone’s emancipation, she stayed on as a paid worker for about a decade. She later settled in Kansas City, where her husband, John, founded a black masonic lodge and her son worked at a black newspaper.

As late as 1918, she wrote a letter to the Campbell bachelor sons, whom she’d helped raise, thanking them for a Christmas gift.

This new research, now added to museum tours (because there’s no set script), hadn’t been available to Megan Power, who served as weekend manager from 2004 to 2007. To her, one of the most valuable parts of the job was connecting to those not in the past, but rather, in the present. She was 15 years younger then. On hot summer nights, she and her friends would unwind in the cool shadows of the Campbell House garden and sample the liqueur that she’d concocted from its rose bushes. During the day, she got to know the museum’s senior volunteers. She watched, over time, how

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“I DID FEEL A CONNECTION TO THE STAFF WHO USED TO WORK THERE,” SAYS A FORMER MANAGER. they handled the loss of spouses, friends, and good health. “I got a lot of life lessons there,” she says.

Collisions of age, race, and class may just be unavoidable at this institution.

Newmann, a twentysomething without much money, liked banging on his drum set up in the carriage house. (He had few neighbors.) One autumn night, after his rock band finished a song, they peered out the opened window to see a group of homeless folks below, applauding.

Schultz has lived there since March.

She’s incorporating the museum into her steampunk fiction, which she’s selfpublishing for now. She plans to stay a while: “I’d have to be a millionaire to want to leave.”

Photography by Matt Seidel

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ANGLES SNAPSHOT SECOND AND PLUM

A Plum Street Around the turn of the 20th century, the people of Plum Street spoke German, Gaelic, Greek, and Russian inside its tenements and factories. We don’t know what language the couple in this undated photo used to call their pigs and geese into the courtyard, but we know a lot about their downtown block, situated near the river. Roofer Patsy Ford, who lived at 212 Plum, fought the health department to be declared living after a corpse floating in the Mississippi was misidentified as him. Effie Winns, who lived at the same address, devised a daring rescue to retrieve her stolen dog, Lovey, by creeping through the thief’s window late at night; however, on trying to jump out the window, she discovered that the dog was chained to the man’s wrist, and the caper did not end well.

A bolt of lightning once set a flour mill ablaze, destroying or damaging everything nearby: a crude oil mill, a sewing-machine factory, “two houses of ill repute,” frame cottages… And on the secondstory landing of a tenement at Second and Plum, a priest called Father Emmanuel preached in Aramaic, the language that many historians believe Jesus spoke. —STEFENE RUSSELL 46

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Photography courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society

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AKAR p.50 NOTO p.52 TWISTED RANCH p.54

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THE DISH

Winter Blues Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Just because it’s the middle of winter, don’t think that ice cream maven Beckie Jacobs is taking time off. One of the high holidays for the owner of Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream, in Webster Groves, is National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, which falls this year on February 1. Customers who show up at the shop in their PJs get a free mug of tea, cocoa, or Stringbean coffee. Try a waffle sundae filled with breakfast-themed ice cream, or go for another crowd-pleaser, the create-your-own ice cream sandwich, bookended with homemade cookies, brownies, or doughnuts from Eddie’s Southtown Donuts. In honor of the St. Louis Blues, we chose Serendipity’s No. 1 seller, the Cookie Monster—and doubled down with warmed chocolate chip cookies. Jacobs’ next ice cream holiday is Serendipity After Dark, held over Valentine’s Day weekend, when reservations are taken, the lights are dimmed, and guests are seated at tables. The bill of fare includes such off-menu items as sundae trios, pie à la mode, and bottles of celebratory bubbles. 8130 Big Bend. —DAVE LOWRY February 2020 stlmag.com

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Malaysian Persuasion

Bernie Lee brings the comfort foods of his travels home to Clayton.

BY DAVE LOWRY

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O

NE DOES NOT expect the salt-

wort. Yet there it is on your plate: string-slender stalks, a bit like miniature asparagus in shape and taste, accompanying a heap of crunchy black venere rice and a roasted halibut fillet sitting in a pumpkinorange puddle of silky curry. That sauce, with notes of dried bonito seasoning, is so perfectly layered in composition, it could serve, on its own, as a luscious potage.

Those threads of tasty greenery are just one of many surprises at Akar, the venture opened by local impresario Bernie Lee last summer in Clayton. Lee’s previous place—Hiro’s Asian Kitchen, downtown—presented a world of Asian specialties, demonstrating a spectacular creativity that played off authentic preparations without ever doing them mischief. Akar offers a lovely menu that changes often but never loses its finesse and verve.

There’s no better way to begin than with a shallow bowl of kabocha bisque, the orange squash’s flesh reduced, along with cream of coconut, to a sateen pool, topped with a scattering of puffed rice and, for citrusy spark, pink peppercorns.

The potstickers are ordinary; instead, go for the soft-shell crab in crispy tempura batter. The accompanying chili sauce— altogether true to the famous Singaporean original, with chili, lime, and garlic— is so good, it’d make a Frisbee delectable.

The kitchen delivers interesting twists with some dishes. Instead of red wine, soy sauce is used in the liquid braise for a slab of hefty short ribs, to good effect. The ribs are pot roast soft, gloriously juicy, their surfaces caramelized to roasty sweetness. A demi-glace spiked with Indonesian sambal adds a vinegary element. The accompanying mushy peas—“Yorkshire caviar”— are distinguished from the British version by garlic, lots of it, an odd but nice complement. Tteokbokki, pounded rice with the consistency of a starchy Tootsie Roll, are a staple in Korean soups; here, they’re presented more like gnocchi but slathered in a thick coconut milk Malaysian curry along with vegetables.

Lee serves up unique presentations but has the sense not to go off on wild Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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MAIN COURSE

Clockwise from opposite page: Bone-in short ribs. Bone-in lamb shank. Apple-caramel bread pudding.

Akar 7641 Wydown 314-553-9914 akarstl.com Lunch Tue– Fri, dinner Tue–Sun, brunch Sun

tangents just to be different. A duck breast, for example, could be absurdly tarted up, but instead it’s simply brined in oolong tea, then sautéed to pink perfection, allowing the bird’s taste and crisp skin to shine. The mash of butternut squash beneath and syrupy plum reduction sauce on top highlight the tender fowl without the use of fussy, pointlessly odd ingredients for the sake of novelty.

Similarly, a lamb shank is roasted just as it should be, the meat succulent, moist, with distinctive mineral notes. It would be excellent even without the saffronturmeric couscous and that mild, faintly sweet Massaman curry sauce. With them, the dish is even more memorable.

Bread pudding swims in an intensely concentrated lemon sauce that detonates on the palate. And a ball of chocolate ice cream made with coconut

THE BOTTOM LINE

cream—more like fudge, it’s so rich and firm—is accompanied by a fabulously sticky toasted disk of house-made marshmallow.

Situated on the corner of Wydown and Hanley Road, Akar houses just a dozen seats, all at two-top tables. Four plastic chairs at the bar provide the most spacious dining area. That’s it. The 24-seat patio in front could soon be enclosed and heated, tripling the capacity—and there have been hints at an expansion.

For now, if you’re fortunate enough to get a table, Akar is charming, with pleasant gray wood walls. Cones of miniature Indonesian fishing nets soften the overhead lighting.

Cocktails concocted behind the bar, incidentally, are above average, even though at least one, the Maker’s Mark Labu, violated this critic’s Fine Dining Rule 56: Unless kerosene’s an ingredient, no cocktail needs to be set aflame. The wine list is modest but decent.

It’s a mistake to assume that this is an Asian eatery. Akar, we’re told, is Malay for “roots,” but that doesn’t mean it’s berakar umbi—rooted—anywhere specific. Rather, the menu’s a compendium of culinary influences picked up by Lee in his travels. He’s accumulated some delicious experiences, and one should anticipate the happily unexpected when dining at Akar.

And no one, I am certain, is expecting that saltwort.

A first-rate menu with creative flair is packed into a charming space on Wydown.

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FIRST BITE

Noto Bene

A pizza trailer evolves into authentic Italian cuisine in St. Peters.

BUBBLING OVER

T H I S VA L E N T I N E ’ S , TOAST WITH NEWLABEL GROWER C H A M PA G N E S .

Whether you prefer a night out on the town or a romantic night in, consider toasting with a grower Champagne. The estategrown bubbly wines are championed for their small to medium production and overall attention to quality, from vineyard to sale.

—DENISE MUELLER Bang-for-your-buck classicblend chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier: NV Bérêche et Fils Brut Reserve Champagne, Montagne de Reims. The Wine Merchant, $48.99.

THE LAST TIME a couple moved their unusual

flatbread operation from a truck to a brickand-mortar restaurant, the lines stretched out the door. Following in the tire tracks of Balkan Treat Box is Noto Italian Restaurant. The proprietors are Wayne Sieve and Kendele Noto Sieve, whose love for Neapolitan pizza begat a pizza trailer with a bona fide domed oven, which begat a bona fide Italian restaurant in the former J. Noto Bakery, a family business. The eat-dessert-first crowd will opt for Kendele’s filled-to-order cannoli, or the bombolini, filled with pistachio cream.

Old World touches include 24-month-aged Prosciutto di Parma, as well as such rarities as imported capocollo and DOP cheeses; even the sea salt comes from Sicily. Noto’s meatballs are wood fire–roasted, all of the pastas are homemade, and the pomodoro soup is garnished with hearth bread dumplings. The

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Bufalina pizza, a classic Margheritastyle pie with Bufalina mozzarella from Italy

Sieves crave Italian authenticity, be it in Positano or St. Peters, where Noto happens to be, so its beverage list is rife with aperitif-based cocktails and riffs on digestifs. The pizzas adhere to strict Neapolitan specs, so expect 11-inch pies to emerge from a 1,000-degree Italian-made oven in 90 seconds marked with telltale char bubbles (a.k.a. leoparding). Behind the oven is a wall of distressed planks antiqued in gray tones, striations repeated at the bar and in the Carrara-esque tabletops. Subdued smokegray wallpaper evokes a birch forest in winter, echoing the 65-seater’s wood-fired heart. The Sieves deserve props for taking a culinary leap in St. Charles County. Raise a limoncello spritz in their honor. 5105 Westwood. —GEORGE MAHE

A leading vintage Champagne from a classic grand cru site that’s super clean and lean, 100 percent chardonnay: 2011 José Dhondt Mes Vieilles Vignes, Blanc de Blancs. St. Louis Wine Market & Tasting Room, $68.

One of the best-priced grand cru wines in our market: NV Les Mesnil Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. Parker’s Table, $39.99.

A “unicorn” chardonnay with low yield from a top grand cru site: Pierre Peters Cuvée Speciale Les Chetillons Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The Wine Merchant, $149.99.

This rare and highly revered Champagne—with 65 percent pinot noir, as well as chardonnay and a bit of meunier—is fragrant, with a touch of color: 2015 Bérêche et Fils Extra Brut Rosé Campania Remensis. The Wine Merchant, $79.99.

Photography by Spencer Pernikoff

1/3/20 9:00 AM

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Betting the Ranch

A ranch dressing–themed menu gets paired with boozy slushies.

BY HOLLY FANN

W

HEN TWISTED RANCH, a ranch

dressing–themed restaurant and bar, opened its doors in Soulard in July 2015, no one could have predicted the extraordinary response. The brainchild of owners Jim Hayden and Chad Allen, Twisted Ranch was the first of its kind in the nation, incorporating ranch dressing into every dish. St. Louis diners quickly offered opinions of the concept, and their passionate responses revealed the surprising levels of adoration and disgust that people hold for America’s best-selling salad dressing.

Then came the video. In 2017, BuzzFeed posted a splashy 60-second piece featuring the restaurant, declaring it the “ranchiest place on earth.” Currently, the video has more than 37 million views and 370,000-plus comments.

Twisted Ranch became a viral sensation. Even more national recognition would follow, not only from Eater and Grub Street but also Southern Living and Rachael Ray Every Day magazine.

Twisted Ranch would also attract the attention of The Kraft Heinz Company. The new partners began selling five varieties of Twisted Ranch dressings nationwide in more than 10,000 grocery stores, as well as Walmart and Amazon.

(Look for the Jalapeño Popper flavor to appear on store shelves in early 2020.)

The Black Peppered Parmesan flavor caught the attention of People magazine, which named it Best Ranch in its Best Supermarket Products of the Year awards last year.

THE BOTTOM LINE

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in house. The creative riot of dressings runs the gamut from buttermilk-basil and roasted garlic to curry yogurt and the Kemowasabi, which pairs the sweetness of honey with the fleeting burn of wasabi.

The appetizers are the best-sellers at the Trops location. It makes perfect sense: Such items as crisp-fried Buffalo chicken wings and piping-hot Tater Tots loaded with cheddar cheese, bacon, and green onions are exactly what many patrons want after drinking candy-colored slushies. Hand-cut fries served with a flight of five sides of ranch is the best way to experiment with the myriad options. Another don’t-miss sharable: the platter of panko-fried dill pickle chips served with, well, you know.

For something more substantial, consider one of the burgers, sandwiches, or wraps. The cheeseburger—a sort of patty melt sandwiched inside a tomatoand-bacon grilled cheese and finished

Twisted Ranch continues to provide what people want, serving bar food favorites perfect for pairing with Tropical Liqueurs’ boozy slushies.

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With seating for only 45, the original Soulard restaurant quickly outgrew its original location and, in early 2018, moved into a space just a block away.

With capacity for almost three times as many diners, Twisted Ranch continued to serve not only local ranch enthusiasts but also die-hard ranch-heads who visited from all over the country.

This summer, Twiste d Ranch announced that it would be adding a second location, serving the popular ranched-up food favorites inside The Grove outpost of Tropical Liqueurs, popular for its booze-filled slushies.

The menu offered at the new takeaway–style counter is largely identical to the one at the Soulard location, though customers instead receive texts when their orders are ready. Most items are served with additional sides of some of the more than 30 different ranch flavors, all of which are scratch-prepared

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

1/3/20 9:00 AM

SECOND HELPING

Left: Five-ranch flight with fries Below: The Ranch Prince burger

Twisted Ranch 4104 Manchester (inside Tropical Liqueurs) 314-833-3450 twistedranch.com Lunch and dinner Tue–Sat

with a healthy smear of cheesy bacon ranch—is wonderfully crispy and gooey.

An even heftier option is the Ranch Prince, a ranch-seasoned burger topped with sliced Philly cheesesteak–like ribeye (with onions, peppers, mushrooms, and Provolone), plus bacon and a fried egg.

Less voluminous (but also recommended) is the fried chicken sandwich, breaded in Cool Ranch Doritos and topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and Provel.

At this point, putting ranch on a salad starts to seem almost novel, but the chef salad, loaded with smoked ham, turkey, bacon, cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and croutons, will remind you why you fell in love with the dressing in the first place.

The hardest choice is deciding which boozy (or otherwise) slushie will accompany your meal. Most of the choices, such as the Brain Freeze and Tiger Paw (a salute to Trops’ roots in Columbia), are sweet and potent, but consider the less cloying Frozé when it’s available.

Whether you visit the Twisted Ranch location in Tropical Liqueurs as a ranch devotee or you’re perplexed by its cult status, the creative bar-food favorites will have you happily dipping and dunking. And in the new year, the Grove location will roll out brunch service and serve as the testing ground for a dessert program accompanied by (can you guess?) sweetened sauces (such as lemon and caramel) with a ranch back note.

Crazy, you say?

We’ll see about that.

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2019 FINALIST

Hot Spots W H AT ’ S N E W A N D N O TA B L E THIS MONTH

Storming Crab The first Missouri location (more are on the way) of the rapidly growing Tennessee-based Cajun seafood concept seats a whopping 220 people. Diners occasionally suffer sticker shock at some of the “market” prices—until they realize that the boiled-in-bag dinners feed multiple diners. 1242 S. Kirkwood.

14156 Olive Blvd. Chesterfield, MO

314.469.1660

ADDIESTHAIHOUSE . COM

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Sunny’s Cantina We were on board when we heard that chef Andy Roesch’s take on Mexican fare includes machetes (the edible kind), Lasagna Loca (made with corn tortillas and Mexican cheese), jalapeño poppers split in half and roasted (not breaded and fried), and a burger with housemade chorizo (from the recipe of Roesch’s Honduran wife). 6655 Manchester.

Noto Italian Restaurant A successful Neapolitan pizza trailer spun off into this Italian restaurant in St. Peters. The brick-and-mortar serves 16 stellar pies, wood oven–fired meatballs, house-made pastas (including spinach ravioli), and a list of amarobased cocktails. 5105 Westwood.

Jack Nolen’s St. Louis has a new contender for best burger: the chuck/brisket/short rib smashed burger at this new corner bar and grill in Soulard. Pair it with the messy but tasty thin-cut fries. Just be sure to ask for extra napkins. 2501 S. Ninth.

Re-Voaked  You gotta love it when a fine-dining chef downshifts into something more approachable, like burgers or, in Stephan Ledbetter’s case, sandwiches. At this Central West End establishment, from Oaked and Gamlin Restaurant Group alumni, the doors open as early as 6 a.m. and stay that way until 2 a.m. on weekends. 12½ S. Euclid.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

1/3/20 9:00 AM

INS, OUTS & ALMOSTS AS OF AN EARLY-JAN. PRESS DATE

CLOSINGS

Culpeppers 300 N. Euclid, Dec. 4 Iron & Rye 4353 Manchester, Dec. 13 Maya Café 2726 Sutton, Dec. 21 Charlie Gitto’s From the Hill 15525 Olive, Dec. 23 Schneithorst’s 1600 S. Lindbergh, Dec. 24

COMING SOON

Egg @ Midtown (Michael’s Catering) 3100 Locust, early Jan. Izumi 4041 Chouteau, early Jan. Noto Italian Restaurant (J. Noto Bakery) 5105 Westwood, St. Peters, early Jan. Orzo Mediterranean Grill 11627 Olive, early Jan.

Foam 3359 S. Jefferson, Dec. 29

Storming Crab (O’Charley’s) 1242 S. Kirkwood, early Jan.

Colino’s Cafe and Bakery 5141 Wilson, Dec. 31

World’s Fair Donuts 1904 S. Vandeventer, mid-Jan.

OPENINGS

Reign Restaurant (Copia) 1122 Washington, late Jan.

Protagonist Café 1700 S. Ninth, Dec. 3 DouDou Café 6318 Clayton, Dec. 5 Little Fox (The Purple Martin) 2800 Shenandoah, Dec. 6 The Old Barn Inn Restaurant 3519 St. Albans, St. Albans, Dec. 6 Jack Nolen’s (Good Luck Bar & Grill) 2501 S. Ninth, Dec. 11 Tenderloin Room 212 N. Kingshighway, Dec. 16 1894 Cafe 201 S. 18th, Dec. 18 Re-Voaked 12½ S. Euclid, Dec. 20

Salt + Smoke (The Tavern Kitchen & Bar) 392 N. Euclid, Jan. Sunny’s Cantina (Manchester Public House) 6655 Manchester, early Feb. Beffa’s Bar and Restaurant 2700 Olive, March Diego’s (Momos Ouzaria Taverna) 630 North & South, March Mission Taco Joint (Kirkwood Station Brewing) 105 E. Jefferson, April

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in Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island and then went to the sister campus in Denver. After that, I moved on to Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, where I learned about fine dining: $96 cowboy cuts of meat and $300-per-person wine dinners. When I grew homesick for St. Louis, I came back to St. Louis and approached Tina Campieri, the coowner of Giancarlo’s, a little place I liked on Hampton, hoping to learn some of her great recipes. I got the job, but she never shared the recipes.

Eventually you ended up at Felix’s. Felix’s had shifted to more casual food, and two chef friends who worked there had moved on. I got hired, food sales increased, [owner] Steve [Kolb, now VanderKolb] trusted my talents, so he asked me what I thought the neighborhood needed, and I said pizza: let’s do pizza and beer. This was in 2010. Steve made me a partner, I wrote him a nice check, and he gave it right back to me, saying, “Spend this money in the kitchen. Do what you need to do.” That’s how we transitioned to Felix’s Pizza Pub.

A Place in the Sun

A renowned pizza chef puts a refreshing spin on Mexican cuisine.

W

E FIRST MET Andy Roesch

a decade ago, when he was creating New York–style pies at Felix’s Pizza Pub. Now the creative force behind Sunny’s Cantina, opening this month in Dogtown, the chef hopes to take Mexican food on a similarly inventive cruise. Roesch is bringing the cuisine back to the same neighborhood where, for decades, Chuy’s was the landmark cantina. —G.M.

ONLINE

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Did you go to culinary school? I was so motivated to learn more that I enrolled

Visit stlmag.com to learn more about chef Roesch, Felix’s, and Sunny’s.

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What was the first dish you recall making?

Mac and cheese. I’d melt down some Velveeta, add milk, parsley, some spices, a little crushed red pepper.

For me, shell noodles were always the way to go. I almost use that same recipe to this day. It’s the basis for my pulled pork mac and cheese.

Why did it take off so fast? We were one of the first places to successfully pull off a slice-and-a-pint program, which at the time we sold for $5.99. We always have par-baked slices on hand that get customized to order and a no-cheese option, which is becoming more popular. I also added ingredients to my dough, which no one else was doing, fresh basil and oregano, roasted garlic oil that I made, using agave as the sweetener.

And your product was different—I remember a pizza with baby back ribs on it. Felix’s had gained a reputation for its barbecue program, so we continued that, but truth be told, the baby backs weren’t selling all that well, and that pizza was a way to keep that item fresh. That was a badass pie. I eventually upped the quality level of the pizza ingredients, like using pepperoni from Volpi, fresh G&W sausage that I season in house, and Grande, an authentic Italian cheese. We serve a sixth of a pie cut from an 18-inch pizza. No square cuts.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

1/3/20 9:00 AM

HOT SEAT

“I’M NOT SURE WHY YOU DON’T SEE MANY MEXICAN GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES, BUT WE’RE DOING ONE.” Do customers ever ask for the pizza to be cut in squares? Occasionally. My pizza is meant to be cut into slices. If I cut it in squares, it doesn’t eat the same. I’m not a jerk about it; I’m just not going to do it.

Why move a successful restaurant across the street? The existing place, Latitude 26, did fine for awhile, but their sales began to lag, and ours were booming. We had a line out the door and saw our guests going elsewhere. The space across the street was three times larger, plus some people still thought of us as a small martini bar, and we wanted to attract more families. We now seat 150, including the patio, not including the slice-and-a-pint crowd that hangs out on the rail.

How do you come up with specialty pizzas?

I went through a phase of taking my favorite dinner dishes and turning them into pizzas. That’s how the Modiga pizza came about. I built a base of 60 to 80 specialty pizzas that way, all of which get rolled back out from time to time. During Lent, I use Cajun lobster cream sauce as a base and top it with nickel-size mini crab cakes.

We also bring back a lobster pesto cream cheese pizza from time to time.

Is it accurate to say that Felix’s serves a New York–style pizza? It’s a New York– style pie that I spin my way. The crust is different, for example. There are the addins, and there’s not as much flop. There’s a chewiness and an airiness, which I prefer. It’ll be the same way with the menu at Sunny’s. The basis is Mexican food, but it’s different.

What’s the most popular pizza on Felix’s menu? The Dogtown, with Volpi pepperoni, pepper bacon, and our special Italian sausage. We smoke our sausage, meatballs, chicken, bacon. That smoker is my powerhouse—it’s part of what makes our pizza so different.

Why veer into another cuisine? Why not just roll out another Felix’s? We had looked at doing exactly that, but the locations never panned out. When a building became available not far from us, on the southern edge of Dogtown, we knew we couldn’t do pizza, but we’d always wanted to bring Mexican food back to Dogtown. Remember that Felix’s is located in the old Chuy’s, which was popular for decades. My partners knew I wanted to do something new and creative, and we liked that there were literally thousands of people who work in the St. Louis Marketplace complex right across the street.

Can you describe the building? The combination of dark-gray paint, new windows, logo signage, and a sunflower-yellow steel awning will give it some pop and distinction. Inside, the predominant color is white, accented with oranges and blues. SPACE [Architecture + Design] designed it, so it’s not going to look like a fiesta gone wild in there. Think cool, not kitschy.

What was the genesis of the name? We considered Dogtown Cantina, with a kookylooking dog with a bottle of tequila as the logo, but that dingy bar association wasn’t us. Steve’s first child is named Sunny, so

why not name it Sunny’s? It has a warm, Mexican connotation. And our lime slice– with–sun rays logo is better than that dog could have ever been.

How will you approach Mexican cuisine?

I get the spice for my chorizo from my Honduran wife’s family. It’s the basis for the house burger, a pork patty topped with grilled pineapple, a little pico, avocado, and Oaxaca cheese. This chorizo is not super red, crumbly, and greasy. It’s better balanced, not as spicy, and with more true chili flavor.

Your jalapeño poppers are not standard issue, either. Not at all. First, I roast the peppers with olive oil and sugar, cool them, split them, fill them with herbed cream cheese, tomato, and bacon. I hit them with a house barbecue drizzle, and then I roast them again. The sugar makes the difference and ignites that sweet-hot fire. I make my Mexican lasagna with tortillas and a combination of two sauces, green chili mixed with a cilantro lime cumin cream.

Are there other riffs on common items? I’m not sure why you don’t see many Mexican grilled cheese sandwiches, but we’re doing one, served on Texas toast with warm salsa cream for dipping. And why has no one ever crossed over with a fajita fried rice? I love cooking Asian food, so I’m doing a fried rice with straight fajita vegetables or with protein add-ins.

How will the drink program be different?

We’ll focus on the tequila selection, obviously, complemented by some top-notch mezcals. All of the juices will be fresh, nothing from a can, so that means fresh grapefruit in the paloma. Several different simple syrups will be made fresh in house, too, so the margarita game will be solid and affordable. The house margarita is $8; no need to go top-shelf to get a proper margarita.

Will there be another Felix’s, Sunny’s, or other concept in the future? I dunno. How about a Felix’s Slice House?

February 2020 stlmag.com

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IN ST. LOUIS

E PIE GUY TH TOSS-O-RAMA

BY BILL BURGE, PAT EBY, HOLLY FANN, DAVE LOWRY, GEORGE MAHE, JARRETT MEDLIN, AND BRANDI WILLS PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAUL NORDMANN AND KEVIN A. ROBERTS

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WATCH PIE GUY PIZZA’S MITCH FROST TOSS THE PIZZA DOUGH. 1. HOLD THE LEFT PAGE DOWN. 2. HOLD THE RIGHT PAGE AT THE BOTTOM CORNER. 3. FLIP THE RIGHT PAGE BACK AND FORTH QUICKLY UNTIL YOU SEE THE ANIMATION.

HOLD DOWN HERE.

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HOLD PAGE HERE, AND FLIP.

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

Pie Guy Pizza’s Mitch Frost

WASN’T THAT FUN? NOW ON TO THE PIZZA, INCLUDING OUR TOP 10!

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

011 no.

Union Loafers

It’s a bakery, first and foremost, with an emphasis on quality ingredients. Naturally, then, the Botanical Heights hot spot has perfected its crust, which combines the delicacy and char of Neapolitan pizza with the size and texture of New York– style pizza. Union Loafers’ six varieties—from pepperoni to the pungent Foxglove cheese paired with mushrooms—are nothing short of outstanding. Don’t forget to smear a side of marinara on that crust and top it with soffritto and Grana Padano.

FAST-CASUAL FAVES

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1629 TOWER GROVE , B OTANICAL HEIGHTS

Crushed Red and ’ZZA, two locally owned fast-casual pizza-and-salad joints, have at least two things in common: inventive oblong pizzas (baked in about two minutes) and affordable prices (about $10 each).

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The Spinach Pizza at Union Loafers

The Pomodoro Fresco at Louie

WAKING UP TO PIZZA

W HER E PI E M A K E S T HE PER F EC T BR EA K FA ST

2

Those who think pizza for breakfast means popping leftover slices into the microwave should think again.

The Sunday à la carte brunch offering at Peel Wood Fired Pizza is basically a complete breakfast on a hand-tossed crust.

(The brunch buffet is a steal for an additional $8.) On weekends at Café Piazza, choose from two 11-inch crust options (try the Sicilian pan-baked) and two base sauces (sausage gravy or chili). Breakfast pizza is available daily in two sizes at Hammerstone’s. The breakfast pizza at Pi Pizzeria, a quiche-like off-menu item, may become a permanent item this winter. Imo’s got into the game a while back with its little-known but phenomenal EggCeptional Pizza, sauced with the signature Italian dressing.

Should the above pies come home as leftovers, reheat slices in a skillet and drizzle with Mike’s Hot Honey to kick up the flavor.

PRO TIP:

no.

The Fig and Squash at Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria

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03

no.

Louie

706 DE MUN, CLAYTON

You’ll swear that this oven is occasionally interrupted in its normal task of producing molten iron to turn out a pie or two. The frog-mouthed hellspout exhales temperatures that bake a pizza in less than a minute— “and I have to turn the pizza three times to keep it from burning,” says the restaurant’s pizzaiola. The Margherita’s superb. Expect magnificently blistered crusts, sweet tomatoes, and enough mozzarella to stretch from the plate to your mouth.

Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria

9568 MANCHESTER, RO CK HILL 1417 1 CLAYTON, TOWN & COUNTRY

There’s a reason the place is perpetually packed. The atmosphere lends itself to all occasions: family outings, date nights, get-togethers with friends… Katie Lee Collier has a knack for running a restaurant, from the food to the marketing, and Ted Collier’s larger-than-life paintings accentuate the modern interiors. The Giveback Tuesdays initiative has raised thousands for charities across the metro area. At the heart of it all are wood-fired pizzas with such quality ingredients as Salume Beddu pepperoni salami, pear, figs, and prawns.

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

04 no.

The U.R.B.

4501 MANCHESTER, THE GROVE

Just west of Urban Chestnut’s sprawling Bierhall, in The Grove, The U.R.B. allows patrons to sample test batches and vote for favorites. Tucked away in a back room is the pizza counter, a true gem. New York–style pizza is available by the pie or slice, loaded with everything from classic pepperoni to white mushroom and ricotta. While you’re there, try experimenting with a variety of beer-and-pizza pairings—for the sake of research, of course.

05 0 The Margherita at The U.R.B.

no.

Dewey’s Pizza

MULTIPLE LO CATIONS DEWEYSPIZZA .COM

Service is second to none at Dewey’s. The team approach—with each front-of-house staffer doing everything from taking orders to clearing dishes, refilling glasses, and dropping off the check when the kids get antsy—means you get meticulous attention, even during peak times. The cooks get in to the act, too, interacting with astonished tykes who line up to peer into the kitchen and watch the dough being tossed, the sauces (red or olive oil) being spread, the ingredients piled thick, and the piping-hot results pulled from the oven.

The Dr. Dre at Dewey’s

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A’mis Slice of New York–style cheese pizza for $3.95, 11 a.m.– 4 p.m.

East Coast Pizza Cheese slice, drink, and salad or soup for $8, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Epic Pizza & Subs Slice, salad or soup, and drink for $9.09

Farotto’s $13 for a 9-inch single-topping pizza, salad, and drink during lunch daily

Felix’s Pizza Pub A one-topping slice and Schlafly pint for $9.99

Gia’s Pizza $10 for a one-topping 14-inch pizza on Wednesdays

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no.

Beneath the Surface

DEEP DIVE

Under-the-radar spots worth seeking out

• • •

Ted Frerker at Red Guitar Bread

After a recent renovation, Blackthorn Pub & Pizza in Tower Grove South still offers all of its beloved elements: deep-dish pizza, draft beers, and a divey vibe.

RED GUITAR BREAD

When Alex Carlson purchased a storefront on a sleepy block of Cherokee in 2012, the first thing he did was build a wood-fired oven, which today turns out stunning charred pizzas. Slightly thicker than Neapolitan-style pies, each of the 10 varieties is complex, adorned with combinations of toppings that hit every part of the palate.

Consider ordering the Frank, a dynamite composition of sopressa, tomato, pickled pepper, mozzarella, and hot honey on a tender yet chewy dough with a beautiful bubbled crust. 3215 Cherokee, Benton Park.

KEVIN’S PLACE

MONTE BELLO

PLANK ROAD PIZZA

For St. Louis–style pizza served with a side of humor, stop by Kevin’s Place. Owner Kevin McGinn makes toothsome pies, crisp salads, and hot wings, delivering clever gibes and pointed barbs with most orders.

5001 Mardel, Northhampton.

Tucked away in a basement, Monte Bello has an old-school rathskeller vibe, with red-and-white–checked tablecloths and faded murals. Square pies are served on metal sheet pans, making the feel even homier. 3662 Weber, Lemay.

Located in a beautifully repurposed Victorian home in Cottleville, this rustic little joint serves Provel-free pies and local beers.

The patio’s also lovely, but inside, the atmospheric Hopper-esque paintings alone are worth the trip. 5212 Highway N, Cottleville.

PIZZERIA TIVOLI

UNCLE LEO’S

UTAH STATION

This cozy pizzeria serving Neapolitanstyle wood-fired pizzas in a bistro setting works equally well for a date or an outing with friends. Order a classic Margherita, or try a special, such as the Quattro Stagioni: mushroom, ham, anchovies, mozzarella, and green olives. On Tuesdays, buy one pizza and get a second for half-price. 5859 S. Kingshighway, Princeton Heights.

It’s one of those classic pizzerias—tiny storefront, mostly takeout, phone orders only—that are the pinnacle of the St. Louis cult of pie. The crust is as thin as a Saturday-night excuse, and there’s Provel aplenty topping the cherished family recipe. 9975 Lin Ferry, South County.

Inside a long-vacant service station on a quiet side street, vegan chef Chris Bertke turns out plant-based riffs (the Big Mak, Crack Tacos), along with a hand-tossed 12-inch pizza that can be topped with standard meats (Fontanini’s sausage and pepperoni that cups in the oven) or Bertke’s house-made vegan pepperoni and sausage, capable of converting carnivores.

1956 Utah, Benton Park.

JJ Twig’s A 9-inch double-decker pizza with a side salad is $11.49 during lunch daily

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Joanie’s Pizzeria A 9-inch pizza and salad for $9.25 during lunch on weekdays

La Pizza $7.75 lunch specials include a one-topping slice with salad and soda.

Pantera’s Pizza Lunchtime pizza buffet for $9.73; 6-inch pizza, salad bar, and drink for $8.50

Pirrone’s Pizzeria $9.99 lunch buffet; two onetopping pizzas for $26.99

Pizza Head Two slices and a soda or domestic beer from $6.95

Twin Oak Wood-Fired Pizza & BBQ Pizza and a pint for $10 on Thursdays

Vito’s in the Valley A one-topping 10-inch pie is $5 during happy hour, 2–6 p.m. daily

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

Show Me the Dough THE SKINNY • • •

The fine-dining chefs at Charred Crust take a scientific approach to pie.

Enjoy the thinnest crust in town on the sprawling patio at Farotto’s in Rock Hill, where you can catch live music on Wednesday evenings from 6–8 p.m.

Basic pizza dough is made from the same half dozen ingredients as basic bread dough: 1. Flour 2. Dry yeast 3. Warm water 4. Sugar 5. Olive oil 6. Salt

At Charred Crust, two former fine-dining chefs have stretched the concept a bit further, offering a super-light sourdough crust (including a whole-wheat option on Wednesdays). Those crusts begin with sourdough starters, which, in the bread world, traditionally carry their own names and personalities. The chef/owners created three— Samson, Sally, and Stefano—that yield crusts with uniquely sour yet fruity profiles, making the Clayton pizzeria’s offerings stand apart from the rest.

“I have to smile when I think that the basis for our restaurant started as three little blobs in Mason jars,” says co-owner James Flemming. 105 S. Meramec, Clayton.

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7 734 FORSYTH, CLAYTON

The black-and-white photos hanging on the wall are indistinguishable from those taken in an upscale Rome pizzeria; it’s that authentic. The space is sleek, cool, and crowded, with wonderful traditional pizza from a woodfired oven. The bottom scorch is splendid, just enough to lend that toasty flavor, and the crunch is exquisite. A béchamel-topped pie with roasted mushrooms and a smoky bite of garlic, washed down with a mezzo litro of wine, is a nearly unparalleled way to spend an evening.

Depending on the desired style of pizza, pizzaioli use one type of flour or, more commonly, a blend.

The Margherita and Tomato Pizzas at Pastaria

06 no.

Pastaria

The choice of flour is paramount, because it determines the final texture. A high-protein (i.e., high-gluten) bread flour produces a denser, chewier crust; all-purpose (i.e., lower-gluten) flour is harder to stretch, making it ideal for thinner, less structured crusts; and the superfine medium-gluten Italian 00 (“double-ought”) flour is what gives Neapolitan-style pizza its distinctive airy but chewy texture and signature charring.

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no.

The Emo Cover Band at Basso

Basso

ST. L OU IS

N AT IV E J UST IN BAZ DA R IC H BR I NG S P ROV E L TO N YC.

7036 CLAYTON AVENUE , RICHMOND HEIGHTS

Everything about Basso, situated in the basement of The Cheshire, is cozy. There’s the low-lit ambiance cast by gas lamps and a fireplace. There’s the drama of the staircase entrance and decorative nods to antiquity. Then there’s the flame-kissed pizza, fresh from the wood-fired oven.

It’s like an American cousin of Neapolitan, with a thin crust, a doughy perimeter, and a golden finish.

The flavors are named with humor and pop culture references (Emo Cover Band, Vampire Slayer 2.0, The McDowell), but the toppings are no joke. It’s those excellent ingredients, thoughtfully combined (butternut squash with creamy fontina, speck, and a touch of honey, for instance), that sets Basso’s pies apart. (Tip: Go at happy hour, 4–6 p.m. weeknights, for select $7 pizzas.)

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A TASTE OF STL IN NYC

A St. Louis culinary tradition has made it to The Big Apple. Speedy Romeo now serves a variety of pies topped with Provel, both in Brooklyn and on the Lower East Side. Of the three or four pies on rotation topped with the St. Louis cheese, New Yorkers’ top pick is the St. Louie, made with San Marzano tomato sauce, hot sopressata, house-made Italian sausage, Provel, Parmigiano Reggiano, and Pecorino Romano, wood-fired on Neapolitan dough. It’s served party cut and topped with pickled chilis. Owner and St. Louis native Justin Bazdarich introduced our beloved cheese product to NYC in 2012. “At first, I thought New Yorkers wouldn’t like it,” says Bazdarich, “but the St. Louie has become one of our top sellers. The flavor is so rich and delicious, New Yorkers have no choice but to like it.”

HIDDEN GEM • • •

Spinning 13-inch woodfired pies in a renovated garage behind Blues City Deli, Joey Valenza’s Melo’s Pizza is only open Thursday and Friday from 5–8:30 p.m.

At least half a dozen local food trucks have transitioned into brick-and-mortar businesses, among them Noto Pizza, which recently begat Noto Italian Restaurant in St. Peters. Coowner Wayne Sieve doesn’t claim to make a bona fide Neapolitan pizza, but his 1,000-degree wood-fired pies are as close as you’ll find locally. The pizzaiolo sources superfine 00 flour, meats, and cheeses from Italy, makes all pastas in house, throws in a beverage list of Italian wines and digestifs, and even offers popular desserts from J. Noto Bakery, the former tenant and family business of Sieve’s wife, Kendele Noto Sieve. 5105 Westwood.

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

Build Your Perfect Pie A sampling of specialty pizzas to please all

WHAT’S YOUR JAM?

SEE THE BOX ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE.

CAN'T DECIDE

EAST COAST– STYLE

ST. LOUIS– STYLE

MEAT OR VEGGIE?

PROVEL OR MOZZARELLA?

VEGGIE

LILIANA’S LOBSTER & SHRIMP

SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN

VEGGIE DELIGHT • • •

At the city's first vegetarian pizzeria, Pizzeoli, second-gen owner Kyle Weber kept the Neapolitan-style pies and added sustainably raised meats to the list.

MEAT

MOZZ

A BLEND

PIZZA A GO GO’S CANADIAN BACON

LIGHT OR LOADED?

RED OR WHITE SAUCE?

LOADED

FLAMENTCO’S MONA LISA

ONESTO’S ALL ABOUT THE VEGGIES

WHITE

RED

LIGHT

SIMPLE OR STACKED?

GUIDO’S MARGHERITA

SIMPLE

A CLASSIC COMBO OR THE KITCHEN SINK?

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LA PIZZA’S THE ROBERTO

RACANELLI’S BACON CHEESEBURGER

KITCHEN SINK

CLASSIC COMBO

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STEAK

BLUES FIRED PIZZA’S PHILLY CHEESE STEAK

A TASTE OF THE HILL • • •

SEAFOOD

STEAK OR SEAFOOD?

PW PIZZA’S SHRIMPY SHRIMPY BANG BANG

PROVEL

CLASSIC OR WITH A KICK?

In addition to the awardwinning toasted ravioli, Anthonino’s Taverna serves up hand-tossed pizzas with cured meats from nearby Volpi.

CLASSIC

SIMPLE OR STACKED?

FARACCI’S NONNA’S MEATBALL

STACKED BOMMARITO’S STL WITH PROVEL

WITH A KICK

SIMPLE FORTEL’S NESSA’S CORNED BEEF REUBEN DELUXE

BACON OR CHICKEN?

STACKED

STEFANINA’S HOT CHICKEN

CHICKEN PIRRONE’S JERRY’S SPECIAL

BACON

CAN’T DECIDE? Pizza_0220.indd 71

A handful of pizza spots offer New York–, Chicago-, and St. Louis–style pies. Pizzarelli’s Pizzeria, in Ellisville; A’mis, in Rock Hill and O’Fallon, Missouri; Bono’s in South City; and Joe’s Pizza & Pasta in Columbia, Illinois, are a few.

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T H E B E S T P I Z Z A I N S T. L O U I S

The El Monstero at Pi

A Perfect Combo Beer and pizza just go together, especially at these spots.

8

At Firecracker Pizza, in The Grove, a cicerone takes your order. With 66 beers on tap, one is sure to be a perfect match for these motley “cult pizza” combinations. The main draw at Tapped, in a Maplewood space once occupied by a pizzeria, is the pour-yourown-drinks concept, but the wood-fired oven remains, churning out Neapolitan pizzas with memorable toppings. Near South Grand, Riley’s Pub serves up St. Louis–style pizzas, crisp, piping hot, and always satisfying. (Note: On Mondays and Tuesdays, large pizzas are half-price.) At Peel, match the house beers with any of two dozen wood-fired pizza options, including Thai red curry. Cugino’s, in Florissant, serves St. Louis–style pizzas under the same roof as small-batch craft brewery Narrow Gauge, which produces around 15 seasonally inspired options. At The Sliced Pint, you can choose from a St. Louis–style crust, a hand-tossed crust, and—wait for it—the T-Rav option: a toasted ravioli filling sandwiched between hand-tossed and thin crusts that are then loaded with toppings. It’s a memorable, messy delight.

no.

Pi Pizzeria

MULTIPLE LO CATIONS PI-PIZZA .COM

A decade-plus on, marketing wizard Chris Sommers and cofounder Frank Uible have taken this local gem from darling newcomer to venerable favorite. It’s one of the rare spots that could make a Best Pizza list more than once, with two solid choices: the deep-dish cornmeal crust (not exactly Chicago-style) and the cracker-crisp thin crust (not really St. Louis–style).

no.

The Supreme at Yaquis

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09

Yaquis

2728 CHEROKEE , BENTON PARK

What sets Yaquis’ pies apart isn’t the crust, with its perfectly imperfect bubbles, valleys, and occasional blisters. Nor is it the ever-so-slightlysweet red and piquant blanca sauces that owner Francis Rodriguez has spent years perfecting. The high-quality toppings—smoked pulled barbecue chicken drizzled with K.C.-style barbecue sauce, anyone?—add to the joy. The half-price pizza bargains every Wednesday remain a draw.

But the most outrageous thing about Yaquis’ righteous pizza? “We’re not a pizzeria,” says Rodriguez. “We’re an upscale neighborhood wine bar with really good pizza.” And chardonnay pairs well with pizza.

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A slice of pepperoni at Pie Guy Pizza

PIZZA MEETS POULTRY • • •

Pair your thin-crust pizza with a piece of two of broasted chicken at Frank & Helen’s, a St. Louis institution since 1956.

10 no.

WHOLE LOTTA

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Pie Guy Pizza

4189 MANCHESTER, THE GROVE

The guy who decided to open a pizza joint in the bustling Grove that shares space with a taproom/bottleshop and stays open late could have called it No-Brainer Pizza. Instead, Mitch Frost went with a name he felt he’d earned over an 18-year pizza career: Pie Guy Pizza. The chef turns out New York–style pies with a distinctive sourdough crust until midnight during the week and 3:30 a.m. on weekends. Aficionados debate the merits (and necessity) of five dipping sauces. We say spend the extra buck for the hot honey and be done with it.

Following in the footsteps of their grandmother, the namesake of Stefanina’s, sisters Cami Flynn and Cori Breen opened Grotto Grill in a charming Flint Hill building with an enclosed porch, hardwood floors, and galvanized metal. Even the names of the specialty pizzas (Pop’s Meatza, Zoey’s Hot Wing, Bordy’s 5-Cheese Please) have significance. Grandma would be proud. 5074 Highway P.

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THE SERIOUS BUSINESS OF

THE LAWYER’S MODEST GOAL: TO BRING COMEDY ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE IT’S NEVER BEEN BEFORE

HOLLANDER’S

COMED 74

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WRITTEN BY AMANDA WOYTUS PHOTOGRAPHY BY M AT T S E I D E L

1/3/20 9:03 AM

e remembers the lights. The first time Yale Hollander stepped onstage at Helium Comedy Club, they were so bright, he couldn’t see beyond the first row. Peering into the darkness, he quickly realized that reading the audience meant listening for laughs, jeers, silence.

“I was just expecting crickets,” he admits.

On that summer night in 2016, some in the audience might have had their doubts, seeing a middle-aged lawyer in tortoise shell glasses and hot-pink chinos at an open mic night. “Sometimes I see guys who look like they’re doing a bucket list, almost: ‘My name is Steve, and I live in Ladue,’” says Tina Dybal, co-host of the Slop City podcast. That was her initial impression of Hollander. “He’s got his nice little smart glasses on. I thought, ‘That’ll be it.’”

Comedian Angela Smith remembers the first time she saw Hollander: Whose kid is his? she thought, sure he was there as a chauffeur. “He’s so official. He’s just very buttoned up. I just didn’t think he was there to do comedy that night—and then he got onstage.”

“So many people come and go in comedy,” says comedian Rafe Williams. “It’s almost like a war movie. You don’t learn someone’s name until you’ve seen him five times, because you think you’ll never see him again.”

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HOLLANDER PERFORMS AT SOPHIE’S ARTIST LOUNGE & COCKTAIL CLUB, IN GRAND CENTER.

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Before making the leap, Hollander had written 30-plus Live song “King Tut.” What he didn’t know: Martin worked pages of material, then edited it down to four minutes. blue in his club act, which was on the album. “It’s difficult He’d told his wife it was just something he wanted to to go into in mixed company, but what the heck,” Holtry—nothing would come of it, he was sure. lander jokes before recounting the setup and punchline.

Then he picked up the mic.

“We’ve kind of gotten desensitized to it these days,” he “It was just one of those things,” he says. “You either says, “but for a 10-year-old in the 1970s, that was serious.” run screaming or you end up getting sucked into it. For In the fifth grade, Hollander tried out for the school me, it was the latter.” talent show, paying homage to SNL’s “Weekend Update” When he came home after that first set, he’d already sketches by creating his own satirical news program. “All signed up for the next week. Five weeks later, he booked of the teachers were cracking up,” he says. “None of the his first paid gig. kids were cracking up, because it was just way over their But it didn’t stop there. heads.” It was his first lesson in reading an audience, he “He just kept coming around,” recalls Dybal. “This is recalls, but “that’s when I kind of knew that I had somehow good Yale is and how big of a part of the scene he thing, if I could, as a kid, make adults laugh at something is—I don’t even remember him becoming a part of it. that didn’t involve a bodily function.”

One day we met Yale, and the next day he was running Years later, while working as an attorney, Hollander five shows that were very well attended.” fine-tuned his ability to read people. DurSince 2016, Hollander’s both performed ing the first decade of his legal career, he and hosted comedy shows at a range of worked in debt collection, traveling all T H E G A S L I G H T T H E AT E R unexpected venues across the region. He’s over Missouri, sometimes working with COMEDY SERIES HOSTED on a mission to take indie comedy where hostile audiences. “I spent a lot of time in it’s never been, to give more people access the car on a lot of very, very boring rural

BY HOLLANDER, COMES to standup. He’s also aiming to provide highways,” he says. “It gives you a lot of TO THE GASLIGHT THEmore opportunities for St. Louis standtime to think about things. I’d be listening ups to practice their art. It’s said that it to the radio, riffing on current events and AT E R J A N U A RY 3 1 A N D takes 10,000 hours to master a craft. For trying to find sarcastic angles. But back M A R C H 1 3 . F O R D E TA I L S standup comics in St. Louis, there are only then, I didn’t have the time to go out, turn ABOUT THESE SHOWS so many opportunities to log those hours. it into anything.”

Typically they’re accrued a few minutes at Eventually he found an outlet through AND HOLLANDER’S writing, penning a column for the nowa time, at open mic nights at comedy clubs OTHER UPCOMING (Helium, Funny Bone, The Improv Shop, defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat: “My ediThe Laugh Lounge) and bars (The Crow’s tor finally said, ‘Your business columns are PERFORMANCES, VISIT Nest, The Crack Fox). Aspiring comedians really funny. You should just write a humor YA L E H O L L A N D E R . might prepare a five-minute set or wing column instead.’” Then he wrote for the St. WE E B LY. C O M . it, then return the next week to polish the Louis Jewish Light and the razor company material, building a solid enough set over Harry’s Five O’Clock magazine. Hollander time to perform at a club or independent show. Holmused on life as an ambitious lawyer, rising at 3:45 a.m. to lander took it further. In addition to those open mics, put in a few hours of work before eating breakfast at the he began hosting events in diners, outlet malls, cigar since-closed Layton’s. “Every now and then I drive past it bars, coffeehouses… and can see inside its vast plate-glass windows where the Every standup hopes to make it big. Fewer want to counter, the stools, the tables, chairs, and booths all remain organize the shows. Fewer still want to produce those in place—a monument to the mornings when I learned that shows beyond the typical venues. Exactly one wanted to the right breakfast can provide sustenance in both the put on a show on the Loop Trolley. For every five-minute physical and spiritual contexts,” he wrote. set you do, produce a show that gives 15 other comics His column on colonoscopies offered even more depth. the same opportunity, your five multiplied by 15. That’s “When you awaken, you will be greeted by a doctor eager the Yale Hollander effect. to show you some pictures that he or she has just taken,” Hollander wrote in an essay titled “Here’s Lookin’ in You, Kid,” which provided both serious reflection on losing his E A R LY M A T E R I A L mother to colon cancer and comedic relief about the actual Comedy always appealed to Hollander.

When he was a kid, growing up in Jefferson City, procedure. “At first glance, these pictures may look like he’d stay up on summer nights to watch Johnny Carthe inside of an abandoned mineshaft but, no. You, in fact, son and the rotating cast of standups: George Carlin, are the star of these pictures, only instead of your smiling David Brenner, Alan King, Robert Klein, a young upface, what you are looking at is the inside of your colon.” and-comer named Jerry Seinfeld.

He also gained a social media following, forming a When Hollander was in grade school, his dad bought friendship with Ted Allen, who’d just completed his run him his first comedy album, Steve Martin’s A Wild and on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and was hosting the Crazy Guy, released in 1978. His father knew that HolFood Network’s Chopped. “He told me that I should try lander liked the comic for his safe–for–Saturday Night getting into standup, because he really Continued on p. 90

1/3/20 9:04 AM

The Wake Up Call

A still from the documentary

By Jeannette Cooperman

Image courtesy of Project Wake Up

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After two friends died by suicide in college,

Alex Lindley and Danny Kerth were so

heartsick, they set out to help others.

Photography by John Smith

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Even with all the

traffic, L.A.—

lined by palm

trees and retro

signs, aglow with

endless sunshine—

manages to look

serene.

But inside the dark-paneled West

From left: Nate Townsend with Alex Lindley and Danny Kerth. Below: the friends who inspired the project, Carolyn Dolan and Ryan Candice

Hollywood restaurant, the tension’s spiking. Because their manners were hammered in years ago in Catholic boys’ schools in St. Louis, Alex Lindley and Danny Kerth are too polite to interrupt the chatty waitress, too modest to tell her they’re on their way to the first roughcut screening of a documentary they’ve been working on for five years. They steal glances at their phones; parking might be tricky, and they’ll only have the studio for two hours. Finally Kerth, who’s marginally calmer, asks for the check, and Lindley excuses himself.

For somebody in a hurry, he’s gone a long time, and when he comes back, he’s pale.

What he’s about to see isn’t just an indie doc with Hollywood shine and his name on the credits as producer. It’s a tribute to one of his best friends—and a wake-up call to the rest of the world.

Lindley once had the healthy self-absorption you’d expect from a tall, affable

Mizzou student with a ready sense of humor, a sweet disposition, and big plans for his life. Mental health wasn’t something he’d ever had to think about.

But the suicides of two friends—first Carolyn Dolan, then Ryan Candice— snapped him out of that complacency.

Awareness hit Kerth much earlier, after his father, well-known civic leader Al Kerth, died by suicide. “It was punchjab-punch,” he says. “My dad, Carolyn, Ryan. Feelings that had been repressed and not mentioned for more than a decade—” When he heard that Lindley wanted to make a documentary, he signed up fast.

That was five years ago. Now Lindley’s a lawyer at McCarthy, Leonard & Kaemmerer, and Kerth’s working where his father once did, at FleishmanHillard.

They throw any spare energy toward Project Wake Up, the nonprofit they formed to produce this doc.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts, courtesy of the Dolan family, Danny Kerth

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On the flight to L.A., they dreamed out loud, hoping to finagle a last-minute cameo by Lady Gaga or Selena Gomez for the celebrity factor. They want, above all, to pitch Netflix, noting the two years it took the company to remove the graphic suicide scene from 13 Reasons Why and the 29 percent rise in adolescent suicides the month after the show debuted. They also want to submit the doc to all the major film festivals…

Now, as we pull up to the Wilshire Screening Room, they fall silent, taut with anticipation. They did a lot of the early work on this film themselves, lining up interviews with academics, activists, and politicians. (Among them was U.S. Representative Joe Kennedy, well

before his cousin Saoirse Kennedy Hill died by suicide.) They also raised a ton of money—and then a ton more (around $525,000 at last check), because what had started as a low-budget educational film was growing into an intense, artful documentary with a nationwide sweep.

Part of the reason is Nate Townsend, a Clayton High School grad just a bit older than Kerth and Lindley. When a member of the Project Wake Up team first mentioned the documentary to Townsend, he was a little skeptical that a group of college kids could pull it off. When their initial GoFundMe raised $10,000 overnight, then sailed past $33,000, the team member called Townsend again: “Hey, dude, I really

think you should look into this.” So he and Lindley spoke by phone.

Lindley rememb ered meeting Townsend at parties he’d gone to with Candice, whose easy warmth got him invited all sorts of places. They hadn’t really talked, though, until now. “I knew he was our guy before I hung up,” Lindley says. “I had spoken with several other candidates for director, and none of them seemed to give off any vibes of ‘Hey, I empathize with your loss and really do give a shit about what you’re trying to accomplish.’ Nate did. He shared with me that he’d lost his brother Alex in a drunkdriving accident a few years prior, and I could feel the bereavement in his voice. I knew he understood why I was doing this.”

Still, Townsend had reservations.

His narrative shorts had won awards and screened internationally, but this would be his first feature-length documentary—and he’d be shooting without a script, piecing scenes as he went, tying it all together on a shoestring budget. “OK, I’ll do it,” he said finally. But, he added, this film had to go beyond telling the story of one young man.

The U.S. suicide rate has risen by 30 percent in the last two decades. Yes, it’s increasing fast for young people, with the highest number of suicide attempts among those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The rate among military veterans caught up to that of the general population in 2009— and kept rising. And according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, white males accounted for 69.67 percent of suicide deaths in 2017.

The best tribute to Candice might be telling a few more stories.

At first, Lindley was wary; he’d started Project Wake Up as a promise to his dead friend, a way to lift the stigma on college campuses so people wouldn’t hesitate to share suicidal feelings. On the other hand, Continued on p. 92

Photography by John Smith

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1/6/20 9:01 AM

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The Serious Business of Yale Hollander’s Comedy Continued from p. 77

liked my stuff on Facebook and Twitter,” Hollander says.

Around the same time, Hollander started incorporating humorous asides in his work training other attorneys to make the sessions more engaging. A couple of people suggested that he try an open mic.

“When more than one person suggests something to you, unless it’s eating healthier, I’m probably gonna try it,” he jokes.

DAD JOKES

After that first open mic at Helium, Hollander thought, “There’s something here, and this isn’t very terrifying. I’m actually pretty comfortable up here. It was kind of relaxing.”

Several months later, he tried a different approach: opening with a greeting that lasted nearly two minutes—and that was the whole bit.

“Give it up for all the comics you’ve seen tonight,” he said, taking the stage.

“Give it up for all the comics you’re gonna see tonight. Let’s give it up for your servers. They’re working hard for you tonight, yeah? All right. Let’s give it up for Terry the bartender, mixing up those drinks for you. We’ve got Helium corporate in the house. Let’s give it up for them. Let’s give it up for the people in the bathrooms right now, because there’s a PA system in the bathroom. Let’s give it up for the guy in the third stall…”

Hollander’s style has been described as storytelling, as that of a fiftysomething noticing the world around him and pointing out how ridiculous it is but still accepting of it—and self-deprecating. He jokes about his wardrobe, weight, age, his children. On Twitter, Hollander describes himself as a comedian, media gadfly, and “certified 93% funny.” While encouraging followers to support #STLComedy, his presence is a mix of bits (“Hear me out on this—a unicycle, but with TWO wheels”), observations from life as a dad

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(“If you ever want to REALLY try your patience, spend 10 minutes explaining what a bidet is to a 14 year old.”), and livetweeting Donnybrook.

At Yale and Shari Hollander’s ranch home, in Ballwin, the lawyer/comic has just finished a task uniquely suited to his background: mediating an argument between two parties, his teenage daughters, and defusing a tense situation with humor.

Has he always been funny? Shari remembers Yale carrying Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky hockey cards in his pocket during their wedding ceremony, 23 years ago, and, right before breaking the glass, yelling, “Let’s go, Blues!” (“It was during the playoffs,” Yale reasons.)

She loves that he makes the kids laugh.

Both Mia, 18, and Faith, 15, attended Yale’s trolley shows. Mia’s let it slip that she and her friends watched some of her dad’s sets on YouTube. Mia and Shari are traveling to Tampa this spring, staying on the TECO Line. “Maybe Dad can do a show there,” their daughter joked.

“Which is really funny,” Yale starts, “because there is a comedian in Tampa who made a short film about him and a friend who took a microphone and a PA system onto the inter-terminal tram at Tampa airport. They told jokes on there, just as a complete pop-up type thing.”

You can see the wheels turning.

THE SHOW ROLLS ON

Here are the “Five Stages of Reacting to the News That Yale Hollander Is Going to Stage a Standup Comedy Show on the Loop Trolley,” as told by fellow comic Chris Cyr: 1. Roll your eyes.

2. Kick yourself for not thinking of the

idea first.

3. Feel immense disappointment that you can’t perform in the show, because you’re already booked.

4. Feel a little jealous at how much publicity Hollander and his show are getting in the leadup to the event.

5. Realize how out-of-the-box your pal’s idea is and admit you’re proud of him.

Last August, Hollander announced that he was partnering with the Loop Trolley Company on a new venture called Laugh Tracks. The event was billed as a monthly standup night on the streetcar, which before closing, at the end of

December, ran on a 2-mile stretch along Delmar Boulevard.

“The trolley seats 45,” Hollander says.

“My hope was that we had no open seats.

My hope was to get 45 people. For an independent comedy show, that’s pretty decent.” The first show had 65 people, standing room only.

Outside The Pageant, the line waiting to board the trolley stretched down the block. KMOV showed up. Once aboard, a gaggle of comics performed their sets on the PA system as the trolley rolled along.

Twice during the show, when the trolley reached the end of the line, everyone had to do an about-face, and the comics and driver moved to the other end of the car.

“What I envisioned was this big sloppy show where everybody would have fun, including the comics and the driver,” he says. “It was semi-chaotic but exactly what I wanted.”

Several months later, performing at the Happiest Hour Comedy Series at Sophie’s Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club, Hollander wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the outline of the streetcar and the words “Rolling Comedy Club,” St. Louis County Executive Sam Page’s name for the trolley. It’s just been announced that the trolley only has enough cash to operate until December 29, 2019—after that, it’s looking for new management. So Hollander works the news into his act: “Who else do you know shuts down a line of mass transportation by having comedians come on?”

Although Laugh Tracks is at least temporarily suspended, Hollander is working on other venues, including the Gaslight Theater, in the old Gaslight Square district. “And I’m never going to give up the quest to bring more comedy to West County,” he says. “That’s been a bit of a challenge and will probably continue to be a bit of a challenge, but I’ll land venues where I can for as long as I can.”

Smith is also performing at Sophie’s that night. She puts it simply: “As long as the owners want us to keep doing this and comedians are getting to work out their stuff, we’ll keep doing it. Then we’ll pack up and take the circus somewhere else.”

FUNNY BUSINESS

When Hollander started pursuing comedy, many indie shows had a short shelf life, and the idea of hosting one was appealing because, he says, “My goals are very modest.” He was looking to

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build not an hour but rather a tight 15or 20-minute set. “Especially as other shows were kind of dying out, I wanted to start my own.” He pitched Zach Gzehoviak, co-founder of the Flyover Comedy Festival, the idea of a monthly show that would be half open mic, half longerform showcase at Brennan’s. He took over another at Foam that later moved to The Monocle.

“Without people like Yale, we would still only have a couple of rooms,” Smith says. “We’d have our comedy clubs, and we’d have a handful of open mics. But with Yale doing these things, I think, it inspires other comedians to run their own mics and their own showcases.”

That Hollander is running shows in non-comedy venues and areas without an abundance of standup is even more remarkable. In a non-comedy venue, Williams notes, comics perform for audiences who might not be used to comedy shows. And it’s not like a concert, where the audience can drift in and out; if you miss the setup, a punchline’s not going to land. “You’re really going to find out if the material works or not,” Williams says, “because you have so many other obstacles and challenges. I mean, you’re on the Loop Trolley on a CB radio.”

Hollander’s greatest contribution to the scene is creating stages, says Williams: “I know a lot of really good comics who’ve never run their own show, never provided one second of stage time for anybody but themselves. If we all thought that way, where would we get better? How would we improve the scene?”

Cyr chalks it up to Hollander’s maturity. When you’re older, there’s a deeper well to draw from: “You start thinking about how to create stages as well as use them. You have to have something in the pot to take something away.”

It’s that last point that resonates with Hollander. He views comedy as a passion, a “self-financing hobby” (though he’s quick to backpedal on the use of the word “hobby,” like people who play golf a couple of times a week, when there are people pursuing the sport as a career). “I kind of have guilt,” he says, then pauses as if to consider whether that’s true. “Well, yeah, I mean, I’m Jewish, I have guilt. But I feel like every time I take up a spot at a club, I’m taking an opportunity away from somebody who’s trying to make a living doing that. Kind of like replacing

a divot on a golf course, I always want to make sure that I’m creating as much, if not more, time for others as I’m taking up somewhere else. It’s not just for the comics—it’s the people who run the venues, it’s the people who come out and support the shows around town. I have such a great affinity for them that I love being able to do positive things to give them another opportunity.”

OFF THE RAILS

It’s 7 p.m. on a Friday at Back Door Comedy & Events, and Hollander is hosting a show with headliner Kenny DeForest, a Springfield, Missouri, native who’s performed on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

The first sign that the evening might get a little lawless is the man in the audience wearing a “Keep America Great” trucker hat and Canadian tuxedo. The second sign: This gentleman is holding a small white dog. The third sign is a literal sign, bearing a message of misguided self-confidence, under which the man sits: “‘Trust me, you can dance.’ —Vodka.”

It takes DeForest exactly six minutes to comment on the canine presence.

“It’s my service dog,” the man replies, trying to joke. “It gets me serviced.”

DeForest replies, in a singsong voice: “This is a verrryyyy straaaange staaaaart.” He playfully prods further: “I can’t believe you’re a free man. Is there a prison around here?”

The man, game, replies, “I’m on work release tonight!”

“Oh, good,” DeForest fires back. “That’s the kind of guy who offers you moonshine made in a bathtub.”

The crowd, small, around 10 people, is in stitches. Hollander is bent over the DJ booth in the back of the venue, laughing into the crook of his elbow. Then DeForest makes a critical error: He mentions high school. Not even high school, really, but high schoolers. Doesn’t matter. The audience picks up on it, and two women strike up a side conversation about Timberland High School.

“Welcome to my meet-and-greet,” jokes DeForest. He can hear everything the audience is saying. “We call it a comedy show, but what it really is, is a PTA meeting for Timberland High School. This is wild.”

“Michael”—DeForest calls out the club’s owner, Michael Tobin, seated near the far end of the room—“I’m having a blast.” Can Tobin get things back on track?

Tobin can’t help himself. He lobs a grenade: “You know what, Kenny? I did all the infrastructure at Timberland High School. Fiber optics...”

“Oh, shit!” DeForest exclaims. Now he’s laughing at the audience.

“I’ve never seen people get so excited about a school district,” DeForest says.

“All right, well, I’m just gonna let you guys descend into madness.”

Hollander gets back onstage to close out the show: “You guys, one more time for Kenny DeForest. One of these days, he’s going to have his own hour-long Netflix special, and dammit, we’re going to be the first 20 minutes of it.”

LAST LAUGHS

During a recent open mic night at Helium, Hollander needs little introduction. “I don’t know if we should thank him or hate him,” the host quips, “because he intended to keep that damn Loop Trolley going.”

Stepping onstage, Hollander retorts, “Murderer of mass transportation—I’ll take it.”

He continues: “It’s good to be back at Helium. It’s been a while. This is the most unique comedy club in the United States.

How many comedy clubs can you go to that have a f—ing two-story shopping mall in their attic?”

The set is a mix of new and reworked jokes, plus some tried-and-true ones. He claims that his comedy career is actually just a way to escape watching Lifetime movies and Dr. Phil with his wife at night, “or, as I like to call him, Mr. Phil,” he says.

“He’s got a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, OK? OK, technically, yeah, you can call him a doctor, but come on, his doctoral thesis—I kid you not—his doctoral thesis was Psychological Interventions of Rheumatoid Arthritis. OK, so if you’re going on Dr. Phil, the only family problem you better have is that Grandma screams every time she tries to pick up a skillet.

And yeah, I wrote that joke just so that I could use the word skillet. I have a J.D., I have a doctorate of jurisprudence. I’m a lawyer, OK? I don’t go around calling myself a doctor, OK? I mean, yes, I can fix your traffic ticket. I cannot fix your f—ed-up family.”

Four more minutes in the books.

“You guys have been a great audience.

Thank you so much. My name is Mrs. Maisel.”

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The Wake Up Call Continued from p. 81

he’d done enough research by now to get what Townsend was saying. Besides, law school had taught him the power of the caveat: The scope could expand, as long as Candice’s life and death still framed the documentary.

Townsend added a caveat of his own: “This isn’t going to be the kind of documentary that collects dust on a psychiatrist’s office shelf.” Painful as the subject was, it had to be something people wanted to watch. The characters had to be compelling; the experts couldn’t sink into dry jargon; the film itself had to be beautiful.

Lindley was nodding as he spoke.

By 2018, Project Wake Up had raised enough money (through trivia nights like the one the nonprofit will host on March 21) that Townsend was able to hire a production company, Paxeros Creative, run by two of his classmates from Loyola Marymount University’s film school.

Lindley and Kerth, who were now sharing a downtown loft and working on this project nights and weekends, could stop begging for time off to schedule shoots and haul around heavy cameras.

As a result, they haven’t seen the newest interviews, and they haven’t seen how Townsend put everything together.

That happens today.

DANNY KERTH WAS 9 WHEN HIS

father checked himself out of the hospital, had dinner with a friend, and killed himself the next day. Danny was sure something else had happened—maybe somebody killed his dad—and nobody was telling the truth. At school, he could feel this awkward hush, everybody knowing, nobody wanting to talk about it. His mom found him a therapist, which made it feel like he’d done something wrong, and he worried that his friends would think he was crazy. Today, he says, “at least kids in my shoes feel like they can talk.”

Even with therapy, Danny boxed up much of what he was feeling and stored

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it out of sight. Then, in 2012, he and Lindley were finishing their freshman year at Mizzou when their friend Carolyn Dolan killed herself. It all surged back.

Bubbly and dramatic, impulsive and fun, Dolan had a quirky sense of humor.

She’d gone to Visitation Academy before transferring to Cor Jesu Academy for high school, and Kerth, who attended Chaminade College Preparatory School, was in some of Viz’s plays.

Dolan had solemnly informed him that she’d bought him a hippo as a present.

Every time she saw him, she’d say, “Oh, I forgot your hippo!”

She said it again at Mizzou, the last time he saw her.

Lindley knew Dolan even better—she was his first girlfriend, when he was at Parkway West Middle School. “So funny and entertaining,” he says, “and beautiful. Perfect brown hair”—he puts his hands toward his shoulders, awkwardly gesturing its length. “These light-blue eyes—I don’t want to compare them to Gatorade, but they were that Glacier Freeze blue. We had a serious little sixthgrade relationship—true love, I thought.

Then she went off to Viz, and I didn’t see her till high school.”

Just as Dolan left Parkway West Middle, Ryan Candice transferred there from Chaminade. Lindley hated him on sight.

“I was the quarterback on the sixthgrade football team, and I thought I was hot shit,” Lindley explains. “First day of seventh grade, this kid came in with these Justin Bieber bangs, a puka shell necklace, and an Abercrombie T-shirt.

My first thought was, Who’s this kid?

And all the girls were saying, Who is this kid? Within a matter of days, Ryan had started going out with the girl I liked. We were archrivals. But by the end of the semester, we were fast friends.

“My favorite thing to do was make Ryan laugh,” Lindley continues. “He had this roaring belly laugh, so unique, you just wanted to bring it out. Our social life was loitering at Chesterfield Mall and then playing Halo and Xbox until the sun came up.” By eighth grade, they were so close that Candice applied to De­Smet Jesuit High School, where Lindley was heading. “The Jesuits absolutely changed him,” Lindley says. “He became a very, very good student—better than me—and he found tennis, became one of the team captains.” Candice was always

intense, took everything seriously, was harder on himself than anyone else could have been. But he was also “the social beacon. All the guys would be calling him Friday nights, saying, ‘What are we going to do?’”

Because this is a St. Louis story, the circles keep overlapping: Candice dated Dolan for a while in high school, and Lindley dated one of her good friends, so they all hung out. When they went off to Mizzou, Lindley and Candice pledged different fraternities, got close again on holidays and summers. “Ryan was open enough about his anxiety,” says Lindley. “It was never crippling or lifethreatening, but he was anxious about a lot of things: general anxiety, money, worried about using this opportunity because of the debt he was taking on…”

With friends, though, he was easygoing, warm, amused. When he pledged Pi Kappa Phi, one of the older frat brothers put him at the door of a party and told him he was to let only the cute girls in. Pretty soon, the room was packed; Candice had let everybody in.

He and Lindley took it hard when Dolan killed herself, April 29 of their freshman year. They didn’t really talk about it; didn’t know how. But on trips home, they’d bring a white rose to her grave.

Two years later, Candice was playing basketball at the rec center, and he fell hard, banged his skull. “He had vertigo after that,” Lindley says, “this really severe dizziness. I remember him not wanting to go out some nights, and me thinking, Wow, it must really be bad.”

The anxiety built. The dizziness worsened. Attempts to treat it failed. His mom, Denise Candice, remembers how one doctor “took his finger and circled his ear, like Ryan was crazy.” Nobody was talking much about concussions at the time, she says. “He’d been put on Zoloft, and he called his doctor, and didn’t hear back, so he stopped taking it.”

He stopped wanting to socialize, canceled all dreams. But he didn’t tell his friends. “After Carolyn, I was truly vigilant, with all my friends, and I still didn’t see it,” Lindley says, the frustration still clawing at him. “I’d read up. I knew the basic warning signs—someone gives their stuff away, stops eating, sleeps an excessive amount, makes amends.” He breaks off, his expression bleak. “I wasn’t prepared for hitting their head and get-

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ting vertigo that won’t go away.”

Kerth is listening, eyes down. He tugs at his white Project Wake Up wristband, printed in black, “You have to check on your strong friends.” Because the thing is, neither Candice nor Dolan was the morose sort. Just the opposite: They gave off joy. People were drawn toward them, wanted to be friends with them.

“Carolyn made everyone laugh,” says Kerth, “and everybody made Ryan laugh.”

When the vertigo increased Candice’s anxiety a hundredfold, panic and misery drenched him. On June 19, 2014—just two weeks shy of his 21st birthday—Candice couldn’t stand it any longer. He went to a hospital emergency department, said he didn’t want to live anymore. They asked if he had a plan to kill himself. He said no. They gave him an outpatient appointment.

A few hours later, he was dead.

After Dolan’s suicide, Lindley had felt dazed and numb. This time, he wasn’t paralyzed with sadness; he was furious. He was 21 years old, and he’d already given two eulogies. People had to learn how to talk about this. Candice had never even hinted that he felt suicidal. “If even someone who’s lost a dear friend feels afraid to reach out because of that f—king stigma—” Lindley said.

Blazing with purpose, he put out a call for volunteers to work on a video, something strong enough to jolt the conversation open.

Kerth saw him at Harpo’s Bar & Grill a few days later and said, “I heard what you’re doing. I’m in.”

A DOZEN PEOPLE SPREAD OUT IN

the tiered screening room, settling into buttery yellow leather chairs. Townsend, a bearded 28-year-old with a gentle voice, stands in front. The music’s not in yet, he warns; it’s being written by his friend Roberto Murguia, a composer whose reputation is skyrocketing but who “makes time.” The film has already been colored, Townsend tells us, because it has to be ready for a private screening in St. Louis in two months.

“It’s a whole science: A colorist will go in and, frame by frame, gear the contrast, the saturation, the palette, the vignette.

You can soften the focus; you can make sure the eye goes to certain places.”

His girlfriend leans over to me and whispers that she once compared the

process to an Instagram filter: “He did not like that.”

“What you’re going to see is maybe 85 percent done,” Townsend says, clearly uncomfortable. He likes to polish every frame before anybody sees a director’s cut. This time, he had to rush it—and there’s a damn reporter in the room.

He walks back, sits next to Lindley, who’s so jittery, his seat is rocking. The lights go down and the film opens hard, the actor who plays Candice frantic with anxiety. We see a tight shot of his hands, shaking uncontrollably; we see him pacing, driving erratically in the dark as headlights whiz past, steering into a hospital emergency department’s parking lot—and being turned away.

Lindley’s chair has stilled.

Gripping stats about suicide in the U.S. slide onto the screen. The stretch from Midwest to East to South to West is illustrated with string, slowly wrapped around pushpins, crisscrossing a map of the country. As the stories change, drone shots reorient us, zooming across icy Philadelphia, the Louisiana bayou, the rugged Utah mountains.

Once the filmmakers decided to broaden the doc’s scope, other narratives flowed in. Lindley was in L.A., running in Runyon Canyon, when he got a phone call from Michael Zibilich, whose only child had died by suicide a month before Dolan did. Nineteen years old, Michael Zibilich—who went by his middle name, Keller—had a sweet smile, bright eyes, and a strong, clean jaw. He loved whitewater rafting, made the National Honor Society, was elected president of his Sigma Chi pledge class at Louisiana State University. His dad remembers visiting him at LSU soon after he arrived and watching his son make his way down the sidewalk, shaking hands, hugging, joking. How did he already know so many people? Like Candice, though, Keller had an ease that hid anxiety. He pushed himself hard, expected himself to succeed in every realm. He got depressed after a rough conversation with his girlfriend.

The next day, he was dead.

His brokenhearted parents set up a suicide hotline and prevention program, the Sigma Chi Keller Zibilich Lifeline Program, and began traveling and speaking, fighting the stigma. Townsend uses a clip of Michael giving a talk at a

Sigma Chi frat house, then cuts to him speaking to a crowd 10 times that size, embraced afterward by young men he now calls his sons.

Another story focuses on Dese’Rae Stage, a suicide survivor who’s spent years photographing other survivors of every age, color, and class because “we were never even asked, ‘What did this experience mean to you? Why did you do it?’” There’s another reenactment, this one of Dese’Rae being outed as a lesbian in high school and wanting to die.

Kerth had worried about Townsend’s plan to incorporate reenactments: “I’d seen a few Netflix docs, true crime shows that used them, and it was really tacky.”

These, though, feel like scenes from a strong film, pulling us into the eye of the storm, giving us a safe way to understand the emotions that raged.

A third story, powerfully charged, focuses on one of the best treatment programs in the nation for veterans with PTSD. A fourth looks at the incredibly high rate of gun suicide in Utah, where 85 percent of firearm deaths between 2006 and 2015 were suicides. Utah is in what’s now known as the Suicide Belt— eight of the top 10 states for suicide are in the mountain West—and Republicans fierce about Second Amendment rights are pushing for gun control and gun suicide prevention.

Woven through these stories are interviews with worried mental health experts and crusaders. Tim Murphy, a psychologist and former member of Congress, calls it “unconscionable” that people are turned away from hospitals because there’s no room, or they have no insurance, or they have no plan. Would that happen if someone came in with chest pain? “Why are we still acting as if this is a problem that will just go away if we ignore it?” He gives the film its closing quote: “We can either run away in our grief and our sadness or we can say, ‘Let that be a moment that wakes up our own heart.’”

AFTER THE SCREENING, THE

group moves to a small room for a critique session. Lindley is flushed with relief: “There’s been so much fear that we would let people down, and I really don’t think we will. I could cry right now, just thinking about that.”

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Wake Up. “I want Ryan to wake up,” Lindley says. “I want the world to wake up and end the stigma. I want people to have a chance to wake up the next day.”

Kerth has notes, small tweaks, segues to smooth, ideas for the final polish. So does Lindley—including a major one that he’s afraid Townsend will balk at: There’s still not enough of Candice in the doc.

As it turns out, they resolve it easily.

They’ll pick up a sequence they used in the trailer, with one person after another identifying Candice as “my best friend.”

Nothing sums him up better.

“Oh, and Nate? You’re gonna have to cut the secret Sigma Chi handshake you revealed on camera,” Lindley adds dryly.

“What?” Townsend scribbles another note. He’s breathing easier: He showed his work before he wanted to, and what’s come back is helpful, not painful. The group heads to the rooftop bar at the Hotel Wilshire to celebrate. It’s there, as the setting sun slants through one of L.A.’s $18 cocktails, that Townsend announces that there’s been some interest from the Sundance Institute’s documentary lab. (Later, Kerth writes that Sundance might not screen the film, but they’re trying for Tribeca.)

Elation gives way to jokes and storytelling. Lindley recalls how they filmed his interview “in a giant studio that Kanye West had recorded in, an old tire factory in south Louisiana, and there was fighting in the next studio, and planes and helicopters overhead, and hot rods going by, and they were taking the Knight Rider car out of the studio…”

Kyle Krupinski, the director of photography—who’s also from St. Louis—is teased about his predilection for sheer black vintage Dior stockings, which he places over the camera lens to soften the digital sharpness. It’s a trick, he announces, drawing himself up, that was used by Steven Spielberg’s director of photography.

They laugh about how they set off four fire alarms trying for Krupinski’s hazing effect and how the crew slogged through the snow carrying huge cinema cameras, which doesn’t happen in most documentaries. “This is way better looking,” Krupinski explains. “It should feel more like a movie than a doc, where everything is kind of shaky.”

“I don’t know how many people will willingly watch a documentary about

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suicide,” says Chelsea Bo, co-founder of Paxeros, “but this is not just about suicide. It’s about the conversation about why we’re not talking about suicide.”

They debate the need for a celebrity.

Townsend’s made his peace with the difference that can make, in terms of marketing and impact. On the other hand, he says, “there is no place in our entire doc for a Selena Gomez interview.” He lists off their experts, foremost national authorities in suicide, PTSD, and grief— “and then there’s Selena Gomez? WTF is going on?”

The conversation turns serious as they remember how it felt when Townsend’s father, Tom Townsend, co-founder of the Rodgers Townsend ad agency, was shot in the face during an attempted carjacking. They’d just finished filming the first Utah segment and had been focusing all their energy on understanding why people took their own lives. Now Tom, vibrantly creative and eager to live, might not.

FOR FIVE YEARS, LINDLEY’S KEPT

a quote on his wall, something a guy asked Kerth at a bar near campus: “Do you guys actually think you’re going to make a difference?”

Yeah, they do. “I now feel like I have a responsibility to people,” Lindley says, surprised himself at the change that’s taken hold. “Like, if I recognize something, I can go ahead and ask the tough questions bluntly: ‘Are you thinking about taking your own life?’ ‘Would you mind if we went and talked to somebody?’ And if they put up a fight? ‘I care about you too much to let you be alone right now.’”

Kerth talks about all they’ve learned from the experts they interviewed. Julie Cerel, president of the American Association of Suicidology, pointed out the ripple effect: Suicide doesn’t just traumatize a small inner circle; each death affects, on average, 135 people. Psychologist Thomas Joiner, a leading authority on suicide, has identified the three key factors: a sense that you’re a burden, a sense that you don’t belong, and an ability to harm yourself. He’s also sharply corrected the notion that suicide is selfish, pointing out that people who kill themselves often believe that they’re doing those who love them a favor.

Much of the naïveté has dropped

away, Lindley adds: “At first, I thought we just need to stop stigmatizing so more people will reach out for help.

But sometimes the professionals aren’t trained properly. It can take months to get help. People can’t afford care. Mental health has a pretty big budget, but it’s spread to so many different organizations, and nobody’s working together.”

Lindley is eager to make more mental health documentaries, and he keeps needling Townsend, who’s probably lost money doing this project, to see whether he’s in. Kerth has his eyes on the Project Wake Up curriculum they want to create, training people to recognize signs, talk openly, stop the deaths.

In 2017, Project Wake Up released a short film, “Wounds,” just to show donors a little progress. It was seen 100,000 times on Facebook, and some of the donations came in foreign currencies. Many fundraisers later, they are now ready to finalize the production. If the movie makes more than it cost, the first $200,000 will go straight to Project Wake Up. Any proceeds after that will be split among Project Wake Up, Nate, and Paxeros, with a small percentage going to Krupinski so he can afford more vintage Dior sheers for his lens.

MEN IN BLACK TIE AND WOMEN IN

gowns trickle into the Saint Louis Art Museum, like glitter slowly poured from a tube. There’s a red carpet and a photographer, and bottles of Champagne are chilling, but a little instinctive dread is mixed into the festivity. Guests grab complimentary mini-packages of tissues, bracing themselves for what could be a brutal evening. Most have no way of knowing that the focus isn’t just on loss; the stars of this doc are people who are pioneering ways to prevent suicide.

The stakes are highest for Kerth and Lindley: They’re about to see the final cut shaped by that L.A. critique session.

And all their closest friends—and their parents, and their parents’ friends—will see it with them.

Once people are seated, Lindley invites Project Wake Up’s board members onstage to be applauded. Then he says quietly, “A lot of you know our story, and it’s one that is rooted in tragedy.” He describes how, after Dolan’s death, her friends “didn’t know how to deal with it. We didn’t know how to grieve.” And

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then, after Candice’s death, the resolve: “Turn the tragedies on their head. Give their deaths meaning.” He looks around the auditorium. “Every one of us knows somebody who is suffering from mental illness. I guarantee it.”

Kerth sighs as he takes the mic: “I am so sick of following this guy’s speeches.”

What he wants to convey is Project Wake Up’s future: the Ryan J. Candice Memorial Scholarship Fund at Mizzou; the curriculum that will be created for training at university and business campuses.

He hands the mic to Townsend, who urgently warns the audience not to call this a premiere on social media. It’s a private screening. Each festival wants its showing to be the premiere.

Audience members, less invested in these technicalities, nod and wait.

“Um, I didn’t really prepare anything,” he says. “Other than this movie”—which is now polished and smoothed. The bestfriend sequence is in, and it works. Violinists perform Murguia’s soundtrack, and it’s hauntingly beautiful, slowing the pace so the tangled emotions can break apart and breathe. A silence falls, the crowd’s attention fixed on the screen.

Denise Candice has been dreading this night, but as it turns out, she’s not alone in her sorrow: By the film’s end, at least half of the people in the audience have tears streaming down their faces.

“Those children were brilliant,” Denise says afterward, her tone almost fierce.

“They didn’t just talk about it; they did it. And they have made a difference.

They’ve shown me the love Ryan had from everybody—I needed to see that, as a mother.” Voice shaking, she continues: “The pain never goes away, but if he is helping other people, I’m going to realize that, instead of just being so sad that he’s not with us.”

After the screening, just as Kerth and Lindley are settling back into their everyday lives, someone leaves a post on the Project Wake Up Facebook page, wanting them to know: “A suicide survivor chose to reach out for help at a critical point in her life because she was in the audience that evening.”

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If you have thoughts of suicide, confidential help is available for free at the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Call 1-800-273-8255. The line is available 24 hours, every day.

February 2020 stlmag.com

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S T. LO U I S SAG E

HEATING UP

Why does steam rise from sidewalk cracks downtown?

S

AY IT’S A frosty morning.

You’re downtown, hurrying along the sidewalk behind Central Library, and you notice steam curling up from the cracks— not from a manhole cover, mind you, or a storm drain or grate, but rather from fissures in the concrete. What gives?

Beneath your feet, it turns out, lies part of the “steam loop,” a network of pipes more than 15 miles long that carries pressurized steam throughout downtown.

During the winter, about 71 buildings draw heat from this network: the Arch grounds, the Dome, every city-owned building, the courthouses, most big hotels.

Many of these buildings harness the steam to heat water. Busch Stadium uses it, for example, to cook the hot dogs that you devour on game day; the Tums factory, across the street, uses it to process the antacids that you may need afterward.

The city owns all the pipes, but the steam itself originates in a privately owned plant on the riverfront, just north of Laclede’s Landing. This Beaux-Arts giant of brick and stone was erected by Union Electric in 1904. It generated both steam and electricity—the same electricity that lit up the World’s Fair.

Back then, UE burned coal at the plant to produce its energy. Several ownership changes later, Ashley Energy now does the same with natural gas in what’s called

STEAM LOOP USERSHIP 130 STEAM LOOP USERS IN 1997

71 STEAM LOOP USERS IN 2019

= 5 USERS

a cogeneration facility. It works like this: The company burns natural gas to generate power, uses the waste heat to create steam, then taps the steam on its way out to make extra electricity. Ashley claims that the plant’s efficiency of more than 80 percent is the best you can do outside of solar or wind and has only improved since summer flooding afforded the chance to rebuild and perform a state-of-the-art upgrade.

The number of users has fallen, however, by about 45 percent in the past two decades. One reason: Many developers of loft buildings have found it more affordable, thanks to historic tax credits, to invest in their own boilers. As usership drops, though, rates rise for those who remain. So Alderman Jack Coatar of the Seventh Ward has introduced bills in recent years that would require or at least encourage all developers receiving municipal incentives, such as tax abatement, to commit to the steam loop.

None of the bills has made it out of committee.

Yet Ashley’s president, Mason Miller, expects a bill to pass sooner or later. He notes that the finalists for Amazon’s second headquarters—among them Austin, Nashville, and Toronto— have at least one common trait: some version of a steam loop.

Says Miller, “A lot of places we want to be like have embraced district energy.”

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Illustration by Britt Spencer

1/3/20 8:58 AM

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