SLM July 2019

THE

A-LIST AWARDS

THE BEST DINING / CULTURE / SHOPPING ENTERTAINMENT / SPORTS P.57

INCLUDING THE TEAM OF THE YEAR

JULY 2019

JULY 2019 STLMAG.COM

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GUTS & GLORIA: THE BLUES’ EPIC RUN FROM LAST PLAC E TO THE STANLEY CUP FINAL

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FEATURES

juL19

VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 7

The best barbecue-andbaseball spot? That’d be The Midwestern, steps away from Busch Stadium.

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A-List 2019

P.

The best in dining, shopping, culture, and more

Technology’s changing so fast, the legal system is trying to catch up.

By Pat Eby, Holly Fann, Dave Lowry, Ann Lemons Pollack, George Mahe, Jarrett Medlin, Melissa Meinzer, Tony Rehagen, Iain Shaw, Samantha Stevenson, Emily Wasserman, and Amanda Woytus

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Where Is the Law?

By Jeannette Cooperman

P.

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The Bookstore With a Face

The oldest, biggest, warmest indie bookstore in St. Louis celebrates half a century of relevance—with the odds stacked against it.

By Jeannette Cooperman

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D E PA R TM E N T S

VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 7

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From the Editor

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TASTE

45 Pops Aplenty

Whisk’s ice pops

G AT E WAY

46 Double-Barreled

Soulard’s newest restaurant celebrates wine

and whiskey.

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Care Package St. Louis is about to revolutionize the way it treats HIV patients.

12 HIV by the Numbers

A statistical look at the condition in St. Louis 14 Garden Variety

Three new sculptures at Citygarden 16 Turning the Page

The county executive weighs in on our

most pressing issues.

R

ELEMENTS

Material Man Accessories that stand out in a crowd

30 In-Demand Designer

Michael Drummond merges art and fashion as

he prepares for two upcoming exhibitions.

48 Prime Mover

32 Party Pics

Variety Dinner With the Stars, COCAcabana

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48 Craft Course

SLU and STLBEER partner to offer a program

that’s all about brewing.

ANGLES

A fine-dining restaurant opens in the East Loop.

50 Nonna-Approved

Less is not more at this new Italian eatery in South County.

RHYTHM

52 Hot Spots

iNDO, AO&Co, Smokee Mo’s, and more 53 Ins, Outs & Almosts

Cobalt Smoke & Sea, Craft, and other newcomers 54 Lasting Impressions

Pastaria’s former executive chef slides into the

same role at The Last Hotel.

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Best Shot

To make his new crime thriller, filmmaker Cody Stokes returned to the city that always says yes.

22 Top 10

Fair Saint Louis, Ariana Grande, The Avett

Brothers, and more 24 Comedy in the County

Yale Hollander’s mission: Bring indie shows

to the ’burbs.

25 See This Now

“Paul Gauguin: The Art of Invention”

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St. Louis Sage

104

Double Jeopardy Melissa Price and Teresa Bomkamp

38 In Search of Manhood

A St. Louis therapist says we’re making it harder

and harder for boys to figure out who they are.

42 Oh Say Can You See

A look back at 1969’s Fourth of July spectacular

on the Mississippi River

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BROUGHT TO YOU BY

VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 7

EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Jarrett Medlin Deputy Editor Amanda Woytus Staff Writer Jeannette Cooperman Dining Editor George Mahe Associate Editor Samantha Stevenson Digital Media Manager Steph Zimmerman Contributing Writers Pat Eby, Holly Fann, Ann Lemons Pollack, Dave Lowry, Melissa Meinzer, Megan Mertz, William C. Meyers, Tony Rehagen, Stefene Russell, Iain Shaw, Emily Wasserman Interns Evi Arthur, Mary Galkowski, Bailey Shelton

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.

ART & PRODUCTION Design Director Tom White Art Director Emily Cramsey Sales & Marketing Designer Monica Lazalier Production Manager Dave Brickey Staff Photographer Kevin A. Roberts Contributing Photographers & Illustrators Diane Anderson, Wesley Law, Matt Marcinkowski, Britt Spencer, Carmen Troesser Stylist Ana Dattilo Intern Nicole Haggard

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

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

ADVERTISING Sales Director Kim Moore Director of Digital Sales Chad Beck Account Executives Jill Gubin, Brian Haupt, Carrie Mayer, Liz Schaefer, Dani Toney Sales & Marketing Coordinator Elaine Hoffmann Digital Advertising Coordinator Blake Hunt Intern Gaby Lask MARKETING Director of Special Events Jawana Reid Intern Paige Blanchard CIRCULATION Circulation Manager Dede Dierkes Circulation Coordinator Teresa Foss BUSINESS Business Manager Carol Struebig

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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.

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

What’s on your A-List?

“Animal House Cat Rescue and Adoption Center. They deserve an award for helping me find my two good boys, Diego and Kyro.”

—Monica Lazalier, designer “Vicia. The menu’s not drenched in blood; its offerings are exquisite; the vibe’s rustic; the air pulses with the electricity of innovation.

This is the restaurant of St. Louis’ future.”

—Jeannette Cooperman, staff writer

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 2019 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. ©2019 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

“The patio at Felix’s Pizza. It’s a hidden gem, a great spot to enjoy a cold beer and a slice of pizza while watching a game.”

—Emily Cramsey, art director

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FROM THE EDITOR

VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 7

The Write Stuff While we’re bragging about St. Louis, it’s worth mentioning that staff writer Jeannette Cooperman was recently named Writer of the Year at the City & Regional Magazine Association Awards.

The judges lauded her “fearless reporting.”

By Design

THE LINE STRETCHING out the door said it all. Hours before

Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, customers were crowding into Arch Apparel to buy blue T-shirts emblazoned with simple, proud phrases: “Best in the West,” “Play Gloria.”

Even my father-in-law, a diehard Chicago Blackhawks fan, couldn’t help noticing the energy in St. Louis right now.

Signs of resurgence are everywhere. Cranes and crews in hard hats dot the central corridor. Developers are transforming historic buildings into modern apartments and hotels. As Evy Swoboda, The Last Hotel’s executive chef, told us (p. 54): “Out-of-town developers see the local commitments—the NGA project, City Foundry, the success of Cortex and St. Louis attracting more tech in general—which attracts their investment. They’ve seen other cities turn the corner, and I’ve been told that St. Louis is next.”

Buildings that long sat vacant now house some of the region’s hippest new restaurants. Inside a former Fox Park liquor store, Savage owner/chef Logan Ely produces some of the most imaginative dishes in the country. Bulrush exec chef Rob Connoley has transformed a bare-bones Midtown space into a modern restaurant that turns foraged foods into fine dining. Along Delmar, across from Third Degree Glass Factory, the MADE maker space is a much-needed resource for grown-up artists, designers, and entrepreneurs but also for children as it partners with The Magic House to extend the museum’s reach beyond Kirkwood.

And that’s to say nothing of our forthcoming aquarium, Forest Park’s plans, and the raceway’s revival (p. 83).

Then there are the arts. New faces are bringing fresh ideas to our most beloved institutions: Stéphane Denève at the

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Design director Tom White won CRMA’s Designer of the Year honors. “Whether it’s poster-style or modern design,” judges noted, “he proves himself as one of the best.”

Awards Season

SLM also swept the Great Plains Journalism Awards, taking honors for Magazine of the Year and Website of the Year, among other awards.

symphony, Hana Sharif at The Rep, Andrew Jorgensen at Opera Theatre, Tom Ridgely at Shakespeare Festival… St. Louis artists (Tonina, Justin Phillip Reed, Kennedy Holmes) and exhibits (Kehinde Wiley at SLAM) have received much-deserved national attention.

The prospect of a Major League Soccer team—what would be the league’s first majority women-owned franchise—has generated a new wave of excitement. “The response locally and nationally has been overwhelmingly positive,” says World Wide Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh (p. 74), part of the MLS4TheLou ownership group.

We saw the same kind of enthusiasm when we asked readers to share some of their favorite people and places for our annual A-List Readers’ Choice Awards ballot. This year, we expanded the size of the ballot to more than 150 categories and received more than 317,000 votes (almost triple last year’s tally), with more than 26,000 readers weighing in on everything from their favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Mai Lee) to their favorite actor (John Goodman).

As Goodman noted in a recent TV campaign touting all the region has to offer, we have not only the longtime favorites, but we have “more than our fair share of James Beard Award–winning chefs,” and “we’re still turning out some of music’s best every night at legendary music halls all over town.”

St. Louisans have known all this.

Now the rest of the nation is beginning to find out.

Follow Along @stlmag @stlmag @stlouismag

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CARE PACKAGE TOPIC

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St. Louis is about to revolutionize the way it treats HIV patients.

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

TAWNYA BROWN HASN’T been to a funeral in a

while. It’s a powerful statement for the VP of operations at Saint Louis Effort for AIDS, who began her career in 1997. Back then, an HIV diagnosis meant taking handfuls of pills multiple times a day with unpleasant side effects.

And Brown was attending funerals regularly.

Now, most HIV patients take one pill daily, and those who are diagnosed early and stay in care live into their seventies. But Brown’s work isn’t over. Soon, to more fully address patients’ needs, EFA will change how it cares for people. This new HIV Medical Home model is the only one like it in the state.

Photography by Matt Marcinkowski

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G AT E WAY

TOPIC A

The wraparound services are important, Brown says, because many HIV patients aren’t only thinking about how to get access to a doctor for treatment: “Many of us have never had a time where we didn’t have access to transportation, to a doctor, to food in the house, to a stable home—most of us have never had to think about those things and then deal with a disease. A lot of people with HIV are thinking about those things all the time and have to deal with a disease.” To access services, many patients have to go to multiple places, using up what little resources they have in the process. With this new model, plus a combination of routine-based testing and a regimen of PrEP, a medication that lowers the chance of infection in those at risk for exposure, Brown envisions a About 6,200 people in St. Louis future in which all people living live with HIV, but just 54 percent with HIV in St. Louis achieve an are receiving medical care. “What’s undetectable viral load—meaning Good Script evident in the data over the last 20 that they can’t transmit the virus.

Live near EFA, at 2653 years is that HIV has a disproporMitchell Ballesteros-Lynch, Locust? Use its on-site tionate impact on people with low a patient, compares EFA’s ease pharmacy to fill a prescription, and the funds access to socioeconomic resources, of access to urgent care. “They feed directly into its and what then overlies that popwork alongside you, and as much care program. ulation is inconsistent or lack of effort as you’re going to put into access to health care,” Brown says. it, they’re going to match that,” EFA already offers free HIV and STI testing he says. “They’re going to do everything they four days a week, plus 20 case managers, seven can to keep you moving forward.” He has a comexam rooms, and an onsite lab. Brown leads a munity nurse, health coach, and case manager. tour of the sunny building on Locust, her tone He can text one a question, and by the time he’s light as she shows off the condom supply room taking a break at work, he has a response. (“Every size, flavor, and color”) and more seriOne thing that still surprises Brown is when ous when she explains the wraparound services she encounters people who don’t know that this that will soon be rolled out. A mental health system of care exists, which would be essential suite, dental office, and food pantry will open, to getting every HIV patient in St. Louis to an allowing EFA to address not only a patient’s undetectable viral load. most direct medical needs but also factors “Leave aside that we’re about to transform that make it difficult for someone to live with HIV care in the St. Louis region because of this HIV. Most people with the disease whom Brown model,” she says. “They don’t know that there’s a serves don’t have access to dental insurance, system at all. We’re decades into this and we still which is important because there are connechaven’t done a good enough job of letting people tions between oral health and overall health— know that there’s support, that you don’t have to and HIV can have manifestations in a patient’s be scared? There’s more work to do.” mouth. And food? Another basic that patients sometimes don’t have.

Mitchell BallesterosLynch (left) and Tawnya Brown

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HIV STATS

6,230 P EO PL E L I V I N G W I T H H I V I N T H E S T. LO UI S H I V C A R E R EG I O N

SEX

5,121 / Men 1,109 / Women

AGE

3,595 / 45-plus 2,327 / 25 - 44 292 / 13 - 24 16 / Unknown

RACE

3,505 / Black/African American 2,426 / White 176 / Hispanic 123 / Unknown

TRANSMISSION

4,008 / Male-to-male intercourse 1,048 / Heterosexual contact 963 / Unknown 211 / Injection drug use ACCORDING TO THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & SENIOR SERVICES

Photography by Matt Marcinkowski

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G AT E WAY

WARNING: GRAPHIC

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

Garden Variety

THIS SUMMER, CITYGARDEN —the downtown park chock-full of

sculpture, green life, and fountains—celebrates its 10th anniversary, and marking the occasion are three new sculptures.

The only catch: You’ll have to swing by before fall to get a peek at two of them. First up is Unzip the Earth, by Canadian artist Floyd Elzinga, a here-until-autumn large-scale model of a zipper. Next is the permanent addition (the first in eight years) of Love vs Money, by Los Angeles artist Kaï, and finally there’s another temporary sculpture, moonrise. east. may, by New York’s Ugo Rondinone, that will depart in the fall. Below, exactly where to find each, plus more about the new works of art.

801 Market, citygardenstl.org.

Three new Citygarden sculptures not to be missed

EXISTING SCULPTURES

1. Four Rectangles Oblique

2. Kiera and Julian Walking

7. La Rivière

8. Kindly Geppetto

4. Eros Bendato

21. Scarecrow

15. Voyage

10. Bird

16. The Door of Return

11. Night

5. 2 Arcs x 4

20. Zenit

14. Lifestyle

9. Femmes au Perroquet

3. Tai Chi Single Whip

19. Bruce and Sara Walking

13. Big White Gloves, Big Four Wheels

22. Big Suit

23. Dance Chimes

17. Untitled (Two Rabbits)

12. Aesop’s Fables

“moonrise. east. may” There are 12 figures in the moonrise. east. series, which depicts a masked goofball whose varying expressions are each meant to symbolize a different month.

St. Louis will receive moonrise. east. may, one of three editions, made of cast aluminum and brown enamel. Just try not to smile at this one.

18. Untitled (Ringed Figure)

6. Samarkand

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“Unzip the Earth” If you were to peel away the top layer of Citygarden, what would you find? This playful installation mimics a giant zipper, its stainless steel body frozen among two rows of brick teeth, revealing the dirt below.

“Love vs Money” Meet IF—short for Imaginary Friend—a 15-foot-tall fiberglassand-metal cartoon-like figure seemingly being pulled in two directions by a heart-shaped balloon and a bag of money.

Fittingly, Love vs Money will lift off from the roof of the Kaldi’s in Citygarden. It’s the first permanent piece to be installed in the garden since 2011, when Big Suit went in.

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FYI Citygarden’s 10th-anniversary party, with DJ Nune, kicks off at 11 a.m. July 1.

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Illustration courtesy of Bliss Collaborative, LLC

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Gus

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G AT E WAY

INSIDE INFO

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

we should be much more transparent in how our government works. We get a lot of requests for information, and the last administration worked hard to push back and suppress those requests. They’re relatively routine and harmless, and there’s little that goes on in county government that we shouldn’t be willing to share.

ON THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC: I think we could

do a lot more working with our providers, hospitals, and community groups, and we need to make sure that we have enough substance-abuse-treatment opportunities for the people who need them. If you don’t redirect someone into treatment when they’ve recovered from an overdose, you’ve missed an opportunity.

ON THE COUNTY’S BIGGEST PROBLEM: Racial

Turning the Page The county executive weighs in on our most pressing issues.

St. Louis County Executive Sam Page has only been on the job for a little while, but already he’s building trust. He persuaded State Auditor Nicole Galloway to audit the county government and St. Louis Economic Development Partnership after former County Exec Steve Stenger pled guilty in a pay-to-play scheme. He promoted Hazel Erby, the county councilwoman who voted against his nomination to county executive, to serve in his administration as director of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And he’s working to make his interim term count. “I’m here for a year and a half before I’m up for re-election,” he says. “I feel a lot of urgency to accomplish things quickly.

There’s a lot of things I want to do.”

ON THE PARALLELS OF HIS JOB AS AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST AND GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: Public service is like being a doctor—you just take care of large

groups of people instead of one person at a time. The concept of sorting out complicated issues and trying to make sure government works for people, it’s the same process. As far as anesthesiology goes, it’s fast-paced, intense, high stakes. Usually it goes smoothly, but sometimes you’re involved in emergencies that are not ideal, and that requires you to keep your cool.

ON RESTORING TRUST: I have to empower the employees to feel comfortable

segregation is really the root of a lot of our issues: poverty, education, crime…

It all goes back to, there are certain segments in the county where kids grow up, and they just don’t have the same opportunities for health care, for a good education, for a job when they graduate from high school. That’s just not right. County government has a big role to play in trying to make sure we put our resources in the places that make a difference. We should really be using our authority as the largest political organization in this region to be leading this conversation.

ON BETTER TOGETHER’S NOW-TABLED CITYCOUNTY MERGER PLAN: The proposal that

was brought forward had so many flaws, it’s easy to see why it didn’t take off. But the underlying issue that it was trying to address is racial segregation and disparities, and we need to keep that conversation going. What we see now is that a lot of our leaders in the municipalities in St. Louis County are more engaged.

They saw what looked like an assault on their ability to run their municipalities on sovereignty. And they’re pretty motivated, and they’re talking to each other and working together in ways that they haven’t in a while.

in making decisions without any fear that they may not please someone; if they have good ideas, I want to hear their good ideas. And I think that

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Photography by Elizabeth Wiseman

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2019 FINALIST

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AG E N DA p.22 C O M E DY I N THE COUNTY p.24 SEE THIS NOW p.25

RHYTHM

PRELUDE

BEST SHOT

To make his new crime thriller, filmmaker Cody Stokes returned to the city that always says yes.

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

Photography by Matt Marcinkowski

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RHYTHM PRELUDE

SCENE AROUND TOWN

St. Louis spots in The Ghost Who Walks

From left: Stokes and actor Garland Scott

J

UST AS WRITER/DIRECTOR Cody Stokes’

career began to take off in New York City—meaning that he was traveling a lot—his first child was born. The St. Louis native began thinking about what it means to be gone and miss things back home, from his, his wife’s, and his child’s perspectives. He knew he wanted to make a film about it. But rather than create a simple kitchen sink drama about fatherhood, he set it in a world beyond, made it exciting, turned it into a crime thriller. “I wanted people to feel like they’re going to watch some sort of Liam Neeson movie but by the end be completely moved,” Stokes says. And he shot it in St. Louis, having moved back home with his family. The Ghost Who Walks screens as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase later this month.

In the movie, Nolan (Garland Scott), having spent five years in prison, wins back his freedom by ratting out his former boss (Gil Darnell). Now, before his betrayal catches up with him, he must find his ex, Lena (Alexia Rasmussen), and the daughter he’s never met and try to move them to a safe location. The film is gritty and dark, the dialogue pared down, the result ambitious.

Stokes says the feature, shot across St. Louis, “100 percent could not have been made anywhere else.” The scale would have been too costly in New York or Los Angeles, but in St. Louis, he was able FYI The St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase runs July 12–21. cinemastlouis.org.

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to find visually rich locations whose owners were interested in helping him.

One source of support: The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, which granted Stokes access to the old city jail. For the car chase scenes, he was able, through permits, to shut down multiple blocks, unheard of in New York or L.A. “Here, we might not have the infrastructure that some of the bigger cities have,” Stokes says, “but we have a willingness to take a chance on things.

“The city pulled back the curtain for us and allowed us to explore and see things that make the world of the film come to life,” he adds.

It’s not the first time the city has opened itself up to Stokes’ vision. When he was 16, he made a crime caper called The Mix-Up. “If I wanted a location, I would just go there in a suit with an empty briefcase. I’d set my briefcase down and say, ‘I need to talk to the manager.’” He got access.

Working on that early project, Stokes remembers hearing about the Filmmakers Showcase in which he’s now screening The Ghost Who Walks and thinking, “How do I get those guys to watch something from me?”

“I think the showcase proves to the people of our city the potential we all have to create something,” Stokes says. “This is not something exclusive to the coast or to really big cities. This can be just as valuable and just as good made here by us.”

Brennan’s If you’ve been to this favorite in the Central West End, you know it’s a classy joint. Not so in The Ghost Who Walks, Stokes says. The fil maker—who used to work there—transformed it for a big chase scene, which ran throughout the co-working space, through the bar, and out the back door.

Bastille Another setting for the big chase scene was this Soulard LGBTQ bar.

Peyton Keene, the wellliked Bastille bartender who was tragically shot and killed shortly after, makes a brief appearance in the film Huffords Jewelry Getting the shot where Nolan reunites with Lena, at a jewelry store, was a huge challenge for security reasons. Game to help Stokes and crew was Hu ords Jewelry in Frontenac. President Dan Hu ord was so enthusiastic about shooting the scene at his store that Stokes later gave him a part in the movie.

Patrick’s Dogtown Liquors One of the shots at the very beginning of the film sees Patrick’s transformed into a corner bodega inspired

by Stokes’ time in New York City. “I know everyone who’s younger and lives in the area will see the film and say, ‘Oh, Patrick’s, awesome,’” Stokes says.

Photography courtesy of Coolfire Studios

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Jul

4

10 THINGS TO DO

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

1

A tribute to Bastille Day, Let Them Eat Art is not exactly as it sounds. There will be art—live demonstrations, musical performances, kids’ activities—and plenty of food and drink on hand, so please, don’t consume any masterpieces. July 12.

Maplewood, cityof maplewood.com.

2

Catch Black Panther (July 12), Anchorman (July 19), or Ocean’s 8 (July 26) during the 10th-anniversary edition of the Art Hill Film Series—with the stars overhead, the Grand Basin at

your feet, and 100 or so of your fellow St. Louisans at your side. July 12–August 2. Art Hill, Forest Park, slam.org.

3

In 1929, Anne and Charles Lindbergh were given Alfredo Ramos Martínez’s painting Flores Mexicanas as a wedding gift. It hasn’t been seen in decades.

Now, with more of the couples’ treasures, it will be shown in “Flores Mexicanas: A Lindbergh Love Story,” an in-depth look at the lives of the pioneers of aviation. Through September 2. Missouri History Museum, mohistory.org.

For folk music that’s melancholic, intimate (see “No Hard Feelings”), and perhaps even cinematic (see “Sun, Flood, or Drought,” created for the documentary The Biggest Little Farm), don’t miss The Avett Brothers early on their summer tour.

July 12 & 13. The Fox, fabulousfox.com.

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Beck first joined Cage the Elephant on the band’s Social Cues album, creating “Night Running.”

(Of the album, NPR says, “Loss comes across in many different colors.”) Now see both on The Night Running Tour. July 30. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, live nation.com.

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Fifty years ago, Apollo 11’s lunar module landed on the moon as Americans watched on TV. But what did it take to get there? Ask an expert at Sci Fest’s 50th-anniversary commemoration. July 20. Saint Louis Science Center, slsc.org.

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St. Louisans flock to Fair Saint Louis to see big names and bigger fireworks. The 2019 lineup—Brett Young (July 4), Keith Sweat (July 5), and The Flaming Lips (July 6)—means this year’s celebration is no exception. July 4–6. Gateway Arch National Park, fair saintlouis.org.

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The band’s fourth studio album, Living Mirage, is said to be a rebirth for The Head and The Heart, because band members have both left and returned.

With the renaissance comes a musical pivot: This album feels more pop for the folk-rock group.

July 7. Stifel Theatre, stifeltheatre.com.

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Promoting its ninth album, Thank You for Today—which Rolling Stone calls a “rejuvenated” version of the group—Death Cab for Cutie is on tour and doesn’t seem to be running out of steam. But don’t worry; the material’s not all new: The band will still perform “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” July 8.

Stifel Theatre, stifel theatre.com.

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Ariana Grande, who rescheduled her original St. Louis date so she could headline Coachella, has been said to turn an arena into “a curvy, spaceage nightclub,” as Vanity Fair wrote of an earlier stop on the Sweetener World Tour. We’re in. July 6. Enterprise Center, enterprisecenter.com.

Photography by John Frey, courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum

5/30/19 4:00 PM

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S T UQD&I O RHYTHM A

MORE LAUGHS

Meet the acts at this month’s Clayton Comedy Series

COMEDY IN THE COUNTY Yale Hollander’s mission: Bring indie shows to the ’burbs.

BY AMANDA WOYTUS

I

N THE CITY, clubs and bars such as The

Crack Fox, downtown on Olive Street; the Heavy Anchor, in Bevo; and the Improv Shop, The Monocle, and Handlebar, near the Grove, offer local independent comedy. Clubs in the county? Less numerous, but there are ones like Helium, The Funny Bone, and The Laugh Lounge, which attract big names. “And that’s great,” begins local comedian Yale Hollander. “But for people who don’t necessarily want to plunk down $25 plus a two-drink minimum, there are a lot of experienced local comics...but most of the shows are at clubs and bars in the city.” It’s a problem, he says, for people in the county, especially West County, who’d like to take in a local show closer to home.

“Trying for a couple of years to get some of my West County friends and family to come out to these shows I’ve been running or performing on, everybody says, ‘Hey, it’s on a Thursday night at 9:30. I’m not leaving Creve Coeur,’” he says.

Hollander—who hosts Jokes & Spokes at the Bike Stop Café in Chesterfield and produces podcasts

with comedian Chris Cyr on Impolite Company—is on a mission to inject more local comedy into the county scene and other areas he sees as underserved. The area he wanted to tackle: Clayton. When he found the Kingside Diner, he knew he was onto something. Enter his new monthly gig, the Clayton Comedy Series at Kingside After Dark.

Each month, Hollander will host an installment of the series, starring three local comics: one headliner, one featured comic, and one special guest.

For July 5, that’s JC Sibala, Kate Barton, and Doug Morris, respectively. It’s a boon not only to people who might not have close-to-home local acts but also to the comedians. There are only so many shows, and national headliners usually bring in their own opening acts. “If I can have a Friday- or Saturday-night show and get anywhere from four to eight comics a little more work, a little more money,” Hollander says, “then I feel like I’m doing a service to our local community.”

FYI The Clayton Comedy Series gets going at 9 p.m. July 5 at Kingside After Dark.

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JC Sibala Sibala says his favorite jokes are the ones “fl ing at two altitudes”: “For someone who is not an intellectual, they might appreciate it because there’s enough lowbrow in there that it’s still working for them, but there’s also another layer on top of it that is fairly highbrow.” Sibala, who talks a lot about growing up in a mixed-race Midwestern family and being a single father, performs at Helium and The Funny Bone, too.

Kate Barton Barton, who’s been doing comedy for just over a year, tends to talk about dating and having a child. “I have a set where I talk about my son going through the Oedipus complex,” she says. “I have to deal with that carefully. I don’t want him lowering his standards just because we’re related.” You can also see Barton at The Heavy Anchor, Helium, and The Crack Fox. Doug Morris You may have caught Morris at a show at Helium or hosting his own showcase, The Dark Roast, at 222 Artisan Bakery in Edwardsville.

He describes his set as somewhat observational, stories from a narrator who, he says, “you know is unreliable”: “My style is basically me saying things in a youthful but also cantankerous way.”

Photography courtesy of Yale Hollander

5/30/19 4:01 PM

COURAGE AND SACRIFICE HAVE A HISTORY.

See This Now “ PAU L G AU G U I N : THE ART OF INVENTION”

“Man leaves job to pursue other, more meaningful interests” is a theme that’s very of the moment, but rarely does it effect a monumental change.

Not so in the 19th century. That’s when—in 1882, to be precise—the French stock market crashed and Paul Gauguin, the not-yet-famous painter, printmaker, and sculptor, lost his job as a broker and decided to make art. It wasn’t as much a snap decision as it might seem: Gauguin, who would go on to influence Picasso, form a creative (if volatile) relationship with van Gogh, and help usher in the era of modern art, was a collector of paintings by Cézanne, Manet, Monet, and Pissarro. Post-employment, he set sail, and from locations including Brittany, Martinique, and Tahiti, the bohemian Gauguin created. A new exhibit at the Saint Louis Art Museum, “Paul Gauguin: The Art of Invention,” opening July 21, looks at these travels by way of paintings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, and writings by the maverick artist, most on loan from Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek.

Sorted into six themes, the exhibit showcases not only Impressionist works including Woman Sewing and Tahitian Woman With a Flower but also the run-up to abstraction. “In terms of the wider narrative of the rise of modern art, Gauguin’s largest contribution is looking forward to abstraction, one of the great narratives of 20th-century art,” says curator Simon Kelly.

“Gauguin’s work from the mid-1890s onward really anticipates that.” —A.W.

Downtown St. Louis • Open daily: 10am–5pm Free admission • mohistory.org/SoldiersMemorial

FYI “ Paul Gauguin: The Art of Invention” opens July 21 at the Saint Louis Art Museum. slam.org.

Paul Gauguin; “Landscape from Tahiti”, c. 1893

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5/30/19 4:01 PM

IN-DEMAND DESIGNER p.30 MINGLE p.32

ELEMENTS

BAG

Derek leather shoulder bag, $265. Sole Survivor.

TRENDING

Material Man

Accessories that stand out in a crowd

BY ANA DATTILO

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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July 2019 stlmag.com

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ELEMENTS TRENDING

2

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1

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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1. 1901 McLaren floral cotton tie, $39.50. Nordstrom. 2. Ted Baker London geometric socks, $16. Nordstrom. 3. Ted Baker London Holyhok stripe socks, $16.

Nordstrom. 4. Domino necktie in blush, $62. Lonesome Traveler.

5. 1901 Novis floral cotton tie, $39.50. Nordstrom. 6. Ted Baker London Redpop chevron socks, $16.

Nordstrom. 7. Southwest Sunrise necktie, $62. Lonesome Traveler.

8. Ted Baker London starry night socks, $16. Nordstrom. —A.D.

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5/30/19 4:02 PM

ELEMENTS

SHOP TALK

F

ASHION DESIGNER MICHAEL

Drummond’s been busy this year. In March, he was selected as one of eight residents of the Saint Louis Fashion Fund’s new Fashion Lab program. A few weeks later, Drummond and fellow Project Runway alum Laura Kathleen Baker co-chaired the inaugural “Threads: History Never Looked So Haute,” bringing together other former Project Runway stars and local college students to reimagine textiles from the Missouri Historical Society’s collection. —MEGAN MERTZ See Drummond’s designs at michael drummond.net.

What are you working on now? I’m curating an exhibit with The Sheldon Art Galleries that will be opening in October. I have my first solo exhibition at the World Chess Hall of Fame that same month, called “Being Played.” It ties in chess, and I’m working with the ideas of climate change and fashion and community. So, I’m very busy with all those things—and I just bought a house! I’m restoring it, and I feel like I’m losing my mind.

Are you still creating your own line? Artbased fashion—creating conceptual fashion that hopefully communicates ideas or causes you to think about various subjects—is my direction these days. I still have the line, but it’s very low-impact.

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world. The people who love to get dressed are my people, but I think it’s exciting to also be conscientious. It’s great to open your closet and see things you’ve owned for 15 years and still think, “God, this is my favorite thing!” Those are the pieces I try to create—the little soldiers in your closet.

In-Demand Designer Michael Drummond merges art and fashion as he prepares for two upcoming exhibitions.

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Why do you love fashion? I’ve always found fashion to be really exciting. Even for the person who says they don’t care, that’s just not true. You have to put on clothes.

Even the couch potato is expressing their tribe. Whether you like it or not, fashion is one of the first forms of communication we have with each other.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

5/30/19 4:02 PM

2019 FINALIST

July 2019 stlmag.com

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ELEMENTS MINGLE

Steve and Kelly Gross

Miran Halen, Peter LeBlanc Jr., Jasmine Huda

Nicole and Marc Schapman Laura and Spencer Koch

Lucy Erker, David Porter, Carol Imo

Michael Slawin, Jim Kemp

Robin and Clarence Nixon

Katie and Doug Ackerman

SPOTLIGHT

Ryan Tusek, Shannon Bagley, Kelly and Brent Layton

Variety Dinner with the Stars

Laura and Jonathan Jones

EACH YEAR, this black-tie gala taps a big-name entertainer, and

2019 was no exception. On April 13, guests enjoyed the music stylings of Sting. The performance by the 17-time Grammy winner and former Police frontman raised funds for Variety Kids, which “helps children with physical and developmental disabilities reach their full potential.”

Brian Roy Variety St. Louis, executive director “This evening is about our promise to support the kids and the power of their ability.”

Jay Hartman, Lindsay McClure-Hartman

COCAcabana 2019 ON APRIL 26, more than 650 bus-

iness and community members gathered at COCA for cocktails, dinner, auctions, and performances. Themed “Upside Down,” the event benefited the arts organization’s efforts to “provide arts programming at no cost in low-income schools and offer scholarships for students to participate in COCA programs.”

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David and Aisling Leonard, Ken Stückenschneider

Photography by Diane Anderson

5/30/19 4:05 PM

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5/30/19 4:05 PM

2019 FINALIST

2019 WINNER

2019 WINNER

STLMag_StCharles_July_19.pdf

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IN SEARCH OF MANHOOD P. 3 8 O H S AY C A N YO U S E E P. 4 2

ANGLES

Q&A

MELISSA PRICE & TERESA BOMKAMP Double Jeopardy

BY JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

Photography by Wesley Law

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ANGLES Q&A

T

HEIR PARENTS RAN a Playboy Club in Sunset Hills. They were

Team Fredbird cheerleaders, dancing in the Cardinal dugout.

Then they danced with Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas—and now both are prosecutors for St. Louis County, debunking illusions of impunity. Melissa Price and Teresa Bomkamp are identical twins, equally sharp and sassy, though Price says she’s funnier and more emotional.

“She’s definitely more emotional,” says Bomkamp. They handle some of the most wrenching, least fathomable cases out there—horrific murders and child or sexual abuse cases—yet neither can imagine doing anything else. Price married in 2001 and divorced in 2015; Bomkamp married in 2002 and divorced in 2016. They mother each other’s kids, and Price donated the egg for Bomkamp’s first son.

You’ve got to be sick of this question, but what’s it like?

TB: I can’t imagine not being a twin. I feel bad for people who aren’t. We have a bond that even we can’t explain.

MP: It’s given me bravery where I wouldn’t have had it.

Your parents co-owned one of the last Playboy clubs. Did you have to do a lot of explaining?

TB: It was totally normal for us. We would go to the club on weekends, work the coatroom to make tips, then stay for dinner.

MP: The other day, one of my daughters said, “What’s a Playboy Club?” I was shocked she didn’t know. Sometimes people confused the club with nudity.

There was none. Or people thought of women being exploited, but I grew up seeing women as strong and beautiful and powerful and in control.

TB: Their club closed when we were 16, and our brother had his accident right around then. A traumatic brain injury.

MP: He was a drug addict. We were never supposed to know, growing up, but we always did. He’d actually just gotten clean a few months before the crash…

That experience eventually steered you toward law, but your first career goal was dance?

MP: As kids, we were in a very disciplined ballet company. I think my parents wanted to protect us from our brother’s world.

TB: We graduated from Parkway North then went to Mizzou for two years. We partied and gained the requisite 25 pounds—but no drugs.

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“WE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN TUNE... MAYBE THAT’S WHY IT’S NOT EASY BEING MARRIED TO US.”

MP: I think we both felt like we had to make up for my brother.

Then Vegas. What kind of dancing did you do with Siegfried and Roy? TB: Big production numbers, and we were involved in some of the illusions.

MP: Hands-on with the white tigers. Obviously, this was before the accident.

TB: We were not used as twins in the illusions, though.

MP: It was real magic.

Who brought up law school first?

MP: It’s always this weird Oprah thing: I don’t even know. We have always been in tune. [She waits a beat.] Maybe that’s why it’s not easy being married to us.

You divorced first. Teresa, did that make you think, “Hey, I’m not happy either”?

TB: My ex thinks so! But no, it was totally different. And we both have amicable relationships with our exes.

MP: Mine was great when I did the egg donation. A lot of men might have minded.

You’ve prosecuted a man who injected his two young sons with heroin; another who strangled his son’s girlfriend. How do you account for the cruelty in the world?

TB: Are people born wicked? I don’t know.

Sometimes victims will bring up the why, and I say, “Don’t. Don’t try to get in that person’s mind.”

Why choose such a rough area of practice?

MP: I have the honor of walking people through the storm, and I see people with strength I never knew was possible.

TB: Including kids.

What do you do to avoid burnout?

MP: Not enough.

TB: Plenty of people did burn out. A defense attorney said to me, “If I handled these cases every day like you do, I’d jump out a window.”

At stlmag.com: The cases that haunt them, the miracle of kids, the loneliness of the job.

Photography by Wesley Law

5/30/19 8:57 AM

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ANGLES NOTEBOOK

BY JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

A

IN SEARCH OF MANHOOD A St. Louis therapist says we’re making it harder and harder for boys to figure out who they are.

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LITTLE NERVOUS HIMSELF,

the therapist hurries me past the waiting clients and into his office. Clayton Lessor has written two books and worked with 2,000 adolescent boys, developing a 10-week program, Quest, that helps them recover the wisdom our society’s forgotten. But he’s never let a reporter sit in.

Tonight’s a meeting with parents, and they’ll be ranking virtues from what matters most to them to what matters least (which is where things really get interesting). “The boys did it last week,” Lessor explains. “The parents don’t know yet that they’re going to compare theirs with their sons’. If something’s way down on the list for one and way high on the other, this will help them connect—and find out where they bump heads.

“I already know where they bump heads,” he adds dryly. One boy’s mom and dad divorced, “but they never processed it with him. He’s angry that his dad’s not there with him, and his mom’s still angry because his dad had an affair.” Another’s been cutting, saying he wishes he were dead, banging his head against the wall. Another, bright and self-contained, has suddenly begun bullying a younger sibling. Their parents are in the process of splitting up, and the dad reminds Lessor a little of his own dad, who’d “fake-hit, make you flinch, keep you in fear.” Lessor’s dad drank at home but, like many of these kids’ fathers, charmed the world. “It’s crazy-making,” he says.

But it gave him compassion.

“Parents tell me, ‘He’s not going to talk to you.’ I say, ‘Just give me a few minutes with him.’ I have not had a boy walk out of here where I was not able to touch that wound.”

We go back into the living room—Lessor works out of his cozy house in South County—and the parents offer updates that are extra thorough for the reporter’s sake. “My son’s the king of temptation,” a mom says. “If it’s there, he’s going to try it. He’s very loving, super sweet, but also super impulsive, and I want to nip it in the bud before it becomes an Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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ANGLES NOTEBOOK

BY JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

issue in his adult life that he can’t take back.”

The other day, they had a long, good talk, she says, and then Adam (a pseudonym) asked, with fake casualness, “What do the other moms say about me?” A boy had told him, “I’d like to hang out with you, but my parents told me not to.” Adam teared up as he confided this—and now his mom’s crying as she relays it.

“In here, he’s really engaging,” Lessor says. It might be because of a recent bit of trouble, they agree—though the incident was more prank than crime. “I do know Adam’s got his ear to walls and doors,” Lessor says. “‘Mom talks behind my back,’ he tells me.” This might just be the boy’s perception, he adds quickly. “I remember, growing up, my mom would tell my brother my bad stories, and to me it was shaming.”

“Adam do es ne e d shaming sometimes,” she counters, “because otherwise he moves on immediately, with no remorse.”

Lessor’s lips are pressed together hard. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t agree.

But he answers carefully, “Saying something right to him, that’s OK. Having a conversation that’s not meant to be heard is what I mean.”

The next parent volunteers that he and his wife didn’t know whether it was ADHD causing their son’s anxiety and depression or anxiety and depression making the ADHD worse, “but the self-harm talk was pretty scary. The other day he said, ‘I want to go in a hole and die.’” The father’s voice is quiet, but his eyes are scared.

His voice calm, Lessor says hurting himself is the boy’s habitual way of acting out the anger—which is no doubt rooted in something far harder for him to express, like fear or sadness. They’ve found a substitute, punching a pillow, but by the time the boy comes home from school and avoids talking to his parents, it’s long past pillow-punching time. “We need to find an outlet he can use at school,” Lessor says. “Males need action. We’re visual and physical—it’s biological; it’s testosterone. The punching bag’s a safe container: It doesn’t bleed, cry, talk back, call the police, or punch holes in the wall. There’s nothing wrong with being angry—it’s the behavior the anger causes that’s the problem. The world says, ‘Let’s take it away from them.’

But there’s a way to give them what they need so they’re OK.” The biggest problem, he’s come to believe, “is the systemic absence of the father, the absence of that instinctive wisdom.” In a slower, more coherent world, shared rites of passage and a clear definition of masculinity guided parents. Today, some dads are physically absent, some emotionally absent, “but there are also systemically absent dads who are always trying to figure out whether they did the right thing.”

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“THE PUNCHING BAG’S A SAFE CONTAINER: IT DOESNT BLEED, CRY, TALK BACK, CALL THE POLICE, OR PUNCH HOLES IN THE WALL.” The next evening, the boys are diving into pizza when I arrive. “What are you trying to create?” Lessor asks them.

“What are you trying to put your magic on?” Surprisingly willing, they all come up with goals, purposes for their lives.

They plan their graduation, a barbecue in his backyard. Lessor says there will be a ceremony where they will symbolically receive their “gift,” their own coolest and most authentic trait. “We all have gifts,” he said to me earlier, “but unless your parents mirror back, you will drop your gift. Parents filter their children. This is all about seeing those patterns—and helping the boys find their true self.”

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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ANGLES SNAPSHOT MISSISSIPPI RIVER, 1969

Oh Say Can You See Some people got their first look at the Arch on the Fourth of July in 1964, before it was even finished, its two legs standing unconnected. People waited for the fireworks in woven lawn chairs, drinking Bud from aluminum coolers and listening to the ball game on transistors. By 1969, the patriotic event drew hundreds of thousands, and Famous-Barr orchestrated a whole show in the air and on the water. There were two water-ski shows performed by the Alton Water Ski Club. F-100 fighter jets zoomed overhead, the Army’s Golden Knights parachuted from planes, and a man performed tricks on a trapeze suspended from a helicopter. Everyone was there, though, for the fireworks. Downtown Inc. promotions director Polly Bangert (a frustrated poet if we’ve ever seen one) noted that they were choreographed by Henry P. Fabricius, whose family had shot off the fireworks for the opening of the Eads Bridge. She then previewed the show: “You’ll see magnificent spider-like forms with small spider bursts at ends of each 24 points projecting from large central figures…” But the most exciting part? Free parking. —STEFENE RUSSELL 42

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Photography by James M. Carrington, courtesy of the Missouri History Museum

6/3/19 1:46 PM

Feed your soul.

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THE DISH

Whisk’s Ice Pops One of the joys of visiting the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market on a balmy summer Saturday morning is stopping by Whisk: a Sustainable Bakeshop. Check out the flavors of ice pops that owner Kaylen Wissinger has on hand—eight to 10 at any one time, made from hyper-local seasonal ingredients. The bounty from this week’s farmers’ market is transformed into the next week’s flavors. Big sellers include such unusual selections as sweet corn, Honeycomb cereal milk, gooey butter, and strawberry balsamic goat cheese—“or goat cheese anything,” says Wissinger. The pops’ popularity has launched PoptimismSTL, a converted 1984 mail truck (nicknamed Toto because it’s cute and hails from Kansas). Although the flavor gamut appeals to kids of all ages, Wissinger says her best customers are bona fide kids (who usually order by color). “Last week, a boy said, ‘I want blue!’ and had to settle for a purple Concord grape. I have to work on that.”

—GEORGE MAHE

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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TASTE

MAIN COURSE

Double-Barreled Soulard’s newest restaurant celebrates wine and whiskey.

BY DAVE LOWRY

cigar rituals—yes, a trifle swish) and on the first floor (for cocktails in a serene setting, surrounded by redbrick walls).

Small plates dominate the menu.

Even the tenderloin and salmon are If it were any closer modestly portioned—you’ll likely want to Anheuser-Busch’s at least three items for a complete dinhome, there’d b e ner. Nothing is ordinary here. PresenClydesdales slurp- tations are elaborate but not fussy. A ing old-fashioneds salad of asparagus—parboiled spears accompanied by an emerald filigree at the bar. Oaked of shavings—is a minor work of art. A occupies the space formerly occupied blob of burrata, a pile of pale-pink proby Lynch Street Tavsciutto, pickled onion, and egg, as beauern, Sage, and Fleur tiful as they are delicious, are pleasantly de Lilies. The build- arranged. “Spicy greens” are that and ing has been lovingly more. A white miso vinaigrette has a remodeled to com- kick; onion, shredded carrot, pine nuts, bine the old with the and a soft pickled egg are topped with hip. The shadowy first the lightest sprinkling of salt that draws floor is in the mode of the components together. lounge swank, with Crusty toasts topped with a pungent tapenade are fine, but spring for the restrained lighting and an inviting bar. cheese-and-charcuterie plate, another Intimate seating and composition on a slate slab, this one A K E D H A S A P R O B L E M . It a piano occupy a roomy alcove. Serious comprising three cheeses and a couple wants to host “elevated” dining is done on the second story, which of meats with chutney and mustard— dining in a “sophisticated boasts a luminously polished wood floor, both sculpture and starter. setting”—which, in our soaring ceilings, and spacious seating.

Fettuccine is a standout among the age, is a challenge commensurate with There are patios upstairs (devoted to limited pasta options. Thick balsamic inviting crocodiles over for tea. Sophistivinegar is swirled around the Oaked cated dining does not need to announce bowl’s lip; it seeps down into 1031 Lynch that it’s sophisticated, and such selfhouse-made noodles comple314-305-8647 oakedstl.com descriptors as “a curated dining experimented with cherry tomatoes, Dinner Wed–Sun ence” are more embarrassing than preshredded basil, pine nuts, and possessing. Nonetheless, Oaked is aces more of that creamy burrata. in terms of overall experience, food, and Gnudi’s a pasta seldom served atmosphere. commercially, with good reason: The combination of ricotta and THE BOTTOM LINE A contemporary setting in a historic building with a classy wine lounge, piano, and seasonal fare semolina require precise timing The cheese-and-charcuterie board includes a variety of select meats and cheeses, along with fresh accoutrements.

O

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of chilling to keep it from crumbling when cooked. Oaked’s version, tossed with pork and mushrooms in a simple broth, does gnudi justice.

A chunk of roasted salmon rests on succotash splashed with what tastes like a salty, savory broth of Japanese dashi. Again, it’s a final touch, this time a sprinkling of salmon roe, that lends the dish polish. Short ribs braised to succulent tenderness are matched with braised Brussels sprouts and beans in a hearty broth. Order the tenderloin, and you might expect a prime piece of beef, pink with a nicely caramelized crust. You get exactly that, but what you might not expect is that the side, parsnips puréed to a velvety consistency, rivals the tenderloin for your admiration. The humble root, accompanied by just a couple of slender carrots, is superbly presented.

With the steak, it makes for a satisfying meal.

Given its length, the dizzying wine list might be mistaken for a Gutenberg Bible. It’s competently compiled, but what really sets it apart is the number of vintages available by the glass. Wine locker rental is available for $300 a year.

Whiskey is a specialty as well, with dozens of labels on hand. The spot in which to enjoy a drink? The upstairs nook, with upholstered seating and a clubby feel. (Although you’ll wait in vain for the Punch & Judy show to commence from behind the odd curtained bar, the whiskey’s great.)

Black curtains are big here. They’re hanging over the windows and used in lieu of doors. Apparently it’s meant to invoke a speakeasy atmosphere, which is cute in a sort of Battle of Britain blackout way. It makes climbing the dark stairs a funhouse challenge. Speaking of those stairs, the service is swell, especially when you consider that everything must be schlepped from the first to the second floor. The staff here must be at a uniformly Olympic caliber of fitness.

Some too-too excesses make Oaked amusing to razz. Serious diners, however, will smile much more over the excellent food and drink.

• Open Everyday • Lunch • Dinner • Happy Hour • Complete Take-Out Menu • Parties To Go Menu • Gluten Free Menu Available www.pastahouse.com

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FIRST BITE

Prime Mover

A fine-dining restaurant opens in the East Loop.

CRAFT COURSE

SLU AND STLBEER PA R T N E R T O O F F E R A P R O G R A M T H AT ’ S ALL ABOUT BREWING.

Has brewing beer always been your dream, or do you just want to learn more about beer?

Saint Louis University and STLBEER (the public face of the St. Louis Brewers Heritage Foundation) have teamed up to offer a Brewing Science and Operations certificate (online.slu .edu), the “first program of its kind in the country to be created and facilitated in partnership with an entire city’s beer scene,” says STLBEER executive director Troika Brodsky.

AS MORE RESTAURANTS open across the country

and competition intensifies, operators attempt to cast wider nets to expand their customer bases. In creating a restaurant that’s equally appropriate for weeknight and date night dining, a pair of local music moguls have done just that. At Prime 55, U. City resident Orlando Watson (RockHouse Entertainment) and Tony Davis (former manager of the St. Lunatics and Nelly) took a ramshackle corner building (home to five eateries in less than a decade) and transformed it into a modern yet rustic two-level space where guests can scrimp or splurge. The 30-seat main level—with a smoky tile floor, matching amber pendants, and swaths of stained wood—is a lighter, brighter version of the 70-seat room below, a cozy, sexy candlelit rathskeller, an unfor-

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Cajun Veggie Gnocchi, with romesco sauce, pickled mustard seeds, and chive oil

tunate rarity in St. Louis. Watson promises acoustic music on occasion to accompany chef Tyler Wayne’s mix of core dishes (crabcakes, caramelized pear salad, habanero honey wings) and creatives (smoked chicken grilled cheese, mahi mahi topped with citrus “caviar”). Steak 55, the namesake entrée, is a premium 9-ounce sirloin with chimichurri, white cheddar tots, veal jus, and vegetable. Watson explains that historically, the number five symbolizes rejuvenation and innovation (and 55 doubly so), exactly what his restaurant represents in the ever-evolving Delmar Loop. 6100 Delmar. —G.M.

The year-long program comprises six 8-week segments, with weekly online courses. Students also brew their own beers and visit breweries and labs. Industry experts—brewers, biologists, and entrepreneurs—teach the courses. John Witte, director of beverage operations at Square One Brewery & Distillery, is among the instructors.

He sees the program as “a way to give back to the brewing community.” Among other topics, instructors address brewing basics, various styles, the science behind brewing and fermentation, the operational components of running a brewery, and the history of beer.

“Since its inception,” says James Ottolini, Brew Hub’s chief of brewing operations and a course instructor, “beer has always been about community.”

—WILLIAM C. MEYERS

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

5/30/19 4:20 PM

Sip. See. Savor.

Our Amazing New Menu!

And celebrate the weekend with Saturday and Sunday Brunch, now being served.

One S. Broadway | St. Louis, Missouri | 314.241.8439 | 360-stl.com

Thank you for voting us #1 Best Steak!

HISTORIC SOULARD

2117 South 12th St. 314 772 5977

SOUTH COUNTY

3939 Union Rd. 314 845 2584

WEST COUNTY

14282 Manchester Rd. 636 227 8062 www.tuckersplacestl.com July 2019 stlmag.com

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SECOND HELPING

Nonna-Approved Less is not more at this South County Italian eatery.

BY HOLLY FANN

O MATTER WHAT time you come into Liliana’s Italian Kitchen, you’ll find diners twirling forkfuls of tomatosauced noodles, folding slices of piping-hot pizza, and devouring meaty sandwiches.

You might also see a few people waiting for to-go orders by the deli case or at the takeout window. It’s impressive, considering that Liliana’s remains open between traditional lunch and dinner hours. The Italian-American restaurant hasn’t been open a year, but neighborhood diners know a good thing when they see it.

The 75-seat interior is painted marinara red and decorated with black-and-white photos of the Rat Pack. Empty double magnums of Chianti line a wall that separates the dining room and bar area. Twinkle lights are strung around the windows, and a large chalkboard lists daily specials. balls adds a satisfying texture cially true of the sandwiches. The Italiano Sinatra plays softly in the background. and a surprising amount of flavor. pizza with Adriana, for example, combines Volpi salami Like everything served at Liliana’s, St. Louis–style pizza crusts are roasted turkey and pastrami with and pastrami bacon, Provolone, arugula, vegestarters are generous. Ethereal wisps custom-made, with a chew more of fried spinach top the fried calamari. substantial than that of the stantables, and aioli. The Don is piled Crispy-skinned chicken wings are coated dard cracker crust. Liliana’s 20 avail- with roast beef and turkey, pastrami, in a blanket of shaved Parmesan and able toppings, including white anchobacon, giardiniera, Provolone, and aioli. served with aioli. Bruschetta are laden vies, garlic shrimp, salami, fried spinach, Desserts include baked goods from with goat cheese and bacon and balanced and giardiniera, go a step beyond the McArthur’s and gelato imported from with arugula, roasted red pepaverage pepperoni. The restau- New York, but save room for the housepers, and balsamic. rant offers six specialty pizzas, made tiramisu, rich and velvety thanks Pastas are old-school clasincluding the Italiano, which is to the mascarpone-enriched cream and dressed with pastrami, crispy soft espresso-bathed cake. (Tip: Order it sics: meat or eggplant lasabacon, mozzarella, roasted red first, because it often sells out quickly.) gna, cannelloni, beef ravioli. peppers, and arugula.

Although an especially smug diner The garlic shrimp rigatoni with roasted red peppers, fried Many of the 16-plus sand- might find the decor passé, the strip mall spinach, tender shrimp, and a wiches are named after Sopralocation garish, and the St. Louis–style Liliana's Italian light cream sauce is particu- Kitchen nos characters. The meats are house salad unhip, there’s nothing pedestrian about satisfying food prepared with larly noteworthy. The meat- 11836 Tesson Ferry all slow-roasted in house. Lili314-729-1800 laden sauce on the enormously lilianasitalian ana’s motto could be “Less Is sincerity and care, which is exactly what portioned spaghetti and meat- kitchen.com Not More,” and that’s espe- Liliana’s dishes up every day.

N

THE BOTTOM LINE Liliana’s serves South County a taste of The Hill with Italian-American favorites and warm, caring service.

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Thank you ST. LOUIS

2019 WINNER

We're thrilled to be voted Readers' Choice!

VISIT THESE NEIGHBORHOOD LOCATIONS Edwardsville | Ellisville | Kirkwood O'Fallon | St. Charles | University City | Webster

CHEESE. CHOCOLATE. HEARTS. THEY ALL MELT HERE.

BOOK YOUR FONDUE EXPERIENCE TODAY.

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294 Lamp and Lantern Village | Chesterfield, MO | 636-207-6358 6683 Delmar Blvd. | University City, MO | 314-725-4141 *The Melting Pot locations are locally owned and operated.

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

1. iNDO  In Botanical Heights, Nick Bognar focuses on Southeast Asian cuisine and expands the popular omakase dinners that brought him local acclaim (and a spot on the James Beard semifinalist list for Rising Star Chef of the Year) at Nippon Tei. 1641-D Tower Grove.

3. Craft  The sister restaurant to Thirteen Fifty-Six Public House (formerly the Big Bear Grill) offers a wide range of bar and gastropub fare, including pork “wings,” a giant charcuterie-topped pretzel, and pizzas with a worthy cauliflower crust option.

16524 Manchester.

4. Smokee Mo’s The second installation of Frank & Eva Imo’s SoCo barbecue joint is a big, beautiful barn that introduces West County to the pizza scion’s barbecue prowess, including the Mangia Bene sandwich. 110 Old Meramec Station.

2. AO&Co  Restaurateur Ben Poremba’s hip corner bodega features prepared foods, dips and spreads from his four restaurants, coffee and tea (plus an espresso/ chai counter), a curated selection of alcohol, small gifts, and even cigars. 1641-A Tower Grove.

5. Bemiston Cocktail Club  Extra Brut (the city’s first bubbles-only bar) begat this broader-based speakeasy-style cocktail-focused concept. It combines reasonably priced craft cocktails and bar snacks, plus the even cheaper Bemmy (a shot of house whiskey and a can of Stag beer for $5). 16 S. Bemiston.

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Photography by Spencer Pernikoff, Kevin A. Roberts, courtesy of Craft

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INS, OUTS & ALMOSTS AS OF A LATE-MAY PRESS DATE

CLOSINGS

Frankly Sausages 2744 Cherokee, May 18 Hiro Asian Kitchen 1405 Washington, May 19 Hugo’s Pizzeria 3135 Olive, May 19 Propaganda 2732 Cherokee, May 19 LoRusso’s on Grand 601 N. Grand, May 25 Lucha 2710 Cherokee, May 25 Tea Rex 522 N. Grand, May 26 Down Under Restaurant & Pub 1141 Colonnade Center, May 31

OPENINGS

Cobalt Smoke & Sea (Gas House Grill) 12643 Olive, May 1 Craft (Big Bear Grill) 16524 Manchester, May 1 Bemiston Cocktail Club (Extra Brut) 16 S. Bemiston, May 8

COMING SOON La Bamba (Mango) 1101 Lucas, late May

Prime 55 Restaurant & Lounge (Vietnam Style) 6100 Delmar, late May Akar (Anthony's) 7641 Wydown, early June AO&Co. 1641-A Tower Grove, early June

The Bellwether (Element) 1419 Carroll, early June iNDO (Good Fortune) 1641-D Tower Grove, mid-June The Last Kitchen & Bar 1501 Washington, late June BEAST Butcher & Block 4156 Manchester, June C. Oliver Coffee & Flower Bar (Orbit Pinball Lounge) 7401 Hazel, June Nudo House 6105-A Delmar, early July UKraft 8182 Maryland, early July Hangar Kitchen & Bar (The Slider House) 9528 Manchester, July Orzo Mediterranean Grill 11625 Olive, July Beffa’s Bar and Restaurant 2700 Olive, August Diego’s (Momos) 630 North & South, summer Little Fox (The Purple Martin) 2800 Shenandoah, summer Tempus 4370 Manchester, late summer

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HOT SEAT

How does St. Louis fill all the new hotel rooms? Starting with the renovation of the Arch grounds, St. Louis has experienced billions of dollars in local investment. Out-of-town developers see the local commitments—the NGA project, City Foundry, the success of Cortex and St. Louis attracting more tech in general—which attracts their investment.

They’ve seen other cities turn the corner, and I’ve been told that St. Louis is next, that it only makes sense that a city with more history, more appeal, and more stock available for rehab projects should be next.

Can you share the hotel’s various food and beverage concepts? We thought long and hard how to name them, but in the end, we thought it’s the facility you remember, not the specific name of the restaurant, as in, “Let’s go to The Last.” So we named them The Last Kitchen, The Last Pantry, and The Last Rooftop. [Laughs.]

It was a natural three-month decision.

Lasting Impressions Pastaria’s former executive chef slides into the same role at The Last Hotel.

W

HEN HOTELIER TIM DIXON was

in the early stages of planning The Last Hotel, opening June 28 in the former International Shoe Company building downtown, Evy Swoboda was his culinary ambassador, revealing St. Louis’ neighborhoods and culture through its restaurants. She became the hotel’s executive chef and could easily moonlight as its spokeswoman. —G.M.

I'm sure you’ll get this question a lot: What’s the story behind the name of The Last Hotel? The hotel and restaurant are in the old International Shoe Company building, and a last is a tool—the mold used to provide shape and solidity. But the name works because, just like a shoe, a lot of components come together to make a hotel work. We’re creating an experience from something most people never knew existed.

ONLINE Visit stlmag.com to learn about the chef’s innovative approach to banquet service.

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Talk about The Last Pantry. It flanks the main hallway and includes a show cooler and retail space where guests can pick up everything from hotel swag and hot sauce to the house rye whiskey from StilL 630. Everything that we make in house can be taken home with guests.

How about The Last Kitchen? The dinner menu revolves around our in-house butcher, so we’ll have different cuts of meats on different days cooked on a livefire grill. The bar has a separate tavern menu with sandwiches, wood-fired pizzas, fresh pasta, and sharable snacks.

Then there’s the brunch menu. In the end, it’s a “Say yes” kitchen—a guest can get any item off any menu in any part of the facility, and food and drink guests get free valet parking for two hours.

You’ve said dining at The Last is experiential. What does that mean? Many different dining experiences are possible. There’s a private table for four on a mezzanine.

The tables in front of the kitchen can be used for special dinners or tastings.

The bartenders come out from behind the bar to tend to the bar tables, a nod Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

5/30/19 4:20 PM

to the pre-Prohibition tavern experience. And most restaurants have a hard time—or even discourage—larger parties. We have five tables that can accommodate 10 people, including a round-top that’s actually in the bar. I want to be able to say yes to that size of group on a Friday night.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE! GET THE BEST OF ST. LOUIS DELIVERED TO YOUR MAILBOX EACH MONTH

That leaves The Last Rooftop. On the 11th-floor roof, we’ll serve poolside shareables out of the same kitchen that services the 10th-floor event space. The Rooftop menu will be lighter, much of it revolving around seafood, but again, guests can order from any menu they want. The rooftop has a Sunset Specials happy hour and a Last Nightcap later on. On Tuesdays, we’ll feature a new vinyl album that dropped that week, plus other records that people can play.

SUBSCRIBE ONLINE AT STLMAG.COM/ SUBSCRIBE OR CALL TODAY 314-918-3000

What food items can guests expect to find at The Last? Sandwiches that can still be eaten like a sandwich. We’ll offer options on bacon—thin or thick, crispy or not.

Seasonal tacos using house-made olive oil tortillas. Tempura-fried pickled seasonal vegetables. Our Buffalo bites are smoked and fried thigh meat served with two hot sauces, one that’s fermented for two months, then finished in a whiskey barrel.

Speaking of whiskey, how’s the cocktail program? The list features preProhibition cocktails—basically your classic cocktails—done right, using local or regional spirits. Measured pours, hard ice, no soda guns, juice squeezed on the spot—touches like that, and with a deference to speed, not flair. Some pool-forward cocktails will be available on the roof, like the Three Wives daiquiri, because Hemingway’s three wives were all from St. Louis.

What’s coming up first at The Last? In conjunction with the hotel’s opening on June 28, we’re offering everyone free Champagne on the roof as our first Sunset Special. Bubbles on us—we’ll toast the town.

Say "I D o."

Eat. Drink. Relax.

Local Craft Beers Boutique Wine List CENTRALCocktails WEST END& Full Bar Signature 28 Maryland Plaza Rear, St Louis, 63108Bar Weekend Bloody Mary & MO Mimosa Mon-Thur: 10am–8:30pm | Fri-Sat: 9:30am–10pm Happy Hour Tuesday thru Friday 4-7pm closed sunday EDWARDSVILLE 1057 Century Drive, Edwardsville, IL 62025 Mon-Thur: 10am–6:30pm | Fri-Sat: 9:30am–9pm closed sunday

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1415 S. 18th St, St. Louis, MO 63104 314-865-3522 sqwires.com Photo by Your Story Photo + Cinema

July 2019 stlmag.com

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SUMMER LIKE YOU’RE

ON VACATION

©2019 Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A., Stella Artois® Beer, Imported by Import Brands Alliance, St. Louis, MO.

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A-LIST 2019 The best in dining, shopping, culture, and more

DINING & NIGHTLIFE p.60

CULTURE & ARTS p.68

SHOPPING, SERVICE & WELLNESS p.76

ENTERTAINMENT & AMUSEMENTS p.82

BY PAT EBY, HOLLY FANN, DAVE LOWRY, ANN LEMONS POLLACK, GEORGE MAHE, JARRETT MEDLIN, MELISSA MEINZER, TONY REHAGEN, IAIN SHAW, SAMANTHA STEVENSON, EMILY WASSERMAN, AND AMANDA WOYTUS

er, O.

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T E A M O F T H E Y EAR

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Photography by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via AP Photos

6/4/19 8:48 AM

GUTS & GLORIA This was impossible. Not just because it was the have statistically been the most disappointing first time in 49 years that the Blues had last played team in hockey, sixth most underperforming in all for Lord Stanley’s cup. Not just because in those of sports. And we watched each of those star playensuing decades, we had redefined futility, making ers win championships elsewhere. a record 38 playoff appearances (including 25 in a So we were unimpressed in November when, after row) that all fizzled, often heart-wrenchingly, short the miserable start, we fired our coach and proof reaching the final. But on January 3 of this year, moted Craig Berube, a career NHL enforcer with the team was dead last in the league—not worst less than two years of NHL head coaching experiin the Central Division, but actually locked in the ence. But in January, we started tapping our toes basement of the entire National Hockey League. to “Gloria,” a disco tune that players adopted as Only four teams with as many losses through its their victory cry—despite the fact that it charted first 41 games had ever even made the playoffs, and before anyone in the locker room was born. We took none of them had made it out of the first round. In notice when Berube sat goalie Jake Allen in favor of this city, the postseason heroics are the job of its Jordan Binnington, a fourth-string rookie who had legendary baseball team. St. Louis miracles don’t more than 200 minor league games before winning take place on ice.

24 of his first 30 starts with a .933 save percentage.

That historical lack of hockey success has belied Alex Pietrangelo and the blue line started playing the fact that St. Louis is, at its core, a great hockey defense, and our offensive stars, Vladimir Tarasenko town. Of course, when check comes to shove, the Car- and Ryan O’Reilly, started playing like stars. We dinals still hold sway in so-called Baseball Heaven. somehow made the playoffs for the seventh time But sweater-clad fans still pack the Enterprise Cen- in eight years. ter, with turnouts regularly in the top half of league Then a funny thing happened as we waited for the attendance. And from the moment the Blues showed inevitable playoff exit: It never happened. We won on up as an expansion team, in 1967, the national sport the road and at home. Binnington didn’t wilt in the of the north has slowly seeped into our Midwestern net. The other stars kept shining, and we got unexconsciousness. These days, you’re as likely to see pected contributions from the supporting cast, like kids playing in-line in the park or slapping pucks and Jaden Schwartz, a disappointing prospect whose balls into nets on the neighborhood streets and cul- postseason goals, including multiple hat tricks, were de-sacs as playing catch. In 2016, five St. Louis–area more than he scored all season. And when left-winger hockey players were picked up in the first round of Patrick Maroon, a St. Louis native, netted the overthe NHL draft, and 14 of the 22 locals who have played time game-winner in Game 7 of the conference semis in the league skated this year. We may bleed red, but if against Dallas, we started to believe. you look closely, our veins show blue.

After our boys dispatched forWith that birthright comes dismer playoff nemesis San Jose, the appointment. After all, the team unthinkable was reality. And as we Blues players celemade the finals in each of its first watched them skating in the Stanley brate the team’s first three seasons of existence—and was Cup Final for the first time in many Stanley Cup Final win following defenseof our lifetimes, we were more than promptly swept each time. Since the man Carl Gunnars1990s, despite a cavalcade of stars just proud of our team and our city. son’s overtime goal that includes Hull, Fuhr, MacInnis, We were inspired—emboldened to during Game 2 against the Bruins.

Shanahan, and Pronger, the Blues believe that anything was possible.

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DINING & NIGHTLIFE

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BEST EDIBLE CANDLE

HIGH-STEAKS DINING

Morton’s The Steakhouse

With the wealth of steakhouses in Clayton (Ruth’s Chris, 801 Chophouse, The Capital Grille), Morton’s announced in 2017 that it would be moving downtown. The reimagined restaurant—a sleek modern departure from its more traditional predecessor—reopened at Lumière Place Casino in December. Today, you can still find steakhouse staples (a catcher’s mitt–size piece of cow, lobster bisque, and creamed spinach, with all the starchy formalities) in an atmosphere marinated in swank. 999 N. Second.

BEST SPINOFF

BrassWELL

Gerard Craft can now add brewery fare to his long list of culinary achievements. The allstar chef ’s Niche Food Group opened BrassWELL in the new Rockwell Beer Co. late last year.

Reinvented dishes from Brasserie’s happy hour and former lunch menu include quarterpound burgers, chicken sandwiches, brats, and the signature fries, which complement Rockwell’s menu of microbrews. 1320 S. Vandeventer.

FITTING FRENCH ADDITION

808 Maison

Soulard’s historic goût de terroir is still, properly, French. Smoky cassoulet and Burgundybraised lamb shank taste right at home amid the cozy eatery’s inviting old wood and brick.

Tables fill quickly, and good wine, dispensed by the bar squirreled into an intimate corner, flows. Conversation’s easy in the relaxed atmosphere. It’s a place in which to linger—and one to revisit often. 808 Geyer.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Hamilton’s Urban Steakhouse & Bourbon Bar

Best Edible Candle is always a crowded field, but this year’s award for Outstanding Edible Centerpiece goes to this cool steakhouse’s delectable lighting. A slab of solidified bacon fat equipped with a wick is lit and renders slowly as patrons swipe hunks of coarse yeasty bread through the fragrant drippings. We’re talking the most romantic candlelight dining ever. 2101 Chouteau.

MUSSELS

Elmwood

It’s hard to mess up mussels— and even tougher to create a distinctive take on them. Elmwood scores, big time, with a bowl of the bivalves that shimmers with a smear of tingly Szechuan spices. It tops (get this!) freshfried shoestring potatoes. The aroma alone is mouth-watering.

It’s a mélange of smoky, exotic seasoning and those luscious fat mussels. 2704 Sutton.

CREATIVE CUISINE

Savage

Creative? Savage left “creative” back at the station. Think beet chicharróns. Such ingredients as burnt hay, fermented mushrooms, and roast yeasts worked into amuse-bouche–size courses come out over a long evening. Electric wine pairings add flair to one of the city’s most amazing dinners. 2655 Ann.

BEST REINVENTION

J. Devoti Trattoria & Grocery

The Hill’s hippest bistro has been reinvented as, um, The Hill’s hippest bistro. The menu’s less Italian, more hearty, with beautifully seasonal American fare, including locally sourced meats and rustic vegetable presentations. The sauces are brilliant. A focaccia bun sprinkled with sea salt helps make for a stunning burger.

Windows looking out on a charming courtyard add much to the experience.

5100 Daggett.

PIERO GI

Frisco Barroom

As soft and fluffy as a MyPillow, the pierogi at this alwayscrowded joint are plumped with either mashed potatoes and caramelized onions or farmer’s cheese, each sautéed in brown butter. Think of ’em as glossy, fat dumplings. Add a mug of one of the place’s cold pilsners, and dinner is complete.

8110 Big Bend.

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D I N I N G & N I G HT LIFE

MEMORABLE DÉCOR

COASTAL CO CKTAILS

The rustic crab and steer logo telegraphs a most unusual fusion restaurant that features globally smoked meats, fresh seafood, a masterly duck fat burger, and the lightest rendition of tempura green beans in the city. The suspended skeleton of a pygmy whale and LEDenhanced ginkgo trees drive home the curious land and sea theme. 12643 Olive.

Come to Yellowbelly for the seafood, stay for the coastal cocktails. The CWE hot spot boasts an island-inspired bar with custom creations by bar manager/co-owner Tim Wiggins.

Rum anchors many of the drink, including popular daiquiris, the Yellowbelly, and the Jungle Bird.

4659 Lindell.

Cobalt Smoke & Sea

BEST REPLACEMENT

Il Palato

Located in the former Remy’s space, Clayton’s newest hot spot by restaurateur Mike Del Pietro checks off all the boxes: handsome atmosphere, prompt service, and (above all) good food. It’s open for lunch and dinner, with a frequently changing mouthwatering menu. Try the roasted carrots, and sample the wine list. 222 S. Bemiston.

Yellowbelly

RUM SELEC TION

Rhone Rum Bar

With its sandy terrace, maritime décor, and indoor volleyball court, Rhone Rum Bar embodies restaurateurs Paul and Wendy Hamilton’s love of the British Virgin Islands.

The main attraction, however, is the rum collection—around 130 bottles painstakingly sourced from the Caribbean, Latin America, and beyond. Let the bartenders explain their nuances and help you find a sippable rum that appeals to your palate, or lounge with a frozen cocktail or boat drink of tropical fruits, spices, and liqueurs.

2107 Chouteau.

NEW BASEBALL HANGOUTS

The Midwestern and Quattro Trattoria + Pizzeria

SALAD MEETS SOPHISTICATION

Oaked

You’ll dig the chic piano alcove, the magnificent wood floors, the low-key cool of the two patios, and the Moby Dick–size wine menu. But pay attention to the simply superb salad of asparagus spears with prosciutto leaves, softboiled egg, pickled onion, and a decadent knob of burrata— a starter that hits all the right notes for texture and flavor.

1031 Lynch.

FRIED - OYSTER TACOS

Located steps from Busch Stadium, in the former Flying Saucer space, The Midwestern serves high-quality barbecue by chef Ben Welch and offers an extensive drink menu, with custom cocktails by bartender Tony Saputo. Quattro, the new flagship restaurant in the Westin St. Louis, features fresh Italian fare with local ingredients by executive chef Josh Wedel.

900 Spruce; 811 Spruce.

Veritas Gateway to Food & Wine

Bacon, mushrooms, and spicy mustard sour cream? They sound good in a taco, yes, but there’s more: The centerpiece is a fried oyster. All of this arrives in a crispy corn tortilla at Veritas. (We could happily dine on the appetizers alone.) It’s bliss, a fine accomplishment by the ever-welcoming Stitt family.

15860 Fountain Plaza.

NEW NAMES

CLEVER

CUTE

TURN

NUD O HOUSE

WOK O TACO

POKE D OKE

YUMMI TUMMI

Chef/owner David Kirkland, a former DJ, changes the menu with the turn of the seasons.

3224 Locust.

Qui Tran’s acclaimed restaurant serves ramen, pho, and noodleless dishes. 1143 Olive.

A fusion of Asian and Mexican staples.

10633 Page.

Andrew Shih weighs in on the poke trend, with a fun name to boot.

8 S. Euclid.

This mashup of subs, sushi, poke, and ramen has a most “kawaii”name.

3001 S. Big Bend.

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PRIME PERCHES In addition to longtime favorite Three Sixty (1 S. Broadway), with its unparalleled view of Busch Stadium, several new rooftop bars opened this year: Form Skybar (705 Olive), atop Hotel Saint Louis; a remodeled Sky Terrace (999 N. 2nd) and bar at the Four Seasons, featuring Brazilian-themed cuisine from Gerard Craft’s Cinder House; The Last Rooftop (1501 Washington), crowning The Last Hotel; and the 13th-floor Angad Rainbow Terrace.

(3550 Samuel Shephard), top the art-centric Angad Arts Hotel.

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D I N I N G & N I G HT LIFE

DREAM TEAM

Natasha Kwan

Nick Bognar

Tyler Davis

Jessie Mueller

Meredith Barry

OWNER/CHEF

OWNER/SUSHI CHEF

PASTRY CHEF

COFFEEHOUSE

MIXOLO GIST

OWNER/COMMU-

Growing up on a Missouri farm, surrounded by cattle, pigs, and chickens, Kwan became a vegetarian at age 9.

When she learned that vegetarians can also become overweight and out of shape, she refined her diet, which begat an exercise regimen and a career involving both disciplines. In 2012, she opened Frida’s Deli in University City, the city’s first vegetarian deli. The expanded restaurant, now simply called Frida’s, touts itself as “St. Louis’ premier vegetarian destination. No sugar.

No butter. No bull.”

It’s somewhat ironic, because the menu at Frida’s includes six burgers (though none includes beef) and a robust buildyour-own section. She often leads classes at Pedal Pedal, a cycling studio that she opened around the corner, and oversees Stretch, her yoga studio next door.

Coming this summer: Diego’s, a sister restaurant in the same block featuring Texas border town favorites. In her spare time, she and her husband rehab houses.

“I’m the bricklayer and the tile setter,” she says. Of course she is.

622 North and South; 630 North and South.

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After launching two popular restaurants, Nippon Tei and Tei Too, Ann Bognar and son Nick converted Nippon’s lounge into Ramen Tei, the city’s first ramen shop, in 2015. Nick’s next revolutionary step was to hone his sushi skills (in Cincinnati and at Austin’s legendary Uchiko) before returning to Nippon Tei to apply his signature and create what’s evolved into arguably the region’s best sushi menu. This year, Bognar was named a James Beard Award semifinalist, and he’s now unfurling his next chapter: iNDO, a 46-seater in Botanical Heights with a different focus than the mothership. The chef describes iNDO as a mixture of bold, rustic Southeast Asian flavors that’s also seafood-oriented, “with a ton of sashimi and a little sushi.” At lunch, the khao soi with crispy duck is mandatory; at dinner, the hamachi with candied garlic and yuzu kosho (a Japanese citrus chili paste) is similarly memorable.

14025 Manchester, 1641 Tower Grove.

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You may recall Davis from his appearance on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship or remember his creations from the now-shuttered Element.

Instagrammers went snap-happy when he introduced The Chocolate Pig’s Peanut Butter Bomb, a dark-chocolate globe that explodes under poured hot berry sauce, exposing peanut butter mousse, cookie crumbles, and nitrogen-frozen berries. Davis recently left his executive pastry chef post there to focus on a multifaceted solo career. Look for classes and popup events under his Aether banner, along with restaurant consulting and training services. Davis is also a personal chef for hire. The chef plans to continue with Alchemy Bakery, offering custom chocolates and cakes—especially wedding cakes, which he will display artistically at local galleries (a 5-footer positioned under flowers cascading from the ceiling is in the works).

A coffee table book featuring his creations is also forthcoming.

Next year, the up-andcomer would like to open a hub facility to consolidate the many spokes. alchemybakery.com.

NITY BUILDER

Seven years ago, Mueller opened Rise Coffee House in The Grove. It quickly became an oasis in a caffeine desert—and so much more. It served as a gathering place where locals could fit in and join in. (She’s hired and trained several to be baristas.) A central element is Mueller’s Coffee for the People board, where customers prepay for those in need. On Mother’s Day, one coffee sleeve read “one latte for a mom with a baby in the NICU,” and there’s a sign that reads, “Compassion is the radicalism of our time.” So that she could attend to her young family, Mueller sold a controlling interest to ace barista Aaron Johnson, who honed Rise’s coffee program, food offerings, and staff.

Now back at the helm and with the operational mechanics fully in tune, Mueller has more time for her true calling: empowering others through communitycentered events and fundraisers. “We all benefit when we lift each other,” she says. “Do that, and we change St. Louis.” 4176 Manchester.

Barry seems to have found the perfect stage.

Lured from celebrated Chicago gastrolounge Sable Kitchen & Bar, the musician/actor/expert mixologist now serves as beverage director of the new Angad Arts Hotel. You can often find Barry ensconced behind one of the hotel’s bars with a supersonic silver shaker in one hand and a 50-centimeter bar spoon—a device wielded with the intensity and precision of a conductor’s baton—in the other. Your cocktail show may include a discussion of its genesis, why certain ingredients (such as tomato powder and even gold dust) make sense, and the importance of balance.

(We recall a recent cocktail with seven layers of flavor that unfolded one by one.)

The artist often steps back to evaluate the potion, then swoops in close to apply a pinch of magic dust. But the performance always ends the same way: with a proud and impassioned smile. This is masterpiece theater. Barry should take a bow.

3550 Samuel Shepard.

Photography by Wesley Law

6/3/19 1:52 PM

TIMELY CONCEP T

Fried CONCEP T SWITCH

Pop

On a wild night in January, Dave and Kara Bailey introduced their new restaurant with as much drama as a sommelier sabering a bottle of Champagne. Employees scraped the L’Acadiane decal from the window and transformed the space into Pop, a new sparkling-wine restaurant for celebrations big and small. 1915 Park.

UNEXPEC TED FUSION

Yummi Tummi

The Maplewood restaurant that started as Toasty Subs and then became Toasty Subs and Sushi is now Yummi Tummi, serving subs, sushi, ramen, and poke. The odd combination of offerings might not make sense, were it not for the skillful preparation. The meaty subs are satisfying, as is the rich tonkotsu ramen. The sushi is beautifully presented and the poke fresh and bright. 3001 S. Big Bend.

WEST COUNTY REVIVAL

Westport Plaza

Under the stewardship of LHM, Westport Plaza’s rejuvenation has been a story of incremental progress. The nearby World Wide Technology and Edward Jones headquarters have boosted midweek traffic significantly, and new venues Westport Social, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, and Smoothie King have provided much-needed fresh concepts. Other Maryland Heights developments, such as the O’Fallon and Six Mile Bridge breweries, have drawn interest, too. And this could be the year that the revival fully bears fruit: Kemoll’s recently relocated to Westport from downtown, and Everest Café and Robata are planning second locations there. 111 W. Port.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Attitudes about marijuana are changing nationwide, with Illinois recently legalizing recreational use, and interest in CBD has extended to restaurants and bars serving CBD oil in cocktails, smoothies, and more.

St. Louis was ready for a restaurant like Derek Schulze’s Fried, branded a late-night “stoners’ palace.” Cure the munchies with deep-fried nuggets (chicken, shrimp, tofu, or veg), CBD oil– infused sauces (or “strains”), and such carb-heavy sides as the creamy mac and cheese.

1330 Washington.

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN

Kimchi Guys

If one of the Cutlery Building’s walls hadn’t partially collapsed in 2015, the space might have continued as a branch of restaurateur Munsok So’s Drunken Fish. Instead, So created Kimchi Guys, introducing downtown to a modern Korean phenomenon. The key to good Korean fried chicken is a second frying for an extra-crispy finish and the sweet, spicy Original sauce, featuring gochujang and gochugaru. 612 N. Second.

AB OVE & BEYOND

The Brass Rail

Every year at Thanksgiving, The Brass Rail goes beyond the call of duty. The O’Fallon, Missouri, restaurant has delivered dinners to families in need for the past five years. Last year, it delivered more than 10,000 dinners—and added a winter clothes donation to the annual tradition. After hearing volunteers describe houses with no electricity and school-age kids with no hats and no gloves, owner Scott Ellinger and team made a decision: “If we can feed them for a day, we can put hats and gloves on them as well.”

4601 Highway K.

SUREST BET FOR SUCCESS

Balkan Treat Box

Loryn and Edo Nalic moved from food truck to brick-and-mortar restaurant at warp speed. In just two years, they’ve made their delicious Bosnian food eminently relatable. “Ćevapi is grilled and seasoned beef,” explains Loyrn. “Our döner is similar to a good grilled chicken sandwich. The pide is a photographer’s dream: a canoe-shaped flatbread, not unlike pizza but different than anything else in town.” 8103 Big Bend.

NEW NEIGHB ORHO OD JOINT

58hundred

When The Block’s Marc Del Pietro and Brian Doherty decided to create a restaurant where carnivores and vegetable lovers alike could dine, they wanted to do so with an approachable menu and affordable pricing. That combination—plus creative, expertly executed food and a welcoming, relaxed atmosphere—have made 58hundred a South City favorite since it opened last fall.

5800 Southwest.

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D I N I N G & N I G HT LIFE

HIDDEN GEM

Peno Soul Food

On a side street at the southern end of Wydown’s restaurant strip, Pepe Kehm’s cozy spot is somewhat hidden but well worth discovering. The neighborhood-centric trattoria is the new equivalent of the checked-tablecloth restaurants of yore. The pizza’s good, but Kehm’s particularly gifted when it comes to seafood, maybe as a result of his trips to Sicily.

7600 Wydown.

HYPERLO CAL CUISINE

Bulrush

“Hyperlocal” is a new buzzword in restaurant circles, but at Bulrush, chef-owner Rob Connoley lives the age-old concept. He uses only foods that are seasonally grown, foraged, and preserved within a narrowly defined geographic area. He’s explored the history of the Ozarks, creating intriguing dishes that incorporate the best practices of the past. “I’m not a nostalgic person,” he says, “but I look at what people did here in the 1800s and ask, ‘Why aren’t we doing this anymore?’ Then we do it.”

3307 Washington.

READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS *WINNERS IN BOLD

BREWERY

COCKTAIL SELECTION

URBAN CHESTNUT

THE TAVERN

24-HOUR RESTAURANT

ANHEUSER-BUSCH

KITCHEN & BAR

UNCLE BILL’S

4 HANDS BREWING CO.

OLIVE + OAK

PANCAKE HOUSE

PLANTER’S HOUSE

COURTESY DINER

BRUNCH

CITY DINER

THE SHACK

COFFEEHOUSE

ROOSTER

K ALDI’S COFFEE

RUSSELL’S

RAIL COFFEE ROOM

ALFRESCO DINING

FAVAZZA’S

TOASTED COFFEE HOUSE

BILLY G’S

BURGER

BOATHOUSE

HI-POINTE DRIVE-IN

CUPCAKES

O’CONNELL’S PUB

JILLY’S CAFE AND

BAKERY/PASTRY SHOP

STACKED BURGER

CUPCAKE BAR

M c ARTHUR’S BAKERY

BAR STL

THE CUP

NATHANIEL

SARAH’S CAKE SHOP

REID BAKERY

BUSINESS LUNCH

MISSOURI BAKING CO.

CAFÉ NAPOLI

DELI

LONA’S LIL EATS

BLUES CITY DELI

BAR

ELEVEN ELEVEN

GIOIA’S DELI

HELEN FITZGERALD’S

MISSISSIPPI

MOM’S DELI

GRILL

CATERER

DESSERTS

PLANTER’S HOUSE

RUSSO’S CATERING

CLEMENTINE’S

BUTLER’S PANTRY

NAUGHTY & NICE

BBQ

THE ART OF

CREAMERY

SUGARFIRE

ENTERTAINING

CYRANO’S CAFE

THE CORNER PUB &

SMOKE HOUSE

BAILEYS’

SALT + SMOKE

CHINESE RESTAURANT

PAPPY’S SMOKEHOUSE

MAI LEE

BEER BAR

CHOCOLATE BAR

P.F. CHANG’S

DINER

LONA’S LIL EATS

SOUTHWEST DINER

URBAN CHESTNUT

COURTESY DINER

4 HANDS BREWING CO.

CHOCOLATIER

SCHLAFLY

CROWN CANDY

BOTTLEWORKS

KITCHEN

DISTILLERY

BISSINGER’S

4 HANDS BREWING CO.

K AK AO CHOCOLATE

SQUARE ONE BREWERY

BEST RESTAURANT

OLIVE + OAK

CITY DINER

& DISTILLERY

K ATIE’S PIZZA & PASTA

CIGAR BAR/SHOP

THE TAVERN

THE CIGAR CLUB AT

KITCHEN & BAR

THE RITZ-CARLTON

DOUGHNUT SHOP

THE HILL CIGAR CO.

DONUT DRIVE IN

GRAN CRÜ CIGARS

STRANGE DONUTS

BREAKFAST

THE SHACK

STILL 630 DISTILLERY

WORLD’S FAIR DONUTS

SOUTHWEST DINER

FARMERS’ MARKET

UNCLE BILL’S

SOULARD

FINE-DINING RESTAURANT

PANCAKE HOUSE

TOWER GROVE

ANNIE GUNN’S

KIRK WOOD

CHARLIE GITTO’S ON THE HILL SIDNEY STREET CAFÉ

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FARM-TO-TABLE

GLUTEN-FREE MENU

MARTINI

SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

TACOS

RESTAURANT

THE SHACK

BAILEYS’

THE PEACEMAKER

MISSION TACO JOINT

OLIVE + OAK

THE CORNER

CHOCOLATE BAR

LOBSTER & CRAB

SEOUL TACO

FARMHAUS

PUB & GRILL

SUB ZERO VODK A BAR

BROADWAY

TAQUERIA EL BRONCO

ROOSTER

LONA’S LIL EATS

BAR LOUIE

OYSTER BAR

FIRST-DATE RESTAURANT

HAPPY HOUR

MEDITERRANEAN/GREEK

ANTHONINO’S

BAR LOUIE

RESTAURANT

TAVERNA

THE CORNER

OLYMPIA KEBOB

RESTAURANT TO TAKE

KOUNTER KULTURE

BILLY G’S

PUB & GRILL

HOUSE & TAVERNA

OUT-OF-TOWNERS

MAI LEE

VIN DE SET

HELEN FITZGERALD’S

SPIRO’S

BROADWAY

ANTHONINO’S TAVERNA

OYSTER BAR

THAI RESTAURANT

FOOD EVENT

HEALTH FOOD RESTAURANT

PAPPY’S SMOKEHOUSE

KING & I THAI

TASTE OF ST. LOUIS

CRAZY BOWLS

MEXICAN RESTAURANT

SUGARFIRE SMOKE

RESTAURANT

FOOD TRUCK FRIDAY

& WRAPS

MISSION TACO JOINT

HOUSE

FORK & STIX

FESTIVAL OF NATIONS

LULU’S LOCAL EATERY

ROSALITA’S CANTINA

LONA’S LIL EATS

EL MAGUEY

RESTAURANT

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN

SEOUL TACO

FRIED CHICKEN

MICROBREWERY

THE MELTING POT

RESTAURANT

GUERRILLA

HODAK’S

URBAN CHESTNUT

SIDNEY STREET CAFÉ

LULU’S LOCAL EATERY

STREET FOOD

SOUTHERN

4 HANDS BREWING CO.

VIN DE SET

LONA’S LIL EATS

GIOIA’S DELI

GUS’S WORLD FAMOUS

SCHLAFLY

FOOD TRUCK

FRIED CHICKEN

BRISTOL

TAKE-OUT

SEAFOOD GRILL

RESTAURANT

SAUCE ON THE SIDE

ADDIE’S THAI HOUSE ROMANTIC

LAYLA ROOFTOP BAR

NEW BAR

THREE SIXTY

VIETNAMESE RESTAURANT

VIN DE SET

ICE CREAM

THE FRISCO BARROOM

ROOFTOP BAR

MAI LEE

BRASSERIE BY NICHE

CROWN CANDY

THE CHOCOLATE PIG

MOONRISE HOTEL

PHO GRAND

LA BONNE BOUCHÉE

KITCHEN

CINDER HOUSE

VIN DE SET

LEMONGRASS

FRENCH DINING

CLEMENTINE’S

RESTAURANT

FRENCH FRIES

NAUGHTY & NICE

NIGHTCLUB

SANDWICH JOINT

LION’S CHOICE

CREAMERY

ATOMIC COWBOY

AMIGHETTI’S

WINE BAR

HI-POINTE DRIVE-IN

SERENDIPITY HOME-

HELEN FITZGERALD’S

BLUES CITY DELI

SASHA’S ON SHAW

THREE KINGS

MADE ICE CREAM

BOTTLENECK BLUES

GIOIA’S DELI

ROBUST WINE BAR

PUBLIC HOUSE

SASHA’S WINE BAR

BAR AT AMERISTAR INDIAN RESTAURANT

CASINO

SPORTS BAR

HOT DOG

HOUSE OF INDIA

SYBERG’S

WINERY

STEVE’S HOT DOGS

HIMALAYAN YETI

NEW RESTAURANT

THE CORNER

CROOKED CREEK

WOOFIE’S

EVEREST CAFÉ & BAR

LOUIE

PUB & GRILL

WINERY

YELLOWBELLY

THE POST SPORTS

CEDAR LAKE CELLARS

THE FRISCO BARROOM

BAR & GRILL

CHANDLER HILL

CARL’S DRIVE IN ITALIAN RESTAURANT FROZEN CUSTARD

FAVAZZA’S

TED DREWES

ZIA’S

PIZZA

STEAKHOUSE

FRITZ’S

CUNETTO HOUSE

DEWEY’S PIZZA

TUCKER’S PLACE

WINGS

MR. WIZARD’S

OF PASTA

IMO’S PIZZA

ANNIE GUNN’S

SYBERG’S

K ATIE’S PIZZA & PASTA

CITIZEN K ANE’S

THREE KINGS

STEAK HOUSE

PUBLIC HOUSE

VINEYARDS

MARGARITA

MISSION TACO JOINT

GOOEY BUTTER CAKE

HACIENDA

GOOEY LOUIE

SUSHI

ROSALITA’S CANTINA

M c ARTHUR’S BAKERY

DRUNKEN FISH

PARK AVENUE COFFEE

WASABI SUSHI BAR

THE CORNER PUB & GRILL

NIPPON TEI

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CULTURE & ARTS DINING & NIGHTLIFE

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GLOBAL YOUTH PRO GRAMMING

St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra

St. Louis is spoiled for choice when it comes to live music options, but there was something special about watching the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra—a partnership between the symphony, Saint Louis University, and the Association of American Voices—this season. St. Louis is the only host city in the country. Maybe that something special was Diyar Jamal, 20, a bassist, and Lawan Taha Hama Ali, 22, a violinist.

The two young musicians came to St. Louis this year from Kurdistan. 718 N. Grand.

MOST ANTICIPATED LITERARY PROJEC T

The High Low

Sure, you can write anywhere you can set up with a laptop. But a space that’s dedicated to the art form can only inspire, and coffee definitely helps. Writers and readers alike are eagerly awaiting a new offering from the Kranzberg Arts Foundation: The High Low, opening in August. It’s a library, gallery, café, and event space for storytelling, poetry, and book signings. A writers-in-residence program is also planned. kranzbergartsfoundation.org.

MUSICIAN SO GO OD, BARACK OBAMA LOVES HER

MUNY SUCCESS STORY

At the end of last year, former president Barack Obama tweeted out his Best Songs of 2018 list, and St. Louis’ own Tonina was on it for her version of “Historia de un Amor”—to which we say, respectfully: No duh. The Berklee-educated singer and bassist has a classic voice that’ll be giving goosebumps to St. Louisans, presidents, and the whole world for generations. iamtonina.com.

For one season of NBC’s singing competition The Voice, all of St. Louis was rooting for Holmes, the 14-year-old Florissant native and Muny performer with a powerhouse voice and a confidence beyond her years (we seriously swooned when she sang a duet with her idol, Voice judge Jennifer Hudson). She proved what we knew all along: The Muny is a training ground for the best and brightest in the next generation of talent. imkennedyholmes.com.

Tonina

Kennedy Holmes

VERSATILE PERFORMER

Linda Kennedy

It’s notoriously more difficult to put on a one-woman show than it is to act with a cast, which makes Kennedy’s performance of Upstream Theater’s Chef this year all the more remarkable. Kennedy’s well known on the St. Louis theater scene as both performer and coach. It was in Chef—in which she plays a prison cook…no, a prisoner who is a cook…make that a fine-dining chef in prison—that we saw her command the stage and reveal layers and layers of her character in a way few others can.

Photography by Jessica Page, Henry Trihn, courtesy of Kennedy Holmes

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ORIGINAL SERIES

Smoke City

Cami Thomas, who grew up in Florissant and went to high school in Ladue, has been translating two very different versions of St. Louis all her life.

Her web series, Smoke City, continues the conversation. In it, Thomas visits various neighborhoods and interviews their residents, painting a picture of a city navigating its own beauty and tension. ftctvofficial.com.

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CU U LT LT U UR RE E& &A A RT RT S S C

CHANGING OF THE GUARD There’s never been a better time to see a show at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Shakespeare Festival, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, or the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, because new talent— Andrew Jorgensen at the opera, Tom Ridgely at the Shakespeare Festival, Hana Sharif at The Rep, and Stéphane Denève at the symphony—have taken over these arts institutions, and they’ve already started making their marks. Ridgely and the Festival’s Shakespeare in the Streets program will present SFSTL’s first urban-rural production, based on stories from Normandy, Missouri, and Brussels, Illinois, in September. Denève’s inaugural season will be celebrating the connections between France and the United States with classics by Gershwin, Ravel, and Saint-Saëns and works by newer voices, including Adams, Higdon, Puts, Kernis, and Connesson. This year, Jorgensen’s New Works, Bold Voices series includes Fire Shut Up in My Bones, based on a memoir by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. Sharif ’s tenure only began in June, but we can’t wait to see what new works, new perspectives, and new talent she brings to the stage.

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ORIGINAL WORK

The Black Rep’s Canfield Drive

ANTICIPATED

At its best, theater provokes us to examine ourselves and our world with fresh eyes. And what’s more worth a (painful) look than racism and our complicated responses to it? The Black Rep commissioned a work to sort through the still-raw fallout from the killing of black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson in 2014. Canfield Drive’s emotional punch comes in the form of two journalists covering the subsequent events through different lenses. 6662 Olive.

SECOND COLLEC TION

Justin Phillip Reed

Reed blazed onto the poetry scene with his National Book Award–winning volume Indecency in 2018, following his 2016 chapbook A History of Flamboyance. The self-described “three-time high school expellee” received an MFA in poetry from Washington University.

His poems run sex and sexuality, race, and literary allusion through his muscular and invigorating verses. A follow-up, The Malevolent Volume, is set for a spring 2020 release. justin phillipreed.com.

LO CAL COMEDIAN

Rafe Williams

If you’ve been to The Improv Shop, you’ve probably seen Williams—either generously “yes, and”-ing fellow improvisers or convulsing the room during one of his hilarious solo sets featuring his earthy takes on life. When Nashville label 800 Pound Gorilla came calling to record his first album, he persuaded them to do it at The Improv Shop. rafewilliams.com.

BLO CKBUSTER ART EXHIBIT TRAILBLAZING PHOTO GRAPHER

Jess T. Dugan

Dugan’s intimate portraits delve into a dizzying array of private worlds. The work examines gender and identity, and the mindfulness that goes into the relationships Dugan forges with her subjects is obvious in the raw access they provide.

Her groundbreaking work with aging transgender and gender-nonconforming people, To Survive on This Shore—on which she worked with Vanessa Fabbre, a social worker and assistant professor at Wash.

U.—gives voice and visibility to living history. jessdugan.com.

Photography by Matt Marcinkowski, courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum, The Big Muddy Dance Company

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SLAM’s ‘Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis’

In most of the country, Wiley is known for painting the official portrait of Barack Obama, but here, he’s known for creating an exhibition of his classically posed large-scale portraits with city residents as models.

The show, at the Saint Louis Art Museum, was a love letter to our city—and the feeling was mutual. 1 Fine Arts.

MOST ST. LOUIS DANCE PERFORMANCE EVER

The Big Muddy Dance Company’s Lemp Legends: A Ghost Story

Dance can be captivating, but it’s even better when it’s entertaining...and more interesting when it involves ghosts. Enter The Big Muddy Dance Company, in particular this year’s performance of Lemp Legends: A Ghost Story, which told the tale of St. Louis’ most tragic and mysterious family while steering clear of tabloid salaciousness. thebigmuddydanceco.org.

NEW PRO GRAMMING

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis’ In the Works

Audiences have never been able to get enough of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis—we’ve got a thing for the Bard. Productions in Forest Park and the streets have paved the way for the festival’s most ambitious project yet: In the Works presents contemporary American plays inspired by Shakespeare’s beloved classics, kicking off with Into the Breeches! We can’t wait to see what this season will bring. sfstl.com.

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C U LT U R E & A RT S

D O CUMENTARY

VIDEO GAME COMPANY

Jane Gillooly’s impressionistic look at segregation in North County, Where the Pavement Ends, was originally conceived as a historical examination of the literal roadblock separating all-black Kinloch from formerly all-white Ferguson and how Kinloch was hollowed out by an airport noise-abatement program.

During research, though, Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson, and the film became as much about the present as about the past. janegillooly.com.

Here’s something we’d never seen before: a video game that flashes “made in STL” while loading. But it was a must for homegrown video game developer Matt Raithel and his video game company, Graphite Lab, in designing the Metroid- and Contra-inspired Hive Jump. “I think the thing that I’m most proud of with the game is that it was an original concept that grew here in St. Louis,” he says.

Luckily, the space marines and alien menace are not based on anything here. graphitelab.com.

Graphite Lab

Where the Pavement Ends

CREATIVE HIVE

MADE

Where can you laser-cut, 3-D print, sew, screenprint, and try your hand at wood- and metalwork—or at least take a starter class for the makercurious—all in one place?

The MADE maker space. Open the door to the 100-year-old brick building on Delmar and watch the place buzz not only with the whirr of machines but also with the energy of ideas and collaboration by St. Louis artists, entrepreneurs, and designers. 5127 Delmar.

AC TIVIST INITIATIVE

projects + gallery’s For Freedoms ART GALLERY THAT’S NOT REALLY AN ART GALLERY

Angad Arts Hotel

To spend a night at the Angad is like being transported to a Soho gallery with comfy beds. The boutique hotel boasts rooms in four poppy color motifs— red, blue, green, yellow; choose based on your mood—with edgy murals painted by four local artists. Even if you’re just stopping by for a drink on the terrace (seriously, the view), you’ll get to enjoy the rotating gallery of local art in the Chameleon Lounge. 3550 Samuel Shepard.

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ANTICIPATED EXHIBIT

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

St. Louis keeps raising the bar when it comes to powerhouse art exhibits, and the Kemper at Washington University is getting in on the action when it reopens after a renovation and expansion with “Ai Weiwei: Bare Life.” Starting September 28, visitors will be able to take in around three dozen pieces of the Chinese activist’s artwork—sculptures, installations, and more—relating to the refugee crisis and China’s cultural legacy. kemperart museum.wustl.edu.

Two months before the 2018 midterm elections, a series of billboards popped up along I-44 and I-70. “Ride, walk, drive, march, vote,” one read. “All Lies Matter,” blared another.

Organized here by projects + gallery (as part of a 50-state initiative), the activation—titled For Freedoms after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s idea of four universal freedoms—and corresponding exhibition were meant to start a dialogue about elections, art, race, and more.

What they gave us: a new way of encouraging people to talk about politics. 4733 McPherson.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts, courtesy of Angad Arts Hotel Forever Bicycles, 2011, courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.

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READERS’ CHOICE AWARDS *WINNERS IN BOLD

BOWLING ALLEY

DRIVING RANGE

HISTORICAL SITE

PARADE

PIN-UP BOWL

TOPGOLF

GRANT ’S FARM

ST. PATRICK’S DAY

ACTOR

SARATOGA LANES

FAMILY GOLF &

GATEWAY ARCH

PARADE IN DOGTOWN

JOHN GOODMAN

TROPICANA LANES

LEARNING CENTER

NATIONAL PARK

SOULARD MARDI GRAS

THE FALLS GOLF CLUB

CAHOKIA MOUNDS

GRAND PARADE

STATE HISTORIC SITE

PRIDEFEST

JON HAMM STERLING K. BROWN

CASINO

AMERISTAR CASINO

DOG-FRIENDLY PARK

ACTRESS

RESORT SPA

FOREST PARK

K ARAOKE

PARK: BESIDES

JENNA FISCHER

ST. CHARLES

CASTLEWOOD

DOUBLE D K ARAOKE

FOREST PARK

ELLIE KEMPER

LUMIÈRE PLACE

STATE PARK

FIREHOUSE

TOWER GROVE PARK

NADJA K APETANOVICH

CASINO & HOTELS

TOWER GROVE PARK

BAR & GRILL

CREVE COEUR LAKE

JO’S 5TH STREET PUB

MEMORIAL PARK

RIVER CITY CASINO ART FAIR/FESTIVAL

& HOTEL

ART ON THE SQUARE

PERE MARQUETTE

FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL

MOVIE THEATER

STATE PARK

SAINT LOUIS ART FAIR

COMEDIAN

OF NATIONS

RONNIE’S THEATER

ART FAIR AT LAUMEIER

TIM CONVY

FAIR SAINT LOUIS

HI-POINTE THEATRE

RECORD STORE

SCULPTURE PARK

RAFE WILLIAMS

FESTIVAL OF

AMC STREETS OF

VINTAGE VINYL

TINA DYBAL

THE LITTLE HILLS

ST. CHARLES 8

EUCLID RECORDS

THIRD DEGREE GLASS

COMEDY VENUE

FREE MUSIC SERIES

MUSEUM: ARTS

FACTORY

FUNNY BONE

WHITAKER

SAINT LOUIS ART

THEATER

ART SAINT LOUIS

HELIUM COMEDY CLUB

MUSIC FESTIVAL

MUSEUM

FOX THEATRE

MAD ART GALLERY

THE PAGEANT

CHESTERFIELD

CONTEMPORARY ART

THE MUNY

AMPHITHEATER’S

MUSEUM ST. LOUIS

THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF ST. LOUIS

RECORD EXCHANGE

ART GALLERY

AUTHOR

CONCERT VENUE

SOUNDS OF SUMMER

PULITZER ARTS

JOHN O’LEARY

FOX THEATRE

CONCERT SERIES

FOUNDATION

VICTORIA L. SZULC

THE PAGEANT

BLUES AT THE ARCH

CURTIS SITTENFELD

HOLLYWOOD CASINO AMPHITHEATRE

BAND: COVER

THEATER GROUP MUSEUM: NON-ARTS

SHAKESPEARE

GOLF COURSE

CITY MUSEUM

FESTIVAL ST. LOUIS

BELLERIVE

MISSOURI

STAGES ST. LOUIS STRAY DOG THEATRE

EL MONSTERO

CRAFTS FESTIVAL

COUNTRY CLUB

HISTORY MUSEUM

SUPERJAM

FESTIVAL OF THE

FOREST PARK

SAINT LOUIS SCIENCE

CONTAGIOUS

LITTLE HILLS

GOLF COURSE

CENTER

KIMMSWICK APPLE

ANNBRIAR

BAND: ORIGINAL

BUTTER FESTIVAL

GOLF COURSE

THE URGE

BEST OF MISSOURI

COMMON JONES

MARKET

GREEK FIRE

VISUAL ARTIST

CBABI BAYOC MUSICAL ARTIST: FEMALE

ZACK SMITHEY

ERIN BODE

K AT REYNOLDS

HIKING SPOT

KENNEDY HOLMES

CASTLEWOOD

EMILY WALLACE

WEEKEND GETAWAY

PERE MARQUETTE

DANCE CLUB/BAR

STATE PARK

BAR TRIVIA

HELEN FITZGERALD’S

PERE MARQUETTE

MUSICAL ARTIST: MALE

STATE PARK

SYBERG’S

ATOMIC COWBOY

STATE PARK

ERIC LYSAGHT

LAKE OF THE OZARKS

FUZZY’S TACO

RYSE NIGHTCLUB

ELEPHANT ROCKS

STEVE EWING

NASHVILLE

STATE PARK

JAVIER MENDOZA

MIKE DUFF Y’S PUB & GRILL

DJ

DJ TONY PATRICO BIKING SPOT

DJ FISH

K ATY TRAIL

DJ NUNE

FOREST PARK GRANT ’S TRAIL

Photography by John Smith

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Photography by Dru Wallace, courtesy of Topgolf

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V I S I O N A RY AWARD

FOR LOVE OF THE GAME

In some ways, Jim Kavanaugh’s entire life has led to this moment. The Blues co-owner has watched the team reach the Stanley Cup for the first time since he was a boy growing up in a blue-collar family. The company he co-founded, World Wide Technology, is about to turn 30 and has doubled down on its investment in the community, building a state-of-the-art headquarters in Maryland Heights and an industrial facility in Edwardsville. And since teaming up with the Taylor family, including Enterprise Holdings Foundation president Carolyn Kindle Betz, he hopes to bring a Major League Soccer team to town. If the former soccer pro were to write a business book, we’re guessing these might be among the takeaways.

“The Blues exemplified it this year,” says Kavanaugh, who invested in the team alongside other locals (including Enterprise chair Andy Taylor) in 2012. Personally, he’s seen the payoff of perseverance. The son of a bricklayer, Kavanaugh earned a soccer scholarship to SLU. He went on to play in the Pan Am Games, on the 1984 Olympic team, and as a pro. In the late ’80s, after hanging up his cleats, he joined forces with David Steward, and they co-founded a company with a rather ambitious name.

1. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF DETERMINATION.

2. SET AMBITIOUS GOALS. Five years ago, under Kavanaugh’s leader-

ship, the St. Louis Scott Gallagher Soccer Club acquired a United Soccer League team, Saint Louis FC. Last fall, the club clinched a playoff spot for the first time. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh has worked tirelessly to bring an MLS team to town. After city voters narrowly rejected an earlier proposal to help fund a soccer stadium, Kavanaugh received an unexpected invitation last spring to meet with Taylor to discuss a new bid, this time with significantly more private financing. Kavanaugh says he was “incredibly, brutally honest” with Taylor about the potential challenges. Undeterred, Taylor and his family pressed forward, forming the MLS4TheLou ownership group alongside Kavanaugh.

If MLS4TheLou wins its bid for an expansion team, it would be the league’s first majority women-led club. Kavanaugh is thrilled at the prospect: “It creates a better community and world.” Likewise, putting people from all walks of life in positions to succeed is a cornerstone at World Wide Technology, the nation’s largest African-American–owned business and a constant presence on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. 3. KNOW YOUR VALUES.

WWT offers employees an extra day of paid time off, a Day of Caring, to encourage giving back. Personally, Kavanaugh has supported St. Patrick Center, the ALS Association, Toys for Tots, Junior Achievement, the United Way, and the American Cancer Society, agreeing to shave his head if employees raised more than $500,000. Sales of those blue, red, and yellow soccer scarves and caps helped generate a $50K donation to the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club, and the MLS4TheLou team is looking for other ways to provide opportunities to students in underserved communities, he says. “Soccer can teach kids of all walks of life good habits,” Kavanaugh says. “Discipline, rigor, work ethic, teamwork...” He’s lived it.

4. KEEP IT IN PERSPECTIVE.

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Photography by Ashley Gieseking, courtesy of HOK

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Photography by John Smith

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SHOPPING, SERVICE & WELLNESS DINING & NIGHTLIFE

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FASHION IMPORTS

Merch CBD -INFUSED SPA TREATMENTS

The Spa at Hotel Saint Louis

“No, you don’t get high,” a massage therapist told us when we tried the spa’s most interesting service: the CBD Infused Signature Massage. Embrace tranquility as the oil is massaged into your back. You can also choose to have it brushed onto your face before an electrotherapy tool gently pulses low electric currents through your skin, purportedly to combat acne, scarring, and hyperpigmentation while replenishing your skin with oxygen. 705 Olive.

KIDS’ CLOTHING STORE

Honeycomb

Owners Zoë Kaemmerer and Angela Giancola understand children and parents—Giancola once managed a daycare in Washington, D.C., and has two children of her own—and they designed their Botanical Heights store to allow kids to play while their parents shop.

The store stocks sustainably made toys, gifts, and unisex clothing designed to be passed down from one kiddo to the next. 1641B Tower Grove.

WINNING WORKOUTS

PLNK STL

After the success of the handson fitness studio’s original location (1560 S. Lindbergh), PLNK opened a second location in the CWE (4647 Lindell).

Owner Brooke Meek says the chain’s now looking to expand to Chesterfield. What’s so compelling about the 50-minute workout? The Lagree Method, a high-intensity, low-impact workout on a Megaformer machine that combines cardio strength, core, flexibility, and balance. plnkstl.com.

Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

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Saint Louis Fashion Fund cofounders Susan Sherman and Tania Beasley-Jolly are bringing global brands to town, with plenty of merch in tow, in what the two have likened to Tupperware parties. In April, a polo lounge–styled pop-up featured Mansur Gavriel. Next up, Merch hosts Proenza Schouler designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. themerchstl.com.

PERSONALIZED PRODUC TS

Gin & Kin

Sisters Emily Duddy and Jenny Chao specialize in all things monogrammed. They named their shop after their grandmother Ginny, whose sewing, crocheting, and embroidery wisdom led the two to open the DeMun shop last August.

Choose from 34 color threads, six embroidery fonts, and 12 fonts that can be stitched into everything from handkerchiefs to throws. 6334 N. Rosebury.

ON-TREND NAIL SALON

Tints Polish

The Ladue salon’s atmosphere is as on-trend as its color selections. Sip coffee or wine while getting a fresh coat on your nails. Beyond the à la carte menu, you can choose from a membership level, from one mani and pedi per month to unlimited color swaps.

10281 Clayton.

NEW GIFT SHOP

David Kent Richardson

DKR Interior’s David Kent Richardson playfully dubs his shop on The Hill “the gift collection of a high-class hoarder.”

The shop is a curated, mystifying, and eclectic ensemble of the unexpected, with an everrevolving door of treasures.

1923 Marconi.

FLORAL DELIVERY

Rudy’s Flower Truck

On almost any given day, you might spot the vintage blue truck with a bedful of eucalyptus, snapdragon, and peonies doing deliveries or at pop-ups outside local coffee shops and brunch spots. As owner Brittany Sarhage says: “It’s not every day you’re going to be able to come up to a 1958 Jeep truck and purchase flowers.

Nobody else in the country has a truck like ours.” rudysflower truck.com.

PRE-LOVED GARMENTS

The Golden Fig

Owner Sarah-Marie Land curates her 600-square-foot Midtown shop by color, with pre-loved steals ranging from French brands (Comptoir des Cotonniers, Claudie Pierlot) to vintage garments—including some she’d like to see in her own closet. “One of my favorite pieces were these beautiful French leather loafers,” says Land. “I wouldn’t have been able to squeeze into them. Otherwise, I would have kept them for myself.” 3041 Olive.

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S H O P P I N G, SERVICE & WELLN E S S

FRESH RETAIL IDEA

C. Oliver Coffee + Flower Bar

Looking for a fresh start to your day? Check out the former Orbit Pinball Lounge space in downtown Maplewood, where co-owners Olivia Medina and Alyssa Schuler are opening a coffeehouse–meets–floral shop.

(The moniker pulls from Medina’s former café at her church and Schuler’s father’s first initial.) The concept includes coffee drinks, treats from Great Harvest Bread Company, and fresh handmade bouquets.

7401 Hazel.

PERSONALIZED SKINCARE

Lark Skin Co.

At one time, Lisa Dolan struggled to find skincare products that she felt were safe and luxurious. So last year, she opened a brick-and-mortar filled with them, and within months the shop had expanded to accommodate facial appointments. At the Ritual Bar, customers can pick up personalized products: custom clay masks, facial oils, body oils… The store also stocks toners with witch hazel, Vitamin C serums, and CBD products.

The bestseller? A coconut oil– based multi-use balm, the first product that Dolan created.

8709 Big Bend.

MAKING MOVES Local boutiques are sprouting up and expanding in new spots, making for endless shopping strolls. This spring, St. Louis– inspired Arch Apparel (2335 S. Hanley) opened its first brickand-mortar, where crowds swarmed for “Play Gloria” playoff tees. Naked Boot & Shoe expanded beyond Webster, opening a Chesterfield location (1590 Clarkson). MOD On Trend recently opened its sixth location in Town and Country (1192 Town and Country), and Leopard Boutique (7407 Manchester) rolled out its third location in downtown Maplewood this past November.

And, vintage store May’s Place relocated to The Grove (4180 Manchester) from Ivanhoe Avenue.

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Photography courtesy of Lark Skin Co., May’s Place

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S H O P P I N G, SERVICE & WELLN E S S

READERS‘ CHOICE AWARDS *WINNERS IN BOLD

DEPARTMENT STORE

GYM

NEW BOUTIQUE

NORDSTROM

BURN BOOT CAMP

CIVIL ALCHEMY

ACTIVEWEAR

T.J. MAXX

FORWARD FITNESS

MOD

ALPINE SHOP

KOHL’S

TRUFUSION

LEOPARD BOUTIQUE–

EVENT VENUE

HAIR SALON

LULULEMON ATHLETA

MAPLEWOOD WINDOWS

SALON ONE SIX ONE

OUTDOOR/CAMPING STORE

BARBER SHOP

ON WASHINGTON

STUDIO BRANCA

ALPINE SHOP

THE BOULEVARD

WILD CARROT

THE BOULEVARD

REI

HAIR CO.

BARNETT

HAIR CO.

BASS PRO SHOPS

UNION BARBERSHOP

ON WASHINGTON

NOTCH

HEALTH &

PET BOUTIQUE

EYEGLASS STORE

FITNESS CLUB

TREATS UNLEASHED

BED & BREAKFAST

KIRK WOOD

BURN BOOT CAMP

THE WAGAMAMA

HOEFEL HAUS B&B

EYE ASSOCIATES

FORWARD FITNESS

FOUR MUDDY PAWS

AND BIKE HOSTEL

EYEWEARHAUS

PLNK STL

THREE DOG BAKERY (TIE)

TUXEDO PARK STL BED

CLARKSON EYECARE

& BREAKFAST INN

JEWELER

SHOE STORE

FASHION ACCESSORIES

LINDWEDEL JEWELERS

LAURIE’S SHOES

PAPERDOLLS

DIAMONDS DIRECT

BIG RIVER RUNNING

BIKE SHOP

BOUTIQUE

GENOVESE JEWELERS

COMPANY

BIG SHARK BICYCLE

CIVIL ALCHEMY

COMPANY

LUSSO

LEMP MANSION

ALPINE SHOP

FLEET FEET MANICURE/ PEDICURE

SPECIALTY FITNESS

FLORIST

CLAYTON NAIL SPA

BURN BOOT CAMP

WALTER KNOLL

BEAUTIFUL NAILS

BARRE 3

BOOKSTORE

FLORIST

GINGER BAY

FORWARD FITNESS

LEFT BANK BOOKS

FLOWERS & WEEDS

SALON & SPA

THE NOVEL NEIGHBOR

KIRK WOOD FLORIST

MAPLEWOOD BICYCLE

SPIN STUDIO MED SPA

CYCLEBAR

FURNITURE STORE

SYNERGI MEDSPA

STEEL WHEELS

BOXING CLUB

CAROL HOUSE

ALL FOR YOU MEDSPA

TRUFUSION

TITLE BOXING CLUB

FURNITURE

SKINBE MED SPA

SWEAT

MITCHELL GOLD +

9ROUND

BOB WILLIAMS

MEN’S CLOTHING

BOUTIQUE

STASH HOME

BOUTIQUE

PAPERDOLLS

ARCH APPAREL

BOUTIQUE

THE BOOK HOUSE

CLOTHING RESALE STORE

WOMEN’S CLOTHING

THE VAULT

FURNITURE/HOME

EAST + WEST

LEOPARD BOUTIQUE

LUXURY RESALE

ACCESSORIES

MISTER GUY THE

THE VAULT

REFRESH

RESALE STORE

MEN’S STORE

LUXURY RESALE

SAVERS

MIRIAM SWITCHING POST

YOGA STUDIO

DAY SPA

FANTASTIC FINDS

OMTURTLEYOGA & SPA

THE SPA AT

GOODWILL

NAMASTE YOGA STUDIO

FOUR SEASONS

SUMITS HOT YOGA

HOTEL ST. LOUIS

GIFT SHOP

GINGER BAY

SAMMYSOAP

SALON & SPA

CHRISTOPHER’S

ARA SPA AT

CAT ’S MEOW

ST. LOUIS

AMERISTAR CASINO

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Photography courtesy of Civil Alchemy, Arch Apparel

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A Volcano Awakens • A City Vanishes

Members Enjoy Discount Tickets

POMPEII: THE EXHIBITION examines the lives of residents of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii before and after the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

Multi-media recreations of a market, a temple, a theater and baths reveal how the people of Pompeii lived, worked, worshipped and found entertainment.

The 4D Eruption Theater recreates the catastrophic power of Vesuvius with an immersive experience of vivid sights, sounds and shaking ground.

Casts of the volcano’s victims reveal the tragic human devastation of the sudden disaster that destroyed Pompeii.

POMPEII: THE EXHIBITION & VOLCANOES OMNIMAX® Combo

THE FIRES of CREATION

Enjoy discounted tickets when you combine POMPEII: THE EXHIBITION and VOLCANOES: THE FIRES of CREATION at the OMNIMAX® Theater.

SPONSORED BY:

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ENTERTAINMENT & AMUSEMENTS DINING & NIGHTLIFE

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NEW FAMILY ATTRAC TION

Play Street Museum NATURAL ADDITION

Forest Park’s Forthcoming Natural Playscape

It isn’t what you might imagine.

There won’t be plastic swings or slides. Instead, the 17-acre play area, slated to open next year, will comprise all-natural materials and span a range of ecological areas: a spring, a wetland, a meadow… Located between the World’s Fair Pavilion and the Jewel Box, the area is intended to encourage kids to embrace the outdoors while restoring the park’s natural habitat. It’s a timely idea. forestparkforever.org.

NEW AMERICANA BAND

Elliott Pearson and The Passing Lane

Last fall, the band released its debut three-song EP, Devil’s Paradise, and kicked off a tour across the heartland.

The group—comprising experienced local musicians Pearson, Dylan Doughty, Ian Daugherty, and Jeremy Reidy—might best be described as delivering Americana with a heavy dose of country, a tinge of rock, and no shortage of heartfelt lyrics. facebook.com/the passinglanestl.

PARTY BAND

Vote for Pedro

Perhaps not coincidentally, the band was formed just a few years after Napoleon Dynamite hit theaters, but the eclectic setlists continue to evolve. Lydia Caesar, Jeff Faulkner, Chris Bosslet, Jamie Perryman, and Paul Kriege perform old-school classics (Kool & The Gang, Aretha Franklin, Prince) and modern hits (The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor), keeping the party going for more than a decade. vote4pedro.net.

Photography courtesy of St. Louis Aquarium

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The Streets of St. Charles’ new play area is a perfect pint-size destination. At the 2,400-square-foot children’s museum, kids can pretend in a small-scale town, complete with a mini restaurant, vet’s office, grocery store, and fire truck.

They can also play with games and toys, and make crafts. Visit the museum’s website (play streetmuseum.com) to look for special events, such as Mommy & Me Yoga and SensoryFriendly Playtime. 1650 Beale, St. Charles.

ANTICIPATED ATTRAC TION HO OPS STAR

Napheesa Collier

The stats are staggering. In her senior year at UConn, Collier averaged 20.9 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while shooting better than 60 percent from the field. The Incarnate Word grad ranked third in scoring, fourth in rebounds, and seventh in blocks in her college career.

This year, she was named AAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year and led the voting for the Associated Press All-America team. Not surprisingly, she’s now playing in the WNBA. lynx.wnba.com.

St. Louis Aquarium

A train station–turned–aquarium? Yes, it’s a bold idea, but LHM has a knack for bringing fresh life to St. Louis landmarks.

Slated to open later this year, the two-story, 120,000-squarefoot aquarium will house sharks, devil rays, otters, piranha, and more. And guests can soon expect a 200-foot-tall Ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, and three restaurants, including a World’s Fair–themed gastropub, an old-fashioned soda fountain, and a family-friendly café. For downtown, it’s yet one more sign of a significant sea change.

1820 Market.

RACING REVIVAL

World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway Less than a decade ago, the Madison race track sat empty, just weeks from being sold, when former racer Curtis Francois bought the track. He’s since worked tirelessly to revive it, bringing back IndyCar and NASCAR. Even larger plans are in store, with new sponsor World Wide Technology planning new STEAM initiatives, technology, and diversity initiatives. 700 Raceway, Madison, Illinois.

PLACE TO TIDE YOU OVER AS YOU WAIT ON THE AQUARIUM

City Museum’s Artquarium

St. Louisans eager to see the 10-times-larger Union Station aquarium can get a preview of the life aquatic with a visit to the whimsical second-floor aquarium inside City Museum. The 11,000-square-foot Artquarium’s offerings include enormous sculptures of a crab and “septopus” (remember Hank in Finding Dory?), as well as actual sea creatures swimming in tanks surrounded by slides and tunnels. 750 N. 16th.

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E N T E RTA I N MEN T & AM USEM EN T S

LO CAL POD CAST

Who Raised You?

Treasure Shields Redmond and Karen (Jia Lian) Yang’s podcast asks a simple question with a not-so-simple answer. Each episode is intended to “explore how culture, family, and intersecting identities pave our way toward liberation.” Sometimes, that means taking a look at how poetry helps grade-schoolers from opposite sides of the Delmar divide understand each other; others, it’s talking about race, religion, and sexuality. The podcast weaves relaxed conversations with deeper truths. whoraisedyoupodcast.com.

OVERDUE EXPANSION

Fitz’s SoCo

No place in St. Louis bottles up nostalgia like Fitz’s. Watching the vintage bottling line at the flagship Delmar Loop location is almost as much a rite of passage for young St. Louisans as visiting The Magic House or Grant’s Farm. Not coincidentally, when owner Michael Alter decided to expand, he chose family-friendly South County.

The centerpiece of the new location: a dairy bar, where soda jerks serve up floats, shakes, and (natch) bottomless mugs of root beer. 5244 S. Lindbergh.

ROLE MODEL This summer, Becky Sauerbrunn and Team USA aim to take home the World Cup once again, as they did in 2015, during the mostwatched soccer match in U.S. history. But the St. Louis native’s also a star off the pitch, using her platform to fight for equal airtime and pay. She recently appeared in Adidas’ She Breaks Barriers campaign to raise visibility for women’s sports, and she and her teammates filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation advocating for equal pay. “We wanted to be as visible as possible because we know that in sports and in other work areas all across the world, there are women who are being paid less for the same quality of work,” she says. “That’s something we feel is worth the time and energy.” ussoccer.com.

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CREATIVE PARTNERSHIP

The Magic House @ MADE

It’s fitting that the beloved children’s museum, where hands-on educational activities abound, would open its first satellite location in a maker space. The new 7,000-squarefoot shop offers all the tools necessary for a businessminded tyke: a maker workshop, an art studio, a design lab, and an entrepreneurial marketplace. 5127 Delmar.

Photography by Brad Smith/isiphotos.com

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THANK YOU

Alla Tsank

FOR VOTING

2019 Best of Show

BEST ART FAIR

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Photography by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via AP Images, courtesy of St. Louis Cardinals, Andy Cohen

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KE © Ke N

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

KETEL ONE BOTANICAL. Made With Vodka Distilled With Real Botanicals And Infused With Natural Flavors. 30% Alc/Vol. © Double Eagle Brands, B.V. Imported by Ketel One USA, Aliso Viejo, CA. Ketel One Botanical (per 1.5oz.): 73 Cals, 0g Carbs, 0g Protein, 0g Fat; White Table Wine (per 5 fl. oz., USDA ARS, National Nutrient Database May 2016): 121 Cals, 3.82 Carbs, 0.1g Protein, 0g Fat.

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WHERE IS THE LAW? TECHNOLOGY’S CHANGING SO FAST, THE LEGAL SYSTEM IS RACING TO CATCH UP.

BY JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

- W HIRLIN G GIG S -

Saint Louis University law professor Miriam Cherry spent last year at the United Nations, probing the ethical challenges of tech-based multinational crowdwork—in other words, anything “done by a large group of people on open call on a tech platform.” If I’d hired somebody in Mumbai to transcribe the tape of this interview, it would be considered crowdwork, which has become a huge part of the gig economy.

Decades ago, such workers’ counterparts might have been day laborers sitting around waiting for a big job or women at home doing piecework. Today, some argue, its tech platform makes crowdwork entirely different from those earlier forms, but Cherry sees many of the same opportunities for exploitation.

Since the Industrial Revolution, labor and employment laws have layered in protections for the worker—but these protections are all predicated on a steady job in a physical workplace. What happens when people are trying to cobble together a living working long hours at one or two or three flexible jobs and they’re injured or need benefits? “A judge in Italy said these workers are definitely independent contractors,” says Cherry, “because the worker gets to decide when he or she works. The U.K. said, ‘Hey, they look to us more like employees.’ Belgium says they are employees.”

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Here, the response has generally been “You’re an independent contractor; you’re on your own.” And in civil suits that could’ve resolved this issue for all of us, companies (among them Uber and Lyft) have settled out of court instead.

Nor are these employers willing to turn over HR data—they say it has value to them; they could sell this information. So it’s anybody’s guess how the gig economy is affecting the U.S. unemployment rate and other economic measures.

One thing’s sure, Cherry says: “Crowdwork doesn’t map that well onto the old system.” Gig labor is the new Wild West.

- FU NNY MONEY -

First money was gold, then green, then invisible. Now it’s sometimes cryptocurrency—Bitcoin and the like—and the law must respond. “The big change will not necessarily be with Bitcoin and other digital transactions,” says Michael Kahn, senior counsel at Capes Sokol, “but with the concept on which it’s all based: blockchain technology.”

Kahn explains blockchain as “an open ledger of information that can be used to record and track any sort of transaction,” not just cryptocurrencies. “A global network of computers is creating this public ledger, a database in which every transaction can be traced.” The technology’s brilliant, he says, and its potential uses are only now becoming apparent. “It’s

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how people may enter into contracts; it can track the use of what’s protected by a copyright license. A lot of what’s caused Facebook and other social media such headaches wouldn’t happen with blockchain, because everything would be verified first—instantly.

Because the data can’t be copied or corrupted, “banks are suddenly getting interested,” Kahn says. Investors are buying in. Law practices are adding blockchain as a specialization. “And nobody really knows exactly where this is headed—except that five years from now, we’ll be as familiar with blockchain as we are with Google.”

AIRING IT OUT A LOCAL LOOK AT ENVIRONMENTAL LAW UNDER THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

- T H E E N D OF P O RN PRO SECU T IO N -

“I know it when I see it,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart once said, sidestepping a more definitive categorization of hardcore pornography. Disputes over what qualified as obscenity had long plagued the highest court of the land.

“Every time one of these porno films got up to the Supreme Court, they’d go down to the viewing room with their clerks, and they would vote,” Kahn says, chuckling. “Thurgood Marshall, who was a character, used to sit up in the top row and crack off-color jokes to drive the chief justice crazy. In desperation, they came up with a standard.”

The case was Miller v. California, a landmark 1973 decision that changed the definition of obscenity from that of “utterly without socially redeeming value” to that which lacks “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

That left plenty of room for argument—but now that whole swath of legal dispute has been washed away by the internet. “The grossest possible stuff became available to everyone,” Kahn explains. “There are still people out there railing against it, mainly from the pulpit, but there are no more prosecutions.”

First, porn is so prevalent, it’d be tough to make criminal charges stick.

Second, he notes, “one of the elements of this obscenity test was that you had to prove it was patently offensive by local community standards—and no matter where you are, everything is so available that if you’re a defense lawyer, you’re going to have a field day.”

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Many of the recent efforts to weaken various regulations seem to be “Trump trying to undo Obama for the sake of undoing Obama,” says Maxine Lipeles, director of the Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic at the Washington University School of Law. So far, the current administration hasn’t made too big a dent in 50 years of environmental law. That could change, though.

“The people at the EPA—first Scott Pruitt and now Andrew Wheeler—came in with a very specific mission of rolling back a lot of environmental law, so in a sense, that’s more of a threat,” Lipeles says.

“They have experience. Some of this they tried to do in the administration of George W. Bush and failed, and now they’re trying again.”

Lipeles’ clinic wrote a brief in support of the American Bottom Conservancy, a grassroots organization that was concerned about arsenic and other heavy metals floating out of the Veolia hazardous waste incinerators in Sauget, Illinois. “In the final days of the Obama administration, the EPA finalized an upgraded permit that required Veolia to continuously monitor which heavy metals were being released in a gaseous form,” says Lipeles, “and also do more monitoring of what kinds of waste they were feeding into this incinerator—how much arsenic, mercury, and lead. The company immediately appealed the permit, and the EPA caved.”

In the words of an EPA spokesperson: “The January 2017 permit would have required Veolia to, among other things, install and operate, for a period of at least 12 calendar months, continuous multi-metals monitoring devices on each of Veolia’s three incineration units. In July 2018, EPA proposed to no longer require the multi-metals monitoring devices in the permit.” Instead, Veolia was to install activated carbon injection systems to remove mercury emissions from the two incinerators that didn’t have those systems yet. The company said this would better protect the environment than the continuous multi-metals monitoring. Veolia would continue to monitor its metal emissions with periodic sampling and analysis.

“We are currently reviewing the many comments we received during the public comment period,” which ended in November, the spokesperson said. “EPA has not yet made a final decision on the revised permit.”

Once the agency does finalize the permit, anyone still concerned about the absence of continous multi-metals monitoring would need to file a formal petition with the agency’s Environmental Appeals Board.

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- I NVASIO N O F T HE P R I VACY SN ATCHERS -

Fifteen years ago, there wasn’t enough work in privacy law to merit more than the occasional symposium. Now privacy’s a full-fledged specialty, filling law school courses and creating jobs. Why? Because “privacy” is the catchall for the theft and manipulation of personal data that technology has made ubiquitous.

And once again, our laws haven’t caught up. “Laws are based on assumptions about the way our lives work, and technology has undermined a lot of that,” explains Neil Richards, a Wash. U. law professor who co-directs the new Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law. “Imagine if J.K. Rowling had been writing a documentary. If it turned out that there were wizards among us who could do things we couldn’t, we would regulate the use of those magical powers.”

Well, now that some of us can edit genomes or design self-driving cars or hack into the power grid or the stock market, and nearly all of us can zap images and videos across the globe in a matter of seconds or solve a riddle by asking a robot or prove an alibi with our phone’s location log…

It might be time for a little regulation.

“We need strategies at every level of society to take advantage of the magical potential of new technologies,” says Richards, “and at the same time guard against some chilling possibilities.”

Precision medicine—which can not only tailor medicines and dosages to a particular individual but also edit that individual’s genome or the genome of the cancer that’s attacking it—requires us to divulge the very sequence of our DNA. Surveillance and facial recognition cameras track our movements; consumer data collection profiles our behavior; robots will soon be serving us food and helping us with the most intimate self-care as we age. Job-stealing robots, sex robots, and killer robots already walk (or roll) among us. Yet there are precious few laws geared to this new world, let alone laws written in a way that will keep up with its constant and accelerating change.

Automation even threatens the profession of law itself. “I think privacy lawyers are OK,” Richards says dryly, “but

the others are all in trouble.” The patient review of hundreds of documents that has taught students and law clerks the intricacies of case law? All anybody needs now is a scanner and a good algorithm.

“Large chunks of our economy are going to be disrupted,” Richards continues. “Entire categories of jobs will cease to exist—and we should not expect lawmakers to wave a wand and immediately produce laws that will solve our problems.” It took us more than a century to accumulate laws that made the Industrial Revolution’s mass-produced goods and automobiles safer and protect the workers who assembled them, he points out—and we’re not done yet.

The Information Revolution is changing society far faster, and making laws that will remain responsive as technology evolves “requires a consensus about the right way to respond. If we’re concerned about losing jobs, do we ban self-driving long-haul trucks? Do we mandate retraining for their drivers?

Or do we just say that the free market has spoken?”

Tech is blowing open a million possibilities. Once we put our genomes into a database, what happens when they’re required for citizenship applications or employment health screenings? If somebody orders a sex robot customdesigned to look like his neighbor’s wife, is that an invasion of her privacy? If the robot is able to learn and make decisions, does it have any rights?

“Some fine-grained regulation is going to be necessary,” Richards says quietly.

He suggests flexible standards rather than specific rigid rules. “Our legal system is a combination of the two. And when it comes to changing technologies,

“WE NEED STRATEGIES AT EVERY LEVEL OF SOCIETY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE MAGICAL POTENTIAL OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES.”

standards work better.” For example, the Fourth Amendment sets a standard that protects all citizens from “unreasonable searches and seizures” without probable cause. There’s a rule that allows police to access data from cellphone companies, but that rule didn’t foresee a time when all your location information would be logged on your phone. The standard would require police to have a warrant to obtain that data rather than handing them a carte blanche ability to track anyone’s movements for years at a stretch.

“Another strategy would be to regulate social practices” rather than products or devices, Richards says. “We regulate video rentals, not video tapes.

The form of delivery changed to streaming, but the basic social activity of watching a movie in the privacy of your own home has not changed.”

When it comes to a change as profound as editing the genome of an unborn child, though, we’ll need to think a lot harder, he says: “What level are we going to allow?

The prevention of hereditary disease?

The creation of a superhuman?”

If he could wave his wand, what single law would he write? “I’d produce a generally applicable baseline consumer privacy law for the U.S. Every other industrialized democracy in the world has one.” If we had meaningful privacy protection, the rest of the world would trust us to trade personal information across borders, creating genomic databases that can unlock cures to devastating diseases. “There would also be more sharing of information without the fear of hacking, misuse, betrayal, fake news, electronic theft. And it would keep the government in check in its surveillance of criminal suspects.”

His model is the General Data Protection Regulation used in the European Union “but tailored to American traditions of political and social engagement and freedom of speech. Americans are typically a little more in favor of limited regulation for business—but that doesn’t mean there should be no regulation.”

What’s truly urgent, Richards concludes, are issues of cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, bioweapons. We haven’t paid enough attention, because “we haven’t had our digital 9/11 or our digital Pearl Harbor yet...and I think that’s coming.”

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BY

JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

CARMEN TROESSER

T H E O L D E S T, B I G G E S T, WA R M E S T I N D I E BOOKSTORE I N S T. L O U I S C E L E B R AT E S H A L F A CENTURY OF R E L E VA N C E— WITH THE O D D S S TA C K E D A G A I N S T I T.

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Kleindienst had no idea she’d spend her life

finding books that would patch the holes in people’s souls, smash open windows in their minds, bring them out of musty apartments into a welcoming community.

She just knew she liked Eloise.

The 6-year-old heroine of Kay Thompson’s books was introduced as “already a Person. Henry James would want to study her. Queen Victoria would recognize her as an Equal. The New York Jets would want to have her on their side.”

Eloise lived, with panache, at The Plaza, which wasn’t a bit like Maryville, Tennessee, the town at the foot of the Appalachians where Kris’ family lived, and her father drank, and her mother seethed.

But an elegant aunt had bestowed the Eloise books, and Kris, also 6, had fallen in love with the plucky little girl who managed pretty much on her own.

Eloise was intrepid. Independent. Curious about the world. Her influence came in handy a few years later, when Kris’ family moved to St. Louis and her parents divorced and her mother took a consulting job out of town. Kris and her brother lived alone her last year of high school.

By then they were in University City, a move Kris had pushed for after her South County principal announced his approval of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

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U. City was multiracial and open and full of possibility.

And around the corner was a new little bookshop called Left Bank Books. It had opened July 11, 1969, started by a collective of Washington University grad students who were antiwar and pro–civil rights and so haughtily serious, one informed Kris’ mom that Leonard Cohen’s poems were lowbrow. Left Bank stocked political books, gay and lesbian literature, and magazines—including Rolling Stone— that you couldn’t buy anywhere else.

Kris read Shulamith Firestone on feminism, Amiri Baraka on race. She also reached, without knowing why, for De Profundis, by Oscar Wilde. The title revealed nothing. But Kris had begun to wonder about her sexual orientation, and ever since Eloise, the right books had always seemed to come along when she needed them.

I am a city child.

–ELOISE In 1974, Kris applied for a job at Left Bank. The collective was starting to split up; she would be the first “employee.”

Except they almost didn’t hire her.

“They were leftists,” she explains, “as in Marxism, as in homosexuality being a bourgeois affectation that will wither with the Revolution.”

Like Eloise, she toughed it out, throwing herself into the job she shared with Barry Leibman, a gentle sort who’d come to St. Louis with Teach for America after a stint in the Peace Corps.

The bookstore was in trouble. Paul’s Books had opened at the other end of The Loop, and Wash. U. now ran its own full-fledged bookstore. Left Bank had to move or die, and it couldn’t afford to move. A loyal customer, a rabbi, offered $100, and others followed suit—“the original Kickstarter,” Kleindienst would later dub it—and a bank issued a loan with goodwill as the only collateral.

By now, the original collective had dissolved and the two brothers who’d bought the store had fought each other to the point of exhaustion. Kleindienst, Leibman, and a third employee, Justin James, said, “We’ll do it.” All those small,

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“When someone has created art that moved you, you actually already have a relationship with that person,” Malley says. “It’s just that they don’t know it. And in those minutes of meeting them in person, you get to realize that relationship. You can connect the person to all the ideas and emotions that person has sparked in you. That’s why it’s such a powerful and delicate experience.

When they are gracious, it makes their art even more powerful for you.

And if the artist does not have that kind of generosity and grace, it can be devastating.”

I make as much noise as I possibly can.

–ELOISE

earnest donations had sent a message: People needed Left Bank Books to exist.

Clueless about bookkeeping, taxes, and management, the new owners took advice anywhere they could find it.

“We were beautifully naïve,” Leibman remarks, “and I think it was that naïveté that kept us going forward.”

Getting bored is not allowed.

–ELOISE

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Left Bank was one of the first indies to regularly bring in authors, and one of Kleindienst’s favorite readings was an early one by Cornel West. He spoke, to an embarrassingly small audience, in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

“Everybody was hanging on every word,” she recalls. Then lightning split the sky and the computers went down.

She tiptoed downstairs and found the office flooding, electrical cords submerged. Somehow, she got the computers back up. At the next deafening crack of thunder, West asked, “Should

we stop?” and all 20 people exclaimed, “No!” So he kept going, his thoughts converging in a brilliant climax, and just as he finished, the storm stopped.

“Right that second,” Kleindienst recalls.

“Like God flipped a switch.”

Celebs staying at the Chase often dropped in: Tom Baker, better known as Dr. Who; Tom Hulce, who played Mozart in Amadeus; the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko; Jerry Garcia; Andy Williams; Gregory Hines. Toni Morrison read at Left Bank before she won the Nobel. Larry McMurtry spent hundreds of dollars there on poetry books.

Former staffer Nikki Whittaker Malley, whose parents owned an independent bookstore in Indiana, remembers “somebody asking Anthony Bourdain, who was just unabashedly going after vegetarians, ‘Aren’t you worried about offending people who don’t eat meat?’”

She switches to his easy cadence: “‘Nah. There’s so little protein in their systems that they’re never going to be able to defend themselves.’

One of the bookstore’s original founders, Larry Kogan, had gone to prison for throwing a firecracker during an antiwar demonstration at Washington University. His incarceration was later found unconstitutional. But Kleindienst says “the Red Squad” of the city police department—Bomb & Arson—paid regular visits for years. And in early fall 1979, a detective called to ask whether Kleindienst knew where Mac McCann was.

McCann ran Mor or Les, a lesbian bar on South Grand that had just been firebombed. The word twining through the grapevine was that for some inexplicable reason, police suspected that she’d bombed her own bar.

“I have no idea where she is,” Kleindienst said, taking the long way around the truth. Then she panicked. The bookstore was the signup spot for bus rides to the upcoming National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. What if the police showed up and seized the clipboard that held everybody’s name and phone number? She ran across the street and thrust the clipboard at Karen Duffy, owner of Duff ’s Restaurant. “Can you hold on to this for a while?”

In 1998, after the fatwa against Salman Rushdie was thought to have been lifted—though no one knew for sure— Left Bank invited him to do a reading.

Borders had pulled The Satanic Verses from its shelves; Left Bank had not.

In 1999, a publicist called to offer Henry Kissinger, and Continued on p. 102

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PRESENTED BY

ANNUAL AWA R D S PA RT Y

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Q S P EC IA L A DV E R T IS IN G S EC T IO N

Q

A

A

A S K T HE AT T O R NE Y Local attorneys shed light on common questions in different areas of the law.

20 19

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

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Q

A

SPEC I A L A DV ER TI S I N G S ECTI ON

S P EC IA L A DVE R T IS IN G S EC T IO N

Infidelity’s Role in Divorce Cases EXPLAINED BY SAMUEL J. HAIS AND SUSAN M. HAIS

What is an example of a challenging case you have tried that dealt with the issue of infidelity? I represented a husband, who was a very

successful business executive and a very high wage earner. He had come from nothing and was self-made, growing up with a single mother. The most important thing to him was his children. His wife was what some refer to as a “stay-at-home mom,” but the problem was that instead of staying at home, she was straying from home. She had many affairs while he was working hard to provide for the family, and he finally caught her in bed with another man when the kids were there. The amazing thing was that she denied it, even though he saw it, and she continued to deny it until we put on 10 witnesses.

Custody and the wife’s affairs—what we call “conduct”—were not the only issues. The wife was demanding significant monies from her husband. Also, even though our client was in higher management, his job situation was tenuous. He also had substantial debt and a large mortgage, and he could not sell the house easily to eliminate the mortgage. It was difficult to figure out how to divide the property, because our client couldn’t pay the wife what she wanted—nor would he, since he was angry about her conduct, which had broken up the marriage in the first place.

We tried the case for many days. My client didn’t want the marriage to end but couldn’t live with his wife and her infidelity. He also wanted to sustain the marriage for the kids’ sake and wanted as much time with them as possible. The case was further complicated by an unrealistic and difficult opposing attorney.

How was the case resolved? In the end, our client did get the custody

he wanted, which was one-half of the time, based upon his work schedule. He paid a very small amount to the wife, and he stayed in the marital home. What is important to note is that we managed to take a stay-at-home mother case and give the father one-half of the

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custody time, even though he was an executive who typically would not get that kind of time. He walked away well financially, and without changing his lifestyle.

We righted a wrong, which was important to our client. We did the right thing. It would have been far easier to make the typical kind of deal and get a cookie-cutter result. We were not concerned with our popularity but with fighting for our client.

We are a firm devoted entirely to family law because it is complex.

General practice firms are not equipped to handle the emotional needs of clients or their children. We have created a firm where our clients feel comfortable during stressful and emotional times, where we have a ready list of experts in case clients need psychological assistance or help with their children, and where we work to forge agreements that meet each family’s specific needs.

We have eight attorneys aided by experienced legal assistants and other attentive support. We’ve served a large number of distinguished families in a confidential and comfortable setting for many years, assisting and advising them to insure the best possible position to negotiate a settlement or present a case to court. The postscript to this case is that the opposing attorney was disheartened enough to have someone else in her firm try the case. As for our client, who could never quite handle the love/hate relationship with his wife, he eventually reunited with her. And all was well that ended well.

Hais, Hais & Goldberger 222 S. Central Avenue, Ste. 600, St. Louis, MO 63105 314-326-4885 | hhg-law.com PICTURED, FROM LEFT: Samuel J. Hais, Susan M. Hais

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

CONTACT

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Q S P EC IA L A DV E R T IS IN G SEC T I O N

A

Family Law with a Team Approach EXPLAINED BY THE ATTORNEYS OF PAULE, CAMAZINE & BLUMENTHAL, PC

What makes family law at Paule, Camazine & Blumenthal, P.C. unique?

How do you stand out from other law firms in the courtroom? Our

We have 13 family law attorneys and 17 attorneys in other areas of the law that allow us to match each problem with the professionals best equipped to craft the solution, whether through trial, negotiation, or mediation. Because our firm is a full-service law firm, our family law attorneys have immediate access to attorneys knowledgeable and experienced in many different areas of the law, including corporate, tax, and estate planning. That is not something most other firms have at their disposal.

Because of the issues we tackle for clients, we have the opportunity to observe experts in accounting or business valuation on a regular basis, which gives us a great opportunity to gain a deep understanding of their processes. Gaining that familiarity is a tremendous asset to our clients. Using a team approach to our cases allows us to discuss different strategies and tactics tailored to each client’s needs. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach in family law. Each case and each family are unique.

attorneys are unafraid to walk into court for trial. While most cases settle, if there is no chance of settlement, our experience in the courtroom is invaluable.

While we do not always think the same or use the same strategy, each of us has the priority of giving our clients the best counsel according to their individual situations. That often means being agents of reality for our clients. Many attorneys fight for what their client wants even if they know it’s not realistic. We think that is a disservice to the client. Overall, our goal as a firm is to provide the best, most effective legal representation, and our team approach allows us to do so.

What do your attorneys pride themselves on? Taking the time to listen,

strategize, and offer creative approaches and options to resolving each case. We are often available at night and on weekends to meet our clients’ needs. The different strengths each attorney has allows our collaboration on cases to be very effective. It is important for our clients to know as much about their case as we do, and it’s just as important for them to know we care.

What is “family law”? “Family law” at PCB means more than just

divorces. We also handle modifications of judgments, orders of protection, contempt actions, and paternity matters, as well as assisted reproduction issues like surrogacy.

Paule, Camazine, & Blumenthal, PC 165 N. Meramec Avenue, Ste. 110 St. Louis, MO 63105 314-727-2266 1001 Boardwalk Springs Place, Ste. 111 O’Fallon, MO 63368 636-443-2050 pcblawfirm.com

PICTURED, FRONT ROW, FROM LEFT: Alan Freed, Kathryn Dudley, Alisse Camazine, Susan Block, Amy Hogenson, Amy Johnson; BACK ROW: Allison Schreiber Lee, Samantha Jones, Tim Schlesinger, Bruce Friedman, Lisa Moore, Lauren Gearhart, Eleanore Palozola

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

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Q

A

SPEC I A L A DV ER TI S I N G S ECTI ON

White-Collar Crime EXPLAINED BY JOHN M. LYNCH What is white-collar crime? White-collar generally refers to acts of fraud in

the traditional sense, to include actions involving Medicare, Social Security, securities, mortgage, prescription … and the list goes on. The term also refers to corporate theft, espionage, embezzlement, taxes and other business-type activities. Many people don’t know that individuals and businesses alike can be charged with this type of crime.

I wasn’t aware that my actions constituted a crime. Will this help me in court?

As the old adage goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse. However, it still may help. With white-collar crime, we are seeing an evolution in what law enforcement—and ultimately the courts—consider criminal behavior. In a sense, certain aspects of white-collar crime may be fluid: Think regulatory changes, classification or scheduling of narcotics, mortgage lending changes or Medicare. Accordingly, not completely understanding these changes can be a mitigating factor in presenting a defense.

What should I consider when choosing an attorney for my case? It is imperative

that any person facing white-collar-type charges chooses an attorney with relevant experience. One might want to see that the attorney has access to a team of experts for purposes of litigating the matter with competence. Make sure your attorney has provided representation for these types of matters with some success. With federal cases, choose a federal practitioner.

John M. Lynch The Law Offices of John M. Lynch

7777 Bonhomme Avenue, Ste. 1200, Clayton, MO 63105 314-726-9999 | lynchlawonline.com

Pursuing Personal Injury Claims EXPLAINED BY LAUREN BRONSON Do I need a personal injury lawyer? If you or a family member are seriously

injured or killed as the result of a car or truck crash, a dangerous product, or unsafe premises, it is best to promptly call a trial lawyer. Most experienced trial lawyers will take the time to talk to you and discuss your situation without any charge or obligation. If you then believe the lawyer can help you, it is best to meet with him or her to personally review the facts of your case, learn about his or her experience and decide if you are right for each other.

Most trial lawyers work upon a contingent fee basis, which means the lawyer only gets paid if a recovery is obtained. Usually, the trial lawyer will agree to advance all necessary litigation expenses and only get reimbursed if there is a recovery. The contingent fee agreement gives people of ordinary means the opportunity to obtain just compensation from insurance companies, corporations and wrongdoers without having to pay anything upfront or becoming indebted for the fees and expenses of litigation.

So, if the need arises, call a trial lawyer and find out if help is available.

Newman Bronson & Wallis is an established firm of experienced trial lawyers who have been helping people in the community for more than 40 years.

Lauren Bronson Newman Bronson & Wallis

2300 W. Port Plaza Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146 314-878-8200 | newmanbronson.com

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The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

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Q S P EC IA L A DV E R T IS IN G SEC T I O N

A

Appealing a Family Law Judgment EXPLAINED BY BENICIA LIVORSI Who should appeal family law cases? If you and your trial lawyer believe there

was an error of law, not fact, in your case, you should discuss whether that error is worth the risk of an appeal. A family court judgment is reversed if a judge misapplied the law or abused his or her discretion in entering the judgment; appellate courts rarely reverse a case based on facts. If you win an appeal based on the law, you are often sent back to the same trial judge to address the errors.

The other side appealed. Do I need a lawyer? Respondents are not required

to file appellate briefs. However, that does not mean you should ignore the appeal. If you decide to not address the appeal, then the appellate court only hears your ex’s side, as you are barred from participating in oral argument.

Who should handle my appeal? Appellate lawyers rely on a different skill set than trial lawyers. Our office has handled more than 100 appeals in state and federal courts, as well as the United States Supreme Court. We work very closely with trial counsel on appeals to assist counsel with presenting cases to the appellate court. We also can take over responsibility for your case until your appeal is resolved. Our office can help your team decide the best route for your case.

Benicia Livorsi

The Family Law Group, LLC Can I get attorney fees on appeal? Family law appeals are special cases. The

law allows both parties to request attorney fees on appeal from the trial court.

Contact your trial attorney—or our office, if you have not selected appellate representation—to discuss this possibility.

#6 Westbury Drive, Ste. D, St. Charles, MO 63301 636-947-8181 | livorsi@lawyer.com | familylawgroupllc.com

A PREVIEW OF THE DAY ’S TOP STORIE S

St. Louis Magazine’s daily newsletter, The Current, provides a quick look at the top stories from stlmag.com.

Find out what’s happening this weekend, discover the region’s newest restaurants, and dig into the latest in-depth stories.

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BY

JEANNETTE COOPERMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY

CARMEN TROESSER

T H E O L D E S T, B I G G E S T, WA R M E S T I N D I E BOOKSTORE I N S T. L O U I S C E L E B R AT E S H A L F A CENTURY OF R E L E VA N C E— WITH THE O D D S S TA C K E D A G A I N S T I T.

JULY 2019 STLMAG.COM

The Bookstore With a Face

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Continued from p. 95

Kleindienst respectfully declined. “It would really be confusing to our customers,” she explained. Soon after, a staffer poked her head into the office and told Kleindienst, “Jerry Berger’s on the line for you.”

“Oh, f—k,” Kleindienst groaned.

She wasn’t sure why Berger was calling, but she knew it couldn’t be good.

She remembers saying, “You know, he’s a war criminal,” and seeing Leibman cover his face. Sunday morning, she opened the newspaper to a big headline: “Left Bank Books Says No to Henry Kissinger.”

She held fast against a flood of criticism, saying evenly, “Discriminating about what you do in your business is not censorship. If you want his book, we will make sure you have it. But you will know when you come here who we are.”

Even a few Left Bank staffers wished Kleindienst had been a little less outspoken. Finally, she snapped, “The man who hired me went to prison for his antiwar activism. Has something changed here that I’m not aware of?”

SOMETIMES I AM A MOTHER WITH 40 CHILDREN. –ELOISE

Left Bank cheered on local artists, hanging Michael Eastman’s photographs and urging a bookish, quirky, and colorful young woman named Mary Engelbreit to show her work. For years, literary nerds gathered there on Bloomsday (June 16) for a 24-hour reading from James Joyce’s Ulysses. People got married at Left Bank. They discovered or rediscovered whole chunks of their identity. The LGBTQ section “was a huge part of many people’s coming-out process,” Kleindienst says.

The day after 9/11, she constructed a reading list about the Middle East. After Michael Brown’s death and the Pulse nightclub shooting, she did the same: “And in all these lists, there was room for books on

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grieving and on explaining death to children. Explaining anything to children.”

Even the death of Spike, Left Bank’s third cat.

The first cat, of course, was Captain Nemo, rescued by Leibman, halfdrowned, in Forest Park. The second was Jamaica Kincaid, named by the store’s customers. Malley remembers the night Jamaica came upstairs, uncharacteristically, during a crowded reading: “She walked to the front row, jumped into somebody’s lap, and kneaded a little, testing. Didn’t like that lap. So she proceeded down the second and third rows, testing laps one by one. She tested every lap in the audience, and not a single one of them met her requirements, so she jumped down and went downstairs. Everybody was laughing so hard, the poor author had to stop.”

Spike “was named totally for himself,” Leibman says. Sarah Holt, children’s and teens’ specialist, remembers one particularly tense, wearisome Inventory Day. While the preoccupied humans counted and cross-checked every book, Spike sat down on a keyboard and accepted Windows 10.

Which was incompatible with the store’s inventory system.

Spike survived the aftermath, but he was eventually found to have an advanced and untreatable cancer. He died on December 21, the third-busiest day of the year.

“Everybody was crying all day but waiting on customers,” Kleindienst says, “and I was really worried about the parents who used to bring their kids in, saying, ‘We’re going to see the cat! You get to see the cat!’ No, you get to explain death to your child.” She brings up her fist, à la Shirley Temple: “You’re welcome!”

The next day, they were “fielding a lot of sympathy and offers of kittens,” says Holt, “and a woman came in with this tiny kitten, and I thought, Oh, no.

She’s going to try to get us to adopt it.

She said, ‘This is Turkey’—she’d found him on Thanksgiving—‘and we need to pay our respects.’ She’d rescued him as an orphan, so she’d been bringing him to the store to interact with Spike.

“It’s only tangentially related to books,” Holt adds, “but it means the store was a safe place. It provided a sense of community. Even for a kitten.”

I ALWAYS SAY WHAT’S IN MY HEAD. –ELOISE

The chore of closing time was prying rapt customers away from the used books in the basement and shooing them out the door. One night, Janie Ibur told a new colleague, “There’s a guy downstairs still.

Don’t worry, I’ll get rid of him.” A minute later, Ibur was screaming at the top of her lungs, “Don’t you know we have lives, too?” The customer yelled right back, and they both stomped upstairs.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ibur said to her aghast co-worker. “Have I not introduced you to my brother Jim?” Now St. Louis’ poet laureate, Ibur overcame her shyness at Left Bank and became its comedic genius. If somebody came in asking for Kleindienst, Ibur would say gravely, “She’s having her medication adjusted” or “We’ve put her on administrative leave.” Later, Kleindienst would find people asking her the strangest questions, then realize: Janie.

Ibur loved the store’s guarantee that “if you’re an outsider, you don’t have to be one here.” Nobody who worked at Left Bank made much money, but whenever cash flowed, the owners shared it. Kirsten Jacobsen remembers a long, festive late’80s holiday meal at Balaban’s with a bonus envelope at every place. She sailed out the door without her envelope, and when she got home, she called Kleindienst in a panic: “Tell me that was a check.”

Nope. $300 in cash. All gone. But because Jacobsen was about to leave for Guatemala, Kleindienst organized a quick collection and bought her a pair of sturdy hiking boots.

The booksellers at Left Bank were a quirky mix, as smart and curious as Eloise. A birthday was celebrated the way a big, fond, boisterous family would celebrate it—not always on time but lavishly, with exquisite French pastry or deliberately bad poetry or very good poetry

by Phil Barron, one of those luminous souls who died too young and can’t be forgotten.

In his obit, Barron was identified as “writer, bodhisattva, champion of the vulnerable.” Another close friend and co-worker, Holly Silva, remembers how “people would walk in and say, ‘There’s this book with a purple cover,’ and before they’d even finish the sentence, he’d be stepping down off that little platform

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and across the store like a beeline.”

Yet another bright light, Dale Woolery, used his photographic memory to open a book to the right page for a particular quote or to find a relocated book when a customer said, pointing, “It was right here six months ago.” Someone would come in asking for “this book about a Greek guy,” Ibur recalls, and he’d say, “No, he’s Italian, and it’s this book.”

When he pulled it from the shelf, he might have found one of the 35 glossies of Malcolm Gladwell—sent by an overexcited publicist in Gladwell’s big-hair days—that somebody had hidden around the store. Staffers also periodically hid a children’s book that chirped like a cricket so that whoever was at the desk would have to go hunt it down and close it. Jim Reed remembers, in the ’80s, writing the name of every book sold on a clipboard at the front counter so it could be reordered. “There was a series of board books about a little dog, so we’d add fantasy Spot titles like Spotacus and Spot Goes to Jail.”

“We really had an incredible amount of fun, for a business,” remarks Malley. “We had some passionate disagreements, but it was people who respected each other arguing about things they cared about, not some weird hierarchical corporate situation.” Book returns, for example: What beloved tome did you keep on your shelf even though it hadn’t sold in years and was stealing space from a bestseller?

Where was the line between principle and self-indulgence? “We were all trying to keep the store afloat,” Malley continues, “and there were a lot of strong personalities figuring out their roles.”

At the center were Leibman and Kleindienst, who shared values but not temperament. “Barry was quiet and understated, sometimes to the point where it was hard to suss out what he was feeling,” Malley says. “Kris, you don’t ever walk away from a conversation wondering what she meant or how she felt.”

OH MY LORD I AM ABSOLUTELY SO BUSY I DON’T KNOW HOW I CAN POSSIBLY GET EVERYTHING DONE. –ELOISE

In 2002, Kleindienst hired the woman who’d become her husband. At the time, Jarek Steele was female in the world’s eyes. He was terrified to transition to a

male body; he’d only dated lesbians, and they loved women. Who would love him as a man?

But Kleindienst focused on the soul, not its container. To make space for their relationship, she started defining herself as queer rather than lesbian. When they married, they quipped, “So queer we’re straight again!”

Colleagues at Left Bank rode the waves with them, tossing pronouns overboard and ignoring the 20-year age difference.

Clearly, these two were good together.

Also, Steele was good for the store.

“He’s managed to handle the finances in a way that we’re—we’re fine,” Kleindienst says, sounding dazed. “We figured it out through Borders and Barnes & Noble, through various recessions, through Amazon, and now we’re, like, stable.”

Steele hadn’t even expected to get hired. When they sprang the infamous Left Bank hiring quiz on him at the end of his interview, he’d just taken an independent study on Virginia Woolf, but he froze, couldn’t think of a single title by Woolf. The store hired him anyway—to work on the website. When he’d proved himself, he was given the keys to open up. In the morning quiet, he stood at the top of the stairs and thought, I could stay here for a very long time.

“I came from a very poor family and watched my dad struggle with his mental health and with his work,” Steele explains, “so I equated making a living with being miserable. I thought work was something you just endured. I didn’t realize you could land at a place that would value what you did—a place where you could be happy.”

He jokes that what he’s learned is to tolerate debt, but it’s his instinctive thrift that’s helped save the store. “I’m one of those people who, when I die, you’ll have to go through every scrap of clothing looking for the tucked-away dollars and quarters,” he says, “and I manage the money in a creepily similar way. I try to squirrel it away, and I don’t overextend.”

The industry’s tough: “For every hardcover book we sell, we probably see a dollar,” Steele estimates. “In other retail, if your taxes or costs go up, you can raise your prices. But you can’t raise the price of books. We are paying not quite half the cover price, and with the difference we have to pay the rent, electricity, gas, salaries, everything.”

Left Bank’s had a few failed experiments—a café next door; a downtown location that opened right when the 2008 recession hit and closed six years later. But Kleindienst and Steele redirected all energy and resources to the flagship, and by December 2014, they reported sales up 40 percent over the previous December’s.

Asked why, in this day and age, a bookstore should even exist, Steele says the combination of intelligent curation and free-range browsing allows a kind of exploration that can’t be done the same way online. “Amazon can tell you what happened in the past; a bookstore can predict what might happen in the future.

“I like to think we’re becoming more important,” he adds. “This has to do with the way truth is being handled at this moment. Somebody can come into this bookstore and find a lot of different ideas, not just surface social media headline sorts of ideas. People have to have a quieter, more focused, in-person physical space to do that. And actual human connection is more important now than ever.”

Malley notes that “at bookstores, people talk about ideas and knowledge and emotion and life at a frequency that doesn’t happen in daily life very often.

There is not a lot of posturing. People walk in with good intentions or real human need—like a medical condition their child’s just been diagnosed with. They don’t usually come into a bookstore to impress other people. It’s a safe space nobody intentionally designed to be a safe space.”

The American Booksellers Association now counts 2,470 indies—up from 1,651 a decade ago. “There’s this new generation of folks who are taking over or starting stores,” Kleindienst says, “and the phrase they are using is ‘mission-based.’

They’re talking about doing things that are social justice–oriented, of being mindful of the communities they serve.”

For decades, Left Bank was one of the only such bookstores in the country. Why’s the concept catching fire now?

“I think people want authenticity,” she says. “The age of computer screens is morally and spiritually bankrupting, and people are lonely. We need the serendipity of stumbling on things, of saying, ‘I went here, and this thing happened to me.’ Nothing ever happens to you on a computer screen, and nobody cares who you are.”

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S T. LO U I S SAG E

WIP IT GOOD

Was Reddi-wip invented in St. Louis?

Y

OU’VE USED IT. We know you

have. Chilling the bowl and beaters and dashing just enough powdered sugar into that heavy cream and whirring it into stiff peaks of deliciousness is too daunting when your company’s in the next room waiting for pie. Far easier to sneak that red-and-white can from the fridge and squirt a dollop of Reddi-wip, which was invented by a St. Louis Bunny.

Aaron “Bunny” Lapin (lapin being French for “rabbit”) started by selling Sta-Whip, a World War II substitute for whipped cream that relied on vegetable fat. For bakers, he provided the Fount-Wip, a refillable aerating gun. After wartime’s deprivations, he transformed that improvisation by injecting real whipped cream into a newfangled seamless lined spray can.

“Gentlemen,” he announced to skeptical manufacturers, “this is the beginning of pressure-propelled packaging.”

In 1948, St. Louis milkmen began delivering his Reddi-wip to eager housewives, and distribution soon spread across North America. The stuff was iconic, a readymade symbol of the postwar appetite for ease and domestic gadgetry. By 1951, annual sales had topped $7 million.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch feature that year described Lapin, just 37 years old, “bellowing orders from a deep, leathercovered swivel chair in his offices at 3938

2 TBSP. OF FUN ORIGINAL

15 calories, 1 gram of fat

EXTRA CREAMY

15 calories, 1 gram of fat

CHOCOLATE

15 calories, 1 gram of fat

NON-DAIRY ALMOND MILK

10 calories, 0.5 gram of fat

NON-DAIRY COCONUT MILK

10 calories, 0.5 gram of fat

FAT FREE

5 calories, 0 grams of fat

Lindell Boulevard, ‘Bunny,’ his nickname, stitched in red letters on his expensive white-on-white shirtings.”

Promotions began in the next decade, with ads in national magazines offering a tiny plastic Doll of the World in exchange for Reddi-wip pull tabs and a few bucks. The stuff’s fame crossed oceans. A German article is hysterical when filtered through Google Translate: Reddi-wip is described as “a culinary heavycrime” and “a true party for windbags” yet defended, because after all, who says whipped cream must “always be beaten newly” rather than pressed “as gekringelte sausage from the can”? The article praises Lapin’s “cream-mixture of the laughing gas”— indeed, a guy was arrested in 1986 for huffing nitrous oxide from five cans of Reddi-wip and refusing to pay for them.

One of Lapin’s later projects, a cinnamon-flavored margarine called Touch ’N Spred, was less addictive, and we’re especially glad he never fulfilled his dream of foaming up ketchup and mustard. No need. In 1998, on the strength of Reddi-wip alone, he made Time’s list of Business Geniuses of the Century.

Not bad for a guy who left the Washington University School of Law to sell clothing. Bunny Lapin wound up with homes in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, where he died—of heart failure—in 1999.

His obit picture? The iconic red-and-white can.

ST. LOUIS MAGAZINE, VOL. 25, ISSUE 7 (ISSN 1090-5723) is published monthly by St. Louis Magazine LLC, 1600 S. Brentwood, Suite 550, St. Louis, MO 63144. Change of address: Please send new address and old address label and allow 6 to 8 weeks for change. Send all remittances and requests to St. Louis Magazine, Circulation Department, 1600 S. Brentwood, Suite 550, St. Louis, MO 63144.

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Illustration by Britt Spencer

5/26/19 2:14 PM

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