Riverfront Times, March 22, 2023

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating

Editor in Chief Rosalind Early

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Jessica Rogen

Editor at Large Daniel Hill

Digital Content Editor Jaime Lees

Dining Editor Cheryl Baehr

Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic

Theater Critic Tina Farmer Music Critic Steve Leftridge

Contributors Thomas K. Chimchards, Mike Fitzgerald, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Mabel Suen, Graham Toker, Theo Welling

Columnists Chris Andoe, Dan Savage

Editorial Interns Katie Lawson, Braden McMakin

ART & PRODUCTION

Art Director Evan Sult

Creative Director Haimanti Germain

Graphic Designer Aspen Smit

MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING

Associate Publisher Colin Bell

Account Manager Jennifer Samuel

Directors of Business Development Tony Burton, Rachel Hoppman, Chelsea Nazaruk

BUSINESS

Regional Operations Director Emily Fear

CIRCULATION

Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP

Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman

Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner

Executive Editor Sarah Fenske

VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein

Audience Development Manager Jenna Jones

VP of Marketing Cassandra Yardeni www.euclidmediagroup.com

NATIONAL ADVERTISING

VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 5257 Shaw Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63110. Domestic subscriptions may be

FRONT BURNER

MONDAY, MARCH 13 In St. Charles County, prosecutors kick off the capital murder trial of Shawn Kavanagh. Saying, “I just wanted to be with my wife on Valentine’s Day,” Kavanagh killed two of his wife’s friends and one of their sevenyear-old sons before stabbing said wife. She survived, but the Post-Dispatch says she endures “lifelong injuries.” In other news from St. Chuck: A jury there found 70-year-old Larry Thomlison guilty of first-degree assault and armed criminal action for shooting an Amazon driver who illegally parked in a handicapped spot. Jaylen Walker, 21, is now paralyzed from the waist down. Thomlison was found guilty of first-degree assault and criminal action, so he’ll probably be out in five years. Further proof St. Charles is a lawless hellhole. Someone summon the Missouri A.G.! Surely a quo warranto could fix this mess.

TUESDAY, MARCH 14 Happy 314 Day!

U. City High grad Nelly wants to start the “High School Alumni Games,” pitting all the cliques that never got past high school against each other for prizes. Way to make the transplants feel like transplants. Also, the parent company of Bally Sports Midwest files for bankruptcy. They have $8 billion in debt. How do you even run up a tab that big? Major League Baseball says the Chapter 11

Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

filing is an opening to “reimagine” how baseball reaches “an even larger number of fans.” We’ve got a reimagining idea: How about y’all eschew the giant payday and go back to network TV?

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15 Credit Suisse’s stock plunges, and a bunch of other banks have to step in to help First Republic. It feels … jittery out there. At least we finally got some nice weather?

THURSDAY, MARCH 16 Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey says he’s found even more dirt on Kim Gardner surprising precisely no one who’s ever interacted with the Circuit Attorney’s Office. Meanwhile, in Iron County, no less than the sheriff has been arrested, along with two deputies. Supposedly they were part of a kidnapping plot. Also, the Gateway Arch saw a huge increase in visitors in 2022. Here’s the St. Louis Business Journal’s take: “The Arch attracted 42 percent more visitors last year than in 2021, crime could threaten that trend.” We can

FIVE QUESTIONS for CITY SC’s Musical Director Mvstermind

never, ever have nice things in this town.

FRIDAY, MARCH 17 The party is in Dogtown and everybody’s Irish today, if by Irish you mean drunk and disorderly. The (Polish) archbishop is even letting us out of our Lenten restrictions — bring on the corned beef! This being St. Louis, we’re also pleased to report that the day continues to be an excuse to trade views of your boobs for beads that sell three for a buck.

SATURDAY MARaCH 18 Dogtown is miraculously cleansed by morning, and yet it’s suddenly freezing in the Gateway City … 25 degrees! There go the magnolias and the daffodils, previously lured by the false promise of spring. In Jefferson City, former Congressman Russ Carnahan is selected as the new chair of the Missouri Democratic Party, replacing Michael Butler, who realized there was more money and less stress in selling all-you-can-drink alcohol (not to mention recording deeds). On the sporting front, the Battlehawks fall to the D.C. De-

fenders — but CITY SC, shockingly, wins again. They’re now 4-0, and even better, downtown is packed, even on a night that feels like 14 degrees. Now that’s the dopamine hit St. Louis needs!

SUNDAY, MARCH 19 Credit Suisse gets a white knight; banking giant UBS will take over the Swiss institution. But First Republic is still tottering, and the whole giant Jenga tower feels close to falling. Back in the dystopian Mayberry known as Missouri, neighbors tell the Post-Dispatch that the man who shot a cop in Hermann on March 13 and later engaged in a lengthy standoff was a “menace.” “He’s going to do something really, really bad,” a neighbor warned the county prosecutor. “It’s going to be on the news in the evening, and he’s going to be up there with his rap sheet and everyone is going to be wondering how that guy was on the loose.” More recently, Kenny Simpson was found with bombmaking equipment. Yet he was somehow out free waiting for trial — free to kill a cop at a convenience store. It’s a major scandal. Should the Missouri Attorney General get involved? What about the state legislature? Oh wait … the county prosecutor in Warren County is white. And you can call it coincidence, but the fact remains: They only care when things like this happen in St. Louis.

The music is structured around this philosophy of heart, hustle and spirit. That’s the three components that I feel are what truly makes up St. Louis’ sound regardless of any genre, regardless of anything.

What’s the secret to a good pre-game playlist?

Music is so intensive. If I am in my feels, then I play something that resonates with that same feeling. If I need to be energized, I play some music that is motivational, so I go with that same type of philosophy: What type of music is the moment asking for?

What’s the biggest challenge of being the musical director? Finding clean versions of the songs. [Laughs.] No, we’ve got a lot of music to choose from [in St. Louis], so just trying to figure out what music is going to be played has been the biggest key.

You did a lot of community work to find St. Louis artists and get suggestions for who to highlight. Did you learn a lot about the St. Louis music community?

Music is an integral part of sports, and St. Louis CITY SC hired Muhammad “Mvstermind” Austin as director of musical experience. While there’s no music during the game, he builds the soundtrack for the pre-game block parties, including selecting which artists will perform. As with everything CITY related, the music is all about representing the Lou. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How do you put together the music for the St. Louis CITY SC pre-games?

I got a real good feeling that this is about to be a huge year for St. Louis music. It’s a lot of artists and bands and groups who I know who have come off of that 2020 COVID scrug and are ready to put out some amazing music. My goal and my aim is to continue to embed our stadium with some of our newest, best music that is coming out of this city.

Are you a big soccer fan?

Absolutely. It’s been a part of my life since I was young. My brothersin-law were these soccer fanatics who would — every Saturday, 6 o’clock in the morning, they would make sure that we are up at the field as a family getting to it. I was always the one making the playlist for those games, too.

Musical director Mvstermind gets the party going for St. Louis CITY SC. | ST. LOUIS CITY SC

—Edward Hecker on Facebook in response to our article “‘Gross Power Grab’: Kim Gardner Fires Back at Attorney General”

WEEKLY WTF?!

Traffic Watch

Date of sighting: March 15

Location: Tower Grove East

About the damage to this roundabout’s west side: Most of its concrete is gone, almost certainly from a car or cars crashing into it.

About the damage to this roundabout’s north side: A pole is severely tilted, and the sign it once supported is nowhere in sight, almost certainly from a car or cars crashing into it.

About the damage to this roundabout’s east side: You can’t see it in this photo, but it’s worse than the west side.

The glass-half-full take: At least the cars crashed into this inanimate structure rather than another car with people inside, a bicyclist or pedestrian.

The other glass-half-full take: At least the fleur de lis is unscathed.

ESCAPE HATCH

We ask three St. Louisans what they’re reading, watching or listening to. In the hot seat this week: three people at the Alamo Drafthouse opening.

Ruthie Young, retired payroll specialist

Watching: Poker Face

“I like the main character. She was on Orange Is the New Black, where she played Nicky. She’s the reason I’m still watching it.”

Justin Reining, brand activation manager

Watching: “I’m obsessed with The Last of Us!”

“It’s a different take on the zombie genre because it’s actually fungus, so it’s a different spin for sure.”

Will Smith, president of City Foundry

Reading: The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova

“It’s about how chance and skill interact and shape a life and the psychology of people in games.”

SOMETIMES IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

[QUOTE OF THE WEEK]

“No Missouri Attorney General should be allowed ... to reach down to the local level and take electoral decision-making power away from the people.”

Evidence Was Mishandled by Circuit Attorney’s Office, Lawyer Says

A defense attorney is claiming the Circuit Attorney’s Office withheld exculpatory evidence in a murder case

Written by RYAN KRULL

The defense attorney representing a St. Louis man who was accused of killing a Parkway West senior in April 2020 says that the prosecutor handling the case for the Circuit Attorney’s Office withheld crucial, potentially exculpatory evidence the office had in its possession for more than two years.

Carieal J. Doss, 18, was found dead on April 14, 2020, on a sidewalk in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood, having suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Levi Henning, who is now 21, was charged with Doss’ murder almost a year later. According to court documents, Henning had arranged to meet with Doss to buy a gun from her. He was later found in possession of the firearm she was selling, a Springfield semiautomatic handgun.

Charges against Henning were filed March 3, 2021, but the case was dropped by the Circuit Attorney’s Office earlier this month.

Defense attorney David Mueller says in between Doss’ death and the case’s dismissal, the Circuit Attorney’s Office waited more than two years to disclose key evidence in the case.

After charges were filed, the prosecution of the case was initially handled by Assistant Circuit

Attorney Srikant Chigurupati.

At a hearing on March 9, according to a court filing by Mueller, the Circuit Attorney’s Office finally disclosed a key ballistics report as well as Doss’ Facebook messages that Mueller says the Circuit Attorney’s Office had in its possession for years.

Mueller says in a court filing that about a week after Doss was killed, the police swabbed for DNA two pieces of cloth “found within arm’s length” of Doss.

Police then waited until August 2021 to test those DNA swabs, which it found to match someone else other than Henning.

A motion filed in court says that in April 2022 the Circuit Attorney’s Office disclosed that the DNA matched a man named Brandon Langston. Langston is facing charges for a murder that occurred just four days after Doss’ death.

However, there were also ballistics tests that showed that the weapon as well as the ammunition were the same in both Doss’ murder and the murder for which Langston is charged — but those facts were not disclosed by the Circuit Attorney’s Office until this month, Mueller says.

“It’s persuasive evidence of an alternative suspect,” Mueller says. “I don’t know that it proves beyond reasonable doubt that he’s the shooter in this case. But I also think that there’s far more evidence against Mr. Langston than

there is against Mr. Henning.”

Mueller also says that when the Circuit Attorney’s Office filed charges against Henning, its case was based in part on Henning’s Facebook messages with Doss.

The state did disclose approximately 2,500 pages of Henning’s Facebook activity in April 2022.

According to Mueller, Chigurupati said in a court filing that he had disclosed all the Facebook messages related to this case.

“That was not true,” Mueller says. “He provided essentially half of the Facebook records.”

The Circuit Attorney’s Office also had Doss’ Facebook messages, which they did not disclose until this month.

Mueller says that Doss’ messages totaled more than 2,000 pages, including exchanges with approximately eight people she communicated with on the day she was killed. One of those messages was from an individual, who was not Henning, who invited Doss over to an apartment not long before she died. Mueller says an investigator working for his office located this individual in less than 24 hours and learned that she had never been interviewed by authorities.

Furthermore, the Facebook data not made available to Mueller until this month shows that Doss was still active on the site after the state says that Henning killed her.

“It’s not justice to hold on to discovery that you know to be excul-

patory,” Mueller says.

Mueller says he also takes exception with an application for a warrant signed by both a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department detective and an attorney with the Circuit Attorney’s Office.

Mueller calls it, “one of the most egregious warrant apps I’ve ever seen.”

The warrant application says that a ballistics report from the SLMPD firearms lab confirms that a gun found in Henning’s possession was used in Doss’ murder. However, the report itself says in large, all capital red letters at the top of the page: “Notification only. This has not been worked.”

Elsewhere on the ballistics report, it says that the evidence only “has the potential to be linked to” the case against Henning.

“This is the most egregious thing I’ve seen done by a circuit attorney’s office and a police officer in 10 years,” Mueller says.

Mueller says that this month’s disclosure happened in part because last summer responsibility for the case transferred from Chigurupati to a different assistant circuit attorney, Natalia Ogurkiewicz.

“Ms. Ogurkiewicz was the one who identified and disclosed the DNA evidence that had never been disclosed,” Mueller says. “In my opinion, she did so timely considering when she took over the file.”

Mueller became Henning’s lawyer in February of this year, and he had the full discovery, including the ballistics, DNA evidence and Facebook messages, the following month.

Mueller says that he feels for the Doss’ family. They have consistently shown up to hearings in the case against Henning, hoping to have justice for the young woman who died three years ago next month.

“There’s a victim in this case,” Mueller says. “They have not received justice. There hasn’t been a proper investigation.”

He adds, “The way that the investigation was conducted and the way it was litigated…It’s not justice for my client. But it’s also not justice for these victims and their families. It’s not justice for the city.”

Henning is currently detained in the City Justice Center on unrelated robbery charges. n

Defense attorney David Mueller outside the St. Louis County Courthouse. | RYAN KRULL

St. Louis CITY Wins Virtual Soccer Tournament

eMLS player for St. Louis CITY SC, Niklas Raseck, wins the eMLS Cup

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

Sixty-eight minutes into the eMLS Cup semifinals, Niklas “NR7” Raseck seemed in control. He held a comfortable 2-0 lead in the game and seemed a shoo-in to continue to the championship. This was nothing new. At 24, Raseck, St. Louis CITY SC’s virtual FIFA player, has won a German championship, qualified for the world cup and competed competitively for 10 years.

Then, the momentum shifted.

In a matter of seven minutes, his opponent, the first-seeded Ehsan “Lamps” Zakeri of Minnesota United, scored two goals. The crowd of 1,500 at Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater roared — and Lamps motioned for them to grow even louder.

Raseck stared at the computer screen with his head tilted.

After Long Delays, Fatal Car Crash Case Headed to Trial

The case has been winding its way through the courts for five years as the victim’s family seeks justice

Written by RYAN KRULL

Daniel Domian’s family has been waiting more than five years for justice after the 62-year-old was killed on Gravois Avenue in December 2017 when a speeding Maserati smashed into his truck.

The family thought that the alleged driver of the Maserati, Mahdi Gayar, now 23, would enter a guilty plea last week,

Tied game. But there were still 15 minutes left. Lamps and NR7 traded possessions back and forth. No one got a shot off. Until 90 minutes, just seconds away from the finish — when Raseck corralled the ball in the box and took a shot. Blocked. But it trickled out to Raseck, who fired a ball screaming past the goalie into the top right corner of the net.

Raseck ripped off his headset, shot up from his seat, hugged his coach and screamed so loud that the microphones picked up every word. “LET’S GO! LET’S GO! LET’S GO!” he yelled, pumping his fists while the crowd roared. He sat down, pointed to his veins, hugged his coach again, stood up, looked up

and they’d finally have resolution. But the case is instead headed for trial in October.

A shout of “No!” went up in the courtroom when the judge announced that the case would be delayed yet again.

Gayar had a plea hearing scheduled last Wednesday in circuit court for the involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action charges he is facing stemming from the crash. Several members of Domian’s family were in the courtroom.

But last Tuesday, Gayar parted ways with his attorney Scott Rosenblum and hired Travis Nobles’ firm to handle the case. In court last Wednesday, attorney Mike Jones with Nobles’ office asked Judge Clinton Robert Wright to nix the plea hearing and set the case for a jury trial.

“We’re ready for trial next week,” Assistant Circuit Attorney Jeffrey Estes told Judge Wright.

The trial was set for October over Estes’ objection. Domian’s widow protested loudly at the delay.

“October is too far away,” Pam Domi-

at the sky and let out a huge sigh.

An hour later, Raseck defeated reigning champion and Atlanta United player Paulo “Paulo Neto” Roberto Xavier de Brito Neto to capture the 2023 eMLS championship and $20,000 in prize winnings.

By the time Raseck secured the eMLS Cup championship, he had no energy left to react. He gave a little fist pump and shook Neto’s hand. In his first season representing CITY SC, Raseck held up the trophy and kissed it as smoke rose around him.

The victory capped off a windy road for CITY SC and Raseck.

CITY SC joined eMLS in 2020, but the program struggled to perform. The team conducted a worldwide

search and signed Raseck, a German native, in November 2022.

Widely considered one of the best FIFA players in the world, Raseck has been a star in virtual FIFA since his first year playing competitively at 14. Since then, Raseck has won multiple international tournaments and earned more than $235,000 in prize winnings.

Nearly every team in the MLS has a virtual soccer player — some even have multiple. The players participate in one tournament in January and another in February. The final championship, the eMLS Cup, took place last weekend to cap off the season.

It has been an up-and-down season for Raseck, who still lives in Germany with his family. He lost in the first round of the first tournament. One month later, he fell in the second round.

“I felt like in the first two seasons, I was a bit unlucky,” he said after the championship win. “[I lost] games really close. I felt like I could do better.”

In this series, he did better. Slated as the four seed out of 26 players, Raseck toughed his way through three formidable opponents before earning the crown of eMLS champion.

Now, Raseck heads to the next stop: the FIFAe World Cup.

But not so fast. First, he had to celebrate his win.

“We’re gonna party,” he said. “I won the trophy. It’s the last day for me in the U.S. Then I’m going back to Germany. So we’re gonna celebrate in style.” n

time, and I’m miserable. I deserve justice for my husband.”

Gayar has been out on bond as his case crawls through the system. He is not wearing an ankle monitor but has to check in via a smartphone app and is subject to a curfew.

Judge Wright told the courtroom this would be “the last continuance on the matter.”

At the time of the December 9, 2017, crash, Gayar’s Maserati was allegedly traveling 90 miles per hour in a 30-milesper-hour zone, according to a police probable cause statement.

After the hearing, members of the Domian family said that they showed up to put pressure on the attorneys and judges to resolve the case.

“I felt I had to burst out,” Pam Domian said of her pleas to the judge.

an shouted in the courtroom. “Who is this kid that he can influence the law like this? He gets to be out having a good

David Domian, Domian’s twin brother, said that he worries about all the victims who don’t have family members showing up to every hearing to keep pressure on the system.

“I can only imagine what’s falling through the cracks,” he said. n

St. Louis CITY SC eMLS player Niklas Raseck captured the 2023 championship in Austin. | COURTESY PHOTO

Mahdi Gayar. | SLMPD

Carondelet Residents Oppose Homeless Shelter

Peter & Paul Community Services wants to convert a former church into a homeless shelter, but needs residents’ approval first

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Anonprofit that wants to convert a vacant Carondelet church into a shelter for homeless men faces a lofty hurdle — getting the Carondelet community on board.

Carondelet residents have largely opposed Peter & Paul Community Services’ plan to house 100 single men in the former Saints Mary and Joseph Chapel off Minnesota in a residential area.

Peter & Paul, which runs the cityowned Biddle Housing Opportunities Center, wants to close its Soulard shelter and open a new, larger shelter in the Carondelet church.

CEO Steve Campbell said the larger space would allow Peter & Paul to house more people during virus outbreaks. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Soulard shelter went from 60 beds to 20 to reduce transmission risk.

“Part of our goal is to not have to reduce our numbers when the next variant comes along or, God forbid, the next pandemic,” Campbell told the RFT

The proposed emergency shelter in Carondelet would house 100 beds, provide 24/7 care, counseling and would employ caseworkers to transition residents to permanent housing.

Peter & Paul need 82 signatures, or 51

On The Eve of Freedom, a Missouri Prisoner Passes Away

Was medical negligence to blame?

Written by SHON PERNICE,

JOURNALISM

PRISON

PROJECT

This article first appeared on Prison Journalism Project and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The incarcerated are supposed to receive the same type of medical care as those in the general public. That is not reality.

percent approval, from registered voters in the immediate area surrounding the former church in order to rezone. As of last Monday afternoon, the nonprofit has collected only 11.

If recent public meetings are any indication, getting majority approval won’t be easy.

Residents have packed into the Carondelet Library for public meetings to oppose the shelter. As Peter & Paul higherups sat behind a table on a stage on March 9, residents aired their concerns.

Some residents thought the shelter would plummet home values or lure sex offenders to their community. Others worried about open substance abuse and finding drug paraphernalia in the streets.

“We are risking our community, we are

Stories of medical neglect and mistreatment are everywhere in the U.S. prison system. Too many men and women who have been sentenced for a crime are also being sentenced to death without the public’s awareness.

I have witnessed many cases of medical neglect inside the Missouri prison system. This is the story of one of them.

Earl McEntire was a U.S. Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War. I first met him in the Missouri Veterans Program at Moberly Correctional Center. He had a bushy gray beard and long hair, always a bit frazzled. At 5-foot-4, Earl resembled a smiling little troll doll. He was quick to help others and volunteer for extra duties — and he had an infectious laugh. His quick wit and warm personality endeared him to both peers and staff members.

He had spent 30 years in prison and was on his final stretch. During the summer of 2021, he was close to going

risking our neighborhood, our homes, our safety and the safety of our children,” Aiden McNamara said.

McNamara said he lives directly across the street from the proposed shelter, and voiced his opposition through a 10-minute slideshow presentation, which ended to applause and whistles from the crowd.

“We’re not against giving a person a second chance,” McNamara said. “But we’re talking about unknown, convicted felons being brought to our neighborhood to live.”

One resident was concerned the shelter would cause people experiencing homelessness to “migrate” to the Carondelet area.

But the shelter, according to Peter &

home to his family.

Earl began to complain of nausea and weakness. He told me he had a massive umbilical hernia that was protruding from his abdominal wall. To resolve that issue, the prison doctor had prescribed a waist wrap. But Earl knew that something else was wrong with his body too. He filled out multiple health service request forms to see a doctor, but was only instructed by prison medical officials to “drink more water,” he said.

Over the next several months, we watched Earl’s health deteriorate. He lost a massive amount of weight, began to get confused at times and became incontinent. The men in the Veterans Wing complained to staff members and correctional officers. Phone calls were made and staff attempted to intervene, but the medical department was contracted from outside of the institution, making timely care difficult.

Paul Chief Operating Officer Adam Pearson, would operate on a referral basis only. Walk-ins would only be allowed during extreme weather conditions.

Most Carondelet residents who spoke at recent public meetings agreed St. Louis has a homelessness and housing problem. Shelter beds are often in scarce supply in the city, particularly during winter months.

Still, they don’t want a shelter in their backyard.

Campbell said his nonprofit considered several locations for their new shelter, even some in the county, but chose Carondelet because the neighborhood seemed welcoming at first.

Former Alderwoman Phyllis Young, who represented Soulard and parts of downtown for 30 years, stood up for Peter & Paul at a meeting last Monday night.

“They’ve been good neighbors,” Young said.

Peter & Paul has been running homeless services for the past 40 years. The nonprofit opened its shelter in Soulard in 1981 after an unhoused man froze to death in the neighborhood.

Forty years later, unhoused people still die from the cold. At least five people froze to death in the winter of 20202021, according to a St. Louis Public Radio investigation.

“We usually struggle with having enough beds in St. Louis,” Campbell said. “If you know anything about the 211 system, it can take a number of days of continual calling before you can get a shelter bed somewhere.”

Peter & Paul doesn’t have much time to sway Carondelet residents and gather enough signatures.

Its sale contract allows the nonprofit 90 days to work through any contingencies, part of which is zoning, according to Campbell. The 90-period ends in early May. n

By November, bones were protruding from the sack of skin that covered Earl’s frame. In November, a nurse was called to the housing unit again because Earl was short of breath. Like previous times, he was asked if he had been drinking enough fluids, he told me. His pulse was faint, and his blood pressure was unreadable. He was finally sent to an outside hospital, where doctors discovered he had stage 4 cancer that had metastasized throughout his body.

Earl was going to die soon, so the warden sent a request to the Missouri Parole Board for medical parole due to his terminal diagnosis. His original release date was May 2022. Medical parole was approved on Dec. 10, 2021, for his release on Dec. 14.

But Earl passed away in the prison’s infirmary around 1:40 a.m. Dec. 11. He died in the arms of another incarcerated veteran, who had volunteered as a hospice worker. n

Peter & Paul Community Services wants to open a homeless shelter in the former Saints Mary and Joseph Chapel in Carondelet. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

DisabilityRights Advocates Decry Cuts to County Transit Service

Despite increasing demand, Metro Transit plans to reduce coverage for paratransit services for those with disabilities April 10

Written by CLARA BATES, MISSOURI INDEPENDENT

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent

The St. Louis region’s public transit agency plans to “improve customer service” by making cuts to its paratransit system serving those with disabilities.

It’s a move disability rights advocates have decried as a “cruel” solution to a real problem.

Metro Transit’s paratransit system, which is called Call-A-Ride, provides services for those with disabilities in St. Louis city and St. Louis County, as required by federal law. Customers with disabilities can call to reserve a ride in a wheelchair-accessible van, which provides curb-to-curb service rather than operating on a fixed route.

For years, customers have faced steep wait times and high rates of denials for the service.

At the heart of the issue is staffing. Metro said this month that 40 percent of operator positions for Call-A-Ride are unfilled, while demand for rides “has increased substantially.”

In January, roughly 18,000 of the 47,000 requests for Call-A-Ride had to be denied, Metro wrote in a letter to advocates last week.

The agency hopes the cuts — which it has estimated will impact 250 people — will make the service more reliable for those traveling

within the adjusted boundaries.

“It will help us reduce trip denials, reduce phone wait times and provide more reliable paratransit service while making sure we continue to follow federal requirements,” Jeffrey Butler, general manager of Metro’s paratransit, wrote in a letter to a coalition of advocacy groups last week.

Robyn Wallen, a St. Louis County resident with disabilities who has utilized Call-A-Ride over the last several decades and serves as transportation chair for Missouri Council of the Blind, said she and others have been pushing Metro to look into solutions to issues with the service for years. She called news of cuts “frustrating,” and hopes the agency will investigate alternatives.

“I know they’re not meeting their basic minimum standards for service,” Wallen said in an interview with the Independent

“What frustrates us the most is that this is not a new problem. It’s been going on for a while now.”

Wallen does not live in a region that will be cut, but said all riders could be affected — for instance, if they need to visit a specialist doctor in the area that will no longer be served.

“These cuts actually affect more than just the 250 riders they are saying but every single customer who may have a need to go into those areas,” Wallen said. “It affects every single one of us.”

Wallen said she heard from the family of a son with disabilities that they worry he won’t be able to get to his job anymore once the

cuts take effect because he works in an area that Call-A-Ride will no longer serve.

“One of the things you learn as a disabled person is it’s hard to get a job…and when you do get a job, what happens if suddenly your transportation is no longer there?” she said.

Patti Beck, a spokesperson for Metro, said by email that over six months last year, 250 customers of 4,000 total made 10 or more regular trip requests and would not be eligible for the service beginning April 10. Beck added that the “majority of the customers…will not be impacted” because their origination and destination trips are within the federally required service area, and that Metro is “here to make sure our customers know that there are other possible transportation resources” if their trips fall outside the service area.

The cuts, announced at the beginning of this month, are slated to be implemented April 10 and will impact some areas in north county, west county, the Fenton area, and southwest St. Louis County.

“Reducing the number of consumers served is a cruel solution to a very real problem,” Aimee Wehmeier, president of the disability advocacy group Paraquad, said in a press release earlier this month.

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires cities that provide bus or rail service to also provide comparable services for those with disabilities who are unable to use public transportation, to

cover three-quarters of a mile from each public transit route.

St. Louis has not updated its paratransit service map since 2016. In 2019 and over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, several bus routes were suspended, eliminating the federal mandate to provide paratransit there.

“How did we decide where we’re cutting Call-A-Ride service? That is the same places that we have cut bus service,” Amy Parker, the ADA coordinator for Metro, said in a March video. “And these should move in parallel.”

A coalition of individuals and organizations, including Paraquad and Missouri Council for the Blind, asked the agency in a letter last week to delay the cuts for at least six months, to “study alternative solutions to your current staff shortages without adversely affecting people living with disabilities, our employers, and our families and circles of support.”

Advocates have argued that many of the alternative transit options for people with disabilities are not accessible to those in wheelchairs or with mobility issues — leaving those without the service out of luck.

Metro responded last week that the service changes will go forward on the April 10 date, as a “necessary and important step toward restoring reliable paratransit service.”

Advocacy groups have said several Call-A-Ride users may file complaints with the Federal Transit Administration.

“We will continue to look for a win-win solution,” Wehmeier said last week, “that does not harm some in order to make paratransit work better for others.”

Metro Transit announced plans earlier this month to reduce the area served by its paratransit Call-ARide vans on April 10 due to a shortage of drivers. | METRO TRANSIT

The agency hopes the cuts — which it has estimated will impact 250 people — will make the service more reliable for those traveling within the adjusted boundaries.

Luck o’ the Irish

The Ancient Order of Hibernians celebrated St. Patrick’s Day right

Words by ROSALIND EARLY

Photos by BRADEN MCMAKIN

The Ancient Order or Hibernians again hosted its St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 17 as St. Paddy intended. The ultra-Irish parade featured 90 floats, Irish dancing, live music and the marching of the clans. Grand Marshal Julie Colombo led the whole affair and is probably Dogtown’s oldest resident at 100 years old. The parade was just one part of the full-day celebration that included an Irish Cultural Zone at St. James the Greater Parish on Tamm Avenue, and a family friendly zone on Oakland with free cotton candy and face painting.

A CELEBRATION OF THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING ASPECTS OF OUR HOME

How a St. Louis Man Invented

BY CLAYTON TRUTOR

SOCCER

St. Louis is not to American soccer what Cooperstown, New York, is to baseball or Springfield, Massachusetts, is to basketball. The sport had already gained a foothold in the northeastern U.S. decades before a St. Louisan named Thomas W. Cahill became the primary force for the sport’s American emergence.

But Cahill did more than just about anyone in the U.S. to popularize the game — and St. Louis became one of its most significant, and longstanding, hotbeds. Without Cahill, we wouldn’t have soccer as we know it today. And we certainly wouldn’t call it soccer.

Cahill was the driving administrative force behind the sport in the U.S. for the first three decades of the 20th century. He founded the sport’s first national governing body, the USFA, in 1913. He was the coach of the first American national soccer team and the first to bring an American team on an international tour. During the 1920s, he was the commissioner of the American Soccer League, the country’s first national professional league.

Yet Cahill — and soccer’s St. Louis roots — are hardly remembered today.

“Cahill was the giant in early U.S. soccer/football,” says soccer historian Gregory Reck. Reck is the co-author of American Soccer: History, Culture, Class and a professor emeritus in anthropology at Appalachian State University. “The tragedy is that until recently, the legacy of Cahill and early U.S. soccer history was part of the amnesia of post-World War II U.S. soccer development. When critics of soccer claim that the sport is ‘not American’ and ‘too recent’ in the sports landscape, they are victims in one way or another of this historical amnesia, an insult to the decades of work by Cahill in service to the beautiful game.”

“That generation is not as well known as it should be,” soccer journalist and historian Tom Scholes says of Cahill and his fellow American soccer pioneers. Scholes is a British sports journalist and the author of Stateside Soccer: The Definitive History of Soccer in the United States. “Football, or soccer in America, does not exist in the guise that it does without Cahill. He should be held in immense esteem.”

Now that St. Louis has a Major League Soccer team and a forthcoming exhibit about its soccer history at the Missouri History Museum, it’s time to remember

the man who made it all possible — for St. Louis, and for America.

In the spring of 1917, a 4 millionstrong American Expeditionary Force went to Europe to support the Allied cause in World War I. Less than a year before, in the summer of 1916, Thomas Cahill of St. Louis had brought a much smaller force to Europe: 11 American soccer players taking a tour of Sweden.

At the time, the U.S. and Sweden were both neutral in the Great War. While war enveloped most of the European continent, Cahill was corresponding with Sweden’s national sports secretary. Cahill was the president of the United States Football Association, soccer’s newly created governing body in America. On the side, he worked for Spalding, the country’s leading sporting goods manufacturer, as its point man on soccer. Cahill sent his counterpart in Sweden a copy of the Spalding Guide to Soccer, an annual publication on the rules, strategy and history of the sport, which Cahill produced.

Impressed by the progress of the sport in America, the Swedish secretary encouraged Cahill to put together an American national team and bring them to Sweden for some exhibition games. The Swedes, in fact, footed the bill for the fledgling American organization.

The ever-diligent Cahill got to work. With the oversight of USFA, Cahill cobbled together a group he called the “All America Soccer Football Club.” The team set

sail from Hoboken, New Jersey, in July 1916, amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Germany in the north Atlantic.

While sailing across the ocean, Cahill put his team through rigorous workouts on deck. He taught them a fast, visceral style of play which would frustrate solid if unspectacular Scandinavian teams that were used to a more measured approach to the game.

This first U.S. national team surprised its hosts. The U.S. won or tied five of the six games on the tour. Crowds of as many as 20,000 — which on one occasion included King Gustav V — watched the Americans overwhelm their opposition. Cahill’s no-holds-barred approach angered many Swedish fans, some of whom traded fists with American players after one of the games. But several newspapers in Sweden predicted that America would soon be the world’s top soccer-playing country.

The 1916 American soccer tour of Scandinavia proved to be the first of three organized by Cahill. In 1919, he brought a team that represented the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, then one of America’s top teams, to Scandinavia for a 14-game jaunt. The team won six, lost six and tied two. In 1920, he brought an all-star team that consisted largely of St. Louis-area players to Scandinavia. The St. Louis All-Star team won 12 of its 14 games and earned the personal congratulations of both Gustav V and King Christian of Denmark,

Continued on pg 18

both of whom saw the team play.

Thomas Cahill is barely remembered today — but the Kerry Patch native was the true father of American soccer

Clockwise from upper left: Sportsman’s Park sometimes hosted soccer games; Christian Brothers College in the late 1800s had a semi-pro soccer team; Thomas Cahill, second from left, with the other men who managed the All-American soccer team tour; the All-American soccer team that toured Europe; an aerial view of Sportsman’s Park; Thomas Cahill (left) meets film director King Baggot and his son. Baggot played center forward for Cahill’s St. Louis Shamrocks. | MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, SIU EDWARDSVILLE ARCHIVES, UNIVERSAL WEEKLY INTERNET ARCHIVE

SOCCER

Continued from pg 17

It was surely heady stuff for a man who’d been raised in one of St. Louis’ most notorious slums.

Cahill was born in either Yonkers, New York, or New York City, depending on the source, on Christmas Eve 1863 or Christmas Day 1864, to recent Irish immigrants. His family moved to St. Louis in 1871, part of a large wave of Irish Americans moving to the thriving industrial city. His family settled in the rough-andtumble Kerry Patch neighborhood, an enclave of recent Irish immigrants located in present-day Carr Square. The neighborhood was known for its crowded tenements and the rival street gangs that competed for influence.

Cahill bore the signs of his hardscrabble youth throughout his life. He was regarded as a rough customer with a fiery temper, and even his adversaries remarked on his determination and sense of personal loyalty.

Cahill proved his athletic prowess at a young age, becoming one of the region’s best competitive long-distance runners. His feats were profiled in The Sporting News, and in 1887 he won the western long-distance running championship, then a five-mile race held in Chicago.

Cahill attended Saint Louis University, where he was a track and baseball standout, before encountering his first soccer match in 1884. Impressed by soccer’s speed, skill and athleticism, he soon became a player.

And not just a player. As Cahill wrote in the annual Spalding athletic guide to soccer in 1911, from that moment onward, he considered himself part of a “mission to spread the gospel of soccer and to show Americans what a spectacular, clean and athletic-building game soccer foot-ball really is when properly played.”

The first recorded soccer matches in St. Louis took place in 1875 at the Grand Avenue Base Ball Park, the location on the corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street that later became home to Sportsman’s Park, where the St. Louis Browns and, later, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball teams played.

St. Louis was one of several American cities where a vibrant soccer subculture developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, built primarily around

teams emerging from immigrant communities. The first leagues in St. Louis formed in 1885 among the city’s large Irish American population. Italian and Spanish immigrants who came to St. Louis in the 1890s soon formed their own clubs and expanded the sport’s reach across the city.

Christian Brothers College, too, played a significant role in the sport’s growth locally, organizing teams from the elementary school through the collegiate level. This proved to be the starting point of a strong Parochial League sponsored by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. In 1907, St. Louis even formed its first fully professional league. The grassroots growth of soccer in St. Louis contrasted greatly with the sport’s other Midwestern hotbed, Chicago, where industrialist George Pullman invested heavily in the sport, driving interest.

This is the milieu Thomas Cahill played soccer in during the 1880s and 1890s. After his initial introduction to the sport at Saint Louis University, he starred on several local teams as a goaltender in his 20s and early 30s.

In his 2011 book Soccer Made in St. Louis, soccer historian Dave Lange describes a distinct St. Louis style of play that developed at the turn of the 20th century. The St. Louis game combined speed, physicality and a reliance on the “long ball” rather than intricate passes to move the ball up the field. This relentless, athletic style of play, which Cahill adopted in his own coaching, aggravated European opponents to no end.

But soccer wasn’t Cahill’s main

source of income. By day, he worked on the railroad and moonlighted as a soccer writer for the St. Louis-based Sporting News. He eventually managed his own club, the St. Louis Shamrocks, who competed in the city’s top league, the St. Louis Association Football League, known as the SLAFL. The Shamrocks won the league championship in 1899 and 1900. He went on to manage several other semi-professional teams in St. Louis before becoming SLAFL’s secretary in 1903.

In 1908, Cahill traveled to England with his sights set on learning from the sport’s originators. Cahill witnessed several soccer matches that drew sprawling, boisterous crowds of more than 40,000. He predicted that Americans would one day embrace the game in similar fashion. He also thought that Americans could one day compete with English players, if given the proper training.

“Football in England is just the same as the game of baseball to Americans. The players are required to train hard for the contests, are constantly in condition, play at least three games a week, and to this fact alone do I attribute their superiority to American players,” Cahill told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat upon his return.

In January 1909, Cahill returned from another trip to the UK, where he met with representatives of several English soccer teams. A few English clubs conducted successful tours through the U.S. during the early 20th century. Cahill came to an agreement with one of the most well-known teams, a Sheffield-based touring football

club called the Pilgrims F.C., who planned to play several dates in the U.S. that summer and fall.

Four years earlier, Pilgrims F.C. had played a pair of matches in St. Louis to crowds of several thousand after Cardinals baseball games. The four Pilgrims F.C. games against St. Louis teams in 1909 were another success, drawing thousands of fans to Sportsman’s Park over a week.

Around this time, Cahill also began working on behalf of Spalding as a traveling salesman of soccer equipment, and in 1912, he took a permanent job with Spalding. He relocated from St. Louis to the company’s headquarters in New York City, and he traveled the country, promoting both the sport and Spalding sporting gear.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Spalding produced wildly popular guides for every major sport, which included the rules, instructions on how to play and brief histories. Between 1912 and 1924, Cahill edited an annual guide to American soccer as part of the Spalding Athletic Library. He also tried organizing the sport on a national basis. He founded the American Amateur Football Association and tried to affiliate the group with the sport’s international organization, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, better known as FIFA. Cahill attended the international organization’s annual meeting in Stockholm in 1912, but was rebuffed in his efforts to turn his organization into the standard bearer of the sport in America. A rival group, the American Football Association, was also seeking affiliation. FIFA leaders encouraged the two sides to work out a compromise and return the next year.

On April 5, 1913, Cahill brought the factions together and built a genuinely national soccer organization. He put on a meeting in New York City with soccer enthusiasts from around the country at the Hotel Astor. The group hashed out the formation of the United States Football Association, the forerunner of the United States Soccer Federation, today the official governing body of the sport in the U.S. FIFA soon allowed this new organization to become a member and Cahill became the organization’s first executive, serving as general secretary from 1913 until 1921 as well as briefer tenures between 1923 and 1931.

The Challenge Cup, a singleelimination national soccer tournament to determine the country’s champion, became the centerpiece of the USFA calendar

Concordia Gymnastic Society Soccer Team in 1913. | MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

and its primary source of revenue via ticket sales. The Cup’s direct connection to FIFA afforded it a unique prestige within American soccer circles.

Several of the country’s best amateur teams of the early 20th century hailed from St. Louis, including Scullin Steel and the Ben Miller Hat Company, both of which were company-sponsored teams. After Scullin won the 1922 Challenge Cup, Cahill claimed that an 11-man team made up of only St. Louis players could beat any team in England.

While that boast was almost certainly a stretch, Cahill was right to laud his hometown’s embarrassment of soccer riches. While most great American soccer teams of the early 20th century featured a number of foreign players, the St. Louis 11s consisted almost exclusively of American-born players.

Despite the inroads soccer was making, the settlement Cahill hashed out at the Hotel Astor was a temporary one, as factionalism proved endemic in the USFA. Independent clubs came into conflict with well-heeled company-backed ones. Regional power struggles and clashes of personalities further weakened the organization.

The politics weighed on Cahill, who was expected to police all the sport’s factions. In 1920, when USFA proved financially incapable of sending a team to that year’s summer Olympics in Antwerp, Cahill decided it was time to move on. He came to believe that the sport needed a regular professional circuit if it was going to build out from its niche to national support. He spearheaded the formation of the American Soccer League in 1921 and served as its secretary until 1926.

The ASL was in no way national. Its teams were exclusively in southern New England and the mid-Atlantic states. Nevertheless, it was the largest professional circuit yet in the U.S.

From the outset, the league was beset by the same old infighting and frequent conflict with USFA. Instability was a constant. More than 40 teams entered and left the league in its 12-year history.

Even so, Cahill made a pivotal directive during those years, convincing the leaders of the ASL to refer to their sport as “soccer” rather than “football,” as it was known in most of the world.

According to author David Wangerin in Distant Corners: American Soccer’s History of Missed Opportunities and Lost Causes, Cahill felt like the name

“soccer” distinguished their activity from American football, which was already wildly popular across the country, particularly at the collegiate level. This pragmatic decision made clear business sense. It distinguished professional “soccer” in America from the amateur game with international aspirations that was promoted by the USFA.

Even so, “soccer” was not Cahill’s coinage. The term first appeared in the 1870s as an abbreviation of the sport’s full name, “association football.” The nickname “soccer” referred to both the sport and its participants to differentiate them from “rugby football,” which had become popular in Great Britain decades earlier. While in England, “football” became the preferred shorthand for “association football,” and the term “soccer” gained prominence in other English-speaking countries such as the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Soccer could hardly compete with the top sporting attractions of the U.S. in the early 20th century: baseball, college football, boxing and horse racing. Yet in terms of popularity, the ASL was roughly as successful a live attraction during the 1920s as the National Football League. With the likes of Bethlehem Steel’s Charles Schwab and New York (baseball) Giants owner Horace Stoneham behind them, the ASL also had a wealthier collection of backers than the new professional football league. Most NFL owners relied heavily on their teams as a source of family income. This was not the case in the ASL.

For the most part, Cahill kept the peace within the ASL during his reign, but not long after he left the ASL’s leadership, a so-called “soccer war” emerged among rival factions in the USFA and the ASL. Essentially, ASL owners regarded the USFA as meddlesome and inflexible, unwilling to change rules to adapt to American sports conventions (such as allowing for substitutions and a playoff system) and stringent in its scheduling of the Challenge Cup, which hamstrung ASL’s efforts to have a steady calendar of games. ASL owners also put the USFA in a bind internationally with its growing practice of recruiting European players to their league.

The dispute came to a head in 1928 when all but three ASL teams boycotted that year’s Challenge Cup. Paid admission to Challenge Cup games had been the USFA’s primary source of revenue. FIFA had the USFA’s back

and banned the ASL from international competition.

When the USFA tried to create its own rival league, the Eastern Soccer League, Cahill sided with the USFA and served as commissioner of the new league. But the divided house of American soccer could not stand, and neither league could withstand the economic calamities of the Great Depression. The Eastern Soccer League went out of business in the middle of its second season in 1929. The ASL closed shop in 1933.

A much smaller, less professional ASL replaced it later that season, but nothing about that organization approached the size, scale and popularity of the original ASL. For decades, professional soccer remained virtually invisible in American sports until a well-financed new league, the North American Soccer League, emerged in the late 1960s. Despite having high-profile backers and drawing many high-profile European players, the league never developed a strong or consistent television or live following. While the current major American men’s professional league, MLS, has had its struggles over its slightly more than quarter-century in business, it has proven a much more stable entity than its predecessors.

Cahill’s influence in the sport had clearly waned by the end of the 1920s. He was passed over as head coach for the U.S. soccer team that participated in the 1928 Summer Olympics and the U.S. team that played in the first World Cup in 1930.

At the same time, the popularity of soccer as a live attraction collapsed during the Great Depression, as the sport’s primarily immigrant, working-class base of support faced economic peril.

Player participation declined, too. Federal immigration restrictions put in place during the 1920s circumscribed the appeal of a sport that drew its ranks historically from new Americans who brought the game with them to this country.

This didn’t discourage Cahill, now in his late 60s, from continuing to seek out new beachheads for the sport. He had some success during the 1930s promoting soccer in the southeastern U.S., even forming a semi-professional league in Tampa. Nevertheless, the “golden age” of the 1920s seemed further in the rearview mirror with each passing year.

Cahill’s legend was still enough to earn him induction into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1950 as part of the organization’s inaugural class. That same year, the U.S. team scored the greatest upset in its history, defeating England in World Cup play to the surprise of virtually everyone in the football world.

But Cahill didn’t see victory. “I am sorry to say that the outlook for soccer football is, in my opinion, not bright. I mean with respect to it ever becoming a national pastime in this country. Years ago, we missed the boat,” Cahill told St. Louis Post-Dispatch sports editor John E. Wray in November 1946, just a few years before his death.

To Cahill, soccer’s failure was one of timing: At the professional level, the sport had failed to secure a season of its own. Baseball had the spring and summer. Football had the fall, and basketball and hockey by then had won over the winter.

And so when Cahill died in a New Jersey nursing home in 1951 at age 86, he believed that much of his life’s work had been a waste. He was, of course, wrong. That victory over England in 1950 was the first of many signs that, slowly but surely, his dreams were coming closer to reality. Soccer may not have become a national pastime, but it has evermore been at least a niche.

And in St. Louis, it has been a culture unto itself. The promotion of St. Louis CITY SC to MLS in 2023 and the construction of the soccer-specific CITYPARK stadium in Downtown West further cement what Thomas Cahill started to build more than a century ago. Soccer is here to stay. n

Clayton Trutor holds a PhD in U.S. History from Boston College and teaches at Norwich University. He is the author of several books. He’s on Twitter: @ClaytonTrutor.

Thomas Cahill. | SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN SOCCER HISTORY

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 03/23

One Thing We’ve Got

Classic film, Truman Capote, Audrey Hepburn, breakfast for dinner — if you’re a fan of any of those things, this is your lucky week. This Thursday, March 23, Das Bevo (4749 Gravois Avenue, 314-832-2251) will screen the 1961 Blake Edwards film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. In keeping with the theme, the kitchen will be open, with breakfast fare on the menu. And fitting for the film’s protagonist, cocktails will be, too. The classic rom-com is generally considered a top film of Hepburn’s, who in turn is generally considered one of the best American actresses of all time. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a film so iconic that even if you’ve never seen it you’ll recognize aspects of it right away, owing to its massive influence and its status as a wellspring for parody in the decades since its release. But if you’re only familiar with the film and its literary source material through the 1993 Deep Blue Something pop-rock hit, then for the love of God, go watch the actual movie. Tickets are only $5. The kitchen opens at 6 p.m., and the show starts an hour later.

FRIDAY 03/24 Dinner Plants

You know those illustrations on the back cover of every issue of Cook’s Illustrated? The prints of different varieties of heirloom apples or teas? Clipping them out and using them as wall art is a thing among a certain sect. If you have one of those illustrations on your wall, or if you are now thinking, “Hey, what a great idea,” then the latest exhibit at Webster University is for you. Jimmy Fike: Edible Botanicals surveys photographer and artist Jimmy Fike’s photos of North American wild comestible flora — in other words, more than 150 photos of edible plants. The images feature those edibles pressed flat and photographed. The plants are sharp against the

high-contrast black background and exquisite in their detail. Fike intends for the images to “serve as a historical archive of botanical life during an era of extreme change” and touch upon the oftfraught connection man has with nature. Regardless of the heavy subject matter, the plants sure are a pleasure to look upon. You can do so through Friday, April 28, at the Kooyumjian Gallery (8300 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves; 314-246-7673). The exhibition is free and open to the public each day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit events. webster.edu.

SATURDAY 03/25

Fiesta Grande

This Saturday, March 25, Chaifetz Arena (1 South Compton Avenue, 314-977-5000) won’t be full for a basketball game or a concert. Instead, the party will be poppin’ for something that is arguably better: tacos and margaritas. That’s right, this week St. Louis sees the launch of the inaugural Taco & Margarita Festival. The event, which begins at noon, will not only offer tasty eats and boozy drinks but a plethora of other enticing attractions, including live DJs and professional wrestling. Local vendors will also be present selling items. And for those who really want to prove their love for tacos, the festival will host a taco-eating contest, along with a hot-peppereating contest. Tickets cost $10 in advance and $20 on the day of the event. A VIP package costs $49. For more information, visit chaifetzarena.com.

A Stitch in Time

Elizabeth Keckley’s incredible story begins in slavery and ends in the White House. Keckley was born in bondage and owned by her father, Colonel Armistead Burwell in Virginia. Keckley eventually bought her and her son’s freedom and moved to St. Louis, where she became a seamstress for wealthy women — eventually moving to Washington, D.C. to work as a dressmaker for then-First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Keckley be-

came Lincoln’s close confidante, and subsequently had a lot of stories to tell. Her stories are still being told today. This Saturday, March 25, living history performer Kathryn Harris will present Keckley’s story from a first-person perspective for an event titled Elizabeth Keckley: Dressmaker and Confidante to Mrs. Lincoln at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (7400 Grant Road, 314-8421867). You can catch the show at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Call ahead for free reservations.

IRL Comedy

You may know John Crist from the shorts he posts on social media. In “If Football Coaches Were Honest” he pretends to be a football coach giving a post-game interview: “I did my part. I put in a great game plan. These players are horrible. My players are no good,” he says. “Our offensive coordinator is terrible. He gets half of his plays off of Madden rookie mode. I mean the guy is no good,” he adds. “Do we have a chance next week? No,

we’re 0 and 8. We’re not good at football.” Crist also made the “Rich People During Covid” video, during which he complained on his iPhone while driving around a golf course. “No, I’m not waiting in line for a COVID test with the public. Gross. Get somebody to come to the house,” he jokes. This Saturday, March 25, Crist brings his wholesome (and often church-oriented) humor to the Factory (17105 North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield; 314423-8500) for his Emotional Support Tour. The show starts at 7 p.m. and tickets are $29.75 to $149.75. For more information, visit thefactorystl.com.

Cannon Fodder

TV host, comedian and father of a small army Nick Cannon will be at the Pageant (6161 Delmar Boulevard, 314-726-6161) this Saturday, March 25, with the Future Superstar Challenge Tour 2023 The show will include three stages for people to discover new talent from the Black Music Action Coalition. Local act Big Boss Vette will

Jon Crist will bring his comedy to St. Louis on Saturday. | NORA CANFIELD

perform along with Symba, Pop Money, JD McCrary, Traetwothree and Klondike Blonde. Tickets are $36, and the show starts at 6:30 p.m. More info at thepageant.com.

Ladies in Repose

Women’s History Month marches on this Saturday, March 25, with the Women’s History Trolley Tour at Bellefontaine Cemetery (4947 West Florissant Avenue, 314-381-0750). Instead of just wandering around the grounds without knowing anything about the beautiful things you’re seeing, let this guided tour teach you the secrets and cool details of the local history underfoot. They’ll tell you all about the various intriguing women resting on site and highlight other interesting elements on the grounds related to Women’s History Month. And since these tours are volunteer-guided, you know the person giving you the information is passionate about the subject, too. The tour runs from 10 a.m. to noon. The trolley is climatecontrolled, and tickets are a sug-

gested donation of $5 per person. Visit bellefontainecemetery.org for more information.

MONDAY 03/27

Tree One Four Day

By the time March 28 rolls around, there will be 102 new trees on Delmar Boulevard. But the St. Louis City Forestry Division can’t do it themselves. They need your help. On Monday, March 27, the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations is calling for volunteers to help plant trees and pick up trash on Delmar from Vandeventer to Boyle Avenues. The work is part of an initiative dubbed “Breaking the Delmar Divide.” Volunteers who are interested in doing just that while serving their community should meet at Galilee Missionary Baptist Church (4300 Delmar Boulevard, 314-531-6390) at 10:00 a.m. For more information, contact Anne Brown at anne.brown@slu.edu or 314-328-5398.

WEDNESDAY 03/29

Live and Dead

St. Louis John Mayer fans, rejoice: The seven-time Grammy winner and erstwhile talk show host will be playing the Lou not once but twice in the coming months. This Wednesday, March 29, Mayer will be performing a solo acoustic show at the Enterprise Center (1401 Clark Avenue, 314-622-5400) as part of a 20-city tour. Then, for anyone wanting to see Mayer playing with a full band, he’ll be back in town this

WEEK OF MARCH 23-29

summer at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre (14141 Riverport Drive, Maryland Heights; 314298-9944) as part of Dead and Company on Wednesday, June 7. In addition to Mayer, Dead and Company features Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, and the band is billing its 2023 dates as its final tour. Tickets to the solo acoustic show start at $46.50 and are available through Ticketmaster. Tickets for Dead and Company are already in resale territory, with the cheapest seats out on the lawn and priced at $83 through Live Nation. n

Jimmy Fike’s botanical photos are stunning. | JIMMY FIKE VIA WEBSTER UNIVERSITY

If you haven’t seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s, don’t miss your chance this week. | MOVIE POSTER

CAFE

Simple Joys

Ivy Cafe offers fresh, soulful food — and an amazing sourdough loaf — in downtown Clayton

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Ivy Cafe

14 North Meramec Avenue, Clayton; 314776-9377. Sun. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.; Mon.-Thurs. 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Fri. 7 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.

If you’re at Ivy Cafe on a weekday, sometime in the two o’clock hour, there’s a good chance you’ll bear witness to the revelation upon which the restaurant is based. That’s roughly the time when co-owner Julie Keane pulls her sourdough from the oven — something you’ll know is happening by the way the intoxicating aroma scents the air. For quality control purposes, of course, Keane often pulls one of the loaves for herself, cracking it open with her hands and then placing in it a good-sized cube of unsalted butter that slowly melts, soaking into every nook and cranny so that the interior glistens.

Should you be in this right place at the right time, chances are pretty good that Keane will offer you half of the loaf, which will give you a closer view and make the experience even more multi-sensory. You will feel the rustic golden exterior, hear it crackle when pulled apart and see the warm steam that rises from the inside. You’ll smell the delightfully nutty, slightly sweet perfume of the naturally fermented dough, see the creamy butter gild the layers, then taste the rich, mildly tangy masterpiece that is her handiwork.

Most importantly, however, you’ll understand why Ivy Cafe is a delightful — if not essential — addition to the Clayton dining landscape.

If Ivy Cafe is built upon this solid, sourdough foundation, the idea for the charming eatery was built upon Keane’s passion for fresh, soulful food. A former medical device salesperson, Keane found herself regularly traveling to the West Coast, where she fell in love with its food culture, most

notably the bread and shockingly fresh ingredients she would encounter even at the most low-key spots. When she’d return from the road, Keane would play around in her own kitchen, working out recipes and perfecting dishes to share with her family and friends.

One of those friends was Ashley Morrison, who has co-owned the

St. Charles tapas restaurant Bella Vino for the past decade. The two had often casually talked about opening a restaurant together, and as Keane got more serious about her cooking, those talks, too, became more serious. The pair understood that the Clayton area needed a reasonably priced yet elevated cafe-style spot and,

after finding and then losing another location, they settled on the upstairs part of the former Miso on Meramec storefront and opened Ivy Cafe last July.

The smell of baking bread, when present, might be the most notable feature of Ivy Cafe’s atmosphere. However, it is rivaled by the setting itself. The small restaurant is positively stunning, outfitted in a botanical motif that includes a sparkling, hand-glazed emerald-green tile wall; another wooden-planter wall with a small overhang interspersed with hanging plants and vines; gilded flatware and rustic, earth-tone ceramic plates and mugs that Keane made herself. Keane and Morrison are also proud of the cafe’s commitment to supporting local artists, so you will see anything from paintings to sculptures to books and table adornments, which give the restaurant a whimsical flair.

That feeling carries through to the food. The heart of Ivy’s menu is its tartines, served atop Keane’s outstanding sourdough. Though the bread is magnificent on its own, it offers a stunning canvas

Ivy Cafe’s menu features tartines, pastries, lattes and more. | MABEL SUEN

Julie Keane and Ashley Morrison are the owners of Ivy Cafe. | MABEL SUEN

for Keane’s culinary creativity on tartines such as the Brentwood, which features luscious herbed ricotta topped with vibrant tomatoes that have been fire-roasted to the point just before they pop. The juice from these local greenhouseraised jewels counters the rich ricotta and soaks into the bread for an experience that is surprisingly complex considering how few ingredients it contains.

Ivy’s other tomato tartine, the Pershing, is equally outstanding. Akin to a caprese, this version features thick slices of fresh mozzarella, local tomatoes and fresh basil. The elevating component, though, is the truffle glaze, a powerful nectar of truffled balsamic vinegar. Often overpowering, here the truffle is tamped down by the sweet vinegar, leaving behind a gentle earthiness that combines beautifully with the pungent balsamic.

Keane further shows her adeptness with putting together such counter flavors on the Linden tartine. Here, plump hunks of marinated steak are placed atop the sourdough alongside blueberries and funky blue cheese. A sweet fig glaze finishes this delectable dish. The Buckingham, a play on avocado toast, is equally compelling thanks to pops of pomegranate seeds, fresh dill and a drizzle of honey. Our server smartly advised us to add an over-easy egg to the toast; the molten yolk transformed an already-delicious dish into a luxurious affair.

There is much more to Ivy

than tartines, though. A gorgeous shrimp salad pairs the shellfish with tender greens, pomegranate, sunflower seeds and goat cheese, which is dressed in a wellbalanced honey-lime vinaigrette. Keane’s quiche, too, is worth the visit. The Lorraine features a custard-like filling flecked with bacon and onions, though the highlight of the dish is the crust — so nutty and rustic, it evokes the perfect pie crust your grandma made. The dish that may put Ivy on the map, though, is the French toast.

Using her sourdough as a base, Keane soaks the bread in coconut milk, then griddles it off so that it forms a sweet, pound-cake-like slice that is balanced with a hint of bitterness from the crust’s toasty edges. It’s rustic and decadent at the same time.

Still, you’ll be just as happy if you walk into Ivy Cafe and order a simple platter of fresh sourdough with butter and housemade preserves. On our visit, the latter was mixed berry, a tart concoction that had the ideal texture — not

liquidy but not so thick, so it was able to soak into the tiny holes throughout the bread’s interior. Sipping a smoked salted honey latte and noshing on such a pure pleasure, you’re reminded of how much joy a simple piece of bread can bring — especially when it comes from hands as talented as Keane’s. n

Ivy Cafe

The Brentwood $13.50

Quiche Lorraine $16 French toast $15

Sweet options include yogurt parfaits, overnights oats and more. | MABEL SUEN The Pershing features mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil and truffle glaze. | MABEL SUEN

The dining room at Ivy Cafe has a botanical motif. | MABEL SUEN

Renowned, But Little Known

Florissant’s lauded Narrow Gauge Brewing Company is set to expand — and step into the mainstream

Written by TONY REHAGEN

Narrow Gauge Brewing Company is something of an underground phenomenon. Opened in 2016 as a brewpub in Cugino’s Italian eatery (1595 North Highway 67; Florissant), the brewery only started limited local distribution in late 2021. The brand is still relatively unknown to casual St. Louis drinkers. Yet, within craft beer circles, Narrow Gauge is world-renowned.

I’ve personally spoken to brewers and barkeeps as far-flung as Phoenix, Louisville and Brooklyn who, after they’ve asked where I’m from, excitedly mention Narrow Gauge. I’ve spotted the brewery’s stickers on tables, bathroom stalls and behind-the-bar coolers all over the country. A close friend even saw one of its trademark Hazy IPAs mentioned in a glowing Google review of a bottle shop he was scouting in Berlin.

Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that owners Jeff and Heather Hardesty and their crew have managed to grow this global reputation and their business out of a 1,700-square-foot north county basement where 50-pound bags of sugar are stacked atop oaken barrels of aging stout and taller brewers duck to avoid hitting their heads on the ceiling when climbing the vats to look down at the wort. “The relationship with Cugino’s has been beneficial for both parties,” Heather says. “But it’s been difficult competing for space with a full-service restaurant.”

That competition is about to get

a whole lot easier when Narrow Gauge moves this April into its own production and distribution location, two doors down Lindbergh Avenue from Cugino’s. With 3,500 square feet of production space, the building, a former Pool King retail outlet, offers more than twice as much space to play with — and plenty of room to grow.

The new space, which will eventually include a tap room, more closely resembles the Hardestys’ original vision when they first decided to leave their careers as engineers and indulge Jeff’s homebrewing hobby seven years ago. At the time, the St. Louis craft beer scene was just hitting its stride, but outside of Ferguson Brewing, there were scant options in and around the couple’s north county home. Still, the price tag on a freestanding brewpub or tap room was a bit much for the two, so they opted instead to partner with Ben Goldkamp and Dave Beckham, beer enthusiasts who owned Cugino’s, which they had transformed into a craft-beer bar/family eatery.

In May 2016, Jeff set up a tiny three-barrel system in the restaurant’s seldom-used basement banquet space, and Cugino’s became the official home of Narrow Gauge, which is named after the West End Narrow Gauge railroad that once linked Florissant to St. Louis. A narrow-gauge railway, as opposed to a broad-gauge where the two rails are farther apart, enables the train to make tighter turns and navigate rougher terrain. It proved to be an apt metaphor for the Hardestys’ fledgling brewery as they launched full steam into the future.

Fueling this success was Jeff’s

talent for brewing not only European ales, but also New England IPAs or NEIPAs, an Americanized style that had only begun to spill out of the Northeast and intoxicate tipplers across the country. Also called Hazy or Juicy IPAs, the NEIPA style of beer has an opaque appearance due to the hops being added after the boil or during fermentation (dry-hopping), are generally much more fruit-forward in taste and smell than traditional West Coast IPAs. The Hazy’s shift away from the bitter finish of those old-school IPAs proved a gateway for delicate American palates to approach these hoppier ales, helping IPAs expand their grip as the top-selling style of craft beer.

Narrow Gauge’s flagship Fallen Flag came at the perfect time. Pouring a golden turgid orange, the brew delivers the appropriate citrusy zest with notes of grapefruit, tangerine and lemon. Its sister Cloud City (formerly known as Oast #2) is slightly sweeter due to the addition of Galaxy and El Dorado hops. Soon, the brewery produced a whole spectrum of Hazies, from the full-bodied Rocket Appliances double IPA to the softer and danker Join Us In Creating Excellence (J.U.I.C.E.) to the slightly boozier, slightly hoppier, and yet infinitely crushable OJ Run, which eventually emerged as the brewery’s most popular offering.

Through his connections in the homebrewing and craft-brewing community, Jeff was toting his wares to festivals, tastings and other events all over the country, thus building Narrow Gauge’s brand and cred among beer snobs, especially in the Hazy IPA category.

But locally, Narrow Gauge was only available to those in the know on tap or in growler or crowler fills at Cugino’s, until Jeff and Heather jammed a canning line into the already-crowded subterranean confines. Even then, you could only pick it up at the restaurant. This model served them and the restaurant well during the pandemic, when they could quickly pivot to online ordering, curbside pickup and even doorstep delivery in parts of metro St. Louis. Once direct sales began to wane in late 2021, the Hardestys began limited local retail distribution. Last September, they signed with Craft Republic, which places Narrow Gauge four-packs in Kansas City, Columbia, Cape Girardeau and most of metro St. Louis, with plans of expanding into Illinois later this year.

The new space in Florissant might seem like the logical next step in the Hardestys’ plans of world domination, but Heather says it’s simply a long-overdue move to keep up with current demand, allow Jeff room to expand his art, including his popular barrel program (a recent release of barrel-aged Abeyance imperial variants was world-class), and drive revenue to keep the lights on. “We don’t want to necessarily get huge,” Heather says. “But we do have to keep up with enough production to maintain and pay for this project.”

In other words, Narrow Gauge will maintain its underground cred — while no longer being trapped underground. n

Narrow Gauge Brewing Company’s new home is a huge expansion. | COURTESY HEATHER HARDESTY

Last September, they signed with Craft Republic, which places Narrow Gauge four-packs in Kansas City, Columbia, Cape Girardeau and most of metro St. Louis.

A Legend, Reborn

With its latest location, Amighetti’s returns to the Hill

Written by RYAN KRULL

One hundred and seven years after Amighetti’s first opened on Daggett Avenue on the Hill, a brand new location of the iconic Italian sandwich shop has opened at Southwest and Macklind, less than a mile away from that original spot.

The interior at 5390 Southwest Avenue is bright and modern looking but contains plenty of hints of both the space’s and the restaurant’s history. One wall is adorned with an L. Amighetti Bakery’s sign painted onto the brick, which itself dates back to around the turn of the century. The floors are original, too.

Also on the “classic” side of the ledger is the Amighetti Special at the heart of the menu. The roast beef, salami and ham sandwich with special sauce is made the same as it was back in the 1960s when Marge Amighetti invented it.

Current Amighettis’ owner Anthony Favazza credits Marge with turning Amighetti’s into what it is today by convincing her husband, Louis Amighetti, who inherited the original bakery, to start selling sandwiches, the recipes for which Marge crafted herself.

“She told her husband that she wanted to name the sandwich the Amighetti Special,” Favazza says. “He said, ‘No, no, no. You can’t name it that. Nobody can pronounce it.’ And she said, ‘Don’t you worry. They’re gonna know how to pronounce it.’”

Favazza adds, “It would be an understatement to say the business took off like a rocket.”

Throughout the past half-century, there have been as many as 10 Amighetti’s locations throughout the region under various owners and franchising arrangements. One on the Hill changed its name to Colino’s amid a legal dispute that involved disagreements over whether or not stems should be removed from pepperoncini before being put on sandwiches. (Pepperoncini-gate received significant media coverage, with PostDispatch columnist Bill McClellan weighing in at the time, saying that the stems got to go.)

One of the most fascinating chapters of Amighetti’s history took place in 1987

when Anheuser-Busch bought the restaurant’s name with the hope of having Amighetti’s all across the country operating as upscale Italian versions of the recently launched St. Louis Bread Company. AB opened the inaugural location downtown, near where Busch Stadium stood at the time.

However, the brewery had to sell the sandwich shop the following year. The reason? Favazza says the sandwiches were just too good.

“Amighetti’s opens downtown,” he

[ON TOPIC]

Smash and Grab

Diego’s Cantina drags wannabe thieves on Instagram in a video set to the music of the Notorious B.I.G.

Written by RYAN KRULL

AUniversity City Mexican restaurant is making the best of a bad situation.

In the early hours last Tuesday morning, two individuals in dark clothes smashed the front door of Diego’s Cantina (630 North and South Road, University City) and stormed in to rob the place. They failed to get away with much cash, but Diego’s took the unfortunate situa-

says. “From the day they opened, they were packed. All day long. Every day. Every other restaurant downtown saw their sales take a dive.”

Quickly, nearby eateries grew frustrated that they were faithfully selling Budweiser beer while losing money to the Anheuser-Busch-owned sandwich shop. Some of the restaurants started selling non-Anheuser-Busch beers. When a major hotel chain threatened to join the restaurants in their boycott, the brewery got out of the Amighetti’s game.

tion and turned it into a pretty fun video set to the music of the Notorious B.I.G.

The restaurant posted the security footage of the two intruders to Instagram, adding captions that mock the would-be thieves as they fail to find any money, which if their beeline to the register is any indication, is what they came for.

“Nope — We don’t keep $ in our drawer,” the video’s text reads as one of the thieves paws around in the till but comes up empty-handed.

“Dude, there’s nothing,” the text reads as the thief continues to search in vain for cash.

Near the end of the short video, Diego’s highlights the two dollar bills lying on the ground that the intruders overlooked in their haste to flee the scene.

The video ends by cracking a joke about its own front door, now with a piece of plywood.

“Now open with a new rustic look,” the video says.

Commenters on the post have praised Diego’s positive attitude in response to the burglary.

Favazza’s family has long been active on the Hill. His father and grandparents founded Favazza’s on the Hill in 1978. He grew up in the family business but went his own way after high school, earning a law degree, working as a corporate lawyer in New York and starting several businesses.

In 2014, he went into a business meeting where he thought he was going to be pitched on the idea of buying a technology startup, but instead, the person he met with knew about his background and asked if he was interested in “buying an iconic Hill restaurant.”

When he found out that it was Amighetti’s for sale, Favazza says he almost fell out of his chair. Having grown up on the Hill, he had great respect for its century-long legacy. “In my mind, that was the best.”

There were many kinks to be worked out before the deal could be finalized as well as a pandemic to be gotten through.

But now Favazza operates the Amighetti’s in Rock Hill and the brand new one on the Hill, a neighborhood whose history he clearly reveres but who he isn’t at all beholden to.

In addition to the Amighetti Special and numerous other classic Italian sandwiches, the menu boasts a wild salmon meatball sandwich and a Tuscan kale salad.

It comes with chickpeas and turkey, extra-virgin olive oil. It is the perfect mix of old and new at a restaurant that’s been a Hill mainstay for 100 years. n

Amighetti’s decor includes historic elements such as this sign. | RYAN KRULL

Hopefully, no other St. Louis area restaurants have reason to make another video like this one. n

Diego’s mocks the thieves in their attempt to find money. | SCREENSHOT

CHERYL BAEHR’S OYSTER PICKS

Granted, there is no better oystereating background track than the sound of crashing waves. Though the lapping waters of the Mississippi can’t quite cut it, there is still hope when you get a hankering for chilled bivalves on the halfshell. Even this far inland, these establishments come through to the point where you can almost feel the sand on your toes.

Wright’s Tavern

There’s nothing the magicians at Wright’s Tavern can’t do, so it’s no surprise that they nail the oyster. Though the selection changes, you are always guaranteed a shockingly fresh oyster, served with classic mignonette sauce and Old Bay dusted crackers that transport you to the Cape.

Yellowbelly

Yellowbelly may be known for cocktail master Tim Wiggins’ fantastic libations, but its oysters should be a close second. In keeping with the restaurant’s Pacific Rim vibe, these pearlescent beauties are amped up with either kimchi water and pickled daikon or pineapple tepache.

Peacemaker Lobster & Crab

St. Louis’ essential spot for fresh seafood, Peacemaker Lobster & Crab boasts an impressive raw bar stocked with a variety of fresh oysters and traditional accoutrements that are even more delicious when paired with one of the bar’s adult slushies.

Olive + Oak

Olive + Oak almost always has a selection of oysters from both coasts, allowing you to compare and contrast the nuanced differences between the regions. Bonus points: They come roasted, fried or Rockefeller style in addition to served on the half shell.

Herbie’s

Freshly shucked, the oysters at Herbie’s are wonderful enough on their own but are made even more magnificent when amped up with a mouthwatering black-pepper mignonette.

Instagram Worthy

City Winery opened Saturday in City Foundry with serious vibes

Written by JESSICA ROGEN

Every time one visits City Foundry STL these days, there’s something new to check out: the Alamo Drafthouse, Big Shark Bicycle Company and Sandbox VR are a few of the new additions.

As of Saturday, the Foundry just got one more new thing to see: City Winery, a winery, restaurant and concert venue combo, which held its official opening this past weekend.

The 225-seat venue is located adjacent the Food Hall (and can also be entered through the hall) at 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158. For visitors entering the Foundry from the front entrance, its bold yellow brick painted with the City Winery St. Louis logo is impossible to miss.

Those entering through the main door are greeted by an open, modern, renovated industrial space with a large square bar and the dining area. The space’s high ceilings allow for a loft over the bar that seems ideal for more private events. Perhaps the most standout piece of decor is a large wall of backlit golden, empty wine bottles.

City Winery is not a winery in name alone. The chain, which has 14 other locations, produces its own house wines from grapes sourced at 30 vineyards in the U.S., Argentina and Chile. The 20 vintages served in St. Louis include riesling, cabernet franc, and a fortified port-style dessert wine as well as other varietals, and the winery pours them all from an eco-friendly steel keg system.

City Winery offers glasses, bottles and flights of wine featuring four 2-ounce pours for $20. Glasses range from $10 for a sauvignon blanc to $15 for pink bubbles cava. Bottles range from $40 to $70. The venue also serves “old world classic bottles,” a.k.a. wine from other wineries.

The venue bills itself as having upscale dining, and its menu aligns with that promise. There

are soups and salads; several charcuterie and cheese boards; shared plates, which include a decadent and worth-it mushroom and goat cheese arancini; entrees such as burgers, steak, pan-seared grouper and ratatouille; pizzas; sides and desserts. Prices range from $8 for french fries to $43 for a grilled flat-iron steak.

A large part of City Winery’s draw is not the food and drink alone: It’s about the shows. The restaurant has an adjoining concert space that can be fully separated from the bar and dining area by a sliding, soundproof door. The venue has already

Closed for Good

Llywelyn’s former space on South 9th Street in Soulard is for sale

Written by RYAN KRULL

The closure of Llywelyn’s Pub in Soulard appears to be permanent. Commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has listed the 7800-plus-square-foot space Llywelyn’s used to occupy at 1732 South Ninth Street as for sale.

The Soulard pub has been closed for business as of late, but its official Facebook page lists the closure as temporary. On February 18, the bar hosted an afternoon DJ event following the Mardi Gras parade.

However, with the announcement of the property being on the market, the closure seems like it will be for good.

announced an initial lineup of shows, which can be viewed at citywinery.com/stlouis.

City Winery founder and CEO Michael Dorf has a serious local connection: He attended Washington University as an undergraduate.

“Opening City Winery in St. Louis is something that I have wanted to do since I started the brand in 2008,” Dorf says in a statement. “Having spent several years living in the city while I was in college, it feels right to once again join this incredible community within the historic building of City Foundry STL.” n

City Winery opened in City Foundry last weekend. | JESSICA ROGEN

[FOOD NEWS]

Llywelyn’s still operates locations in St. Charles and Webster Groves. The business closed its Central West End restaurant in 2018. n

The building that housed the pub and restaurant is for sale. | GOOGLE MAPS

Killer Recipes

Global Foods wants your family recipes for a new cookbook

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Global Foods Market (421 North Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood; 314835-1112) wants your family recipes for what could possibly be the cutest project ever.

The Kirkwood grocer is putting together a Global Foods Market Cookbook full of recipes submitted by St. Louis families.

Global Foods wants to include a variety of dishes from the cultures that make St. Louis the beautiful melting pot that it is.

“We hope this cookbook celebrates all of the incredible cultures that we have residing here in our community while also providing home cooks with a fun way to start expanding their culinary horizons,” Shayn Prapaisilp, chief operating officer of Global Foods Group, says in a statement.

Those killer family dishes that make

your mouth water just thinking about them? Be a pal and share the recipe, so we can all try them.

Submissions can also include family photos and short stories connected to the recipes. The only submission requirement is the recipe must include ingredients that can be found at Global Foods.

The book will also feature recipes from local chefs and restaurants, in addition to recipes passed down from generation to generation by Global Foods’ founding family, the Prapaisilps.

Global Foods hopes to publish its cookbook by the end of the year and has a goal to launch the cookbook before the

holidays.

With every book purchased, one will be donated to the International Institute of St. Louis to be put into welcome packs for refugees.

Recipes can be submitted through Google forms at bit.ly/global-foods-cookbook. n

Global Foods Market in Kirkwood hopes its cookbook will celebrate St. Louis’ diversity. | COURTESY GLOBAL FOODS MARKET

REEFERFRONT TIMES 41

Can Weed Make You More Productive?

1906 Drops promise to enhance cognitive focus, but for this THC lightweight they fail to deliver

Written by D.D. DANKMAS

My usual routine is marijuana, TV, sleep, but today was different. Today, I was going to get high and try to get something done.

It all started when I discovered 1906 Drops. The pills combine THC, CBD and medicinal herbs to create different effects — make you relaxed, make you horny, make you sleepy, etc. There is even a performance-enhancing pill called Go and a Genius pill that’s supposed to improve cognitive focus.

So these were pills that I could take in the morning to help me get through work. The budtender at Swade, where I bought trial packets of both pills for $5 per packet, told me he takes Genius every morning.

I am a little obsessed with herbal medicines and have ingested a lot of pills that make claims that have not been evaluated by the FDA. My gateway drug was probiotics. I started on some that cleared up most of my acne. The dramatic difference made me go on the hunt for other probiotics and vitamins, and I found dietary supplements that promised to improve brain function, sleep, appearance and focus.

I swear, some of them do help improve focus. Some just upset my stomach.

Now, 1906 wanted to cash in on the herbal enhancement game with THC pills. I was extremely skeptical when I decided to take

my first dose on a Saturday morning. (I have a pretty busy job and was just not ready to give this a go before actual work.)

I cut open the pouch with the Genius pills. They were bigger than I expected, and I’m glad I read “Swallow, don’t chew” on the side of the package because they looked chewable.

The Genius pills contain 2.5 mg THC and 2.5 mg CBD per pill. The drops also contain rhodiola extract (500 mg), bacopa extract (400 mg), greater galangal extract (400 mg), L-theanine (160 mg), theobromine (150 mg) and caffeine (80 mg) in a four-pill serving.

A trial pouch includes four pills. I typically take 5 mg of THC when I do an edible to avoid any weed hangover, so I popped two pills and went about my day.

Later, I read the package, and a dose is actually four pills.

I didn’t feel anything at first, but while I was working on some projects (OK, I was scrolling TikTok), I started to feel a little lightheaded. Then I got a stomachache.

This never happens when I have CBD or THC alone, so it had to be

due to some of the other ingredients.

I powered through (I had no choice) and waited to feel smarter, but I just felt mildly high. I laughed a lot while scrolling TikTok, didn’t really feel like doing any work and had to fight the urge to take a nap.

The other pills, the Go drops, contain a lot of the same ingredients as the Genius drops. Each pill contains 5 mg THC and 5 mg CBD. A two-pill dose also contains 350 mg galangal extract, 240 mg L-theanine, 200 mg theobromine and 160 mg caffeine.

After reading that a dose was two pills, I decided to follow the instructions and take both. A few days had passed since the Genius drops, and this attempt was on a weeknight after work. For me, 10 mg is a lot of THC, but I figured the herbs and the caffeine would offset it.

I tossed the two blue pills in my mouth and went to go find my kombucha. The pills tasted strongly of weed, which surprised me. I hadn’t really tasted the Genius pills.

Since I have no work-life balance, I was really trying to get something done while I waited for the effects to kick in, but I was unfocused, bouncing between tabs and projects.

My hope was that the edible would improve my concentration. It did not. At first, I could keep working and felt just a bit lightheaded. Then I floated into outer space and couldn’t do anything but go to sleep.

I really wanted some chips, but the couchlock was real, and I couldn’t get up. I called my parents to ask if they could bring me some food, but they declined. I ended up passing out with the lights on. In the Go pills’ defense, I had been sleeping poorly of late, so I was already tired. But, as a lightweight, I can’t imagine ever being productive on 10 mg THC. And, unless the performance I’m trying to enhance is my ability to pass out while watching Married at First Sight, this is not the pill to take. (The sleep was 10/10 though.)

It looks like waking, baking and enhancing my productivity is still an elusive dream. n

The Genius drops from 1906 promise to improve your cognitive function. | COURTESY 1906 NEW HIGHS

Viola STL Brings Allen Iverson Strain to St. Louis

The Black-owned dispensaries also celebrated their grand openings this month

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

The line was down the block and several people deep earlier this month at Viola STL Dispensary (2001 Olive Street) across from CITYPARK stadium. This crowd, however, was not there for soccer. This crowd was there for former basketball player Allen Iverson.

Iverson has loaned his name to a new strain of weed that will be for sale only at Viola STL, one of the few Black-owned dispensaries in St. Louis. The dispensary was started by former NBA players Al Harrington and Larry Hughes, who played together on the New York Knicks from 2009 to 2010, as well as Abe Givins and Dan Pettigrew. Viola STL operates two dispensaries in St. Louis, both of which held ribbon cuttings earlier this month. Viola, though, is a nationwide company that also sells product and operates dispensaries in other cities such as Detroit.

“We’re so excited to be launching our best-selling collaboration strain, Iverson 96, with our brother Allen Iverson,” Hughes and Harrington said in a statement. “This will be the third state we are bringing this product to, and in true A.I. fashion, he’ll be in the building to support our opening as we introduce our high-quality cannabis to the St. Louis area.”

So predictably, people lined up (many in Iverson jerseys) to meet the basketball great and purchase cannabis. Viola STL held a grand opening for its Olive location in January, but the store clearly wasn’t finished, and there was very little fanfare around the opening.

This event felt more like a grand opening, with a finished interior and exterior, balloons and long

lines.

People crowded around a black coach bus when it pulled up. It took so long for Iverson to emerge from it that someone shouted, “Get out the car!” When he did emerge, he was quickly surrounded by a mob of fans and photographers.

About 20 minutes after he went into the dispensary, the long line outside of the store started

[WEED EVENT]

Inaugural 420 Fest Coming to the Loop

The event will feature live music and tie-dye demonstrations

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

The Loop will be hopping on Saturday, April 22, because it is not only Record Store Day, but Sunshine Daydream and Emporium Smoke Shop have teamed up to bring the street its first-ever 420 Fest.

Despite being cannabis inspired, the event will be fairly family friendly and is more about the culture of marijuana than about selling actual reefer.

Jake’s Leg, a Grateful Dead-inspired cover band, will perform live, and there will be tie-dying and glass-blowing demonstrations, as well as street vendors selling jewelry, crafts, candles, crystals

to move as people were let in in small groups to meet Iverson and purchase weed.

A similar scene played out the next day at Viola STL’s second location near Cherokee Street at 3420 Iowa Street. A line wrapped around the parking lot of the dispensary, which also offers a drive-thru, as people waited to see Iverson.

Some were also there to do

some side business.

One man, looking sharp in headto-toe red, emerged with a signed Iverson jersey and stopped to talk to a friend.

“It’s $70 in there,” he said, explaining that sales tax was driving up the price. “If you need something, I got you.” He opened up his belt bag to show his stash. But the pull to see Iverson was too great, and his friend went to get in line. n

and more.

The only event announced so far that is directly related to cannabis is an infusion demonstration with Chef Roilty, the Coloradan behind Dine with Roilty, which offers catered, marijuana-infused dinners and classes on cooking with cannabis. Here he’ll be showing how to infuse food with cannabis.

In addition to 420 Fest, Vintage Vinyl will be hosting a live concert outside of its store for Record Store Day. Pop into the store to get some vinyl and maybe grab a deal or a special new release.

420 Fest takes place on Saturday, April 22. Check universitycityloop. com/420fest for times and further details. n

The excitement was palpable at the Viola STL ribbon cutting, where people waited to meet Allen Iverson. | ROSALIND EARLY

The Loop already hosts an ice carnival (pictured) and now will have a 420 Fest. | REUBEN HEMMER

[SPORTS CRED]

On the Field

Missouri History Museum’s new Soccer City exhibit traces the history of the game in St. Louis from 1875 to today

Written by BENJAMIN SIMON

No one would have mistaken Sharon Smith for a soccer fan four years ago. Football?

Definitely. Hockey? She learned to love the Blues. Baseball? Yes, but she won’t say name her favorite team, an enemy of the Cardinals.

But soccer? She didn’t even know the rules or the terminology. Now?

She’s more than a fan. She’s an expert. Smith, curator of civic and personal identity at the Missouri Historical Society, can tell you about the first soccer game –– ever –– in St. Louis history. She can recite almost every goal CITY SC scored through its initial three games. The history, the energy, the game –– it all swept her up. “The nerdy side of me has, amazingly, latched on to this sport,” Smith says. “I think it’s one of the most addictive sports to watch.”

Now, Smith is one of the most knowledgeable people about soccer in the entire city. She helped put together the Missouri Historical Society’s Soccer City exhibit, which will open on Saturday, April 8.

The exhibit, timed with the St. Louis CITY SC’s inaugural Major League Soccer season, covers 148 years’ worth St. Louis soccer history. It kicks off in 1875 when the first game was held between two groups of lawyers, the Blondes and the Brunettes, at Grand Avenue Ball Grounds, which would later become Sportsman’s Park. It highlights St. Louis’ claim as the U.S. soccer capital during the 19th century, when immigrants brought the game here from overseas, and the city hosted the only national professional soccer league in 1907. It covers the “hey-

day,” the 1940s and 50s, when the United States Men’s National Team stunned England in the World Cup –– with five players from the Hill. It ends in 2023, with Tim Parker scoring the first goal in CITY SC franchise history.

“This exhibit will demonstrate just the depth of this city’s soccer history,” Smith says. “That, to me, is the coolest thing. We can claim that we were America’s first soccer capital. We really can. I think that’s an easy claim.”

The Missouri Historical Society tells the story through photos, infographics, booths about women’s soccer and CITY SC, soccer balls, 1970s cleats worn by national team player Al Trost and nearly 20 jerseys belonging to players from Parker to former MLS star Taylor Twellman to women’s national team captain Becky Sauerbrunn.

But Smith didn’t want to create a static museum exhibit. She wanted visitors to interact with the content.

The exhibit is spread over two rooms –– one for the artifacts and another that Smith calls a game room. It resembles a sports bar –– without the drinks. There are old-school games such as Subbuteo and foosball, two arcade stations, hundreds of photos on the wall and footage documenting the journey of CITY SC’s formation, from its initial announcement to

CITY2 games.

Throughout the exhibit’s months-long duration, the museum will also host a number of events, including conversations with Ed Wheatley, author of St. Louis Sports Memories: Forgotten Teams and Moments from America’s Best Sports Town, and Dave Lange, author of Soccer Made in St. Louis: A History of the Game in America’s First Soccer Capital.

But despite the history, despite the professional players, despite residents describing it as a “soccer city,” St. Louis has never before had a MLS team, though there have been random professional teams, such as the Ambush, the Steamers and the Saint Louis Football Club. Then in 2019, the MLS announced it would add an expansion team in St. Louis. Since that announcement four years ago, the city has waited and waited –– through electrical delay after COVID-19 delay. Residents watched the team get built from scratch, the 22,500-seat stadium rise from the rubble in Downtown West, the players added one by one –– until everything finally arrived.

On February 25, St. Louis CITY SC played its first home game at CITYPARK stadium in front of a raucous, “S-T-L” chanting crowd. Since then, the team has blazed to a 3-0 start –– just the fourth expansion team in history to catch

fire so quickly.

“That was the enthusiasm for us as an institution –– to be able to say, ‘This is historic,’” she says. “I think it also feels like something that a lot of people would be interested in seeing.”

Behind the scenes, this exhibit was coming together, too. Back in 2019, when the MLS was announced in St. Louis, before anyone knew the name would be CITY SC, Vin Ko, director of team operations at CITY SC and former worker with the Missouri Historical Society, pitched the idea of a soccer-themed exhibit.

At that time, Smith knew little about soccer in St. Louis. But after meeting with Lange and Jim Leeker, president of the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame, she latched onto the sport. Lange’s book would become a guide for the exhibition.

Over the years, the exhibit evolved. It moved from one room to two rooms. It grew from only a few pictures to balls, jerseys, infographics and arcade games. It was rescheduled from 2022 to 2023 after the inaugural season was delayed.

And now that time is here –– finally, just like soccer in St. Louis.

On Saturday, April 8, CITY SC will travel to play the Seattle Sounders –– its seventh game in history. Back home, the Missouri Historical Society will share the story of how CITY SC –– and St. Louis soccer –– came to exist.

“They’re playing it out on the field,” Smith says, “we’re going to tell it in here.” n

Soccer City opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 8, at the Missouri History Museum (5700 Lindell Boulevard, 314-746-45599). More information at mohistory.org/exhibits/soccer-city.

Soccer City opens on Saturday, April 8. | COURTESY MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM

“ We can claim that we were America’s first soccer capital. We really can. I think that’s an easy claim.”

New Vision

Losing his sight spurred Langford Cunningham to use his voice for good on his podcast Blind City

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Langford Cunningham had to go blind to see.

Which doesn’t really make sense. But before, Cunningham lived a “vicious and violent” lifestyle of drinking and partying in St. Louis nightclubs while ignoring symptoms of glaucoma. Only when he lost his vision, Cunningham says, did he truly start to see. He was here for a reason, and he could use what he had left — his voice — to bring light to issues in his community.

This was four years ago. Now, Cunningham hosts a podcast called Blind City where he amplifies marginalized voices. His podcast has featured guests talking on a wide variety of topics relevant to St. Louis, from culture and music to politics and human trafficking. All subjects, no matter how tough the topic, are engaged with Cunningham’s patient, empathetic interviewing.

Last week, Cunningham took his podcast from the airwaves to real life at Harris-Stowe University. His event, Black Girls Missing, focused on human trafficking and victims throughout the area. A panel of speakers highlighted the issue throughout the two-hour event.

“I need to get more attention to this, to put more of a light on minority girls disappearing,” Cunningham says. “Sometimes, society writes them off as being from dysfunctional families or runaways.”

Cunningham first caught wind of the issue as a deputy juvenile officer at the St. Louis County Juvenile Detention Center. He says one girl told him about her aunt that had gone missing. He heard similar stories from other girls, too — most from Berkeley in north St. Louis County.

He took his concerns to the Berkeley police chief, who Cunningham says didn’t give him any answers. But soon after, Cunningham’s vision started to deteriorate, and he couldn’t pursue the issue further.

Thirty-one surgeries failed to bring Cunningham’s vision back. Ghen he lost his job at the Juvenile Detention Center and attempted suicide, he says.

Though he lived “a double life,” he loved mentoring kids at the Juvenile Center. “It was what I loved, it was my passion,” Cunningham says. As a blind man, however, he could no longer hold his position there.

If it wasn’t for his then-newborn daughter, whom he could see for just the first five months of her life, Cunningham may not have made it to find his new vocation.

Years later, the Blind City podcast has gradually picked up steam. He’s been a guest on the actor Michael Colyar’s show, as well as appearing on the Disney affiliate ESPN Radio (100.1) in St. Louis.

Cunningham holds that the St. Louis community as a whole is, in a way, blind — blinded by racism, blinded by crime, by poverty. He wants everyone to receive the same clarity he has.

“God’s using me in another way to affect change in my community,” Cunningham says.

Nearly every episode of Blind City starts with a montage of sound bites, including one of Cunningham’s most prominent catchphrases: “We are the therapy for the streets.”

One has about the same chance of therapizing the streets as a blind man seeing again.

But if Cunningham’s story is a testament to anything, it’s that there’s hope for anyone.

Langford Cunningham lost his vision to glaucoma. | COURTESY BLIND CITY PODCAST

MUSIC 47

since.

“He’s my person,” Sorenko says with affection.

Best to Come

With a new album and an indemand voice, St. Louis singer Joanna Serenko sets off for the top

Written by STEVE LEFTRIDGE

It is a serendipitous day to catch up with St. Louis singing sensation Joanna Serenko. As we sit down in a Webster Groves coffee and garden shop earlier this month, it is not only the one-year anniversary of the release of her debut album, Best of Me, but also the day Neil Salsich has gone public with the news that he will be a contestant on the upcoming season of NBC’s The Voice.

Serenko knows a little something about that experience.

As an 18-year-old fresh out of Kirkwood High School, Serenko competed on Season 18 of The Voice in 2020 and, like Salsich, received a four-chair turnaround during her blind audition. Serenko went on to make the semifinal round, finishing in ninth place overall.

However, when it comes to the timing of our interview, Serenko expresses trepidation that it’s too early for a profile on her. “Honestly, when you hit me up for this interview, I thought there would be so many better times later when I have my shit together, and I’m graduated and I know what I want to do with my life,” she says.

Serenko, though, doesn’t give herself enough credit. Her shit? Together. And she knows precisely what she wants to do with her life.

It’s true that she’s young. She was born when George W. Bush was president. She graduated from high school in — get this — 2019. She has yet to turn 22.

Which makes it all the more remarkable how quickly she has ascended the ranks of local singers. Everybody in town wants her on stage, in the studio, in the band. If phones still rested on hooks, Joanna’s would be ringing off of one.

Moreover, Serenko has always

sung and written like someone well beyond her years. The judges on The Voice were flabbergasted to find out that the singer with that kind of tone and control was only 18.

Her voice started to catch attention while at Kirkwood High. By her sophomore year, Serenko was posting clips of herself singing and playing covers to YouTube, attracting the attention of touring singer-songwriter Sean Coray, who asked Serenko to open for him on his St. Louis stop.

“His manager was like covers are great — you can do a few of those — but we really want more

original stuff,” she says. “I had already accepted the gig, so I was like, ‘Oh shit, I have to write some music!’ So that was the jumpstart of my writing.”

That show led to more area gigs and her first audition for The Voice at 16. Serenko showed up at a massive Busch Stadium cattle call and made the first round of callbacks but no further, ending her hopes of appearing on the show. Or so she thought.

Still, she continued to gig while in high school, occasionally singing with local country act Wildfire. Sorenko and Dale have been a romantic and musical couple

With Dale in tow, Sorenko continued to grow as a writer and performer. “Tyler went to SIUE for jazz performance, so he has all the theory,” she says. “I always played by ear, so he helped with different chords and arrangements, and it became really fun to write with him.”

The summer after high school, a video clip from a pop-up apartment concert sponsored by SoFar Sounds put Serenko back on the radar of The Voice’s producers, who invited her back for a private audition in Louisville.

This time, Serenko sailed through the auditions and made the show.

As the show was set to tape in August, she found herself at a crossroads. “At this point, I was deciding if I was going to college or not,” she says. “The Voice was a blessing. It got me out of choosing what school I was going to. I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got one more year. I’m going to take a gap year and do this show.’”

Sequestered in an L.A. hotel, Serenko headed into feverish rounds of additional weed-out sessions and the eventual televised blind audition — a showstopping rendition of the Beatles’ “All My Loving.” Serenko picked Nick Jonas as her coach, but over subsequent weeks of the show’s various battle and knockout rounds ended up being coached in turn by John Legend and Blake Shelton.

“I wish I got more time with my coaches off-camera,” Serenko says. “They make it seem like you get way more time with the coaches than you do. I probably got like 20 minutes with them. I never got to bro-hang. I was on camera any time I was with them.”

Her favorite moment? Meeting James Taylor, who helped Serenko prepare to sing John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” a song Serenko had learned from Bonnie Raitt’s version. “It was one of the best moments of my life,” she gushes. “He is such a sweet man, and I just love him so much. He told me that Bonnie would be so proud. I’ll never forget that.”

Then, in the middle of the season, COVID-19 hit and scattered

Continued on pg 48

Joanna Serenko released her debut album, Best of Me, last year. | COURTESY PHOTO

Continued from pg 47

the contestants back to their hometowns to compete remotely. “They gave us a Pelican case full of equipment, and we had to set up a home studio and have all these Zoom meetings on how to do it,” she says. “It was a lot of work.”

Still, when it was all over, Serenko loved every part of her experience on The Voice. “I don’t regret anything,” she says. “It all worked out perfectly. It was like a dream.”

With the show over and nowhere to sing during the pandemic, Serenko went back to Plan B. “I come from a family of nurses,” she says. “I really care for people, and I’m passionate about health and learning about the body,” she says on her decision to enroll in nursing school at Maryville University.

However, once live music started coming back, Serenko found herself in high demand. Sean Canan brought her on stage to reprise “Angel From Montgomery” for Voodoo John Prine in Tower Grove Park. Dave Grelle recruited her for his Playadors comeback shows. The Mighty Pines had her channel Shania Twain during their ’90s-themed New Year’s Eve show.

But as much as Serenko specializes in stage-stealing cameos, she became a fully formed solo artist with the blisteringly beautiful Best of Me, her 2022 album recorded in New York City and St. Louis and featuring a collection of original songs that date as far back as high school.

Everyone knew Serenko could sing, but Best of Me established her as a remarkable songwriter as well, full of breeze-borne melodies, graceful lyricism and gorgeous arrangements. Filled with ’70s-era Laurel Canyon jazz-pop and sultry shag-carpet soul, Best of Me is a stunning showcase of Serenko’s preternatural musical prowess.

In addition to her smoky tone and buttery phrasing, Serenko’s singing soars due to her oldschool feel for when to hold back. “I think it’s cool when you can do runs and things but have restraint with it and do it when it’s tasteful and put it in all the right places, learning not to detract from the song,” she says.

Serenko tries to extend that sense of restraint beyond music. “Sometimes simplicity is where it’s at,” she says. “I find that true in life, too. Simplicity is key.”

When she talks, she likes to throw in those kinds of philosophical and spiritual nuggets. “I’ve always had a connection with a higher power, a sense of spiritualism,” she says. “I like to believe everything happens for a reason, but I understand why some people don’t believe that.”

Take the release date of Best of Me: 2/22/22. “I like all those little angel numbers,” she says. “They represent potential. Whenever I see those numbers, I think the best is still ahead of me, like I’m on the right track.”

She sounds determined to make it happen. Currently at work on Dale’s first album, Serenko promises that the two of them are going places, figuratively and literally. “We want to have two albums out each and then travel around the country together.”

To prove her enthusiasm, Serenko takes out her phone and shows me pictures of her and Dale with their dog and plays me songs from Tyler’s project. It’s all enough to make it easy to forget that Serenko is also currently in nursing school.

“I do feel like I am spread thin in both areas right now,” she says, with a year to go before she graduates. “But music has always been it for me. That’s ultimately what I want my main thing to be.”

However she finds the balance, one thing is clear. Joanna Serenko will continue to give the world the best of herself. n

Joanna Serenko will play the Dark Room at the Grandel (3610 Grandel Square, 314-549-9990, kranzbergartsfoundation.org/the-darkroom) at 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 25. Tickets are $15 or $25.

JOANNA SERENKO

“ I think it’s cool when you can do runs and things, but have restraint with it and do it when it’s tasteful and put it in all the right places, learning not to detract from the song.”

Darkly Funny

Albion Theatre’s The Birthday Party captures the absurd

Written by TINA FARMER

The Birthday Party

Let’s acknowledge upfront that the works of Harold Pinter are not to everyone’s taste. The playwright is quite funny but also a bit disturbing. His scripts intentionally create gaps, leaving bits of the story to the audience’s imagination. When well directed and performed, as in the current Albion Theatre production of The Birthday Party, a Pinter play is gloriously disturbing, providing much thoughtful fodder.

Stanley is the only guest at the middling rooming house run by Meg. Though, by the way she treats him, her husband Petey almost seems to be a guest himself. Stanley is content to remain in his room most of the time, though the flirtatiously nurturing Meg does her best to lure him out. Even comely neighbor Lulu can’t seem to get Stanley out of doors. When Petey announces that two gentlemen will soon be arriving for a short stay, Stanley becomes highly agitated and paranoid, trying to wish the gentleman away. His efforts fail, the men arrive with a sinister flair and a chaotic evening of revelry, games, dancing and nefarious debauchery ensues.

Ted Drury is pointedly enigmatic and purposefully vague as the suspicious Stanley. There’s a predilection for logic that accompanies the clouds of paranoia and discontent circling around his character, though he proves spry and quite capable of self-defense, if also a touch manic. Teresa Doggett is the extreme stereotype of the busybody housewife as Meg, with an air of lonely desperation bred from years of boredom. She’s also humorously daft and slow on the uptake, creating multiple comic opportunities.

Chuck Winning is spot-on as the smiling, politely obsequious mid-level mobster Goldberg, while Nick Freed gives his accomplice McCann a menacing, coldblooded killer’s stare that is at once disturbingly chilling and increasingly funny.

Perhaps it’s the nervous tension in the room, but the more McCann intimidates, the more laughs he elicits. The interplay between Drury, Winning and Freed is particularly engrossing, ensuring audible gasps at the closing of act two, even from those familiar with the script. Robert Ashton, as Petey, is quite circumspect though he reveals an understanding of the situation that makes one wonder about his motives, and Summer Baer, as Lulu, provides solid support and important details that help keep the audience engrossed.

Director Suki Peters creates focus and keeps the action, and the building sense of impending doom, almost nonstop, a considerable accomplishment for the wordy script. The script is so packed with possibilities that it can quite easily get out of control, turning a tense, psychologically layered story into a messy bit of slapstick. With a firm hand, Peters gets finely honed performances with an edge that perfectly suits Pinter’s play. Pinter is not for all audiences, and some people just won’t enjoy the untidiness of the devilishly twisted, darkly funny The Birthday Party. To be successful, the play demands precise execution and Peters and the cast deliver with aplomb. While the story and outcomes are neither neat nor straightforward, audiences who can embrace the uncertainty and absurdity will enjoy the top-notch production.

Written by Harold Pinter. Directed by Suki Peters. Presented by Albion Theatre at the Kranzberg Black Box Theater 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays through March 26. Tickets are $30.

Goldberg and Lulu take the stage in the Albion Theatre’s production. | JOHN LAMB

The play demands precise execution; Suki Peters and the cast deliver with aplomb.

Each week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days! To submit your show for consideration, visit https://bit.ly/3bgnwXZ. All events are subject to change, especially in the age of COVID-19, so do check with the venue for the most up-to-date information before you head out for the night. Happy showgoing!

THURSDAY 23

ANDREW DAHLE: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

FRAIL BODY: w/ Wounded Touch, Still, Reaver, Blush 7 p.m., $12. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THE HAMILTON BAND: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

HUNTER: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

KNUCKLE PUCK: w/ Real Friends 7:30 p.m.,

TBA. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG: 7:15 p.m., $27.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RENEE SMITH: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

ROCKIN RASCALS: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SOFTCULT: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THE VERVE PIPE: 8 p.m., $32. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

FRIDAY 24

ANDY COCO & CO.: 4 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

AS THE CROW FLIES: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

CREE RIDER FAMILY BAND: 10 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DIRECT MEASURE: w/ Swamp Lion, Fortunate

Son, Karenocalypse 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

FANGIRL FANTASY: HARRY STYLES VS ONE DIREC-

TION: 8 p.m., $18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

GRAHAM CURRY AND THE MISSOURI FURY: LIVE

ALBUM RECORDING: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

GREAT WHITE & SLAUGHTER: 7 p.m., $30-$60. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

HOT KOOLAID: 9 p.m., free. BS Sports Bar & Grill, 10471 St. Charles Rock Road, St. Ann, 314-423-4111.

HUDAI: w/ Split66, the Doubted, Unknown & Sailing, Resistis 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

JD SIMO AND MATTIE SCHELL SINGLE RELEASE

PARTY: 8 p.m., $18. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

JERRY CANTRELL: 8 p.m., $29.50-$79.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

MARTY ABDULLAH & THE EXPRESSIONS: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLA -

TIVES: 8 p.m., $37-$202. The Sheldon, 3648

PICK]

Jerry Cantrell w/ Thunderpussy

8 p.m. Friday, March 24. The Factory, 17105 North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield. $29.50 to $79.50. 314-423-8500.

Best known as the founder, primary songwriter, lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of Alice in Chains, Jerry Cantrell is a certified Guitar God. If his indelible work on the six-string for 1992’s grunge metal classic Dirt isn’t proof enough — if you somehow need more evidence — consider some of the fans he’s made over the years. Pantera shredder Dimebag Darrell expressed his admiration in a 1995 interview with Guitar International, remarking that the layered nature and honesty of Cantrell’s work “is worth a lot more than someone who plays five million notes.” Guns N’ Roses axeman Slash, meanwhile, told Epiphone.com in 2010 that he considered Cantrell to be one of the most inspiring guitarists of the prior 20 years. Even no less than Sir Elton John has nothing but nice things to say about

Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

QUASI: 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

RANDY ERWIN: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

SIGNALS MIDWEST: w/ Candylion, Boreal Hills, Fight Back Mountain 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

VOODOO LITTLE FEAT: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

ZACHARIA LLOYD & PORKCHOP EXPRESS: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

SATURDAY 25

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster

ter Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

HOT HANDS WONDERLAND: 8 p.m., free. Maggie O’Brien’s, 3828 S Lindbergh Blvd, St Louis, 314-842-7678.

JAMES WHALEN BAND: 5 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

JOHN CRIST: 7 p.m., $29.75-$149.75. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

JOHN HENRY: w/ Riley Holtz & The Lost Cause 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

NICK CANNON’S NEXT SUPERSTAR TOUR 2023: 6:30 p.m., $40.50-$60.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

PINK MARTINI: 8:15 p.m., $56-$66. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 2 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

THE ROAD TO POINTFEST 2023: SESSION 1: 7 p.m., $8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SHAWN MULLINS: w/ Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams 8 p.m., $35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THIS IS WHAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF: A DISNEY & 2000S DANCE PARTY: 8 p.m., $18. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

URBAN HEAT: w/ NightSwim, NITE FRVR 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SUNDAY 26

BRANDON LAKE: 7 p.m., $29.50-$100. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

BROTHER JEFFERSON: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

BUIO OMEGA: w/ Nick G Band, Death Pose 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

COTTON CHOPS DUO: 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

DREW LANCE: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ERIK BROOKS: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

G HERBO: 8 p.m., $42.49-$67.49. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

GRAYSCALE: 7:30 p.m., $22. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

I LIKE SNAPS: w/ the Rose Courts, Haunted Hers, Belleview 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

KEVIN BUCKLEY: 10 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

—Daniel Hill

Cantrell, telling Rolling Stone in 2009 that he’s a longtime admirer, and even going so far as to collaborate with him on that year’s “Black Gives Way to Blue.” Cantrell’s playing has brought him innumerable accolades throughout the years as well, including the title of “Riff Lord” at the 2006 Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in London. In short, if you’re a fan of the six-string and all that it can do in the capable hands of a master, there is no excuse not to make your way to the Factory this week and see one at work. Bring the Thunder: Joining Cantrell on this outing is Seattle blues rock act Thunderpussy, whose members would prefer that I not focus on their status as an allfemale band. “All four of us women do things that have historically been maledominated. We play music, ride motorcycles, date girls and lift heavy shit for a living,” bassist Leah Julius said in a 2017 interview with the Stranger. “And we don’t do them as a ‘fuck you’ to the male-dominated society, or in an attempt to advance women’s rights, we do them because we can and want to.” Noted.

Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

BLUE SPARKS: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

THE CHURCH: 8 p.m., $35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

COWBOY MOUTH: 8 p.m., $23. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

DIALOGUE: w/ Scarlet Tanager, Bobby Stevens

8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

AN EVENING WITH THE CHURCH: 8 p.m., $35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE FALLING MARTINS: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

THE GROOVELINER: 10 p.m., free. Broadway Oys-

QUEENSRŸCHE: 7:30 p.m., $35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TOTO: 7:30 p.m., $32-$126.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

MONDAY 27

MAGNETIC FIELDS: 8 p.m., $50. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: w/ Tim, Danny and Randy 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $8. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TUESDAY 28

ERIC MCSPADDEN & MARGARET BIENCHETTA: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ETHAN JONES: 9 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster

Jerry Cantrell. | VIA TICKETMASTER

Buio Omega w/ Nick G Band, Death Pose

8 p.m. Sunday, March 26. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway. $10. 314-328-2309.

In a recent new artist spotlight by No Echo, Buio Omega guitarist Nikki Derella had this to say when asked about the group’s sound: “Hard-rocking, sleazy, horny, tough and vulnerable. Tom G Warrior of Celtic Frost, Ideation, AC/DC, Die (UK), Boston Strangler, Mariah Carey.” It’s a somewhat, well, eclectic list of reference points for the upstart Minneapolis act, whose work amounts to a hard-charging cacophony of hardcore punk played fast and loose, with shrieking vocals delivered in a manner both piercing and pissed-as-fuck cutting through the four-chord chaos. But who are

OUT EVERY NIGHT

Continued from pg 51

Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

NAKED MIKE: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

PERFECT ANGEL: w/ Scalawag, Birdie Edge 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SONREAL: 8 p.m., $25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

WEDNESDAY 29

DREW LANCE: 4:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

THE HOME TEAM: 8 p.m., $19.99. Blueberry HillThe Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

JOHN MAYER: 7:30 p.m., $46.50-$166.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

MARGARET & FRIENDS: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

SIMON JOYNER: w/ Jane Wave, Lucky Shells, Sarah Paulsen, Lori Damiano, Rory Scott, David Moore, Emma Connell 7 p.m., donations. William A. Kerr Foundation, 21 O’Fallon St., St. Louis, 314-436-3325.

THIS IS CASUALLY HAPPENING: A COMEDY SHOWCASE: 7 p.m., $15. The Golden Hoosier, 3707 S Kingshighway Blvd, Saint Louis, 314-354-8044.

VOODOO GRUNGE: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

we to say? All we know for sure is the fivepiece’s debut EP, February’s Take a Look, was recorded in just one night, and it shows in the lack of polish and raw intensity that surely must also be noted when discussing the band’s sound. (Note: That aspect probably doesn’t come from the Mariah Carey influence.) Add to the mix the band’s already-rockstars stage presence and its slasher-film imagery — the group gets its name from a 1979 Italian horror classic — and it’s plain to see that Buio Omega is one to watch.

Midwest Nice: Befitting its status as an upstart act, Buio Omega’s St. Louis show this week is part of its very first tour outing, which will see the band making an eight-day loop through the Midwest this month. Let’s make ‘em feel welcome, eh?

THIS JUST IN

—Daniel Hill

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS: Wed., Oct. 25, 8 p.m., $30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX: W/ Kilverez, Tue., April 4, 8 p.m., $15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THE ATOMIC BITCHWAX: W/ Kilverez, Tue., April 4, 8 p.m., $15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

BROTHER LEE AND THE LEATHER JACKALS: W/ Elliott Pearson and the Passing Lane, Bob Fleming and the Cambria Iron Co., Wed., May 24, 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA: W/ Jimmy Eat World, Thu., July 27, 7 p.m., $29.50-$69.50. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

THE POTOMAC ACCORD: W/ Sole Loan, 33 on the Needle, Sat., April 8, 7 p.m., free. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-359-2293.

PUBLIC SPEAKING: W/ Shinra Knives, Ellen Hilton Cook, Eric Hall, Mon., April 3, 8 p.m., $10. The Crack Fox, 1114 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-621-6900.

SIDE CAR ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: W/ Bobby Stevens, Prairie Rehab, Tue., April 4, 8 p.m., $10$15. Central Stage, 3524 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

TIDAL VOLUME: Fri., April 28, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

WIG PARTY: W/ Nathaniel Carroll & the Party Line, Non-Euclidean Geometry, Sat., April 15, 8 p.m., $5-$10. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis. n

Buio Omega. | JONAH CASTANEDA BARRY

SAVAGE LOVE

Size Peace

BY DAN SAVAGE

Hey Dan: I’m a 41-year-old lesbian. Back when I was 26, I weighed 125 pounds and had a girlfriend. Sex with “Amy” was mind-blowing. Amy was exactly my type from head to toe, and she had more experience than me, so she really opened me up sexually. Our physical chemistry was off the charts. Unfortunately, Amy and I broke up (dysfunctional relationship issues), and then I moved to the West Coast. Fastforward to age 31. I weighed 165 pounds, but I carried it well. Then I fell into a severe depression and had to live with my parents for a while. Amy lived about two hours away from me at that time. She’d seen me at my new weight and was still interested in me. Amy called me every night for months. After months of talking, we decided to meet up in person. However, because of depression meds and “mom’s cooking” and whatever else, I was approximately 200 pounds when we finally met up. Amy and I started sleeping together again, but it was obvious that she wasn’t into me physically anymore. The insanely good sex we once had together never returned. Within a few months she told me she was attracted to other people, and we ended things.

I want to be very, very clear when I say that I do not blame Amy at all for losing attraction to me due to my weight gain. Going from 125 to 200 within five years is an extreme amount of weight gain. But the experience broke my heart and I have not had sex or even kissed anyone since. That’s nine years of celibacy. I was (and am) deeply ashamed of my body. I continued to receive treatment for depression — lots of different psych meds, lots of group and individual therapy, etc., and my mental health has slowly but steadily improved — but I also gained more weight — and I lost every last drop of self-acceptance about my body. I went from loving my body, to being OK with it, to being dumped for it, to becoming severely obese. I finally started seeing a weight loss doctor last year and have begun to slowly lose some of the weight — I’m down to 230 pounds from my 275 max — and I REALLY want to have sex

again, but I can’t even stay on dating sites for more than a few days before deleting my profile because I’m so horribly ashamed of how I look. I used to be young! And hot! And pretty! And hot girl Amy wanted to fuck me! Constantly! I don’t want to get back together with Amy, not at all, but I miss the kind of life-altering sex she and I used to have when my body was at its best.

How do I even begin trying to start dating and having sex again when I was dumped for getting fat and have such self-loathing and shame about my body?

Fat Middle-Aged Celibate Lesbo

“To begin to work on accepting our bodies it’s essential to get to the core of the issue,” says Elle Chase, a certified sexologist, sex, relationship and body-image coach, and the author of Curvy Girl Sex: 101 Body-Positive Sex Positions to Empower Your Sex Life.

And at the core of your issue, FMACL, you’re not going to find your weight gain or the trauma of being dumped by hot girl Amy. No, according to Chase, your issues go much deeper, FMACL, and they’re cultural, not individual.

“From the day we are born, we are inundated with made-up, ever-changing standards for beauty and our bodies,” Chase says. “These standards are rooted in systems of oppression like patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism. These man-made ideas of attractiveness and desirability distort, skew and infect our perception and opinion of ourselves and others — convincing us that we must look a certain way in order to be sexually desirable or deserving. But that’s a lie!”

Because sexual attraction is highly subjective — there are lots of different people out there, FMACL, and different people find different bodies and different body types and different personalities attractive.

“It’s just like art,” Chase says. “We could be looking at the same painting and have two very different feelings or opinions about it. And neither of us is wrong.”

Differing tastes in art may be easy for us to wrap our heads around. We’re not going to take it personally when a friend — or a stranger on a dating app — disagrees with us about pointillism or surrealism or cubism. The stakes

are higher when we’re the painting someone else thinks is beautiful (when we don’t feel beautiful) or doesn’t feel is beautiful (when we wish they would).

“When what you see in the mirror doesn’t match that artificial standard, it’s hard for your brain to see you as the inherently sexually desirable human that you are,” Chase says. “Your brain becomes an unreliable narrator trying to protect you from the pain of rejection by telling you that you aren’t attractive or sexually desirable enough to deserve a sex life.”

So how does one — how do you — dismantle this, er, system of self-oppression?

“Here’s a ‘Cliffs Notes’ version with some hopefully useful tips,” Chase says. “FMACL needs to rewire her brain by disrupting negative self-talk patterns. If she hates what she looks like and her inner dialog is endorsing [that self-hatred], she should acknowledge her feelings if you feel like crap, you feel like crap, and it’s important to validate that — and then say something true but neutral to herself. Something like, ‘This is what my body looks like today,’ or, ‘I feel ugly, but feelings aren’t facts.’ My favorite mantra: ‘What I think of my body is none of my business.’ Don’t be discouraged. I know it’s challenging, but it’s a lifelong practice that I myself continue to do daily.”

As for dating — as for putting yourself out there on a dating app and staying out there — Chase advises lowering the stakes for now.

“FMACL can the pressure off herself for now by just dating for practice,” Chase says. “The goal is not to get laid or find a new partner, but to grow more at ease and confident with herself. Notice how it feels to go out with people and have conversations, share experiences, even flirt. She should pay attention to how she’s feeling rather than what she assumes her date is feeling. Prioritize her own joy, comfort and desires over all else right now — she deserves nothing less.”

To learn more about Elle Chase, her work, and the services she provides, visit her website ellechase.com. Chase is offering readers of Savage Love 15 percent off a session or package if you use the code SAVAGE.

Hey Dan: This is a question I should

have asked you 10 years ago! I’m a 68-year-old GWM who was sexually assaulted by my (also gay) medical provider, multiple times, until I finally distanced myself from him both socially and professionally. I vacillated for several years whether or not I should report him, but never did. Recently, I discovered that he apparently committed suicide after another patient accused him of multiple sexual assaults. I contacted this man’s attorneys, and they are moving forward with a lawsuit against the clinic and the provider’s estate. At their request, I have agreed to provide a deposition. They have also suggested that I consider filing a suit. I am a happily married man, retired, and living in Europe. Should I just let all this go? Or should I jump into the fire with a lawsuit?

Decline Or Challenge

Agreeing to be deposed — or agreeing to file an affidavit — in support of the other patient known to have been assaulted by your former medical provider … that’s no small thing. So, even if you decide not to file a lawsuit yourself, DOC, you aren’t just letting this go. You’re doing something meaningful and significant; you’re helping another victim get the justice and restitution he feels he needs and helping to hold the clinic where you, this man, and most likely other men were sexually assaulted.

So the question isn’t, “Am I going to sit this out?,” as you aren’t sitting this out. The question instead is, “Am I going to file a lawsuit of my own?” And the answer to that question … well, that’s not an answer I can provide you with, DOC. Because the answer depends on what you need, DOC, to feel whole. If you don’t want the hassle and don’t need a settlement, you aren’t obligated to get more involved than you have already and, again, agreeing to be deposed (by both sides) in a case like this is no small thing. Justice is being done, institutions are being held accountable, and you’re helping. If you want to file a lawsuit of your own, you should. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.

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