Riverfront Times, April 19, 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, Jim Merkel, 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

Marketing Director Kristen Moser

Event and Promotions Manager John Heinrich

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

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SUBSCRIPTIONS

Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 5257 Shaw Avenue, St. Louis,

FRONT BURNER

MONDAY, APRIL 10 It’s Easter Monday — and the week starts with a bang as a former employee leaves six people dead at a downtown Louisville bank. Closer to home, the Post-Dispatch reports that a man is charged with shooting a security guard at a St. Charles retirement home. The assailant is, shockingly, an 81-yearold nursing home resident. Beware the octogenarians! Actually, at this point, maybe beware everyone.

TUESDAY, APRIL 11 It’s a glorious spring day — the sun is shining, and U.S. Women’s soccer wins at CITYPARK. Pretty cool! Meanwhile, state Senator Mike Moon (R-Hayseed) is again making an ass of himself in Jefferson City. In short: He sees no contradiction in wanting to bar kids from puberty blockers even while allowing them to marry because the 12-year-olds he knows who got married somehow made it work. And with that, Missouri is again trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons. So … how about

Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

those Cards? Don’t ask; it’s the team’s worst start since 1973.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12 It’s 80 degrees in early April. Totally normal. Also, Emerson buys National Instruments for $8.2 billion. New point of pride: Those Texas Instruments calculators you used as a kid are now a St. Louis company. But does anyone still use calculators?

THURSDAY, APRIL 13 Groundbreaking London designer Mary Quant is dead, and with her at long last the swinging ’60s. RIP. Also, Neil Gaiman receives the St. Louis Literary Award on stage at the Sheldon. No Jon Hamm, but who needs

FIVE QUESTIONS for T-Rav Baby (Well, Her Dad)

a movie star when you have a brilliant writer sharing the secrets of his craft? The Saint Louis University Library Associates nailed it, again (and again, and again).

FRIDAY, APRIL 14 Today’s high is 82, and we’re running AC … in April. Shocking news: Despite everyone from Elon Musk to police union honchos using the stabbing death of tech exec Bob Lee to paint San Francisco as a crime-ridden hellhole, the man now charged with Lee’s murder is the brother of the married woman Lee was dallying with. It’s a tale made for the tabloids — and shatters convenient political narratives. Why can’t Kim Gardner

ever catch a break like this?

SATURDAY, APRIL 15 The week’s gloriously warm weather turns rainy and then stormy — and phones across the metro go nuts as no fewer than seven tornadoes make their way through town. At least we know the region’s emergency messaging system works. (Also, somehow, we’re all still alive — hooray!) After a storm-delayed start, CITY SC wins, 5-1. Back in first place, baby! Let’s not talk about those car break-ins outside the stadium.

SUNDAY, APRIL 16 It’s suddenly much colder in St. Louis …. brrr! It’s a bad day for middlebrow cultural juggernauts: Phantom of the Opera closes on Broadway and Netflix bungles its hotly anticipated Love Is Blind reunion. Better stick to sports: The Cardinals finally have a winning week after a 10th inning RBI single from Tommy Edman allows the team to split its four-game series with Pittsburgh. We’ll take it!

[My wife and I] were at IKEA, and we saw that there were these brown slip covers on sale, and it was a perfect shade of toasted ravioli. We bought one for $5, cut a hole in it and then ripped open a pillow.

How did you make the Parmesan and parsley flakes? My wife cracked the code. She ended up doing some ripped-up green fabric and hot-glued it to the pillow case. And then she Mod Podged around it and sprinkled some dehydrated potato flakes to make the Parmesan cheese look. We were really grateful that it didn’t rain. Otherwise, we would have had Mashed-Potato Baby.

You have a connection to our goalkeeper Roman Bürki, right? Your last name was originally spelled Bürki before it got Americanized?

We are oddly from the same canton of Switzerland that Roman Bürki is from. ... At one point the fans around us started singing a cheer that was like, “Oh Bürki you’re so fine. You’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Bürki!” And I think [T-Rav Baby] recognized her last name and started to get really, really excited.

I think a lot of people would hesitate to bring a baby to a soccer game.

I think T-Rav Baby was a little apprehensive about going to the soccer match originally ... but honestly, CITYPARK has done such an awesome job making their stadium accessible for families and a whole range of folks. They have a sensory room, which is just a place that we knew that we could escape to if things got to be a little bit too much. There are nursing spaces that my wife could escape to ... We decided that we didn’t want to miss any action of the game ... but its such a cool, reassuring thing in the way that they built their stadium.

On April Fools’ Day, those watching the St. Louis CITY SC game got a huge dose of on-screen cuteness when the camera panned to T-Rav Baby. She was wearing a ravioli pillow and pink headphones and cheesing for the camera. Of course, we had to celebrate her and tracked down her dad, Chris Buerke. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you make the costume?

What do you think T-Rav Baby would like to say to her adoring fans?

She’d love to see more families at St. Louis CITY games. I personally would love to see more babies rocking the unique culinary cuisine of St. Louis. I mean, why stop at toasted ravioli babies? We could have pork steak babies and gooey butter babies and thin crust pizza pals and Catholic fish fry friends.

T-Rav Baby with her spokesperson and dad Chris Buerke. | COURTESY CHRIS BUERKE

WEEKLY WTF?!

Fire Watch

Location: Arsenal Street along Tower Grove Park

The driver: heard a pop, pulled over and next thing he knew the hood was aflame. Luckily: He escaped with his construction tools, with which he makes his living. He said: “I’m asking Him what this is all about, what this means? Like is He telling me to get a new truck?”

Oh, you’re talking about the big man upstairs: “Yeah, that’s what I call Him, too.” Anything to say after your brush with death?: “I don’t know what to tell you right now.”

Courtesy of the driver’s pal on the scene: “Out of the fire, into the storm. That’s life.” About the mechanic who serviced the truck a week prior: “He must have fucked something up.”

ESCAPE HATCH

We ask three St. Louisans what they’re reading, watching or listening to. In the hot seat this week: three folks we met at a Cardinals game.

Mike, retired, formerly a baker and front of house worker at Marconi

Bakery

Reading: Nothing at the moment

“I have to think a little bit about what I’m reading. I don’t think I’m reading anything. Hey, I’m retired!”

Daren, emergency medicine physician

Watching: The Cardinals

“I’m always watching the Cardinals. Go Cards!”

Melanie, manager at Ted Drewes Gift Shop, student

Reading: Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present and Expand the Future by Diego Perez

“It’s a book of poetry. I love poetry.”

SOMETIMES IT’S THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

2 Shootings, Leaks and a Murder

At Ely Walker Lofts, the building is “in chaos,” residents say

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

When the shooting started at the Ely Walker Lofts in the Washington Avenue Loft District on the morning of March 25, Lindsay Braswell was alarmed but not shocked. It was the second shooting the building had seen that month.

The first was on March 10, outside an apartment with frequent domestic disputes.

“All of the residents have heard them fighting,” Lindsay’s husband Scott Braswell says.

In the March 10 shooting, the assailant allegedly “argued with, insulted and threatened the victim; threw and smashed household items in the apartment; and then fired a semiautomatic pistol at the victim while in a common hallway,” according to a probable cause statement from St. Louis police.

What shocked the Braswells, though, was that the assailant’s access to the building wasn’t revoked, and she was able to return hours later. They were also frustrated that the resident wasn’t evicted before what they saw as a pattern of domestic violence turned into a shooting.

Then came the second shooting, involving a different unit, on March 25. Someone leaving the unit pulled out a gun, which went off near the building’s elevators. No one was hurt, but a bullet did go into a neighbor’s apartment, according to a probable cause statement.

The building “is just chaos,” Lindsay says.

The Braswells have been living in the Ely Walker Lofts since 2007. Everything in the building was fine until 2015, they say, when STL CityWide bought it.

“About a year ago, a 16-year-old was murdered in the building the weekend of the St. Patrick’s Day parade,” Lindsay says. “No one told us, and so I walked my dog downstairs into a crime scene. The windows were shot out; there was blood everywhere. I was traumatized. Imagine if a kid came across it.”

STL CityWide did not respond to two requests for comment through its lawyer, Ira Berkowitz.

The St. Louis-based leasing agency is run by brothers Victor Alston and Sid Chakraverty.

The brothers previously used the name Asprient and have engendered complaints under both their old and new names as well as Lux Living, their development arm. Most recently, residents at the Raphael in the city’s Central West End have detailed a litany of problems.

Scott says the problems started within six months of CityWide’s takeover.

At first it was repairs not being made. Then the parties started. Some apartment owners were renting out their units as shortterm rentals on sites like Airbnb and VRBO. Young people and teens would use the apartment and the building’s rooftop to throw big parties. Last year’s murder victim, Terrion Smith, had been letting people into the lofts for a party before he was shot, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

As security concerns grew, CityWide hired a security guard. “He was a known sex offender,” Lindsay says — something residents in the building easily found out with

a quick Casenet search.

That person left, something that has become a bit of a trend in Ely Walker. “We’ve had three property managers in the last eight months because CityWide is hard to work with, and they quit,” Scott says. The Braswells now say they have no idea who to call if issues arise — not that calling someone previously had done much to fix problems.

In March, a leak began in the building’s lobby. After almost a week of it not being fixed, an inspector came out and said that he would send a summons to CityWide to get it fixed. The company came out and patched it up, but the leak has returned, Lindsay says. The fire panel is also on the fritz.

“The fire alarm goes off every single morning and someone resets it,” says Madelyn Munsell, a

tenant who recently moved out. The Post-Dispatch reported about the fire alarm being broken last fall.

The Braswells own their unit, and Ely Walker Lofts has a condo association, which would normally be the forum for residents to discuss repairs, safety issues and staff. But CityWide owns 51 percent of the units in the building and never holds meetings for residents to air their concerns, tenants attest.

Tenants are also unhappy. Munsell, for instance, rented a unit from CityWide, but due to a threatened eviction, recently left. She is fighting the eviction in court.

Munsell claims that CityWide fabricated lease violations against her because she asked management to “hold tenants accountable by enforcing the rules of the lease.” Munsell had also threatened to post flyers to try to organize the tenants.

At issue, Munsell says, was safety. In addition to having residents who have OD’d on fentanyl, there was the domestic violence situation, and Munsell was trying to raise awareness about the issue.

CityWide cited Munsell’s use of flyers as the reason for her eviction. “There is a rule in the lease that says we’re not allowed to post flyers,” Munsell explains. “However, I said that I would do so in the future, but I never have.”

CityWide also claims that Munsell’s husband was an unauthorized tenant because he wasn’t on the lease. Munsell says the two applied for the apartment together, paid the application fees together and that CityWide got her husband’s proof of income and social security number.

She is also disturbed by a lease update that went into effect in December 2022. “It specifically says you should not call either nonemergency or the emergency police lines for loud music and noise complaints, disputes with neighbors, vagrants, unwelcome visitors, missing mail and packages and maintenance issues,” Munsell says.

The tenants are hoping to hold CityWide accountable, but they don’t have much hope.

“This isn’t just Ely Walker,” Scott says. “I think all the other lofts they’ve owned have had complaints, too.”

The former luxury Ely Walker Lofts has become a nuisance property | GOOGLE MAPS

After a shooting in Ely Walker. | LINDSAY BRASWELL

Could Missouri Prosecute Women for Seeking an Abortion?

Two Republican candidates running for attorney general have no comment

Written by RYAN KRULL AND MONICA OBRADOVIC

Of the two Republican candidates officially running for Missouri attorney general next year, neither would respond to repeated questions from the RFT about whether they would prosecute women who terminate pregnancies.

The first post-Roe abortion ban enacted by a state, Missouri’s trigger law, which went into effect last June, offers unique wording. In addition to stating that “no abortion shall be performed or induced upon a woman, except in cases of medical emergency,” the law includes language that seems to protect women against prosecution.

The law reads: “A woman upon whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subsection shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this subsection.”

But despite that language, critics note that the law does not shield women from prosecution for undergoing surgical or self-induced abortions. A recent op-ed in the Missouri Independent said the question of whether Missouri women could be prosecuted for an abortion was “exceptionally muddled.”

Missouri Attorney General candidates Andrew Bailey and Will Scharf did not respond to repeated emails from the RFT asking for their interpretation of the law, or whether they would prosecute women for violating it.

Some people, like longtime pro-life Jefferson City lobbyist Samuel Lee, insist that the law’s language means no woman in Missouri will be prosecuted for getting an abortion.

“Lawmakers wanted to make clear that not only can she not be charged with violating this law, she cannot be charged with violating, by conspiring with someone, to violate this law,” Lee says. He adds that when the trigger ban passed in 2019, St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar told lawmakers that he “can’t imagine any

Jail Fills Up as Judges Deny Bond

After what happened to Janae Edmondson, judges are “competing to be tough on crime,” activist says

Written by RYAN KRULL

The jail population in the City of St. Louis is up 28 percent since the start of the year as judges are allowing fewer defendants to go free on bond in the wake of the firestorm that followed the maiming of Janae Edmondson downtown in February.

prosecutor in their right mind” would prosecute a woman under the law.

And moments after then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued the opinion that effectively ended abortion in Missouri, Governor Mike Parson stated the abortion law “protects any woman who receives an illegal abortion from being prosecuted in violation” of the law.

Others aren’t so sure. They believe the law leaves the door open for a zealous prosecutor to take action.

“From a legal standpoint, the abortion law only prohibits prosecuting the pregnant woman with conspiracy,” says Elad Gross, a St. Louis lawyer currently exploring a run for attorney general.

“That’s the only thing they won’t prosecute her for, but there’s not really much protection for a self-induced abortion.”

Representative Sarah Unsicker of St. Louis also fears that’s the case. The Democrat announced last month that she’s “looking at running” for attorney general. She says anyone who induces or performs an abortion would violate state law and could face charges. Performing or inducing an abortion of a fetus could be treated as a class B felony, she says.

“While a person upon whom an abortion is provided would not be prosecuted for a conspiracy under the subsection, this does not prohibit prosecution for a crime under the same subsection,” Unsicker says. “Thus, according to statute, any person who might knowingly induce or perform an abortion of a fetus” could be charged with a class B felony.

A conspiracy is an agreement with someone to break the law, not the act of breaking the law itself, Saint Louis University law professor Marcia McCormick wrote in an op-ed in the PostDispatch. Conspiring to rob a bank is a crime, but it’s not the same crime as actually robbing a bank, she explained.

“The ambiguity (at best) in the law would allow prosecutors, including the state AG, to bring actions even if a court eventually decided that women could not be prosecuted,” McCormick tells the RFT

The inclusion of the word “conspiracy” makes Missouri’s law different from trigger laws in other states. Oklahoma’s trigger law, for instance, says explicitly that it does not “authorize the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.” Trigger laws in Texas and North Dakota do not use the conspiracy language either.

With common methods of abortion, including use of the drug mifepristone, now subject to court challenges that could affect even states without bans, Missouri women may find access to abortion more difficult than ever. But what enforcement of its own law looks like will likely come down to who is elected attorney general next year.

Gross says that, if elected AG, he would rather use his office’s resources to support women than meddle with their health care.

As for the state’s current attorney general and his Republican challenger? We’ll let you know if we hear back. n

Daniel Riley, the 21-year-old accused of causing the crash that cost Edmondson her legs, was free on bond when he struck the 17-year-old, despite having violated the terms of his bond dozens of times. The Circuit Attorney’s Office and Judge Bryan Hettenbach came under intense public scrutiny, including from each other, for Riley not being in jail at the time of the crash. As a result, some activists and court watchers say that both prosecutors and judges are now afraid of the potential backlash that will come if someone they let free on bond commits a heinous crime.

“They’re competing to be tough on crime, both the circuit attorney’s office and the judges,” says Mike Milton, the founder of Freedom Community Center, an organization dedicated to restorative justice. “They are afraid of negative backlash. They know that the world is looking at St. Louis, looking at them right now.”

Milton says that his organization coordinates volunteer court watchers and monitors the rate at which judges grant defendants bond. He says he’s seen a “huge amount of bond revocations happening for the smallest of things,” including defendants being a few minutes late to a hearing or for miscommunication between a defendant and the third-party company that operates ankle monitors.

This tougher line, Milton says, inevitably means a more crowded jail. At the start of the year, the city jail had 484 detainees awaiting their day in court. As of Tuesday, there were 621 individuals detained in the jail.

Continued on pg 10

Sarah Nixon is the pretrial organizer for Freedom Community Center and is

Attorney General Andrew Bailey (at podium) did not answer questions about prosecuting abortion seekers in Missouri. | MISSOURI INDEPENDENT

JAILS FILL UP

Continued from pg 9

often in court during bail hearings. She says that at the start of the year a number of reforms related to bail proceedings had been implemented in the city circuit court as it emerged from the way business was done during COVID-19. Detainees were being brought into court in person and given time to meet with pretrial services to complete a public defender application. They were better able to communicate with their defense attorneys and contest the arguments the prosecution was putting forth during bail hearings.

Nixon says she was at Riley’s initial appearance in court when he was allowed to remain free on bond.

“In that moment, I had no idea what I was witnessing would come to mean,” she says. “Since then, all of the progress that we’ve been pushing for has been rolled back.”

She describes what’s happened as “something that has just occurred in the background, quickly and quietly.”

According to court data, 65 percent of all initial bond hearings in February resulted in a judge denying bond of any type, up from 54 percent in January. March data is not yet available.

One judge, Rochelle Woodiest, denied bond to about 53 percent of individuals who appeared in her courtroom at the start of the year. That number spiked to 90 percent in the later part of February and was at 78 percent for all of March, according to data from the Freedom Community Center.

Joel Currier, spokesman for the Circuit

Blistering Resignation

An assistant circuit attorney quit the Circuit Attorney’s Office, saying workplace was toxic

Written by RYAN KRULL

Another prosecutor left the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office on Friday — and wrote a blistering resignation letter on her way out.

Up until Friday, Natalia Ogurkiewicz had been an assistant circuit attorney working in the office’s Violent Crimes Unit. Among the many cases she oversaw during her tenure were the successful prosecutions of would-be serial killer Prinshun McClain.

Court in St. Louis, said in a statement that the six weeks since the Janae Edmondson crash is too narrow of a time frame to draw relevant conclusions regarding bond hearings.

“The judges serving the 22nd Judicial Circuit’s bond divisions carefully review a variety of factors when deciding whether to release defendants awaiting trial in accordance with Missouri Supreme Court rules,” Currier said. “The Court invites members of the public to observe the bond review process for themselves and always welcomes feedback.”

Nixon says she has heard judges explicitly refer to the Riley incident as the reason that they would take a tougher

Ogurkiewicz informed Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner of her departure via email, and the RFT obtained a copy. In the email, Ogurkiewicz says, “Thank you for making my dream of being a homicide prosecutor come true. I am so grateful, but the Supreme Court of Missouri has made it clear that when the choice between committing malpractice and resignation is the only option, resignation is what must happen.”

The email contained an attachment consisting of a longer letter from Ogurkiewicz. It begins, “In my opinion, my workload (not only the caseload), is, and has been, completely untenable for one person.”

Ogurkiewicz goes on to say that low staffing levels have forced her to do tasks that in most prosecutors’ offices would be handled by support staff. In addition to being a prosecutor, Ogurkiewicz says she has essentially been forced to be a paralegal, victim service advocate and investigator.

line on bond.

She adds that getting tougher on bond means denying bond to people who are highly unlikely to be a danger to the community. Nixon specifically cites the case of a single mother facing an assault charge who had no criminal history as well as the support of her family and her church but who was nonetheless denied bond.

After the public feud between judges and the Circuit Attorney’s Office about who was responsible for Riley being free on bond, Nixon says she’s seen plenty of examples of prosecutors going out of their way to be stringent in regards to bond — and making sure their doing so is

“One paralegal to five or six attorneys handling large caseloads with most cases set for trial is entirely insufficient,” she writes.

She called the overall work environment at the CAO “toxic.”

The letter recounts a time when a staff attorney who has since left the office voiced a complaint about how hard it is to balance Warrant Office duties with trying cases.

The final bullet point in Ogurkiewicz’s resignation letter concerns Gardner’s recent responses to Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s quo warranto action, which seeks to remove Gardner from office. Gardner’s attorneys argued in recent court filings that mistakes made by her staff attorneys cannot warrant her removal from office, saying, “If the Attorney General believes an assistant circuit attorney has … forfeited his or her office, the remedy is not to seek Ms. Gardner’s ouster, but to seek that person’s ouster.”

Closing out her letter, Ogurkie-

clear in the record.

She recounts one recent instance when she saw a prosecutor file a motion to revoke the bond of someone who had not yet registered with the company that provides ankle monitor services. However, that person had yet to even be released from the city jail.

“The judge denied the motion to revoke the bond because the person hadn’t even been released. They were like, ‘This person hasn’t gotten released. Of course, they couldn’t get the GPS monitor.’”

She adds, “You’re seeing this almost wholesale rejection of bond by the prosecutor’s office.” n

wicz says, “I will not work for a leader who makes public statements outright calling her attorneys ‘negligent’ and implying their incompetence … and then doubling down on that position while facially representing respect, appreciation, and support.”

The letter closes: “As a St. Louis City resident, I have lost trust in Kim Gardner from the inside. I do not believe that her leadership can stop the metaphorical and physical ballistics from continuing to fly through our City.”

Reached for comment, Circuit Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Allison Hawk said in a statement, “The Circuit Attorney’s Office is taking the necessary measures to ensure justice is served in all cases including working with the courts to make sure the proper contingencies are in place. The office can’t speak on personnel matters. The CAO continues to aggressively recruit and hire attorneys and support staff to serve the people of the city of St. Louis.”

The City Justice Center on Tucker. | DOYLE MURPHY

Kim Gardner Blames Her Staff

The circuit attorney says the attorney general is trying to hold her responsible for their mistakes

Written by RYAN KRULL

In a motion filed last week, embattled St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is asking a judge to dismiss the removal process against her by saying Gardner’s personal conduct should be judged separately from any potential blunders by staff attorneys who prosecute cases in her office.

The 40-page motion says that Gardner is proud of her hardworking staff and what they do for the city but also repeatedly emphasizes that if there is any truth to the failures Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is alleging — and Gardner contends there is none — those failures are the fault of Gardner’s subordinates.

Gardner argues that the bar for removal for office via the quo warranto process is very high and can only be met if Bailey shows “in-

Sunshine Law Battle Heads to Court

Joseph Sims from the City Counselor’s office takes the stand

Written by RYAN KRULL

Acity employee who has been the object of many gripes by local journalists and transparency advocates took the stand in court Friday as part of an ongoing lawsuit alleging St. Louis city government routinely flouts state transparency laws.

Joseph Sims’ testimony at Friday morning’s hearing was part of a suit filed in September by Elad Gross, a Democrat running for Missouri attorney general, concerning records requests he made on behalf of Robert Childs.

tentional corrupt acts by Gardner herself.”

The motion continues, “To state a claim for Ms. Gardner’s ouster, [Bailey] must show she, herself, personally committed the requisite intentional misconduct, not her subordinates.”

Gardner’s filing is a rebuttal to the amended petition Bailey filed March 21, which listed numerous cases that he says show that Gardner’s office failed to do its job and warrant her removal.

Bailey’s amended petition cites the case of an individual identified as E.P., who in February 2021 was charged with shooting someone seven times. According to Bailey’s petition, an assistant circuit attorney contacted the victim and allegedly told her not to appear at E.P.’s trial.

Bailey alleged that the assistant circuit attorney then told E.P.’s lawyer that the victim wasn’t cooperating as a witness. The court subsequently dismissed the case.

Gardner’s latest filing doesn’t get into whether that actually happened. However, Gardner says, if it did, “An assistant circuit attorney — not Ms. Gardner — told the victim not to appear for a hearing and then told the defense the victim was not cooperating. … No conduct by Ms. Gardner is alleged at all.”

“If the Attorney General believes an assistant circuit attorney has … forfeited his or her office, the remedy is not to seek Ms. Gardner’s ouster, but to seek that person’s

Childs said he was assaulted while being detained in the St. Louis City Justice Center and that the attack was abetted by the conditions there, including doors that didn’t lock. Gross then requested records under Missouri’s Sunshine law for a potential lawsuit on Childs’ behalf. Gross says he waited a year for the requests to be filled before filing suit against the city — a lawsuit that drew significant publicity both for its allegations of an extensive pattern of violations and the city’s heavy-handed response.

Gross’ suit named Sims as one of the defendants.

Sims has become well-known among people who request records from the city. Post-Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger wrote in a column last year that messages from Sims to records requestors explaining why requests couldn’t be fulfilled or why fulfillment would be delayed were “becoming infamous among the circles of folks — especially reporters and attorneys — who regularly file requests for open records with the city.”

Gross says that Childs’ situation is

ouster,” the motion says.

Bailey’s amended petition also blasted Gardner’s office for filing last minute nolle prosequi motions, which dismiss charges with the option for prosecutors to later refile them, buying time to prosecute the case but also leaving defendants in limbo.

Gardner’s latest motion to dismiss counters those allegations in a similar manner, saying, “Bailey alleges Ms. Gardner enters nolle prosequi shortly before trials are to begin, up to 30 percent of the time. … But he only alleges four examples of this, again none of which involve Ms. Gardner at all.”

Gardner takes a similar tack regarding Bailey’s allegations that

emblematic of why delays in fulfilling records requests matter. The laws under which Childs might file a civil suit have statutes of limitations, making the city’s slow-walking of disclosure of relevant facts all the more problematic.

On the stand Friday, Sims described himself as a paralegal with the City Counselor’s Office. He wore glasses and had a goatee, his jet black hair swooped to one side.

Sims testified that as the city’s Sunshine coordinator he is not the custodian of records for any city division but acts as a liaison between the requestor and the various record custodians throughout city government.

On the stand, Sims acknowledged that many responses to Sunshine requests are pre-written email templates, and in any given response little is changed other than the applicable city departments and dates.

In his questions, Gross drilled down on the templates that tell a requestor more time is needed to fulfill their request. These responses say, “per the Custodian

Gardner’s office did a poor job communicating with crime victims and their families. The motion to dismiss claims that Bailey cites no evidence that Gardner herself was aware of any of these failures to communicate.

Gardner also accuses Bailey of cherry-picking a few dozen cases out of the thousands her office prosecutes. Her filing adds, “The Attorney General’s allegations for ouster are not law. They are politics.”

In the filing Gardner also reiterates her claims that Bailey is engaged in a “gross power grab, an affront to the liberties of all Missourians and the democratic process.” n

of Records … additional time will be necessary to respond to your request.” They go on to list the “earliest possible date” by which records may be made available.

Sims said that “at times” he sends out those replies as well as assigns new “earliest possible dates” — despite having heard nothing from the relevant department’s custodian of records.

In one specific instance involving a records request Gross made to the city’s Department of Public Safety, Sims said of that department’s records custodian, “She didn’t communicate [a date]. I gave her one.”

After the hearing, Gross called this practice “definitely arbitrary.”

“Although he said he’s doing it based on some reason, he didn’t really give what the reason was he’s selecting certain days. When he’s responding to someone without actually responding on behalf of the custodian, but he’s saying he’s doing on behalf of the custodian because he’s trying to cover himself in all this — that’s a very big problem,” Gross said. “He should not be doing that.”

Kim Gardner blamed her staff for the Circuit Attorney’s Office’s failings. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

Fight of Your Life

Missourians respond to the Anti-LGBTQ legislation plaguing the state

Words by ROSALIND EARLY

Photos by REUBEN HEMMER AND BRADEN MCMAKIN

The surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation after so many advances in that area under Barack Obama is disheartening to many. Missouri has 48 antiLGBTQ bills in the state legislature. Back in March, one bill that

was under consideration was a drag show ban as draconian as the one that passed in Tennessee. Fortunately, that ban was defeated in part due to the work of three drag performers: Jordan Braxton, Akasha Royale and Maxi Glamour. Our sister publication Out in STL recognized the three with ICON awards handed out after a drag solidarity march through the Grove.

The event was organized by Chris Andoe, the RFT’s society columnist. He, along with Sean Abernathy and Michael Klataske (a.k.a. Jade Sinclair), owners of Prism, and Pride St. Louis’ Braxton, created the ad hoc group It’s All Drag to lead the event.

“This is much bigger than drag,” Andoe said at the event. “It’s any kind of expression. They’re just trying to shove us back in.”

But the protests were and remain far from over. In early April, folks gathered at the Mis-

souri Capitol to protest legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. The state has worked overtime to try and stop such care with legislation and efforts from the attorney general.

As battles for rights that already seemed won start to rage again, it can be difficult to look to the future with optimism, but the protests showed that even in the darkness we can find hope in one another. n

Across from top left: Protesters in Jefferson City. | REUBEN HEMMER. The drag solidarity march was in The Grove. | BRADEN MCMAKIN. State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge at the trans rights protest in Jefferson City. | REUBEN HEMMER. Families came out to support trans rights. | REUBEN HEMMER. Protesters march at the drag solidarity march. | BRADEN MCMAKIN. Maxi Glamour speaks at the drag solidarity march | BRADEN MCMAKIN | More scenes from the trans rights protest. | REUBEN HEMMER.

A CELEBRATION OF THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING ASPECTS OF OUR HOME

All’s fair in love

love & pancakes

BY KASEY NOSS

In September 2018, at the United Square Shopping Mall in Singapore, two friends sat down to play a game. Well, first, they sat down for a cup of coffee between rounds of crafting elaborate pancakes for six-year-olds. To most people, the second half of that sentence might seem odd. But for Daniel Drake and Hank Gustafson, this was business as usual since founding Dancakes, the world’s first name in professional pancake art.

If Gustafson had his way, the two of them wouldn’t have gone to a cafe in the first place on the grounds that homemade coffee was cheaper. But Drake loved cafes, and Gustafson loved Drake. As they sipped their overpriced coffee, Drake looked up at Gustafson with a strange look in his eye. He knew what Drake would ask before he asked it.

“Wanna play Anthromancer?”

Anthromancer is the board game that the friends had invented in their time off from flipping pancakes for celebrities and billionaires (and schoolchildren in Singapore). Drake had the idea for

Anthromancer on the flight home from a television appearance in Brazil three years prior, and they’d adopted it as a pet project. They’d play it between gigs, quibble endlessly over its mechanics and text each other at odd hours of the night with new ideas. By the time they reached Singapore, the two had played hundreds of iterations of the game.

The cafe’s floor-to-ceiling windows flooded its mahogany interior with light as Drake and Gustafson set up their makeshift board and cards. After an hour and a half of intense gameplay —

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Two friends got famous making pancake art, until a rupture sent Dancakes founder Daniel Drake out the door

Daniel Drake can’t stay away from pancake art, even after leaving Dancakes. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

DANIEL DRAKE

Continued from pg 17

Drake won twice, Gustafson once — Anthromancer began to garner some attention. It wasn’t nearly as much as for their pancakes, but their contacts in the city and even some passersby became engrossed. One even asked if the mall sold it. As the duo began their second pancake art demo of the day, Gustafson felt profoundly satisfied.

“That was a beautiful moment,” he says. “We’re halfway around the world, and we’re playing this board game that we made in a cafe, and we’re here because we’re doing pancake art.”

Neither knew at the time that the game would drive them apart, end a decade-old friendship and propel Drake into a business venture even stranger than pancake art. How it happened is clear, but the two still argue over why. Things were simpler in 2018, but even then, Gustafson could see a reckoning coming.

“I’m like, this game is pretty good, and if we do this right, it could take off,” Gustafson recalls. “And I know, for a fact, Dan’s gonna have to focus on it.”

When Drake first tried his hand at pancake art, it was a side job, not a calling.

The year 2009 found him working the night shift at Courtesy Diner, a greasy spoon on South Kingshighway Boulevard with edible food and adequate service. Prior to Courtesy, Drake hadn’t had any professional experience in the kitchen. As a teenager, he passed his time doodling on his assignments instead of turning them in. He wrote and illustrated his own comic books. He graduated with mediocre grades and skipped college, hungry for “the simple freedom that came with working paycheck to paycheck.” He tried his hand at music and founded a band, his first of three, called the Psychedelic Psychonauts.

He demanded a spontaneity from life that it hadn’t afforded him thus far. But Drake also needed to pay the bills, which is why at 19, he applied for a job as a fry cook.

Drake got stuck with the slow shifts until he could earn his place as a cook. They say time is money, but without enough customers to yield substantial tips, Drake was left with a lot of one and little of the other. He had hoped Courtesy would support one artistic career.

Little did he know, it would jumpstart another.

One particularly slow night behind the griddle, Drake recalled the advice of a coworker who told him that adding little mouse ears to the pancakes usually boosted tips. The only customer in the diner was a man named Chad, who seemed to be having a bad day. Drake whipped up a simple smiley face pancake for him. Chad left him $15.

Drake would come to view this as a “light-bulb moment.” He began to push the boundaries of what pancakes could look like, starting with their shape. A friend showed him how to layer the batter so that some parts of the pancake would darken before others, allowing his designs to become increasingly elaborate. He developed a small following at the diner. People would come for the pancake guy, asking for all sorts of intricate designs. Drake would deliver every time.

A few years passed in this manner. Drake made pancakes. He churned out stars, dinosaur eggs, jellyfish and even the infamous meme-turned-NFT Nyan Cat to eager customers. He also hadn’t given up on his music career. In the late summer of 2013, Drake want-

ed the Psychedelic Psychonauts to film a music video. A coworker put Drake in touch with Gustafson, an amateur videographer.

The music video never happened, but it was the start of a decade-long friendship.

In November 2013, when he was 23, Drake’s life changed forever. One of his creations went viral on Reddit. It was a rendition of the iconic Mario Bros. mushroom that he’d posted to Facebook almost seven months prior.

“Daniel, aka ‘that guy from Courtesy Diner that does the thing,’” the post read. Under it, Drake sports a goofy grin as the pancake that would make him famous sits unassumingly on the griddle behind him.

Drake was in bed when he first went viral. It was late afternoon, and he was resting up for a late shift at Courtesy. Normally, he’d wake up to see the sun setting on his apartment in Tower Grove. Instead, he arose to a barrage of texts from friends, family and coworkers, all with the same thing to say: “Dan, you’re all over Reddit.”

Next came a whirlwind. Drake’s Facebook page, Dr. Dan the Pancake Man, quickly amassed a substantial following. The Today Show flew him out to New York

City the day before Thanksgiving, and his pancake portraits of hosts Matt Lauer and Al Roker were broadcast live to millions. When he returned to St. Louis, fans flooded Drake with requests to appear at their birthday parties and brunches. Within days, he went from scrappy fry cook to local celebrity.

As his star rose, Drake was allowed to take one person with him — at least, that’s the number of friends The Today Show offered to fly out. Drake chose Gustafson. The former was creative and spontaneous. The latter was practical and prudent. Both were just crazy enough to “chase the dragon,” as Gustafson puts it. In January 2014, after two months of successful local events and YouTube tutorials, the pair officially incorporated: Dancakes, a professional pancake art business, was born.

The next eight years would see Drake and Gustafson traverse the globe together. Dancakes took them everywhere including Louisville, Kentucky; Monterey, California; Dubai in the United Arab Emirates; and Hong Kong. Their work was featured on hundreds of companies’ social media platforms, including Disney and Dungeons and Dragons. They flipped

Clockwise from upper left: The Super Mario Bros. mushroom that went viral and thrust Dancakes into the national spotlight. The pancakes get increasing elaborate. Drake (second from right) and Gustafson (far left) made pancakes at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards party. The artists pose on the red carpet. | COURTESY DANIEL DRAKE

pancakes with Steve Harvey and Katy Perry. The two became inseparable, partly because they had only each other for company as they bounced around from gig to gig. But their professional relationship would have been impossible if it weren’t for the genuine friendship on which it was founded.

That’s the story of how in September of 2018, Gustafson and Drake found themselves in Singapore, making pancakes for schoolchildren in a supermall.

As for how they found themselves playing Anthromancer in that cafe? That one’s a bit more complicated.

The motto of Dancakes is “mistakes are delicious.” For much of his life, it’s been Drake’s motto as well.

At 33 years old, Drake has made peace with the fact that fitting in isn’t his speciality. As a child, he was “very ponderous” and prone to morbid thoughts.

“I remember from being a kid where, for instance, I think I was like seven, and I was standing in my bedroom looking at my bookshelf, and it occurred to me that, technically, a car could come through my room at any time and kill me,” he says.

In middle school, Drake befriended “all the smart kids,” with whom he spent his days playing video games, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dungeons and Dragons. During that time, his parents went

through a divorce, and custody arrangements meant he bounced around a lot — to this day, Drake has never lived in one home for more than three years.

Drake attended high school at Gateway Institute of Technology, while his friends — the ones he would do “all the nerd shit” with — went to the more prestigious Metro Academic and Classical High School. Without his band of misfits, Drake turned inward and developed a chip on his shoulder that hasn’t quite disappeared.

“On some very, very deep level, I have a crippling fear of being unloved and not having been good enough, and that leading to people wanting to push me away,” he says.

When Drake was 19, he experienced “the single most fucked up thing that’s ever happened” to him: His 16-year-old stepbrother was shot by his biological mother, who then took her own life.

Drake’s family had moved through several Christian denominations, yet none could provide a satisfying explanation of how something so devastating could

happen in a world that was inherently good. Drake spiraled into what he calls “high school nihilism,” spending joyless shifts at Courtesy contemplating life and death.

“At that time, I was still laying on my floor after my shifts looking up at my ceiling, dreading the void,” he recalls. “I think there’s a phase where the oncoming inevitability of your own death, like, fucks with you for a minute, you know?”

Drake seriously considered getting “nihilism” tattooed on his forearm, but his friends talked him out of it. Instead, a year and a half after his stepbrother’s death, he and those same friends did ecstasy together. They piled into his ex’s bathtub while new-age German band Enigma blared in the background, and Drake had a realization: He could imbue a meaningless universe with its own significance.

“What if I used the pain it made me feel to inspire me to live a more authentic life?” Drake asks. “What’s the worst that’ll happen?”

Since that epiphany, Drake’s

been on a quest to be authentically himself and make money doing it.

The biggest obstacle? He can be a complex, and often difficult, pill to swallow.

For starters, he is a staunch advocate of cryptocurrency, which he views as the most viable route to legitimate systemic change. He’s also a self-identified Christian Anarchist, the ethos of which can best be summarized as “no kings but the King of Kings.” Finally, Drake is polyamorous — he finds monogamy too limiting. He has been with his partner Wella Kelly for three years and was openly poly with ex-partner Jill Terry and his second ex-wife.

Drake is so fringe that he’s even on the fringe of esoteric groups.

For instance, cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin, has developed a reputation on par with that of the “tech bros” of Silicon Valley. Drake has found a home in the ethereum community, which he describes as full of “weird occultist people” like him, but strangers jump to the conclusion that he’s another “entitled-ass white man” salivating over the next get-richquick scheme.

“I’m gonna come across as an asshole to certain people regardless of what I do because I’m loud, because I’m not going to be quiet and small, because there are people who think I should be, because they see me, as a white man, as somehow responsible for everything bad that’s ever been done in capitalism,” he says.

He also concedes that part of him may simply crave controversy.

“There is a strengthening of the ego that takes place when you are certain of your correctness about something and you have the strength of character to not care if people malign you, or if you get canceled or whatever,” he says. “There’s definitely a spiritual satisfaction.”

“Spiritual satisfaction” is something Drake has been in search of his whole life. The advent of Dancakes momentarily threw him off course. However, he resumed his quest in 2015, when he was flown out to Sāo Paulo, Brazil, to appear on a national talk show called Hoje em Dia. Gustafson stayed behind. It was the first time Drake had ever gone out of the country by himself.

“They just had me down there for a week doing pancake art for folks, and the last day was super high pressure, in the studio live with a bunch of soap opera stars I’d never heard of,” he says. “It

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Each Anthromancer box includes the game Mercenarium, an oracle system called Dragonfruit Alchemy and a written mythology. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

“What if I used the pain it made me feel to inspire me to live a more authentic life? What’s the worst that’ll happen?”

DANIEL DRAKE

Continued from pg 19

was very surreal — I had a translator.”

The show was a success, and Drake boarded the plane home high on his own sense of accomplishment. He had seven hours in the air to fill and took to flipping through the idea notebook he carried at all times. As he did so, he stirred up the impulse he had as a kid to make his own deck of cards. Then, he had the thought that would change his life, again: Why didn’t he?

That thought became Anthromancer.

“I was feeling very empowered,” he recalls. “I credit that state of mind — that, coupled with the seven-hour flight where I was just kind of bored.”

Drake deplaned and began toying around with paper cutouts of square cards.

“Over the course of the next seven years, that idea just layered and layered and layered,” he says. “I was making these decisions along the way that kind of put me down a spiritual path — like I wasn’t expecting this at all.”

So what does this all have to do with pancakes?

The answer is not much. Which speaks to why, in May of 2022, Drake left Dancakes.

His departure was hard. Especially because it also meant a departure from Gustafson.

Drake and Gustafson hit the ground running when they incorporated Dancakes in 2014, and they didn’t stop for the next six years. In Drake, Gustafson found a dreamer who whisked him from Kingshighway Boulevard to Katy Perry’s kitchen and beyond. In Gustafson, Drake found someone with the business acumen to make those dreams a reality.

“For the first six years of it, it was gold,” Gustafson says. Neither had intended to make a name for themselves selling pancakes. But the internet had spoken, and the money was good.

“It’s not like we sat there in 2014 and said, ‘Let’s create this.’ It was literally through virality that this became a thing,” Gustafson says. “An article would blow up, and people would reach out and we’d do those events, and then someone would see us with those, so it was just a snowball effect.”

For Gustafson, Dancakes marked an exciting departure from his previous job in construc-

tion, though he did occasionally miss working with his hands. Drake saw the company’s success and his subsequent rise to pancake fame as a considerably more mixed blessing.

“Courtesy Diner was my frickin’ three-days-a-week day job that I did just to barely pay for my bills, so I could focus all of my other energy on what I really wanted, which was to create a career and be taken seriously for my artistic expression,” Drake says. “Then pancake art comes along, and it makes me go viral, and I get on TV and suddenly there’s this more viable path to economic well-being, and I feel like I’d be stupid not to do it.”

By 2017, two additional artists had joined Dancakes full-time, marking a new chapter in the company’s development. Dancakes had far surpassed its status as a serendipitous windfall of his former side job — yet, it was still just pancakes.

“There was definitely a sense of, ‘Shit man, the universe is just punkin’ me.’ Here I am now doing large amounts of low-effort commissions that people eat or throw away right away, and they’re based on what people want, and nobody’s really interested in what I have to say,” Drake says. “When you go to a museum, you’re looking at artists paint[ing] from their souls. It’s really frustrating when that’s what you want, and the universe is like, ‘No, no, no, no, no.

You’re gonna be a breakfast jester, and you’re gonna like it. And if you don’t like it, people are gonna resent you for looking a gift horse in the mouth.’”

Drake became less interested in Dancakes and its members. Artists on the road with him would return and note to Gustafson that he’d been checked out, his mind on music, Anthromancer or somewhere else completely. Even as Drake tired of his work, patrons continued to request him specifically, compounding his pancake art fatigue — and the other artists’ fatigue with him.

All the while, Drake delved deeper into the realms of cryptocurrency, Eastern philosophy and Anthromancer.

“There was a mood shift in Dan after he became interested in this stuff,” Gustafson says. “His jovialness kind of went away.”

Whatever momentum Drake still had came crashing to a halt, along with the rest of the world’s activities, with the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Dancakes’ primary source of income was live events, and with the world on lockdown, the artists found themselves static for the first time in years.

“[Dan] fell in love with this board game, the music behind it, all this stuff,” Gustafson says. “All these things we had to throw aside when Dancakes became a thing because we were chasing the money, chasing the fame …

[We] finally got to reflect on the last seven years.”

Although Dancakes found inventive ways to sustain itself through the pandemic, the team remained largely unemployed. Drake grew increasingly restless with what he saw as his partners’ lack of vision — a gripe he maintained well after live events trickled back.

“We were never really making any big moves,” Drake says. “We weren’t like, ‘OK, what’s the big vision?’”

Meanwhile, Gustafson became frustrated with Drake’s focus on the board game and similar efforts.

“At the end of the day, when you’re Nike, people know you for shoes,” Gustafson says. “People know us for making pancakes live in front of them. That’s what will always work.”

But Drake says his primary concern wasn’t with what “will always work” — he “would rather be a messy bitch on Dancakes social media than be reined in all the time.

“What’s the worst that could happen? The business dies? So what? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to see if it doesn’t?” Drake adds.

Around this time, he was also grappling with challenges in his personal life. Drake and his second wife, to whom he was married for nearly two years, divorced

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Daniel Drake flips the pancake that is now the cover of this issue of the RFT. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

DANIEL DRAKE

Continued from pg 20

right after signing the contract to their new house. Drake had to move out of the first home he had ever owned.

“That kind of stuff can wear on you,” Gustafson says.

Drake’s mental health continued to slide, and so did his relationship with his coworkers. In January 2022, Gustafson and the five other artists who comprised Dancakes at that point decided to confront Drake, interventionstyle. They gave him an ultimatum: Either go to therapy or lose his power to make executive decisions within the business. He went to therapy.

“I ended up playing along,” Drake says. “I was like, OK, well, maybe I have been really fucked up and shitty, you know? Maybe I’ve been a bad guy.”

When he helped stage the intervention, Gustafson meant only the best for what he saw as a friend struggling with his mental health. As the “mom” of the group and someone who had himself grappled with mental illness in the past, he wanted Drake to seek the help he needed.

“We came into that meeting not even as coworkers [but] as friends,” Gustafson says. “He needed to talk to someone about it, and it wasn’t us because we tried. I sat there and I’m like, ‘We’re not trying to make this an attack at all, but we need to get down to the root of what’s going on.’”

Although Drake committed to therapy for 12 weeks, Gustafson never felt sure that Drake truly agreed there was a need for it.

“It was basically like a I’ll-justdo-this-to-humor-you kind of thing,” Gustafson says. “It didn’t seem like he was taking it seriously.”

Perhaps that’s because Drake saw his coworkers’ confrontation more as an act of betrayal than an act of love.

“It really fucked with me for a minute,” Drake says. “I realized that they were sort of coming together and wielding power against me, and that’s something I’ve never done to them.”

The team held several more meetings over the course of that spring trying to reconcile their differences with Drake. At their final meeting in May, under pressure from some of his coworkers, Drake made the difficult decision to leave the company.

The split was necessary but upsetting for Gustafson, who de-

scribes the outcome as “bittersweet.”

“It was a tough decision, but at the end of the day at that meeting, he said he had to leave,” Gustafson says, emphasizing that the company isn’t structured so owners can vote each other out. “That’s not what I ever wanted. I loved Dan dearly. I started this with him.”

Meanwhile, Drake can’t seem to decide how he views his departure. Sometimes, he maintains he was “forced out.” Other times, he’ll insist the decision was his alone, and that it was the right one. When he looks back on his time there, his most persistent regret is his failure to make his vision a priority from the start.

“From the get-go, I partnered with my best friend at the time 50/50, and because of that, I never really had power to say what I wanted the brand to be,” Drake says. “By the end of it, I really felt like I didn’t really have a place in the company.”

In the meantime, he has tried, somewhat, to make peace with his decisions and those of his former team.

“I see it as: This is my team working through psychological processes that I feel like I have already worked through,” he says. “It makes me mad, but I also try not to take it personally, if that makes sense. Like, OK, I can’t reach you right now. That’s fine. I’m gonna go ahead and sell my stake and get out of here and try and see if I can make this crazy thing work.”

That’s exactly what he set out to do.

Anthromancer, in the simplest of terms, is a brand. If you’ve encountered it already, you are probably interested in at least one of three things: obscure music, board games or the occult.

Each Anthromancer box includes three things: the board game Mercenarium, an oracle system akin to tarot called Dragonfruit Alchemy and a written mythology. Although originally Drake set out to emulate the board games that had enthralled him and his friends as kids, the final product is entirely his own.

“This was one of those things that revealed itself to me as I was making it,” he says, saying he started out trying to make a Yu-GiOh!-style battle game before realizing it wouldn’t work. “I went back to the drawing board, and I threw out deck building, and instead decided to use a traditional deck of cards.”

In Mercenarium, players take

turns placing and moving cards around the board to “capture” their opponents’ lower-value cards. The first player to make five captures wins. While players must think strategically about each move, they can also draw “hymn cards” that invoke potentially game-altering actions such as rearranging opponents’ cards or turning one of their mercenaries against them. In this sense, Mercenarium is equal parts strategy and luck.

The materials used for gameplay can be repurposed into those used for Dragonfuit Alchemy. It draws heavily from the traditional tarot deck and from eastern philosophy, namely the I-Ching, a Chinese divination text. Within the box, users can also find the Codex, the written mythology behind the game. Finally, for those who want to ditch the box altogether, there’s The Hymnal, a 13-track hyperpop metal concept album, available on most major streaming platforms.

It may seem like these separate components couldn’t be more different, but Drake has painstakingly worked to make them correlate: Each hymn card in the Mercenarium deck corresponds to a “core meaning” in Dragonfruit Alchemy, a track on The Hymnal and a page in the Codex. For example, “Hymn VIII,” which allows you to “buy” and control an enemy’s mercenary, corresponds with “desire” in the tarot system; The Hymnal’s eighth track, “Avarice”; and page 76 in the Codex

“I just saw a connection between the songs and the cards, and what the cards represented in the tarot, and what they did in the board game,” Drake says. “It became this really interesting creative challenge to find a way to make the music good but also agree with the meaning of the card, and then make the meaning of the card agree with the gameplay function of the card, and then have them all agree with each other, and still have a good product at the end of it.”

Drake recognizes that he’s trying to reach a “niche audience,” but he designed Anthromancer to include something for everyone. Regardless of whether you like board games, hyperpop metal or tarot, Anthromancer is an impressive product, carefully crafted and beautifully designed.

Drake has many reasons for pursuing Anthromancer. He knows the community a board game can foster. He’s wildly fascinated by the occult. He “just wants people to give a shit about his music career.” But mostly, he has a message to spread.

At the core of Anthromancer’s mythology is the concept of The Fox and The Fool, the jokers of the system. The Fool represents ignorance, toil and anxiety. The Fox represents bliss, flow and serenity. The Fox is enlightened because it understands itself as the Fool, whereas the Fool is suffering because it’s striving to become the Fox.

“That’s the message, really,” Drake says. “We bend ourselves into all kinds of fucked up shapes trying not to be a fool, only to just do more foolish things. We try to impress people. We try to prove to the world that we are deserving of love, and ultimately, we’re just fools. All of us. We’re all fools.”

Anthromancer officially dropped in June 2022. Since then, Drake has sold nearly 500 copies of the game system. It’s found vendors in several local businesses, such as Elk & Vine and Fantasy Shop. Online it retails for $59.99.

Drake says the feedback from patrons has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Everybody that has gotten it so far has had nothing but good things to say,” he says. “I believe that, once the story gets around, the game starts to develop, a couple years from now, they’ll fly off the shelves.”

The game’s Kickstarter, which ended in June 2020, drew 373 backers who pledged $17,326.

That’s not to say Anthromancer has been exceptionally lucrative — yet. Drake doesn’t have a precise estimate of the company’s earnings but guesses it can’t have made more than $23,000.

Last fall, Drake held four public events around St. Louis in an attempt to cultivate an Anthromancer community.

“It’s not the same as just a board game meet-up because it’s an Anthromancer meetup,” Drake says of his vision for these events. “The kinds of people that are going to come out of the woodwork, I hope, are the kinds of people that I can sit down and drink coffee and have a conversation with about God or cryptocurrency or whatever.”

The first of these events — Dragonfruit Alchemy at the Fortune Teller Bar — took place on a Wednesday afternoon early in September. The place was empty except for the bartender, a few customers and Drake. He sat at a table by the bar, the contents of Anthromancer spread out neatly before him. A banner behind him displayed the purple and blue

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DANIEL DRAKE

Continued from pg 22

emblems of the Fox and the Fool.

Drake looked the part. He wore black jeans and a black buttondown shirt with an eccentric pattern of bookshelves. His fingers were bedecked in flashy rings, including an evil eye that his partner gave him after his ex-wife “wouldn’t stop saying mean things about [him] on the Internet.” His shirt was only buttoned halfway, and his long, thin ponytail was draped over his shoulder. He appeared dressed for the occasion, but in reality, he had designed the occasion to fit him.

The scene inside the Fortune Teller was far from encouraging. Eight people showed up — not exactly the prolific community Drake had envisioned. Yet Drake seemed unperturbed as he rattled off new developments for Anthromancer. Still, he has since discontinued the monthly events due to low turnout.

“We were putting the cart before the horse,” he says. The way he saw it, the company was squandering resources and time fostering a community it hadn’t yet built. He adopted a new plan

of action: “Promoting the hell out of one specific event for months.”

That event was the Foolsday Jubilee, and Drake had big plans. He booked the perfect venue, the Mad Art Gallery in Soulard. The festivities would commence with a pancake art breakfast, which would give way to a doubleelimination Mercenarium tournament and a carnival. He enlisted a battalion of friends and acquaintances to contribute their talents — stand-up comedians, foodies, EDM dancers and the fire performance troupe Ignited Arts. He even had plans for an NFT gallery where people could view digital art on monitors and scan QR codes to buy them.

The event was scheduled to take place on April Fools’ Day — but on March 24, Drake canceled it with a post on his Facebook page.

“I’m sad about it,” he wrote, directing fans to the new weekly Monday Night Mercenarium hosted at Platypus in the Grove. “I’m also relieved. I have spread myself terribly thin, and I realize that in order to succeed I need to concentrate my efforts.”

Drake’s vision is to see Anthromancer become a “giant spectacle” with a reputation for fantastic events and its own pantheon

of competitive Mercenarium players. And Drake, with his signature purple suit jacket, wooden cane and tinted glasses, would be “the goofy jester at the center of it.” He relishes his creative control over the brand.

“It doesn’t make me a bad person to be the ego-flexing frontman of this project,” Drake says. “I feel like it’s going to do better if it’s just this really weird, fascinating thing, where it’s like, OK, what’s this asshole up to? He’s all dressed in purple with his fancy jacket. Who the fuck does he think he is?”

He also hasn’t completely divorced from pancakes.

In October, he became a cashier at a cafe in Clayton’s Centene Plaza because, as he puts it, he needed to eat. Upon discovering his skills, his boss bought him a pancake art kit.

In December, he and his partner founded The Joy of Pancakes, which specializes in pancake art. The pair share equal ownership of the company. Drake’s friends have teased him for embarking on yet another business venture in which he can’t call the shots. But to Drake the situations couldn’t be more different.

“I’ve got a lot of optimism,”

Drake says. “I feel like this is all kind of happening the way it’s supposed to, if that makes sense.”

As for Gustafson and Drake?

The two are still mostly amicable. Gustafson sold Drake his stake in Anthromancer, making him the majority shareholder. For a while, Drake would even update Gustafson on Anthromancer’s progress, though things have become more strained since Drake founded his own pancake art company.

“We’re friends, but we were such close friends,” Gustafson says. He compares it to being in a life raft together. “You’re at sea for a while, and some days it’s sunny and it’s beautiful. Some days it’s not. We were so close for so long.”

The Foolsday Jubilee, if it had materialized, promised to be a celebration of all things unconventional, outrageous and generally weird. However, before the festivities could commence, celebrants were to participate in what Drake describes as a forgiveness ritual, writing their “grudges and shames” on pieces of paper and throwing them into the gallery’s outdoor fire pit.

Maybe, just maybe, we can guess what would have been on Drake’s. n

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 04/20

For 4/20 events, see pg. 42.

Memorable Moments

When Doug tries to ride his bike off a roof, he has no idea it will lead to a fateful meeting with Kayleen, a girl having stomach pains. They’re both 8 years old when their lives collide in the school infirmary and continue to intersect over the next 30 years in a love story that is both funny and poignant. The Rep will close out its season with Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center (210 East Monroe Avenue, Kirkwood; 314-759-1455). The show runs Thursday, April 20, through Saturday, May 13, and tickets are $35 to $50. More info at repstl.org.

All the Fairy Tales

When they were putting together Into the Woods, there’s no doubt Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine thought to themselves: “What’s better than one fairy tale?” The answer, if you’re to take the 1987 musical as gospel, is many, many Brothers Grimm fairy tales, all squished together. The classic musical takes elements from “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella” and more to make something totally new. Now, St. Louis’ Stray Dog Theatre (2348 Tennessee Avenue, 314-865-1995) has taken that new thing and made it its own. The result is a quick-paced musical set in a library featuring, as RFT Theater Critic Tina Farmer says, “a truly talented ensemble” delivering a show that is appropriate for families with older children as well as adults. The show begins at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, and tickets are $30. If you can’t make it

Thursday, fret not: The production runs daily through Saturday, April 22. For tickets and more info, visit straydogtheatre.org.

FRIDAY 04/21

Smoke Show

Now that recreational marijuana is legal, young people have found a new way to rebel. Cigarettes are the new weed. A whole art show in St. Louis is dedicated to celebrating the aesthetics and future of smoking. Catch Smoke at I Need That Art Gallery (7735 Clayton Road, Clayton; 314-517-2283) this Friday, April 21, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The show will feature pieces by local artists Martha Valenta, Dan Dorsey, Terry Hinkle and more. All will showcase work inspired by the “disappearing scent and aesthetic of smoking.” Complimentary “smoke-themed” appetizers and beverages will be available — in addition to choco-

late cigars and packs of candy cigarettes doled out by a cigarette girl. The show will run until Saturday, April 29, and will be on view during regular gallery hours from noon to 6 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, visit ineedthatart.com.

It’s Only Natural

Earth Day is for everyone, even people who DGAF about nature. Case in point: the Martinis in the Meadow Earth Day Celebration

Held at Fletcher’s Kitchen & Tap (1524 Clinton Hills Parkway, Swansea, Illinois; 618-239-3317) and hosted by the Exploration Garden at Swansea Clinton Hills Conservation Park, this event gives you the opportunity to “immerse yourself in the beauty of nature while sipping on specialty martinis.” Yes, nature is even more amazing when tipsy. (They’ll also have fancy nonalcoholic options on site, too.) Even if nature isn’t really your thing, your girlfriend is probably into it, so you can get relationship credit without having to go take selfies with her in a sunflower field. This is a high-class charity event, too, so said girlfriend will appreciate having a reason to wear her fancy dress. Win-win. Your $75 ticket includes two drinks, appetizers and lots of entertainment, including an auction and music by the Jazz Troubadours. Visit heartlandsconservancy.org for more information.

SATURDAY 04/22

First to Fall

Ken Ellingwood’s 2021 biography First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery isn’t just a journey through some of the St. Louis region’s most tumultuous times — it’s also one hell of a read. A former L.A. Times reporter, Ellingwood keeps his pacing swift, which is necessary when dealing with a story this riveting. Born and raised in Maine, Presbyterian minister Lovejoy became a staunch abolitionist after witnessing the horrors of slavery in St. Louis, and then turned to publishing a newspaper in Alton for the cause. Pro-slavery forces weren’t

Morel mushrooms are springtime gold. | VIA FLICKR / APPALACHIAN DREAMER

having it; in 1837, they made him the first American journalist to be murdered for his work. Fittingly, Ellingwood will discuss the book at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (7400 Grant Road, Grantwood Village; 314-842-1867) on Saturday, April 22, at 2 p.m. Admission is free. Details at nps.gov/ ulsg/planyourvisit/calendar.htm.

Veggie Season

In St. Louis, you might know that it’s spring because of the flowers — or because you can’t stop sneezing. Actually, that’s kind of the same thing. But you might also know that it’s spring because of all the farmers’ markets popping up, including the OG: the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, which first reemerged on Easter weekend. But if you were too busy hunting eggs, don’t fuss. Just take yourself and your reusable shopping bag to Tower Grove Park (4257 Northeast Drive, 314-771-2679) on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and get in on the fun. Right now veggies such as asparagus, peas and rhubarb are in season, but we’re betting that the regional farmers who

attend with their goods will have a veritable bounty available for your perusal. Plus, the market has crafts, eggs, food trucks, kimchi and pretty much anything else you can dream up.

SUNDAY 04/23

Fungus Among Us

From The Last of Us becoming a hit show to morel-hunting season being upon us, mushrooms are all around us these days. If you’re keen to learn more about mushrooms and how to find them, check out the Mushroom Festival and Hunt at Pere Marquette Lodge & Conference Center (13653 Lodge Blvd, Grafton, Illinois; 618-786-2331) this Sunday, April 23. This free event is open to the public and will teach you all there is to know about morels. The educational festival is great for all ages, and it will also be offering live music, locally made wines and opportunities to buy handmade keepsakes from craft vendors. Then at 1 p.m. there will be a group mushroom hunt in the

woods. Hunters can win a free overnight stay at the lodge if they find the smallest morel, the biggest morel or the most morels. Even if you’re new to mushroom hunting, fear not: The event will be supplying two experienced hunters to help guide you to the fungus among us. Visit pmlodge. net for more information.

WEEK OF APRIL 20–26

WEDNESDAY 04/26

Hustler Musik

It’s been nearly 20 years since Lil Wayne released his critically acclaimed album Tha Carter in 2004. To celebrate, the rapper has embarked on a 28-city tour named after that album. The “Welcome to Tha Carter” tour will make its way to the Factory (17105 North Outer 40 Road, Chesterfield; 314-423-8500) on Wednesday, April 26. Now a decade or so removed from the absolutely dizzying heights of his career peak — a period of time that even saw him win a Grammy for Best Rap Album for 2009’s Tha Carter III — Weezy F. Baby has retained his smart, free-association style of lyricism as well as his inimitable 10-blunts-a-day vocal delivery. It was enough to get him three more Grammy nominations this year alone to add to the pile of accolades the rapper has amassed over his career. Tickets to the show range from $79.95 to $129.95 and can be purchased at thefactorystl.com. n

Lil Wayne comes to St. Louis on his “Welcome to Tha Carter” tour on Wednesday, April 26. | VIA TICKETMASTER Ken Ellingwood’s latest book is on Elijah Lovejoy. | COVER ART

I Need That Art Gallery is hosting a Smoke show. | TERRY HINKLE

The Big O

Bagel Union scratches St. Louis’ itch for outstanding New Yorkstyle bagels

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Bagel Union

8705 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves. Wed.-Sun. 7 a.m.-2 p.m. (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays).

Afew weeks ago, my significant other made a comment that shook me to my core and had me questioning whether or not he was doing well. An East Coast expat who takes every opportunity to lament the foods he left behind, he casually mentioned one afternoon that he’d gone through the Starbucks drivethru that morning and ordered a bagel with cream cheese. “It was actually pretty good,” he said, a claim that, in retrospect, likely dovetailed with the car trouble he’d had earlier in the morning. He was tired. He was stressed. He was defeated.

To be fair, we’ve all felt a little defeated when it comes to St. Louis’ bagel game — and not just because of the communal shame our penchant for bread slicing has brought upon the city. For years, it’s been virtually impossible to find a respectable bagel in the area, with just one — maybe two — places offering anything more than round bread with a hole in the center. When that one place, the Bagel Factory, closed late last year, it underscored just how difficult it was to find a proper bagel in the area; though we held out hope for a new owner and the prospect of a couple of bagel shops currently in the works, the loss was palpable.

Bagel Union, the sophomore concept from Sean Netzer and Ted Wilson of Union Loafers, was born of that longing way before Bagel Factory shut its doors. The origins of the shop, which opened in Webster Groves this past January, go back several years to a Saturday morning tradition with a Union Loafers regular named Gary. Every week, Gary would bring doughnuts down to the Bo-

tanical Heights restaurant before it opened and shoot the breeze in the back with Netzer and Wilson. On one of those mornings, the talk turned to bagels, and he asked Wilson whether or not he’d ever consider opening a shop dedicated to the boiled bread. At first, Netzer and Wilson blew off the idea, not understanding the full scope of the void here in town. However, they kept coming back to the idea and eventually decided to see where it took them.

Netzer and Wilson would receive confirmation that they were onto something when they did a bagel breakfast sandwich pop-up at Bagel Union this past New Year’s Day. Though the popup officially began at 10 a.m., lines began forming well before then. By 9:45 a.m., it stretched for two blocks, and the person who queued up at 9:50 was the last one to get a bagel. In other words, it sold out before it was even open.

Netzer admits that they had timing on their side. The Bagel Factory had just closed about a week prior to that pop-up, so the loss

was fresh in the minds of St. Louis bagelheads. However, Netzer and Wilson had been working on Bagel Union for at least two years prior and had even signed the lease on the Bagel Union storefront in the summer of 2019, with plans to open by late 2020. The pandemic pushed back the opening, so they spent that extra time going deeper into their bagel research, traveling to New York City, where Wilson had previously worked at the famed Sullivan Street Bakery, to learn all they could about not only the bagels themselves but also about the accoutrements and culture that surround the iconic bread.

That deep-dive into bagels and bagel culture has paid off in the form of a truly respectable product. Chewy on the inside, hard on the outside and served with classic schmears and toppings, the bagels at Bagel Union scratch the itch for a proper New Yorkstyle experience. Netzer notes that Wilson and his team have been relentless in their pursuit of that goal and have been regu-

larly tweaking their recipe and technique based on the feedback they’ve received, which has resulted in a bagel that is less airy and with a bit more chew and a harder crust than when the shop first opened in January. This was evident by the fact that when I placed a bag of 10 bagels down to share with friends, it hit the table with a substantial thud.

In terms of the bagels themselves, Bagel Union’s classic flavors hit the mark. An onion version is generously dusted with slightly bitter dried flecks; the poppy, too, is generously coated and the seasoning blend on the everything bagel has the quintessential deep dried garlic and onion flavor with the crunch of sesame and poppyseeds. However, my favorite was the simple salt bagel; though not as substantially encrusted as a pretzel, the seasoning was significant enough to bring out the toasty undertones of the bread.

Schmears are equally classic and well executed, consist-

Continued on pg 32

Bagel Union features bagels, schmears and sandwiches. | MABEL SUEN

BAGEL UNION

Continued from pg 31

ing of flavors such as plain and scallion. However, the standout was a sweet one, made with Luxardo cherries, that tasted like a cheesecake version of black cherry ice cream. Bagel Union was out of the cinnamon raisin and cherry crunch bagels, so I opted for it on a plain one, which worked well.

In addition to standalone bagels and schmears, Bagel Union offers several composed bagel sandwiches and spreadable salads. The Delox is the most classic, featuring silken, thinly sliced lox placed atop plain cream cheese and accented with capers, lemon oil, red-onion shavings and sprigs of fresh dill. In the same spirit, but decidedly different, the open-faced Salmon Roe gives diners a similar flavor to lox but instead uses pea-sized salmon eggs that gives the dish a stunning texture in contrast to the luscious cream cheese. Fresh dill and pickled shallots complete this outstanding offering.

Fans of Union Loafers’ smoked beet sandwich will be equally impressed with Bagel Union’s Goldie Lox, a vegetarian offering that features thin slices of golden beets atop your cream cheese of choice (I opted for the chunky vegetable version). Pickled shallots, lemon oil and dill add brightness to the beet’s earthiness, resulting in a well-balanced dish. Also impressive, the Iggy pairs kippered (hot smoked) salmon and cream cheese with a chili crisp akin to a chili tapenade and verdant cilantro salad. Bagel Union offers a few different spreadable salads that can be enjoyed on a bagel of choice or

eaten alone with a fork, such as traditional egg salad — medium chunky and not overdone with mayonnaise, with dill, celery and chives — and a chicken salad that’s amped up by pungent grain mustard. My favorite was the spicy tuna salad, which paired hunks of the fish with lemon juice, pickled shallots, fiery giardiniera and banana peppers for layers of flavor.

I’d wait in line for that tuna salad on a salt bagel, though these days, that’s not as necessary as it once was. Bagel Union still sells out and can get busy during certain hours, but the days of two-hour lines and sellouts before opening are gone. Now, it’s much more low-key; you just pull a number, grab a coffee and wait a couple of minutes for your turn before heading out the

door to bask in bagel bliss. Now that we can count on Bagel Union for respectable bagels, there’s no need to feel so desperate or lose our dignity — even when our car breaks down. n

Bagel Union Salt bagel with scallion cream cheese $5 25 The Delox (closed sandwich) $13 Spicy tuna salad ��������������������������������������� $14

The Bagel Union crew is headed up by Sean Netzer and Ted Wilson of Union Loafers. | MABEL SUEN

The egg salad sandwich includes celery, dill and chives. | MABEL SUEN

Lox is sliced paper thin. | MABEL SUEN

SHORT ORDERS 35

Grand Opening

Grand Sammies & Sides will open inside Grand Spirits this week

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

South Grand will soon have a new destination for sandwiches courtesy of a rising star chef and some familiar St. Louis restaurant industry players. Grand Sammies & Sides, from chef Pat Skiersch, will open inside Grand Spirits (3194 South Grand Boulevard) on Thursday, April 20, serving a small menu of classic sandwiches and a handful of side dishes from a window inside the natural wine shop and bar.

“I started working for [Executive Chef] Matt [Wynn] when he opened Salve last year, but I’ve always wanted to open my own thing and do sandwiches,” Skiersch says. “Every once in a while I’d bring Mike [Fricker] something I was working on, and one time I brought him a sandwich I was passionate about, and he texted me 10 minutes later and said, ‘Pat, this is awesome.’ He told me that he and Meredith Barry were working on something at Grand Spirits and that he would love for me to be a part of it if I was interested.”

A southern Illinois native, Skiersch came up in the St. Louis restaurant industry since attending the now-shuttered local campus of Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. During his time in the program, he did an externship at the prestigious Flying Fish restaurant in Walt Disney World before returning to St. Louis to work at Niche and eventually Brasserie. Though he excelled in such upscale concepts, he always felt the pull toward more casual dining and hoped to one day do a sandwich concept that would be inspired by the reason he got into cooking in the first place.

“It all goes back to family for

me,” Skiersch says. “My dad was a self-taught cook; he loved cooking, had a passion for it and did everything he could to grow his passion with the time that he had. He taught my uncle everything he could, and my uncle ran with that and now does barbecue at home. They are both amazing home cooks, and I was fortunate to grow up around that.”

Though Skiersch’s father took every chance he could to cook, he was limited to mostly weekends because of his full-time job. His mom worked outside the home as well, so weekday meals were usually casual and easy to prepare. However, this did not mean they were basic, with dinners consisting of pulled-pork sandwiches, peak-of-the-season BLTs, potato salad and his mom’s special spicy

chicken sandwich.

Skiersch picked up his father’s passion for food, but he did not plan on making a career out of it. Instead, he went to school to become an oral surgeon, working three jobs alongside his studies. When his father got sick, he had to recalibrate and help with the business; his studies suffered, and eventually he dropped out of school, unsure of what was next.

During that time, Skiersch often found himself alone at home, where he had to cook for himself. He quickly realized how little he knew about the craft of cooking and decided to go to culinary school, even as he understood that the fine-dining path might not be his calling.

“While I was working at all of these places, I couldn’t get it out

of my mind that if I was going to be working 70 hours a week, nights, weekends and holidays for someone else’s dream, it wasn’t there for me,” Skiersch says. “I kept coming back to something my uncle always said to me. He’d tell me every time I’d leave his house, ‘Remember who you are.’ That was very big for me, and when I think about who I am, what I’ve learned and what I want to do, it always comes back to sandwiches.”

Grand Sammies & Sides, therefore, is a passion project for Skiersch, and he hopes that diners will taste that love in his food. He notes that he is not trying to do anything too over the top but instead wants to showcase classic flavors and great ingredients at their peak. Though he plans on expanding offerings as the place gets rolling, the core menu will consist of five different sandwiches and three side dishes, including a turkey panini with cheddar cheese, chipotle aioli, greens and optional bacon. A classic grinder will come with various charcuterie, provolone cheese, tomatoes, a salad of iceberg lettuce, red onion and pickled peppers, and garlic aioli, all tucked into a housemade roll. A vegetarian version, the Garden Grinder, will feature a French onion spread and assorted vegetables, and a breakfast-inspired sandwich will consist of egg, sausage and cheese. Skiersch and the Grand Spirits team are partic-

Continued on pg 36

Grand Sammies & Sides will open on April 20. | CHERYL BAEHR

Pat Skiersch is excited to share his passion for sandwiches with St. Louis. | CHERYL BAEHR

GRAND SAMMIES

Continued

ularly excited about the meatball sandwich, which will be made with Salve’s excellent beef and chicken meatballs. The dish will be finished off with melted provolone, tomato sauce and herbs.

As for sides, Skiersch is excited to offer housemade chips, an orzo pasta salad with Kalamata olives, cucumber, feta and red onion, all tossed in a light lemon-dill dressing. However, the side dish nearest and dearest to his heart is the potato salad, a Cajun riff on the classic picnic dish that he and his family altered from the late great Paul Prudhomme’s recipe.

“Paul Prudhomme’s cookbook was my dad’s bible, and he cooked through the whole thing; we call him Uncle Paul now,” Skiersch says. “It has a charred scallion dressing, lots of hard-boiled egg, onion, celery and bell peppers. It’s kind of spicy, but it keeps you going back for more because it has that something that makes you want to have another bite.”

Upscale

Da Picky Vegan brings local fare to the West County Center food court

Written by JESSICA ROGEN

John Enlow has been running his food truck, CJ’s Gourmet Mobile Deli, since 2014, and customers have steadily been asking if he had vegan food items.

In response, Enlow created a vegan menu, which debuted in January. Then, West County Center reached out and asked if he’d like to do a pop-up there. He decided to take the chance to feature his vegan menu.

“Boom, it hit,” Enlow says of the pop-up’s success.

In fact, it hit so hard that the mall asked Enlow to join permanently. On Friday, he hosted the soft launch of that concept, Da Picky Vegan, with an eye to a grand opening at the beginning of May. Until then, though, the restaurant will be open in the food court during normal mall hours

and is also available for order through food delivery services.

Da Picky Vegan serves plantbased versions of burgers, salads, wings, baked fries and sweets. The food is all made in house except for the breads and sweets, which Enlow sources from local vegan bakeries Breadsmith and Royally Baked.

He says the name Da Picky Vegan is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the reputation vegans have for being picky about what they eat. But Enlow says that pickiness is a good thing.

“We’re also picky about what we put in our bodies,” he says. “[If you eat this food] you’re going to be able to be a healthier person, mentally, spiritually and emotionally because it’s not weighed down by all the processed foods that are still in most of our mainstream diets.”

But Da Picky Vegan isn’t only for vegans, Enlow says. It’s also for anyone who just wants a really flavorful meal. Though he says anything on the menu is a good choice, he points specifically to Da Picky Vegan’s black bean burger.

He created a specific spice blend for this burger, and he can top it with a variety of relishes. It’s barbecue-y and garlicky.

“They call me the king of the black bean burger,” he says with a laugh.

Enlow came up with that burger, and all the offerings, through trial and error, tapping into his long-held passion for food that he first developed while working in the film industry. A St. Louis native who had graduated from Kennard NJROTC high school, he studied film at Columbia College of the Arts and then Clark Atlanta University before making his way to LA.

But food called his name, and Enlow returned to St. Louis and

brewery. Guests can order through the Grand Spirits bar, pick up their food from the Grand Sammies counter to the right and enjoy it inside the bar area on on the front patio, which Fricker is expanding. Fricker and Skiersch plan on offering picnic baskets, including sandwiches, sides and bottles of wine, for those who’d like to enjoy their sandwiches and wine at the nearby Tower Grove Park. Those who prefer to enjoy their sandwiches without leaving the house can order through third-party delivery apps such as Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash.

Skiersch and Fricker are also happy to be adding to St. Louis’ small but growing late-night eats scene. Grand Sammies & Sides will be open Thursdays from noon until 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from noon until 12:30 a.m. and Sundays from noon until 4 p.m.

“We’re just looking at ways to make this approachable for everyone while using my background as a fine-dining chef to wrap a bow around it so it has these finishing touches,” Skiersch says. n

pursued it, opening up a brickand-mortar deli that closed and getting into corporate work with Menards and Walmart. Then last May, he resigned to go all-in on food. It’s a decision that has led him directly to this moment and to Da Picky Vegan.

“It’s exciting,” Enlow says. “For them to even say, ‘Hey, [we want you]’ basically after I did my first pop-up and we saw the numbers — we were excited, the mall was excited.”

Grand Sammies & Sides will operate separately but in conjunc-

tion with Grand Spirits, similar to a walk-up food window inside a

The meatball sandwich uses Salve’s popular beef and chicken meatballs. | MABEL SUEN

John Enlow recommends the black bean burger. | COURTESY PHOTO

Community Cornerstone

New and old collide in Speakeasy Café, which recently opened in an actual ’30s speakeasy

Written by KATIE LAWSON

The Speakeasy Café (527 Holly Hills Avenue, 314-745-0078) could be from another time. In a way, it is. Fanned palms welcome you at a front door made out of a homey honey oak. The green awning that shades outdoor bistro chairs is well complemented by stained glass windows that only let you see partially inside. Like any proper speakeasy, you can’t let outsiders see too much.

Mike De Long — the owner, builder and designer of the cafe, which opened March 11 — tried to keep as much from the building’s days as an actual speakeasy in the ’30s intact. The room that housed the liquor was converted into a small seating space hidden behind a faux wardrobe. Currently, it’s not open to the public. But the mystery remains.

De Long refurbished what could be saved from the last time the space was

[FIRST LOOK]

All the Meats

Cahokia’s Sawmill BBQ brings its hit smoked meats to Des Peres

Written by RYAN KRULL

Six years ago, Rosie Will’s family got into the barbecue game, taking over Sawmill BBQ in Cahokia, Illinois. At the time, that operation was little more than a pavilion next to a trailer which served as the kitchen.

To call its smoked meats a hit would be an understatement. The Cahokia Sawmill BBQ certainly seemed to be further proof that when it comes to barbecue, the more rustic the space, the better the fare. But now the Wills are putting that very idea to the test with their sequel, Sawmill BBQ Pub & Grill (1090 Old Des Peres Road, Des Peres; 314-394-1196), which opened in a strip mall in Des Peres on March 1.

“Over there, you walk in and are like, ‘This is a barbecue restaurant, no doubt about it,’” Will says with a laugh, referring to the Cahokia location. “So we’re starting to give it a little rustic-ness over

touched by skilled hands back in the ’30s. He traveled across the county and the country to find complementing pieces for the aesthetic.

“Let’s talk about the Green Goose Resale & Consignment and the Cool Stuff Store,” he says, laughing. “Frenchtown Records on Park Avenue. Every yard sale from Maine to San Diego that was selling stuff from Prohibition.”

The result is a cafe that is filled to the brim with the old and new. When you visit, you’ll even hear songs from the 2010s and the 2020s sung in the jazz and blues style.

The menu is locally sourced, with longtime St. Louis roaster Dubuque Cof-

fee Company supplying the beans. The coffee is good, but the cinnamon roll is show-stopping. Crunchy and crusty, almost like a croissant, with thick icing, it packs flavor into the perfect size. It’s also the most popular item at the moment.

De Long fills every inch of the space, describing his taste as “what you would call maximalist. Every inch is maximized. You will see things which are really flamboyant.”

The Prohibition era was a time in history when decadence was the norm. De Long believes this is what you should expect when visiting his baby — also worldclass service. After working in the army for 10 years, serving in South Korea and

family property and a Falstaff Beer sign hanging from the ceiling is an antique from the pre-Prohibition era. The large space also means there’s ample room for live music, which is now going down every Wednesday night, though Will says they plan to expand that aspect of the business moving into summer.

The menu at both spots consists of barbecue mainstays such as pulled pork, burgers and brisket. But the Des Peres menu expands upon what’s on offer in Cahokia and includes filet mignon, BBQ meatball penne pasta and a variety of fish entrees. The dessert section of the menu also has plenty to entice, including cinnamon sugar doughnut holes and gooey butter cake.

Iraq, he has found that civilian life can benefit from the organization of military life.

“I bring a level of constant, constant organization. The logistics are very ironclad,” he says, referencing his two other businesses, De Long Property Management and De Long Construction and Remodeling.

He originally bought the property in May of 2019 to serve as his full-time residence. His experience as a contractor specializing in late 1800s and early 1900s homes, as well as his work as a property manager, had prepared him for the big project. After learning that the space was zoned for multi-use, he considered all his travels and the lessons learned while working in the army. He realized he could use the space to be more than just his home, but also a community hub.

“I wanted to invest in a neighborhood I felt like had room for growth and potential,” he says. “[Carondelet] did not possess a coffee shop outside of Starbucks. There was one, but that closed down during COVID, and I freaked out because that was my breakfast.”

Without his meatloaf sandwich breakfast, he knew he had to do something to fill the void that was left in his stomach and neighborhood.

here [in Des Peres].” She points to an array of hand saws on one of the restaurant’s walls, arranged in a windmill design by her brother, as an example of the aesthetic they’re aiming for.

Will says that the Des Peres location is perfect for her family, as they are native St. Louisans, and her parents live just 10 minutes away in Sunset Hills. At the new Sawmill, those parents, Steve and Vicki, run the show along with Rosie and Rosie’s three siblings.

Inside, the Des Peres Sawmill does have a classic barbecue-joint vibe that feels authentic. The bar’s back mirror and liquor shelf are from a former Lemp

For anyone dropping by for the first time, Will recommends the brisket or the ribs as an introduction to Sawmill’s fare. When she gave us this advice, we’d already ordered the pulled pork and Pig Daddy sandwiches, and neither disappointed. The meats between the buttery buns were smoked to perfection. Make sure to ask for the full menagerie of sauces on the side so that each bite of whatever you order can be different than the last.

An experienced bartender, Will is excited that the new location offers a full bar menu, which will no doubt have more than a few patrons hanging out in the space late into the evening.

“We’re getting into the exciting stuff,” she says.

De Long hopes the Speakeasy Café will bring something to a part of the city that is often forgotten. Carondelet is primarily residential and lacks the amount of businesses and nightlife seen in most downtown and other south city neighborhoods.

Jokingly, and even a little lovingly, De Long calls Carondelet “the bastard stepchild of south St. Louis.” But he wants to change that. Hopefully, Speakeasy Café will be the start of that change.

“I want to bring a constant, a cornerstone,” De Long says. “I built it for the neighborhood. It was important for me to have those types of pieces — like a corner-store candy shop — which was mindful of a [specific] niche. I want to create something which is generational. I want kids to come by when they’re older and be like, ‘I used to get a muffin at the Speakeasy.’ This is a bridge for people to connect.” n

The Speakeasy Café is located at the site of a ’30s-era speakeasy. | KATIE LAWSON

The Pig Daddy sandwich did not disappoint. | RYAN KRULL

Mike De Long owns the cafe. | COURTESY PHOTO

Robust’s California Raisins #2 Is a Cerebral High

The popular strain has no drowsy drop and could be an excellent all-day smoke

Written by GRAHAM TOKER

Iwas trying to take the pulse of the recreational market and see what the people of Missouri were enjoying. Through social media posts and Reddit, a name that kept coming up was Robust Cannabis. The company’s website boasts a bountiful collection of cultivars with blue-chip genetic pedigree such as Archive Seed Bank, Compound Genetics and Seed Junky Genetics. I had seen California Raisins discussed as a great strain, so I made sure that was on the review shortlist.

It took several attempts at online orders to find a dispensary with the California Raisins, so I took my talents up to St. Ann to Heya Wellness. In addition to being a dispensary, Heya also has a grow operation in the back of the facility.

Tucked away in a sleepy strip mall by a Big Lots and within sight of St. Ann City Hall and Police Department, Heya brings the sheer unexpectedness and eclectic mix of a college-town bar. From past experiences, I know the staff is always energetic, and there’s a wide cross-section of folks coming in.

As you approach the front doors, you may question if it’s even open. There’s quite a dark tint over the front doors and windows. But then you see someone leaving with a shit-eating grin and a smelling of “the loud,” and you

know it’s open.

Overall, the space has really filled out since my last visit during the medical-marijuana-only era, which had a leaner customer flow. The lobby has a full view of the showroom floor, which was bustling with curious customers while three registers rang folks out as quickly as possible. I stopped staring at the showroom and got up to the door to present my IDs. As I stepped back to wait, multiple customers showed up at once. The large lobby absorbed the influx as I was called to the dance floor to get some flower.

At the register, I mentioned grabbing Robust’s California Raisins #2, as well as CMO. The budtender mistook a bag of CMO for GMO (I totally would have, too.) before confirming that it was indeed the C as in Charlie-MO for Mr. Toker.

The budtender also mentioned having the California Raisins on an after-work purchase list, an endorsement that assured me I’d made the right choice. The red mylar bags of Robust have a clear bottom, and the budtender showcased the nuggets of weed that I was about to take home.

“You got some nice looking buds in here,” the budtender men-

tioned as we got googly eyes looking at the flower.

Although I presented my medical marijuana card at the front when I checked in, and at the register when I made my purchase, I was rung out as a recreational customer, and I incurred an additional 6 percent tax. My total for the two eighths was $86.92.

I began with the CMO, which is a cross of Royal Cherry Kush and GMO MAC. This batch had 26.48 percent total cannabinoids and 3.71 percent total terpenes. The buds are a deep hunter green with a sharp, gassy nose.

I broke down a medium and smaller nug from the bag in my grinder for a joint. As I inhaled, the initial high barged in on the cerebral side before snaking down to the body. As the high continued, I moved from the couch to the floor to hang out with my dog before calling it a night. This wasn’t a heavy-handed indica high, since it wasn’t aggressively trying to make me sleep. But don’t be fooled, it’ll put you down, too. I noticed the body high settling in my upper chest and quads during another session of the CMO. It made the walk I was on a little more difficult as I neared the end,

but I couldn’t let the weed win.

The other purchase, California Raisins #2, is the second phenotype of California Raisins that Robust offers. The genetics feature Cookies’ Biscotti crossed with Compound Genetics’ Grape Gasoline. Also containing a high terpene percentage at 3.48 percent, the 35.35 percent total cannabinoids rating is definitely one of the more eye-popping numbers you’ll see at a dispensary.

The bag was full of equally sized, medium nuggets. While CMO had diesel and earthy pine terpene notes, California Raisins #2 was earthy with some of that barnyard funk. It has some gas on the nose, but that got buried behind the musk.

The green color was pale in comparison to the CMO, but that was also due to the trichrome coverage and orange hairs baked in. When I broke it up to roll a joint, there was more of a rubber tire note too, which carried over on the smoke. This would be a good fit for someone who likes GMO. Calling California Raisins #2 an uplifting smoke might be a misnomer, but it didn’t have as heavy of a drowsy effect as the CMO.

California Raisins #2 is a strain that despite the high-test numbers would be an all-day smoke for a seasoned pro and would be great to have in the head-stash rotation. There was a clearer head high in comparison to CMO, with similar body effect and no drowsy drop. Gamers, creatives and outdoor enthusiasts take note and give it a whirl. Thanks Internet, you were looking out for me.

People claim to love California Raisins online, but is it any good? | GRAHAM TOKER

I noticed the body high settling in my upper chest and quads. It made the walk I was on a little more difficult as I neared the end, but I couldn’t let the weed win.

An Amazing Hunt

Amaze Cannabis is after the perfect strain of weed

Written by ROSALIND EARLY

Missouri’s marijuana market is on track to generate $1 billion in sales this year, making the state one of the top 10 cannabis markets in the U.S. just two months after recreational marijuana sales began. While this could be attributable to the fact that Missourians are a bunch of potheads, it’s also worth noting that Missouri has some damn good cultivators.

Standouts include Amaze Cannabis, which offers award-winning flower and rosin products. The man behind strains such as Florida Purple or Magic City Kush is Roger Henrichs, the director of cultivation and breeding at Amaze, based in Moberly, Missouri.

Henrich’s interest in breeding different marijuana phenotypes has led to one of the company’s most popular products yet, the Hunt Box. In the box, folks get four eighths of weed. All of the eighths

have been bred from the same two parent strains, but the results for each of the new phenotypes are wildly different.

(Phenotype means the physical expression of a plant’s genetics, which are heavily influenced by the environment it grew in.)

“My motivation for breeding strains comes from an obsession with unlocking and exploring as much of the amazing cannabis plant as possible,” Henrichs says. “Breeding can lead to some re-

ally cool expressions and selections that didn’t necessarily exist before, or make current strains more suitable.”

The company is currently on its third Hunt box, which will drop on 4/20. In order to get one, you have to sign up for Amaze Cannabis’ email list. Once an email announces a Hunt Box can be ordered, don’t hesitate. The last Hunt Box sold out in 12 minutes because only 100 are available with each release. After the box is sold out, the strains are sold a la

carte as available.

Customers in St. Louis can pick up a Hunt Box at Root 66 and Bloom Medicinals dispensaries. The name Hunt Box derives from Henrichs’ desire to hunt for the perfect strain.

“Creating strains is a very long process but pretty simple,” Henrichs explains. “Creating great strains is a lot harder, which is where setting standards very high and being extremely scrutinous is important.” Henrichs is already scrutinous himself, but he takes into account customer feedback as well. Each Hunt Box jar has a QR code that customers can scan to leave a review of each eighth.

“The inspiration for Hunt Box came from the desire to involve patients and customers in the selection of strains to be grown on a commercial level,” Henrichs explains. “After participating in the High Times Cannabis Cup of 2020 in Illinois, I saw how helpful ‘judging kits’ were in truly picking people’s favorite products. Putting the choice into people’s hands makes a lot of sense and people really enjoy being part of the process.”

After the 4/20 Hunt Box, there will be four more this year. Whether the product will continue after that is still up in the air. But Henrichs thinks the program so far has been a success.

“Teaming up with patients and customers is a lot of fun since we’re working together toward the same goal,” Henrichs says. n

The Hunt Box from Amaze Cannabis. | AMAZE CANNABIS

Cannabis Calling

Denise Winfield-Hollins and chef Snoop Hollins cater cannabisinfused meals with their company

Rooted Buds

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC

Three years ago, Denise Winfield-Hollins and Snoop Hollins were at a turning point. It was the start of the pandemic. Hollins had lost her job as a food and beverage specialist at the Missouri Athletic Club. Winfield-Hollins spent her time at a human resources job dreaming of doing something more creative.

The couple started asking themselves some hard-hitting questions. What should they invest their time and energy into? What were the things they loved?

The latter question was easy to answer.

“We both really love cannabis,” Winfield-Hollins says.

Like, really love cannabis. So much so, they tried to get married on 4/20, but had to settle on a date a few days later, as the courthouse was closed. They have each been cannabis cultivators and patients for years. It only made sense that they should start a cannabis business together.

Now their hospitality brand, Rooted Buds, is in its third year. And the Hollinses have found their calling.

Together, they provide a service to their clients that they’ve long searched for themselves but never found: a catered cannabis experience that considers individual clients’ needs — whether that’s treating specific health ailments or managing correct dosage. It’s a “plants before pills” approach, Winfield-Hollins says.

Rooted Buds will cook cannabisinfused meals in clients’ homes if asked to do so. They’ll also cater events, with plain or cannabisinfused fare.

Though Winfield-Hollins is an occasional cook, Hollins is the culinary force behind Rooted Buds. She grew up watching her grandfather at his former restaurant, Richard’s Ribs, in Kirkwood. The experience inspired her to study baking and hospitality management at Johnson and Wales culinary school. Her career started in hotels and fast food restaurants but has evolved in the 17 years since with front- and back-of-house gigs.

Winfield-Hollins handles the business side of things while Hollins cooks. Though they frequently refer to Rooted Buds as a hospitality brand, when they speak of their work, the couple sound more like physicians than entrepreneurs. Clients are patients; cannabis is medicine.

Ultimately, they just want to help people find the same relief they have, Hollins explains.

“Some of our clients have cancer, and being able to experience cannabis in the way that we provide is very helpful for them,” Hollins says. “It also helps break

down this stigma that cannabis is negative or just for stoners, that the point of [eating infused foods] is to get super stoned. That’s not really the case.”

While Hollins and Winfield-Hollins will laugh and call themselves “stoners,” they’re far from the stereotype. Both have consumed cannabis for several years, not necessarily in the hopes of achieving mind-altering highs but to relieve pain.

For several years, doctors prescribed Winfield-Hollins medication that never alleviated her migraines. Then she found cannabis. The migraines she once had for days at a time retreated to only short seasonal occurrences. Hollins also lives with chronic pain. Years playing sports and standing in restaurants have plagued her feet.

“When I’m working in the kitchen all day, [cannabis] helps me get through that pain,” she says.

As medical cannabis patients, the Hollinses noticed a lack of options as they searched for ways to consume cannabis other than through smoking or eating sugary edibles such as gummies or brownies.

While Rooted Buds has options for those with a sweet tooth (take their deconstructed apple pie a la mode, for example, infused with 10 mg of THC), Hollins whips up several savory meals that cater more to those with dietary restrictions, such as diabetes. Most Rooted Buds meals can be altered for any dietary restriction, according to Hollins, from gluten-free to vegan.

When Hollins talks about her food, she sounds like a connoisseur. She matches the terpenes of

each strain to complement the flavors in each meal.

Some crowd favorites include Rooted Buds’ birria tacos and sweet and spicy sauce — which, “outside of a bowl of cereal,” Winfield-Hollins says, “We put on everything.”

“We are providing something to people that tastes good and makes them feel good,” Winfield-Hollins says.

The Hollinses hope to eventually expand Rooted Buds to its own brick-and-mortar location. Right now, most of Rooted Buds’ operations are run through the couple’s Ferguson event space, Eighteen North. They also host supper clubs at Cola Private Lounge.

But they need money and a license — things that are hard to come by for up-and-coming cannabis entrepreneurs in Missouri. And as Black, queer women, they’re aware of the high tower of adversity they’d have to surmount.

Still, they’re optimistic.

“The odds are stacked against us, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Winfield-Hollins says. “You just got to be able to dream and keep working and stay true to who you are. As long as we do that, and as long as we’re providing quality products and services and providing medication to people, everything will work out for us.”

Rooted Buds will host High Priority Self-Care Luncheon on May 7 for an afternoon of women, weed and wine. Anna Ortiz-Aragon, a self-described sound healer from Align with Anna, will talk self-care and host a sound healing session. Attendees will receive lunch, wine, a pre-roll and photo booth access. More info on Rooted Buds’ Facebook page. n

Rooted Buds can infuse any dish and accommodate dietary issues. | COURTESY ROOTED BUDS

Snoop Hollins and Denise Winfield-Hollins. | MONICA OBRADOVIC

St. Louis Celebrates 4/20

Hightail it to these events, all dedicated to celebrating weed

Written by RFT STAFF

Ever since High Times detailed the hijinks of five students at San Rafael High School in California who decided to meet at 4:20 p.m. to go find an abandoned cannabis crop, (which was never found), 420 has been code for smoking weed. Hence the holiday 4/20. This year, St. Louis has a lot to celebrate with adult use being legal. Here are some options for where to celebrate the plant of many names.

Voodoo 420 at Broadway Oyster Bar

736 South Broadway, broadwayoysterbar.com

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Players will be offering those dank vibes at Broadway Oyster Bar. The music starts at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, April 19. Tickets are $14 at the door.

Green Light District: A Cannabis Crawl

Cherokee Street, bit.ly/43Jjka3

This event will take place from Thursday, April 20, to Saturday, April 22, along Cherokee Street and feature live music, dance classes, paint classes, drag shows, product demos and more. Tickets to the crawl are $10 for a three-day pass with the option to add classes and other events a la carte. You can also splurge on the $75 ticket and get an event T-shirt and access to a comedy show, a drag show, one dance class and one yoga class.

Double Feature at Arkadin Cinema and Bar

5228 Gravois Avenue, arkadincinema.com

Arkadin has rolled together the perfect double feature to celebrate 4/20. At 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 20, is a screening of the infamously hilarious (or hilariously infamous) Reefer Madness. It will pair nicely with Dave Chappelle’s 1998 classic Half Baked, which is playing at 9 p.m. Snacks and beverages will be on offer, as well as 4/20-themed giveaways.

High on the Hill at Pop’s Blue Moon

5249 Pattison Avenue, popsbluemoon.com

Head over to Pop’s Blue Moon on April 20 and get High on the Hill. The event will feature music from headliners tristaño and LuSid. Enjoy infused delicacies from Yonder Eats and pancake art from the Joy of Pancakes. The party goes from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.

420 Sesh at Graffiti Loft

1802 South Ninth Street, graffitiloft. com

The Graffiti Loft will be hosting 420 Sesh starting at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 20. The event will include prizes, a smokeoff, nug-smashing and a dab-off. Free.

A Proper 4/20 at Steve’s Hot Dogs 3145 South Grand Boulevard, steveshotdogsstl.com

Proper Cannabis dispensary chain and Steve’s Hot Dogs will host an all-day, cannabis-themed celebration full of infused munchies and cocktails on Thursday, April 20. Among the day’s specials is the Proper Dog, a smoked, all-beef dog topped with tater tots, pretzel bites, cheese curds, French fries, cheese sauce, ranch, jalapeños and Funyuns.

Munchies & Mimosa at Spa Qsthetics

7174 Manchester Road, bit.ly/407tRsc

If you’re bad and bougie, you may want to check out Munchies & Mimosa on Thursday, April 20. The event includes a cannabis sativa foot bath, a sound bowl healing session, a mimosa bar and munchies. Tickets are $85, and the event starts at 2 p.m.

Meet and Greet with G Herbo at Viola STL

3420 Iowa Avenue, bit.ly/3KDVow1

Viola STL, one of St. Louis’ newest dispensaries, is hosting a pre-show VIP Meet and Greet at its Cherokee Street dispensary with G Herbo. You may know G Herbo as the rapper who helped popularize drill with his 2012 classic “Kill Shit” with Lil Bibby, or you may know him as the famous ex-boyfriend of Instagram

influencer Ari Fletcher. The meet and greet costs $135 and starts at 3 p.m. You must be 21 or older to attend.

4/20 Is Always on Friday at Up-Down STL

405 North Euclid Avenue, updownarcadebar.com/st-louis

Obviously, 4/20 is not always on Friday, since this year it’s on a Thursday. But you won’t know the difference at Up-Down, which is starting its Friday specials a day early for the holiday. Plus, the first 100 people will get 20 free tokens for the arcade games and it will offer $2 pizza slices from 8 to 10 p.m.

420 Fire Up at Cloudzz Hookah & Bistro

2737 Cherokee Street

If you’re on Cherokee Street for the Green Light District Cannabis Crawl then check out Cloudzz Hookah Bar & Bistro for food, extracts and canna gifts. Tickets are $4.20 in advance, $10 at the door and $25 for a plate, drink and canna gift. The event starts at 4:20 p.m. on Thursday, April 20.

Munchie Menu at Hi-Pointe Drive-In Multiple locations, hipointedrivein.com

This 4/20, satisfy those munchie cravings at area Hi-Pointe Drive-Ins. They’ll have marijuana-leaf-shaped t-ravs, bacon cheeseburger egg rolls, and a cookies and cream flavored shake topped with Koko Nuggz weed-shaped chocolates.

420 Celebration with the Schwag at Ballpark Village

601 Clark Avenue, stlballparkvillage.com

Head over to the Together Credit Union Plaza in Ballpark Village to catch live music from the Schwag, a local Grateful Dead tribute band, on Thursday, April 20. The free event starts at 6 p.m. and will include vendors and an afterparty featuring reggae DJs.

420 Round Up at Tap House Pub and Patio

9015 Veterans Memorial Parkway, O’Fallon

On Friday, April 21, head to Tap House Pub and Patio for a belated 4/20 celebration that will include a giveaway, a comedy show and infused goodies. The event starts at 7 p.m. and costs $20 at the door.

Sesh & Glow Yoga Rave at Elevate STL 3206 South Grand Boulevard, 2nd Floor, elevatestlouis.com

Head over to the cannabis-friendly exercise studio Elevate for the glow yoga rave, where participants will use body paint to create a “neon dream” yoga class, all done under black light. The event starts at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21, with a pre-class social and time to apply your paint. The yoga glow rave starts at 9 p.m., and afterwards participants can enjoy vegan munchies and Wynk seltzer.

Loop 420 Fest

Delmar Loop, University City, universitycityloop.com/420fest

On Saturday, April 22 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. the Loop will celebrate weed with 420 Fest, which will include live music as well as tie-dying and glass-blowing demonstrations. One thing it won’t include: weed. Consumption at the event is prohibited. n

The RFT’s Daniel Hill wants you to know that he hates these types of events with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns and thinks weed culture should be criminalized. We are presenting this information against his will. | BRADEN MCMAKIN

CULTURE 45

[SNEAK PEEK]

A Gem for the Theater Scene

Greenfinch Theater & Dive’s promise as a venue begins to emerge in advance of a fall grand opening

Written by THOMAS CRONE

As potential buyers began to seriously investigate the potential of reopening the south city landmark The Way Out Club, options were considered from across the curatorial spectrum. Would someone buy the space and the holdings in total, reopening the place as a turnkey? Or would an ownership group want to completely flip the space while moving toward a completely new model for the building, sitting in what’s now a steadily improving corner of Fox Park? Perhaps a melding of the two, with the old name but with a new concept inside of it? So many ways to spend tens of thousands of dollars!

Greenfinch Theater & Dive (2525 South Jefferson Avenue, greenfinchstl. com) may have taken the best possible approach, turning the classic, tworoomed space into something completely reimagined.

That said, new owners Colin Healy, Bradley Rohlf and Alex Naeger plan to honor the old concept in ways both great and small. Posters from shows at the Way Out will be hung, the back bar remains and the club’s spirit, Healy says, will be given an implicit nod as “the legacy part is our offer of cheap drinks and good shows. Different? Absolutely it is; it’s not the same place.”

Rohlf adds that “even with some of the structural pieces taken down,” the vibe of the former occupant will shine through. Still, he says, “We bought this building, really, for what it was as a building and then the fact that it was a beloved institution is a perk on top of that. We want to carry out that legacy in our own image.”

That image has already just begun to emerge publicly, as one of their own performances, Peter and the Starcatcher, has played the room, well in advance of what is hoped to be a full, October grand opening. In fact, even as construction takes place in both rooms and as the liquor license winds its way through the Excise Commission’s arcane process,

the shows will go on. Already, Rohlf and Healy have been contacted by local theater groups about putting on shows in the current, roughed-in space. That want and need confirms their pre-purchase impressions.

As the RFT’s Jaime Lees wrote back in January, “Their goal is to make the performance area a rentable, affordable space for unhoused theater companies in town. Healy says he’s been blessed with having his own company, Fly North Theatricals, taken under the wing of the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, and he’s eager to pay it forward.”

The pair, while giving a tour to some friends and collaborators as well as the RFT , point out some of the major and minor changes that’ll greet visitors to the Greenfinch. While the barroom is undergoing some major rehab, with the club’s eye-catching, super-long bar cut in size a bit, the performance space is the one that’ll really open eyes. The Way Out Club’s stage will be taken out, as will the load-bearing center poles. With sightlines improved and the weight born above, a lighting truss can be hung. Already, the performance side’s basement has been given a “wow”-worthy once-over, with dressing rooms and a subterranean orchestra pit now in place.

From the theatrical perspective, theysay the latter addition is just one way that they’ll create the black box theater, building their ideal performance home from the basement on up.

Rohlf says that “the orchestra pit will be an isolated room with better sound control. The actors won’t be fighting for space with the band. We want other theater creators with big, ambitious ideas to be here.” Rohlf says that “down the road

we do want it to be a nicely spec’d out place. We anticipate it being a gem for all the small theatrical performance groups and a really social place.”

To that end, the Greenfinch Dive will be in operation seven days a week, serving as the theater’s lobby, as well as a place to simply unwind with unpretentious drink options.

Rohlf says that Greenfinch won’t have the Way Out’s booking policy, but that the combination of musical theater, burlesque, stand-up comedy, circus arts and indie productions of all sorts will sub in nicely for the rock & roll tradition of the Way Out.

“The best-kept secret in town is the vast amount of small theater happening in St. Louis,” he says. “It’s been said that we have more theater per capita than any other city in America.”

To which Healy adds that “St. Louis has an awesome theater scene, and this will be a place to interface with that. If you came here to have a good drink and see a good show, that will not change for you when we reopen.” n

Greenfinch Theater & Dive is projecting a full open in October 2023, though shows will occur there prior to fall. Progress can be tracked at the club’s Instagram page, greenfinchstl.

Construction is underway at the Greenfinch Theater & Dive, and the trademark bar has been refurbished. | JESSICA ROGEN

Bradley Rohlf is one third of the trio that is renovating Greenfinch. | JESSICA ROGEN

MUSIC

Bluegrass’ Bastard Children Find Their Way

Recording the bluegrass version of The Who’s Tommy threw the HillBenders into a rock-inflected future

Written by STEVE LEFTRIDGE

For a long time, the HillBenders was a band in search of an identity. A bluegrass act hailing from Springfield, Missouri, the group wanted to break out of the traditional bluegrass box.

“We were sort of the bastard stepchildren of bluegrass, finding our path,” says Jimmy Rea, the band’s guitarist and affable spokesman.

Then came a fortuitous meeting that threw the HillBenders firmly outside of those trad-minded roots. In 2015, South by Southwest co-founder Lewis Meyers approached the HillBenders with an unusual challenge: covering the Who’s classic rock opera Tommy — the entire double album — rearranged for bluegrass instruments.

The Benders bit, and the concept paid off in more ways than one. The band recorded Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry and made several trips around the country playing the album in full. It also showed the group toward a rock-inflected bluegrass path that draws wide music influences and has won hearts in unexpected places.

“We sort of struggled to get the foothold we wanted in the industry because we were always pushing the boundaries of the music in

ways that not everybody understood or was ready for,” banjoist Mark Cassidy says.

That path is steeped in the Ozarks, and Rea has a vast knowledge of the area’s musical heritage. “You can go back to the old Ozark Jubilee with Red Foley and Speedy West,” he says, referring to a 1950sera country-music TV program out of Springfield, Missouri.

Hippie ’70s-country-rock hitmakers the Ozark Mountain Daredevils and, later, eclectic grassicana outfit Big Smith and indie-roots renegades Ha Ha Tonka have kept Springfield on the twang-lovers’ map for decades, a lineage that Rea sees the HillBenders as a part of. “We are trying to keep the tradition going,” he says.

To that end, Rea and his cousin, bassist Gary Rea, and dobroist Chad “Gravy Boat” Graves had formed the Arkamo Rangers, named after their hometown’s proximity to the Missouri/Arkansas border. “I was a jam band and classic rock kid, following Phish around,” Rea says. “Gary was a total Deadhead, so the Arkamo Rangers were basically rock guys playing bluegrass instruments.”

Then Rea met Cassidy and mandolinist Nolan Lawrence in 2006 at the seminal Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. A few

jam sessions later, Lawrence and Cassidy agreed to relocate to the Ozarks to pursue a full-time career with the newly formed band, renamed the HillBenders, and try to carve out a place within the bluegrass community.

“At first, we skewed pretty close to traditional bluegrass norms, trying to stay within the box of bluegrass, while still trying to make something that was new and unique and to bring in other influences,” Lawrence says.

So committed were the young pickers to classic bluegrass traditions that they started off gathering around a single microphone like Ryman-era groups, moving in and out of the circle for vocals and solos. “Eventually we all plugged in individually and got our own microphones,” Cassidy says. “It’s hard to play clubs with just one microphone, and it freaks a lot of sound guys out.”

After a couple of years of hard gigging, the HillBenders hit the bluegrass jackpot in 2009 when they won the illustrious Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Contest, joining the ranks of past winners such as the Dixie Chicks and Greensky Bluegrass.

“That was transformative for us,” Lawrence says. “It was a huge feather in our cap that got us a lot

of festivals.”

The HillBenders were invited back the following year for a full mainstage set at Telluride Bluegrass, the annual top-of-themountain mecca for the world’s greatest bluegrass artists. Soon after, the band picked up more contest wins and landed spots at other top fests.

Then came the idea for Tommy, a notion that tapped into the HillBenders’ classic-rock-loving past and the group’s wide-ranging versatility. After all, each of the HillBenders had been turned on to the Who’s music by their parents.

“My mom took me to see Tommy, the musical, at a theater when I was 13 years old,” remembers Rea, who went to work on arranging the rock opera’s 23 shapeshifting compositions for mandolins, banjos and dobros. “It was a pain in the ass!” he says with a laugh.

Even trickier was recording the album. The band met at the famed Lou Whitney Studio in Springfield with local legend and Morells bassist Lou Whitney, who died shortly before recording started.

Meyers came on board to produce the album, insisting on recording it front to back using analog tape with no digital tools, a first for the HillBenders. But Mey-

The Hillbenders will play the Wildey Theatre on Friday, April 21. | COURTESY PHOTO

ers wasn’t going to allow the boys to let him down.

“We only had three days to get it all done,” Rea says. “Halfway through the first day after we messed up a couple of times, Lewis was like, ‘You guys need to get your fucking shit together right fucking now.’ We all stiffened up pretty quick.”

They eventually nailed the takes, but just eight months after finishing the album, Lewis tragically passed away from a heart attack.

Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry became the band’s third album, and a subsequent tour eventually caught the attention of Pete Townshend himself. “Lewis got a copy to Pete, who loved it,” Lawrence says.

Eventually, the HillBenders and the Who met backstage at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, which led to a cancer benefit with Roger Daltrey in 2017 and opening for the Who in St. Louis.

At that St. Louis concert, Townshend took time between songs to gush about the HillBenders.

“You gotta check them out!” Townshend urged, calling the band “astounding” and declaring, “They should win a Grammy! It’s that good!”

About to step out for a beer, Rea almost missed Townshend’s speech. “I heard him say our name,” he says. “So I stopped, and he gave that spiel, and I was like, ‘Wow, man, this is incredible.’” Rea adds that Townshend keeps in touch, hoping to work together on a future project. “We are waiting for the stars to align.”

After the Tommy project, the HillBenders found themselves morphing into sought-after tribute specialists. Multi-instrumentalist and jam ambassador Keller Williams caught Tommy at DelFest in Maryland and was taken by the alacrity and attitude with which the Benders handled the Who material. When Tom Petty died in 2017, Williams and the HillBenders joined forces to form PettyGrass, a bluegrass tribute to Petty that crisscrossed the country on a 60-show run.

So after conquering the Who and Tom Petty, why not the Grateful Dead? Williams needed a band for that, too: KellerGrass, an endeavor that brought things full circle to the Rea cousins, who are lifelong

Deadheads. (KellerGrass will play St. Claire’s Pickin’ on Picknic Festival in July.) The Who, Petty and Dead shows made the HillBenders regulars of the performing arts center circuit, though the band admits to worrying about being pigeonholed as exclusively a tribute act.

“The next thing you know, that’s your schtick,” Rea says. “It’s marketable. But the good thing is, we always ended the shows with 20 to 45 minutes of our own stuff. People would come up to us afterward and tell us that they loved our original material, and they wouldn’t have been there if not for the tribute show.”

While the HillBenders have more tribute nights planned, the band is also eager to build on its 2018 selftitled album — its fourth overall, which contains its most expansive set of originals to date — and have turned to the rock-oriented direction of the new singles.

“Every Time I Go Away,” a buoyant number with its central dobro/ mando hook and Cassidy’s cozy lead vocals, is the first HillBenders track to feature a full drum kit, a sound the band loved so much that it added a sixth full-time member, drummer John Anderson.

“Drums have really opened our sound way up,” Lawrence says. “It allows Jimmy to play electric guitar, and it’s been really cool to explore where we’re going to be able to take it. It brings a fullness and rich depth to the music, it gets people dancing, and we are able to cut loose in ways we haven’t before.” Similarly, drum-abetted singles “Nothing But a Banjo On” and “Try Again” landed last year.

The band is back on the road in 2023, showing off the HillBenders’ new direction — but ready to hit all the fan favorites.

“We are really excited about our new stuff, and we think audiences are going to have a great time with it,” he says, adding with a smile, “but the Who show is always for sale, if anybody wants it.” n

The Hillbenders Present WhoGrass!, which covers Tommy but also digs into other parts of the Who songbook, hits the Wildey Theatre (252 North Main Street, Edwardsville, Illinois; 618-3071750) at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 21. Tickets are $25.

The Vampire’s Aide de Camp

Renfield lets us into the mind of Dracula’s conflicted manservant — and hilarity ensues

Written by JESSICA ROGEN

Renfield

Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) bursts into his neighbor’s unit, grabs an ant farm from a young boy and tips the contents — ants and sand alike — into his open mouth. As Dracula’s longtime familiar, Renfield derives power from eating insects, rather than human blood. “You’re not a good man,” the boy’s mother yells at him, disgust in her voice despite the comedy of the moment. The declaration calls back to an earlier scene, when Renfield moved into the ramshackle apartment complex and contributed an ant to the boy’s terrarium. Then the mother praised him as a good man.

That question of whether the eponymous character is good or not is at the center of Renfield , the new 93-minute comedy by Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War, The Lego Movie ). It preoccupies Renfield himself and also concerns his romantic interest and co-lead Rebecca — the tough-as-nails beat cop played by Awkwafina, who is frustrated by her low-level responsibility and carries a chip on her shoulder since her cop father’s untimely death.

But goodness or lack of it doesn’t worry the audience, or

even the support group that provides the film’s framing. Rather, we just want to know: Is Renfield going to break free of Dracula?

As played by Hoult, our hero/ antihero is Robert Montague Renfield, an English lawyer circa 1900 who was persuaded by Dracula (Nicolas Cage) to leave his wife and child in favor of a life he only dreamed of, but who ends up being the vampire’s Uber Eats-like corpse delivery guy. After some time, Renfield sours on the job (which makes sense because he doesn’t get much from it, aside from the ability to eat bugs and go nuclear) and, frankly, begins to feel like he might not be a good person.

The film begins with Renfield attending a support group for codependent people. He’s seeking to find its members’ abusers to feed to his master — but Dracula demands innocent victims instead. Cowed, Renfield heads to

a restaurant where he stumbles upon Rebecca confronting a hit squad. Impressed with her refusal to be afraid in the face of death, he intercedes on her behalf.

The moment leads to the first of the wildly campy fight scenes that are the best part of Renfield Any fight scene in any movie is obviously staged, but directors can choose to hide the strings. McKay takes the opposite tack with fights that are hilariously choreographed so that all the moving parts are visible, and you can tell that’s the point.

For example, in that first fight, at almost every other moment Renfield and Rebecca are slamming a fist or boot into a bad guy just in time to spin around and save the other with the follow-through energy of their motions. Or in the post-ant-consumption fight, Renfield separates a bad guy’s arms from his body and then throws the limbs across the apartment

complex’s courtyard to take out two of Rebecca’s adversaries. If the activity had paused and the camera panned over the fighters frozen midair, Matrix-style, no one would have been surprised. But despite the powerful hits that explode body parts and enough gushing blood to make Tarantino shed a happy tear, the scenes are comedic rather than intense.

Dracula doesn’t make much of an appearance in such moments until the end of the film, which highlights something about Renfield that certain viewers will be unhappy about: This is not a Dracula movie, and this is not a Nic Cage movie. Though he is fun as Dracula, rolling his eyes and twitching his face in that overly dramatic Nic Cage way, he’s definitely a secondary character without all that much screen time. He’s good enough — and even delightful in moments where he capers and cackles and brings his psychic energy against Renfield. But he doesn’t steal the show. Some of the lesser characters, like Brandon Scott Jones as the support group leader and Ben Schwartz as the feeble criminal Redward Lobo, do as much with limited screen time and plenty of gags.

Awkwafina is convincing as Rebecca and seems to fully inhabit the character, only letting her trademark scratchy tirades sneak out occasionally, like when Rebecca shouts down her entire precinct and accuses them of being in the pocket of a gang. She’s a decent match with Hoult, who positively radiates frantic “who me, innocent me?” energy throughout the film, even as the body counts climb. Their chemistry is a bit off, but it’s good enough to keep watching.

The slight mismatch typifies Renfield . It’s a comedy, clearly. But it’s also a meet cute, a gang movie, a coming-of-age tale, a redemption story and a vampire flick. It satirizes the self-help language of support groups to questionable effect. It’s a lot for one movie, and it is a bit of a mess. By the end of the film, it’s surely clear to everyone that Renfield isn’t exactly good, but no one cares. The same can be said of Renfield — it’s not exactly a good film, but that doesn’t matter: It’s good enough for a few laughs. n

Written by Ryan Ridley after a story by Robert Kirkman. Directed by Chris McKay. Starring Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, Adrian Martinez, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Nicolas Cage. Presented by Universal Pictures. Playing widely at area theaters.

Renfield is tired of being Dracula’s servant in Renfield. | UNIVERSAL PICTURES

OUT EVERY NIGHT

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 20

DIRT MONKEY: w/ Jantsen 7 p.m., $20-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-

0505.

ERIC SLAUGHTER: 7:30 p.m., $17. Jazz St. Louis, 3536 Washington Ave, St. Louis, (314) 571-6000.

FUNKY BUTT BRASS BAND: 9 p.m., $14. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-6218811.

MICHAL MENERT: 7 p.m., $15. Club Riveria, 3524 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 314-531-8663.

MORGAN JAMES: 7:30 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

MR. CLIT AND THE PINK CIGARETTES: w/ Horse

Magik, Buck Fever 9 p.m., free. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

NEAL FRANCIS: w/ Carlile 8 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PAUL BONN AND THE BLUESMEN: 7 p.m., free.

Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314773-5565.

PAUL NEIHAUS: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028

S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

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

FRIDAY 21

120 MINUTES: 7 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061.

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

CHEER-ACCIDENT: w/ Zantigo, Astral Moth, Key Grip 7 p.m., $10. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-359-2293.

CHERI EVANS: 7 p.m., $25. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

GENE JACKSON’S POWER PLAY BAND: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314773-5565.

HANS PREDATOR: w/ Pet Mosquito, Bedspin, Topomaka 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

JAKE’S LEG: 9:30 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JOHN MELLENCAMP: 8 p.m.; April 22, 8 p.m., $46.50-$136.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

KATT WILLIAMS: 8 p.m., $64-$255. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

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

MOLCHAT DOMA: 8 p.m., $29.50-$64.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314423-8500.

OBVIOUSLY OFFBEAT RECORD RELEASE SHOW: w/ Banks and Cathedrals, Crystal Lady 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

RED BARAAT: 8 p.m., $35-$45. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

THE ROAD TO POINTFEST 2023: SESSION 5: 7 p.m., $8. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SICKICK: 10 p.m., $25-$600. RYSE Nightclub, One Ameristar Blvd, St. Charles.

THE SOUTH SIDE BLOOZY BOYS: 5 p.m., $10. The

Lizzo w/ Latto

8 p.m. Tuesday, April 25. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Avenue. $96.50 to $126.50. 314-241-1888.

Everyone’s favorite classically trained flautist is headed back to St. Louis. That’s right, Lizzo is coming to town, and she’s bringing her jubilant stage show with her. The celebrated rapper, singer and actress last came through for a pre-pandemic event at the Pageant in October of 2019 (about 400 years or so ago) that was a sold-out, sweaty good time. Lizzo’s shows are known for offering fun, inclusive, body-positive

Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

SATURDAY 22

3RD ANNUAL ROCK FOR BRETT ST. BALDRICKS

CONCERT: w/ Torchlight Parade, Red White and Floyd, JoJo Matea 6 p.m., $20. Casa Loma Ballroom, 3354 Iowa Ave, St. Louis, 314-282-2258.

ALL ROOSTERED UP: noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

AUGUST BURNS RED: 7:30 p.m., $29.50-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BACK POCKET TRIO: 10 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

BILLY BARNETT: 7 p.m., $25. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

BILLY DON BURNS & JOSH MORNINGSTAR: 7 p.m., $20. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

CAIN: w/ Katy Nichole, David Leonard 7 p.m., $26-$134. First Baptist Church O’Fallon, 1111 E. Highway 50, O’Fallon, 618-632-6223.

THE HARD PROMISES: A TOM PETTY TRIBUTE: 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

entertainment to the masses, and this time her tour is going to fill up the Enterprise Center with an even bigger version of that same unapologetic dance-party vibe. Tickets to “The Special 2our” start at $36.50 and reach $126.50, but the opportunity to see the Queen in person is priceless.

About Damn Time Indeed: This tour is in support of Lizzo’s latest album, Special. Released in July 2022, the album includes the single “About Damn Time,” which secured Lizzo her first Grammy win in the Record of the Year category. We have a feeling it won’t be her last.

—Jaime Lees

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

JOHN MELLENCAMP: April 21, 8 p.m.; 8 p.m., $46.50-$136.50. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

MEG MYERS: 7:30 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

AN OCEAN OF RAINBOW STATIC #1: w/ Painted Faces, Mezzanine Swimmers, Birds Need You Now, Green Family, Oxherding, Sun Castle, Aaron Owens, Delia Rainey, Josie Rosie, Molly Pearson, NNN Cook, Rylee Short, Simone Sparks 4 p.m., free. Granite City Art and Design District, 1822 State St, Granite City, (314) 565-2223.

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

RUNNING MAN: w/ Prunes, Milkface, Loud Shirts

7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SMELLS LIKE NIRVANA: w/ Dead Original 8 p.m., $20-$40. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

YUPPY EP RELEASE SHOW: 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SUNDAY 23

BROTHER JEFFERSON: 3 p.m., free. Hammer-

stone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

ERIC LYSAGHT: 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.

ETHAN JONES: 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

RITTZ: 7 p.m., $20-$25. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

SCHAFFER THE DARKLORD: w/ Coolzey, Googolplexia 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

STANDING TALL FOR CHEROKEE STREET: w/ Lady J. Huston 6:30 p.m., $20. Casa Loma Ballroom, 3354 Iowa Ave, St. Louis, 314-282-2258.

MONDAY 24

BABY TYLER: w/ Fender Bender, Condiments 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THE BOULET BROTHERS’ DRAGULA: 8 p.m., $44.50$78. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

FARSHID ETNIKO: 5 p.m., free. Strauss Park, Washington & N. Grand boulevards, St. Louis.

JULY TALK: 8 p.m., $18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314727-4444.

MR. WENDELL: 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

PIXY: 7 p.m., $20-$500. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

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

TUESDAY 25

AMANDA MCBROOM: 7 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

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

ELEVATION NIGHTS: 7 p.m., $32.75-$102.75. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

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

LIZZO: 8 p.m., $96.50-$126.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

MEGHAN KIRK AND RON MCGOWAN: 7:30 p.m., $10. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

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

SEASHINE: w/ Star Guided Vessel, Nightswim 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

WEDNESDAY 26

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

KISS YOUR FRIENDS: w/ Where’s the Rum, Missouri Delta 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

LIL WAYNE: 8 p.m., $79.95-$129.95. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

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

SHAKEY GRAVES: 8 p.m., $30-$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL: 9 p.m., $28.50. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

THIS JUST IN

ADEMA AND CRAZYTOWN: Mon., May 1, 8 p.m., $25. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314289-9050.

ALL ROOSTERED UP: Sat., April 29, noon, free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis,

Lizzo. | via ticketmaster

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Cheer-Accident w/ Zantigo, Astral Moth, Key Grip

7 p.m. Friday, April 21. Platypus, 4501 Manchester Avenue. $10. 314-359-2293.

The genre-bending post-rock darlings who comprise Cheer-Accident don’t make their way to St. Louis often, but when they do it’s always a must-see event. And only compounding the excitement for this week’s show is the fact that it’s taking place at Platypus, a considerably small venue given the act. We’ll take it. With a career that spans all the way back to 1981, the Chicago band has made its name by defying expectations, zigging when others might zag and in general hurling the whole playbook on how to make music right out the window. Last year’s Here Comes the Sunset, released

314-621-8811.

AMANDA MCBROOM: Thu., April 27, 7:30 p.m., $25-$45. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

ANDY COCO & CO.: Mon., May 1, 5 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

ANDY GRAMMER: Tue., July 25, 8 p.m., $40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-7266161.

ANGEL-MAKER: W/ Dour, The Neck, Fri., April 28, 8 p.m., $10. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

THE ATOMIC PUNKS: THE TRIBUTE TO EARLY VAN HA-

LEN: Fri., July 21, 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD: W/ Falling In Reverse, Mon., Sept. 25, 7 p.m., $35-$129.95. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

BEER CHOIR SPRING EDITION: Fri., May 26, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

BETH HART: Tue., Sept. 19, 7:30 p.m., $49.50$99.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

BIG GEORGE JR. NGK BAND: Sat., April 29, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

BILL MAHER: Sat., Oct. 7, 8 p.m., TBA. The Fox The-

—Daniel Hill

by Skin Graft Records, sees Cheer-Accident leaning into what has always made it such a strange and enticing act, with proggy, dense songcraft colliding with pop sensibility in a manner that sees elements of R&B, Eurodance and melancholia thrown in for good measure. Oh, and of course, there’s that Cheap Trick cover, a surprisingly faithful version of “Dream Police” — until it suddenly isn’t anymore. In all, it’s an album that few would dare attempt and even fewer could ever pull off, and it proves that Cheer-Accident is still the best there is at what it does. Get Weird: Opening the show will be the suitably strange St. Louis acts Zantigo, Astral Moth and Key Grip, and any fan of Cheer-Accident will find a lot to love about all three. Make sure to arrive on time.

atre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111.

BILLY THE KID: THE DEFINITIVE BILLY JOEL TRIBUTE: Fri., Aug. 25, 8 p.m., $20-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRE: Sat., April 29, 7:30

p.m., $26-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

BLUES TRAVELER & BIG HEAD TODD AND THE MONSTERS: Fri., Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m., $30-$99. Chesterfield Amphitheater, 631 Veterans Place Drive, Chesterfield.

BODEANS: W/ Chris Trapper, Sat., April 29, 8 p.m., TBA. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

BROTHER FRANCIS AND THE SOULTONES: Sat., April 29, 9 p.m., free. HandleBar, 4127 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-652-2212.

CHERRY & JERRY: Fri., April 28, 5:30 p.m., free. Magpie’s Restaurant, 903 S. Main St., St. Charles, 636-947-3883.

COLT BALL: Sun., April 30, 2 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-6218811.

DANNY SCHMIDT: Sat., June 3, 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

DETHKLOK AND BABYMETAL: Wed., Sept. 27, 7 p.m., $45-$65. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

Cheer-Accident. | VILMA JOVAISA

SAVAGE LOVE

Shameful

BY DAN SAVAGE

Hey all: I’m away this week. Please enjoy this column from June of 2018. – Dan

Hey Dan: I’ve been married to my husband for two years. Five months into our relationship (before we got married), he confessed that he was an adult baby. I was so grossed out, I was literally ill. (Why would this great guy want to be like this?) I told him he would have to choose: diapers or me. He chose me. I believed him and married him.

Shortly before the birth of our child, I found out that he’d been looking at diaper porn online. I lost it. He apologized and said he’d never look at diaper porn again. Once I was free to have sex again after the birth, it was like he wasn’t into it. When I asked what the deal was, he told me he wasn’t into sex because diapers weren’t involved. I broke down, and he agreed to talk to a counselor. But on the day we were supposed to go, he was mad about every little thing I did and then said he wasn’t going! I went crazy and called his mom and told her everything, and she said she found a diaper under his bed when he was seven!

After this crisis, he agreed to work things out, but then I found adult-size diapers in the house — and not for the first time! I took a picture and sent it to him, and he told me that he was tired of me controlling him and he is going to do this when he wants. He also said he was mad at me for telling his mom. I told him no, absolutely not, he cannot do this. Then I found adult-size diapers in the house again this morning and freaked out. He says he never wants to discuss diapers with me again, and I’m afraid he might choose them over me!

Please give me advice on how to make him understand that this is not him! This is who he chooses to be! And he doesn’t have to be this way!

Married A Disgusting Diaper Lover

First, MADDL, let’s calmly dis-

cuss this with a shrink.

“There’s a fair bit of controversy over whether people can suppress fetishistic desires like this — and whether it’s healthy to ask them to do so,” says Dr. David Ley, a clinical psychologist, author and AASECT-certified sex therapist. “Personally, I believe in some cases, depending on the support of their environment and personal relationships, it is possible but only when these desires are relatively mild in intensity.”

Your husband’s interest in diapers — which would seem to go all the way back to at least age seven — can’t be described as mild.

“Given the apparent strength and persistence of her husband’s interest, I think it unlikely that suppression could ever be successful,” Dr. Ley says. “In this case, I think MADDL’s desire for her husband to have sexual desires she agrees with in order for her to be married to him is a form of sexual extortion, i.e., ‘If you love me and want to be with me, you’ll give up this sexual interest that I find disgusting.’ Without empathy, mutual respect, communication, unconditional love and a willingness to negotiate and accommodate compromises and win-win solutions, this couple is doomed, regardless of diapers under the bed.”

Now let’s bring in a voice you rarely hear when diaper fetishists are being discussed: an actual diaper fetishist.

“The common misconception with ABDL (adult baby diaper lovers) is that they are into inappropriate things — like having an interest in children — and this couldn’t be more wrong,” says Pup Jackson, a twentysomething diaper lover and kink educator. “AB is not always sexual. Sometimes it’s a way for a person to disconnect from their adult life and become someone else. With DLs, they aren’t necessarily into age play — they enjoy diapers and the way they feel, much like people enjoy rubber, Lycra or other materials. To understand her husband, MADDL needs to ask questions about why her husband enjoys diapers and figure out how to deal with it — because a lot of people want/need these kinds of outlets in their life.”

Okay, MADDL, now it’s time for me to share my thoughts with you, but — Christ almighty — I hardly know where to begin.

“Great guys” can be into diapers; this is not who your husband “chooses to be,” since people don’t choose their kinks any more than they choose their sexual orientation; outing your husband to his mother was unforgivable and could ultimately prove to be a fatal-to-your-marriage violation of trust; a counselor isn’t going to be able to reach into your husband’s head and yank out his kink. (“I absolutely hate that therapists are seen as sexual enforcers who are supposed to carve away any undesirable sexual interests and make people ‘normal,’” Dr. Ley says.)

You’re clearly not interested in understanding your husband’s kink, per Jackson’s advice, nor are you open to working out an accommodation that allows your husband to explore his kink on his own, per Dr. Ley’s advice. Instead you’ve convinced yourself that if you pitch a big enough fit, your husband will choose a

spouse who makes him feel terrible about himself over a kink that gives him pleasure. And that’s not how this is going to play out.

Your husband told you he was into diapers before he married you — he laid his kink cards on the table at five months, long before you scrambled your DNA together — and he backed down when you freaked out. He may have thought he could choose you over his kink, MADDL, but now he knows what Dr. Ley could’ve told you two before the wedding: Suppressing a kink just isn’t possible. So if you can’t live with the diaper lover you married — if you can’t accept his kink, allow him to indulge it on his own and refrain from blowing up when you stumble onto any evidence — do that diaperloving husband of yours a favor and divorce him.

Follow Dr. David Ley on Twitter @DrDavidLey and Pup Jackson on Twitter @pupjacksonbitez.

Hey Dan: I’m a 33-year-old man, and for years I’ve practiced edging. Recently I’ve experimented with long-term edges, where I’ll withhold coming for days or weeks while still maintaining a daily masturbation practice. I love living on that horny edge, and I’ve even learned to love the ache in my balls. But is this safe? Am I setting myself up for prostate/testicular trouble down the road?

Priapus Precipice

A study conducted by researchers from Boston University School of Public Health and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health found that men who masturbated at least 21 times per month — masturbated and ejaculated — were at lower risk of developing prostate cancer than men who ejaculated less than 21 times per month (“Ejaculation Frequency and Risk of Prostate Cancer,” European Urology). Read the study, PP, weigh the slightly increased risks against the immediate (and horny) rewards and make an informed (and horny) choice.

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Without empathy, mutual respect, communication, unconditional love and a willingness to negotiate and accommodate compromises and win-win solutions, this couple is doomed, regardless of diapers under the bed.”

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