Riverfront Times, May 8, 2019

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THE LEDE

“My husband always liked cactus. He lived in Florissant, Missouri, and made a desert scene in his mother’s sun room. Several times he talked about it after we were married, and I said, ‘Well, I want to raise my family. I don’t want to leave here and go out and work.’ He said, ‘Let’s raise them here then.’ So that’s how we started. The terrariums were first, and then we started to get in the cactus because he loved them. I said, ‘Oh, they’re only good for sticking me.’ But it didn’t take long and I started loving them too.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

GLADYS DRUMMOND, OWNER OF DRUMMOND NURSERY AND GREENHOUSES IN DE SOTO, PHOTOGRAPHED ON MAY 2 riverfronttimes.com

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Sarah Fenske

E D I T O R I A L Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Jaime Lees Staff Writers Doyle Murphy, Danny Wicentowski Restaurant Critic Cheryl Baehr Film Critic Robert Hunt Columnist Ray Hartmann Contributing Writers Mike Appelstein, Allison Babka, Thomas Crone, Jenn DeRose, Mike Fitzgerald, Sara Graham, MaryAnn Johanson, Roy Kasten, Jaime Lees, Joseph Hess, Kevin Korinek, Bob McMahon, Lauren Milford, Nicholas Phillips, Tef Poe, Christian Schaeffer Proofreader Evie Hemphill Editorial Interns Ryan Gines, Chelsea Neuling, Benjamin Simon

COVER Fail Satan!

The devil went down to Missouri to fight for abortion rights. Then things went to hell

A R T Art Director Evan Sult Contributing Photographers Virginia Harold, Tim Lane, Monica Mileur, Zia Nizami, Andy Paulissen, Nick Schnelle, Mabel Suen, Micah Usher, Theo Welling, Jen West, Corey Woodruff

Written by DANNY WICENTOWSKI

P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Haimanti Germain

Illustration by

M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Sales Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell, Erica Kenney Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Drew Halliday, Jackie Mundy

SAM WASHBURN instagram.com/swashburnillustration

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

INSIDE The Lede Hartmann

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Is Sam Page everything the P-D insists he is — or just another “mediocre man”?

News Feature Calendar

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Tennessee Williams meets The Golden Girls | Madea’s Farewell Play | Come from Away | Scheherezade | etc.

Film

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Cafe

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Short Orders

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Music & Culture

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The Competition

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Creative Director Tom Carlson www.euclidmediagroup.com N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com S U B S C R I P T I O N S Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (Missouri residents add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (Missouri residents add $9.48 sales tax) for first class.

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Out Every Night

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Cher | DJ Paul | Mike & the Moonpies

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HARTMANN Turning the Page The new county executive is being hailed as the Great Conciliator.

We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves

BY RAY HARTMANN

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omedian Robert Klein did a great bit on Gerald Ford after Ford replaced Vice President Spiro Agnew, who’d resigned in 1973 over a corruption scandal.

“I’m a mediocre man,” Ford said (via Klein), “but, the last guy was a felon!”

Here in St. Louis County, it’s an official fact of government: The last guy was a felon. Last week,

County Executive Steve Stenger resigned and then swiftly pled guilty to charges in a corruption scandal.

And with Stenger likely headed to federal prison, the question of the hour is whether Sam Page, his successor, will be something more than a mediocre man.

Let’s hope so. After decades of having been largely ignored by local media as an outsized planning and zoning commission, St. Louis County government truly matters. With the need to address major governance issues looming, St. Louis needs some serious leadership from the new county executive.

But is Page up to that task? It depends upon which Sam Page you’re talking about. There are two versions of him: One, the mundane public official who has held or sought a variety of offices over the past two decades, or two, the wise and towering statesman introduced to St. Louis Sunday by the Post-Dispatch.

The original Page served three

years as a Creve Coeur councilman and six years as a state legislator. He made little news as a quietly center-left Democrat, although he did successfully introduce a helmet law for bicyclists and skateboarders in Creve Coeur.

In 2008, Page ran for lieutenant governor against Republican Peter Kinder and was the only Democrat to lose on the statewide ballot that year. In 2010, he was trounced in the Democratic primary for state senate, 64 to 36 percent, by then-Representative Barbara Fraser, who would lose in the general election to Republican John Lamping. He was, as politicians go, a mediocre man.

Elected to the county council in 2014 after the death of Councilwoman Kathleen Kelly Burkett, Page, to his credit, led the fight to have the county establish a prescription-drug registry to attack the opioid crisis. One of his chief allies was Stenger, who signed Page’s bill into law.

Page can now fairly list at the

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top of his résumé his strident opposition to Stenger, especially as more information emerged about Stenger’s pay-to-play scandals.

That’s more than I can say for myself; as a journalist, I was far too willing to assume that Stenger was just another politician doing slippery favors for campaign donors. Now that it’s clear Stenger crossed well over the line into criminality, critics like Page are entitled to a victory lap. But politicians will continue doing slippery favors for campaign donors.

And Page doesn’t get a free pass for his leadership of the clownishly dysfunctional County Council. Time and again, council members would take a dubious action at Stenger’s behest and then claim — after things hit the fan — that they had been duped. Legislators don’t get to use this “dog ate my homework” excuse at any level of government. Each council member has a full-time legislative aide.

Page’s County Council ran like a

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HARTMANN

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sub-par student council.

Page also un-distinguished himself by having the council hire as county auditor a longtime personal friend, ark Tucker, despite the fact Tucker empirically lacked the published requirements for the job. The Post eviscerated him for this in a fine piece authored by Jeremy Kohler, exposing that, in more than a year on the ob, Tucker failed to produce a single audit of a single dollar of the more than $600 million spent by the county, some of it curiously.

But that brings us to the other Sam Page, the one extolled by Kohler and the Post unday.

T T T O TO O blared the Post in bold, all-caps letters across the top of the May 5 edition. It proceeded to praise Page as sort of an amalgamation of Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham incoln and uddha. The opening paragraph could have been written by Page’s great grandmother: The new t. ouis ounty e ecutive is an anesthesiologist. Dr. Sam Page has made a career of soothing pain and instilling calm in people who are hurting.”

I’ll admit I never considered that a government in turmoil ought to turn to an anesthesiologist, although it’s a novel theory. A cynic might counter, “Hey, with all the substance abuse raging in our world, the last thing we need is a guy who makes his living knocking out people with drugs.”

But who wants to hear from a cynic at a time like this? Not the Post.

“Page’s composed demeanor stands in contrast to the confrontational figure he replaces, the Post’s front-page news piece editorialized. “In comments since he took over, Page has promised to be many things he says Stenger was not — an ethical leader who collaborates with legislators and values the work of county employees.” Gag. There was no reference to the friend-as-auditor thing, because it didn’t uite fit the story’s wise man narrative. Instead, the Post extolled Page’s “knack of settling disputes,” called him a “coalition builder” and offered an array of testimonials from colleagues moved by his kindness and reason. It even praised him for removing party lights and hauling seven boxes of alcohol out of Stenger’s office.

I guess you could call this “news,” seeing as how these won-

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drous attributes had gone completely unreported in Page’s two decades of public service. Or even attributed to him privately by the very people singing his praises now. Or anyone else in government, for that matter.

Still, you can’t begrudge the Post its own victory lap. After all, the first reference to tenger’s pay-to-play tendencies came in from columnist Tony essenger, who dogged Stenger effectively from that point on.

Messenger was writing about the curious relationship between Stenger and brothers David and Robert Glarner, who had given $75,000 (it would grow to more than $350,000) and received kind treatment for a development at the former Northwest Plaza.

Interestingly, Messenger’s column ended with a reference to the fact that the Glarners had also made two $2,500 donations to the campaign of the councilman who introduced Stenger’s legislation on their behalf — Sam Page.

That fact also wasn’t referenced Sunday in the testimonials to how Page was driving a stake in the heart of the old politics. ut here’s what did make the cut: a glowing reference to how “Page has shown the ability to operate behind the scenes. That was your daily newspaper praising Page for maneuvering into his new job over the objections of Councilwoman Hazel Erby, who had the audacity to seek the job herself.

Page and his allies disrespected Erby and violated the spirit, if not letter, of a county ordinance they’d quietly blown up in February, which had provided for a deliberate two-week-plus process for a decision of this weight. They also refused to allow Erby’s supporters — or those of erstwhile Stenger opponent Mark Mantovani — even a chance to speak in the unhappily crowded county council chambers.

So that’s proof this guy has the skill to govern with a new spirit of warmth and transparency? Sorry, but I think it shows just the opposite, that the new era of good feeling in county government is actually off to a not-good start.

Because what St. Louis needs from Sam Page going forward has nothing to do with just being better than the last guy. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann@sbcglobal.net or catch him on St. Louis In the Know With Ray Hartmann and Jay Kanzler from 9 to 11 p.m.

Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

Stenger Pleads Guilty in Pay-toPlay Case Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

I

n his suddenly former life as a politician, Steve Stenger was brash and quick-talking. But last Friday, as a new felon, walking out of the federal courthouse in St. Louis to face a battery of cameras and microphones, he had nothing to say.

Today was a very difficult day for Steve and his family,” defense attorney Scott Rosenblum told reporters as Stenger stood tightlipped at his side on the courthouse steps.

The former St. Louis County executive pleaded guilty Friday to all three counts in a federal indictment unsealed on Monday.

He admitted to U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry that he had solicited bribes in the form of campaign donations during his campaigns in 2014 and 2018. That amounted to three felonies of honest services bribery and mail fraud.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith summarized the evidence prosecutors had gathered, which includes thousands of texts going back to 2014 and secret recordings made both in Stenger’s office and in his home.

Despite the former county executive’s crimes, Rosenblum said Stenger had many things of which to be proud, including his time as a private attorney.

“Today obviously was not one of those proud moments, but he has completely accepted responsibility for his mistakes in judgment, lapses in judgment and his conduct while in office as county executive,” Rosenblum said.

Rosenblum answered no more questions and ushered Stenger through the crowd to a waiting Chevrolet Tahoe with tinted windows.

As Stenger ducked inside, Ruth Tannenbaum moved in close. The

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Former St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger makes his way through reporters after pleading guilty to three felonies. | DOYLE MURPHY 51-year-old University City resident, dressed in Cardinals gear, wanted to see him for herself.

“I voted for you, and you betrayed me!” she shouted from a few feet away.

Stenger has already resigned, announcing his decision in a letter on April 29 immediately after the indictment was unsealed.

The day’s events were somehow a bombshell and yet not a surprise.

In the past year, the St. Louis PostDispatch had outlined a number of the allegations in a drum beat of stories about land deals and vendor contracts that made little sense, unless properly understood as political favors.

The reporting sparked some memorable, covertly recorded comments that were excerpted in the indictment.

“You can’t talk to the fucking press,” Stenger said in a May 11, 2018, exchange. “I bent over fucking backwards for you, and I asked you one simple fucking thing, don’t talk to the fucking press. And I’m telling you, you’re gonna fucking kill yourself, alright, you’re gonna kill yourself with this shit.”

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Politics, Stenger said in a rant apparently recorded by federal agents, is not “the art of fucking over your friends. It’s the art of how do I work with people I trust and know.”

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office say tenger was talking to John Rallo, a former nightclub owner who went into the insurance business, opening Cardinal Insurance Group in 2006. The feds say he became an in uential donor and fundraiser,

supporting Stenger’s two successful campaigns for county executive. In exchange, he expected to land insurance contracts with the county.

Rallo has not been indicted, but he’s all over the indictment. Goldsmith said four of five schemes detailed in a nineteen-page document outlining Stenger’s plea involve Rallo.

Strings of text messages show the businessman pestering Stenger — and various Stenger minions — for more than two years in pursuit of the insurance contract.

The indictment painted a picture of a willing, but pathetic, Stenger. The county executive seemed happy to hand the job of providing county employees’ voluntary benefits insurance to allo — but he kept getting blocked by his director of operations, a longtime county employee who had been in the office before tenger arrived.

To placate Rallo, Stenger instead helped create a do-nothing marketing and consulting contract for the insurance man, to be paid for through the Port Authority, Continued on pg 13

For Dooley, Stenger Fall Is Karma Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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or former St. Louis County executive Charlie Dooley, the indictment of Steve Stenger, who defeated Dooley in his 2014 quest for reelection, presents a sharp example of history that doesn’t quite repeat itself, but definitely seems to rhyme.

In an interview one day after Stenger’s resignation, Dooley doesn’t dance on the grave of his former opponent. But the irony doesn’t escape him.

“My administration was never indicted, we were never subpoenaed,” Dooley says. “Unfortunately, the things that [Stenger] said that my administration did, apparently he did those things.”

It’s a fair point. In his final term as executive, Dooley faced allegations of the same sort of pay-toplay corruption that’s now taken down Stenger. Back in 2010, it was KMOX reporting the FBI had launched “a probe” into connections between Dooley’s campaign fundraising and county contracts (the FBI itself contested KMOX’s report). Then, a year later, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch nailed Dooley for hiring the son of his campaign manager for a cushy $70,000 position — what appeared to be a blatant example of patronage.

Suggestions of “corruption” dogged Dooley into the 2014 Democratic primary, where Stenger and allies (including then-prosecuting attorney Bob McCulloch) cast Dooley’s administration as a system rotting from the top. The smears worked. Dooley lost the primary to Stenger in a landslide.

But more than three years later, it is Stenger who’s been exposed for corruption — and not just the intimation of it. In a 44-page indictment, federal investigators charged Stenger with three counts of honest services brib-

Charlie Dooley, right, was ousted by Steve Stenger in the 2014 Democratic primary. | FLICKR/USDA ery and mail fraud. In response, Stenger resigned.

But is Dooley bitter? Not at all, he insists.

“I’m not going to worry about the past anymore,” he says. “The things that the Post said about me, what other people were saying about my administration, it was just horrible. But I don’t have to be vindicated, because it was just not true. A lot of people assumed it was true.”

Indeed, during the 2014 Democratic primary, reporting by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch effectively stocked Stenger’s campaign arsenal with damaging ammunition.

Along with stories authored by beat reporters, the paper’s editorial board came down hard on Dooley, endorsing Stenger and writing that Dooley had squandered voters’ trust while triggering “one fouled-up mess after another.”

The Post’s 2014 endorsement noted that Stenger, then a county councilman, was running as an “anti-Dooley,” a “lesser-known quantity” without the political baggage of his opponent.

The same could not be said four years later, when, after Stenger defeated primary opponent Mark

The indictment, Charlie Dooley suggests, “is just the tip of the iceberg of the things that went astray” under Stenger.

Mantovani, the daily’s editorial board “reluctantly” endorsed Stenger for a second term as county executive. By then the paper’s reporters had already documented the pay-for-play scheme that, this week, finally caught up to Stenger and ended his political career.

While Dooley considers the Post’s 2014 reporting on his administration to be “horrible,” he claims he was subsequently contacted by individual employees at the newspaper (whom he declines to name) who admitted to

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him that the paper had “made a mistake with me, and they apologized for it.”

“It’s even hard for the newspaper people to figure it out sometimes,” Dooley adds, noting that while the red ags around Stenger appear obvious now, the truth took work to unravel.

If reporters can’t figure it out, he says, “can you imagine what average guy or woman thinks?

That’s why it’s so important to have the free press and journalists to do their work and do it diligently. Investigative reporting does make a difference, and enough of it wasn’t done.”

In light of Stenger’s fall, the Post is now taking heat (most stridently from the St. Louis American) for its previous coverage of Dooley and the extent to which its coverage helped elect Stenger.

The paper can tout the separation between editorial and newsreporting divisions, but that distinction isn’t calming the critics who watched Dooley’s Post-assisted fall.

Lending fuel to the paper’s critics is the fact that much of the reporting on Dooley, including that 2011 scoop on Dooley hiring the son of a campaign supporter, was authored by reporter Paul Hampel. In fact, Hampel’s work was so damaging to Dooley that when then-RFT managing editor Chad Garrison wrote about the scandal, he suggested Dooley go the easy route and hire Hampel to a cushy ob with a si figure salary.

Garrison must have been feeling especially prophetic, because his suggestion came true — except it was Stenger who, after beating Dooley, hired Hampel as a policy adviser. (Garrison also missed the salary mark, as Hampel is currently making only about $77,000.)

Needless to say, many haven’t forgotten Hampel’s role in Dooley’s downfall and subsequent skip to the Stenger administration.

Tweeted former city comptroller Virvus Jones, “Paul Hampel worked as a news reporter. He wrote most of the stories that falsely accused Charlie Dooley of corruption. He was hand fed lies

by Steve Stenger, Jane Dueker & Bob McCollugh [sic]. Hampel then went to work for Stenger.

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DOOLEY

Continued from pg 11

There are no coincidences in politics. #fauxoutrage.”

But if the Post is seeking penance, it makes a solid case in the aggressive coverage of Stenger that followed his election as county executive. Tony Messenger, who chaired the newspaper’s editorial board when it endorsed Stenger in 2014, turned columnist in 2015 and doggedly followed the money wherever it led, from Stenger’s use of an obscure

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fire district P to sidestep ethics laws to the connections tying Stenger to Montel Williams (yes, the one on TV) and a bogus effort to rehabilitate the county’s image after the Ferguson protests.

Meanwhile, the paper’s reporters (notably Jeremy Kohler and Jacob Barker) swung their investigative hammers again and again, critically undermining Stenger’s claim that moving county offices to an old mall would save money (it didn’t) and further exposing the connections between the executive’s campaign donors and the suspicious awarding of coun-

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ty contracts.

In fact, when the indictment against Stenger arrived last week, it read largely like a highlight reel of Post reportage — with the added substance of wire-tapped conversations and text messages showing Stenger begging his cronies to stop talking to the “fucking press.”

Now that the indictment has been made public, Dooley wants to see what else the feds have, and he expects it to be quite a lot.

The indictment, he suggests, “is just the tip of the iceberg of the things that went astray” under

Stenger.

And with the council-appointed Sam Page taking the helm as executive, Dooley says that he hopes the county can heal, even as its residents are likely to learn even more about what Stenger (and his donors) were up to behind the scenes. Still, with Stenger gone, Dooley believes the county can move forward.

That isn’t to say there’s a comeback in the works for Dooley — “I have no intent of getting back in county government,” he says. “I wish Sam Page the best of luck.” n

Ladue Officer Charged in Shooting

GUILTY

Continued from pg 10

Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

A

adue police officer has been arrested for shooting a shoplifting suspect on April 23 outside of a Schnucks grocery store.

Officer ulia rews, , was charged last Wednesday in St. Louis County with second-degree assault, a felony. Prosecutors and her attorney agree that she shouted a warning that she would tase the eeing year old woman, but then pulled out her pistol instead of her stun gun. The wounded woman remains in the hospital but is expected to survive.

St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell says the shooting was criminally reckless. Crews’ lawyer, Travis Noble, calls it a “tragic accident.”

It happened shortly after 3 p.m. in the parking lot of the Schnucks at 8867 Ladue Road, next to Interstate 170.

St. Louis County Police said the adue officer, who has been on the force for thirteen years, responded to reports of a shoplifting and disturbance involving two suspects. She stopped one of the suspects, a 33-year-old woman, moments after she ran out of the store. The woman told the officer she had suffered some kind of injury.

In a statement after the shooting, Schnucks said the woman was one of two shoplifters who tried to steal a shopping cart full of stuff after paying for only a couple of items.

The woman’s companion is said to have run away immediately when employees stopped them at the door, but the 33-year-old stayed and gathered several stolen items, along with balloons she had paid for, before eeing. On her way, she tripped. When another employee, who hadn’t seen what happened, tried to help her up, she allegedly smacked him and kept going.

That’s about the time the Ladue officer, rews, came onto the scene. Noble says she spoke to the woman and called an ambulance.

But when Crews went to arrest her, the officer managed to get only one cuff on the alleged shop-

Robert Hall (left) and Karen Carter (center) talk to reporters after a Ladue police officer was charged with assault for shooting their daughter. | DOYLE MURPHY

Officer Julia Crews. | ST LOUIS COUNTY POLICE lifter before the woman scu ed with her and scrambled away.

At that point, Noble says, Crews had every right to use her Taser.

Instead, the officer mistakenly drew her gun and fired in the heat of the moment, he says.

“She feels terrible,” Noble said of the officer. he’s devastated.

Relatives of the woman, who was listed by her initials in court documents, spoke to reporters at the courthouse shortly after Bell announced the charge. he’s fighting for her life, obert Hall, the woman’s father, says.

He and other family members say the shooting should never have happened and that the officer was too aggressive, even if she only intended to tase her. But they

trust Bell and county prosecutors.

Karen Carter, the woman’s mother, says she is praying for her daughter’s recovery. “I just want her to get better,” she said.

Bell says that he had a newly formed committee, comprising two current and one former judge, review the case before he filed the assault charge. ll members of the committee agreed with charging Crews, he said.

In the future, Bell plans to form a standalone unit in the prosecutor’s office that will investigate officer involved shootings and report only to him. That appears to deviate from Bell’s campaign pledge to bring in special prosecutors for those types of cases, but he insisted it was consistent with his intent to submit police shootings to an independent review.

Bell praised St. Louis County police for their investigation of the shooting.

In the days that followed, county police said they were reviewing surveillance video from the suburban shopping center. They also distributed images of a second woman and a man, whom they wanted to question. Police say both people accompanied the 33-year-old to Schnucks that afternoon, but neither had been charged with a crime.

The shoplifting allegations are still under investigation, Bell says. n

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authorities say. Stenger used various subordinates to make it happen, most prominently St. Louis Economic Development Director Sheila Sweeney, along with his chief of staff, William Miller, and chief of policy, Jeff Wagener, the feds say.

Rallo created Cardinal Creative Consulting just to get the contract. Sweeney then helped pad the new company’s $100,000 consulting contract with an additional $30,000 to pay yet another Stenger supporter, the indictment says.

Sweeney, who also has not been indicted, is depicted as playing a key role in the county executive’s scheme. She was CEO of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, executive director of the Port Authority and served on the board of the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority — three agencies with considerable in uence on both expenditures and public deals.

The arrangements for Rallo also included two deals to buy and develop land owned by the LCRA, run by Sweeney.

Stenger’s dealings with Sweeney revealed glimpses at how Stenger viewed the world of secret deals and payback. In late 2018, he was trying to ensure a contract would be renewed for a political consulting firm that had donated $59,000 to his campaigns.

When Sweeney appeared to be dragging her feet, Stenger was bewildered but assumed, correctly, she would come around to the politics of the situation. He talked it over with Miller. “[Sweeney’s] a political creature,” Stenger says in the November 19, 2018, recording. “She was appointed by a politician, and by people who were appointed by politicians to take this role.

She took the role. Now you’re in it. You’re either going to do it or you’re not. Get the fuck out.

You’re a political person.”

As the rant continues, he explains that all of his department heads are political people. And to tenger, that meant specific things.

“It’s not the art of fucking over your friends,” he told Miller. “It’s the art of how do I work with people I trust and know.”

Miller replied, “It’s the art of staying in power.”

And Stenger agreed: “It’s the art of staying in power.” n

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W

hen you are pregnant

in Missouri, choice is a tricky thing. The bill-

boards tell you “Choose Life,” but what other options are there? The state’s sole abortion provider, the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, might be hundreds of miles away.

Where to turn? The phone numbers on the billboards lead to “pregnancy resource centers.” Missouri funds these centers on the condition that they never mention abortion.

What about just traveling to Planned Parenthood in St. Louis? It’s not only distance standing in the way. Since 2014, state law has required a three-day waiting period between initial consultation and procedure. During that consultation, the state requires your doctor to present an “informed consent” pamphlet, which asserts, “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”

In 2015, one Missouri woman made a different choice. She turned to Satan.

That year, “Mary Doe” became the pseudonymous plaintiff at the heart of an audacious legal campaign that was part satire and part earnest fight for civil rights. Her story was the linchpin of a lawsuit aimed at arguing that bodily autonomy is a core religious belief for secularists within the Satanic Temple, as important as protecting a fetus would be for a devout Christian.

But as the Temple’s lawsuits taking on abortion restrictions twisted through state and federal courts

for nearly four years, behind the scenes, Mary Doe grew disillusioned. Even as the Satanic Temple fought on behalf of her right to autonomy, she claims its leaders disregarded her perspective and silenced her. She’s particularly angry at the Temple’s chief spokesman, Lucien Greaves.

“I told [Greaves], ‘You need to be more open and listen to me,” Doe recalls in a recent interview. Thanks to a gag clause with the Satanic Temple’s attorney, it’s the first time she’s spoken to the media about the case in more than three years.

She blames Greaves for what happened next.

“I wrote to him and the attorney both, saying, ‘I want out of the case.’”

O

n April 29, 2015, Mary Doe was 22 and already a single mom. She worked part time for an auto mechanic in central Missouri, she said, with a salary that barely covered her living expenses, let alone a three-day trip to St. Louis. She was almost twelve weeks pregnant.

At that time, the Satanic Temple was sprouting branches across the country. Its biggest splash involved the stone Ten Commandments installed at the Oklahoma state capitol. The Satanists crowdsourced their own statue, “Baphomet,” an eightfoot tall, angel winged, goat headed figure seated on a throne beneath a pentagram, anked by two young children gazing up adoringly at its horizontal pupils. Then they offered to donate it to Oklahoma.

The state, predictably, said no — but ultimately were forced to remove the Ten Commandments as a result. That accomplished, the Temple turned to a less jokey stunt— a lawsuit focused on abortion rights.

Legally, an organization can’t just argue a law is Continued on pg 18

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Continued from pg 17

unconstitutional. It has to demonstrate standing, by suing on behalf of an individual who can show their rights are personally being violated. In Roe vs. Wade, that was Norma McCorvey — the “Jane Roe” who wanted an abortion in Texas, where it was a crime.

For the Satanic Temple, Mary Doe — pregnant, wanting an abortion and badly inconvenienced by Missouri’s laws — seemed an ideal plaintiff to make the case that its members deserve the legal privileges of any mainstream religion.

“I’m not brand new to the Satanic Temple or atheistic Satanism,” Mary Doe told the Riverfront Times in April 2015. “This is something that I’ve always really wanted to do, to argue with the laws that make things so difficult for women.

“Of course,” she added, “I’ve not been in the situation I currently am right now where it’s affected me directly.”

If not for those laws, Doe said, she would have gotten an abortion “as soon as possible.” The state’s only clinic being in St. Louis necessitated transportation, lodging, childcare and time off from her job.

“If you’re right on the edge of the state,” she noted, “you’ve got to go 500 miles just to get up there.”

Complicating matters further was the state law requiring that hours pass between first consultation and abortion. With it, Missouri tied Utah and South Dakota for the longest abortion waiting period in the country.

It was just the sort of law the Satanic Temple was looking for.

In 2014, the same year Missouri mandated the 72-hour waiting period, the Temple had announced its intent to use the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case — a decision that allowed employers to exempt themselves from laws infringing on religious belief — as the basis for its own challenge.

Central to the Temple’s argument was that it, too, is a religion.

Since its members hold beliefs about the life of a fetus, shouldn’t they get a religious exemption of their own? According to the Temple’s third tenet, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.” Arguing that Missouri’s abortion restrictions violate that tenet was both an interesting legal theory and high-level trolling.

The pseudonym the Temple suggested for its plaintiff, “Mary

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A waiting room at an Illinois abortion clinic. In Missouri, patients must wait 72 hours between consultation and procedure. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

In April, a crowd rallied at Planned Parenthood in St. Louis in support of abortion rights. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI Doe,” was chosen as a reference to the mother of Jesus, who was told her unplanned parenthood would one day be a blessing. Doe “liked the cleverness of it,” she said.

If Doe prevailed, the state could be obligated to treat a Satanist’s belief in bodily autonomy as equal to, for instance, a Catholic’s opposition to birth control. Members of the Satanic Temple could seek religious exemptions to the state’s 72-hour waiting period.

The irony was immediate and deliciously, well, Satanic. It just needed to hold up in court.

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t. Louis’ Temple chapter easily raised $800 in a GoFundMe to assist with Doe’s transportation and lodging in St. Louis. (The procedure itself was paid for by the local nonprofit ateway omen’s Access Fund.)

And the story of pro-abortion Satanists turning to the courts quickly went national. After the RFT published an interview with Doe, her quotes were republished in Jezebel and the Washington Post. Pro-life outlets picked up the story as well, reveling in clear

evidence that abortionists were in bed with the devil.

On May 8, Doe took a Greyhound bus to St. Louis with her toddler, who squirmed in the seat next to her as hundreds of miles of countryside rumbled by. Then, at the Planned Parenthood clinic in the city’s Central West End, Doe presented the staff with a letter.

The letter declared Doe “an adherent to the principles of the Satanic Temple.” It also listed her sincerely held religious beliefs: Her body is inviolable and subject only to her will. Her body includes

I

any fetus or embryo that cannot yet survive on its own.

“I and I alone decide whether my inviolable body remains pregnant,” the letter continues. “I may, in good conscience, disregard the current or future condition of any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry in making that decision.” The letter demanded that Planned Parenthood “not abide” by the state’s waiting period.

In response, Planned Parenthood staffers who were definitely not on board for the Satanist’s previously announced stunt — gave Doe the pamphlet carrying the required disclosure that life begins at conception. They told her to come back in 72 hours.

Three days later, Doe had her abortion. A few hours later, she settled in for a long bus ride back home, her toddler bouncing on her lap because she’d been unable to book a second seat.

The atanic Temple had its first plaintiff.

O

n a Sunday three months after Mary Doe’s abortion, the co-founder and national face of the Satanic Temple entered the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. He had been invited as the keynote speaker at a conference of atheists.

“Lucien Greaves” (real name: Doug Mesner) co-founded the Satanic Temple in 2012, and almost immediately established its distinctly tongue-in-cheek style of activism. reaves, a prolific writer and quick-witted debater, became the face of the temple through a newspaper column in the Orlando Weekly and as a guest on cable news shows. pale figure with a severe haircut and a commitment to black clothing, Greaves seemed to embody his role as the devil’s spokesman. He arrived on campus surrounded by admirers and members of the local chapter (most of whom also sported dark ensembles). Some managed a vendor booth with Satanist T-shirts, buttons and mugs. There was even a stack of Satan-themed children’s activity books, published as part of the group’s attempt to create “After-School Satan Clubs” in elementary schools.

Despite its Luciferian aesthetic, the Temple actually rejects belief in a literal devil. Satan is presented as metaphor or “cultural construct,” Greaves explained, a symbol for defying authority and embracing skepticism and independence.

In the Temple’s perspective, the contradiction of a secular group

Satanic Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves is trying to wrest religious privilege from “supernaturalists.” | KAYLA SCHIERBECKER with a religious belief system isn’t so contradictory. A faithless faith can still have tenets and rituals.

The belief system re ects sincere values, which, Greaves argued, makes it no different than the evangelical groups that hold afterschool programs or erect stone tablets on courthouse lawns.

“If you concede that religion belongs solely to supernaturalists,” Greaves said, “you’re saying that your own deeply held values, your own sense of cultural identity, isn’t as valuable as that of the superstitious.”

At that time, Mary Doe’s lawsuit was barely three months old. Greaves said he expected the litigation to be “a slow and costly process.”

“But,” he added quickly, “I feel like we actually have a really good shot, and the lawyers feel that we have a really good shot. Even if we don’t win, but we put up a credible enough fight, I think you’ll find people thinking more logically about where the plateau is,

realizing that when you do open the door to these kinds of privileges and exemptions, you have to be prepared to offer them to opposing views as well as your own.”

Greaves’ prediction of a slow and costly process would prove accurate, but at the beginning of the ride, the legal effort already seemed to be paying dividends in publicity, helping establish the Temple as more than just a group of secular occultists pranking religion. These Satanists were serious. They had lawyers.

Greaves’ optimism was noteworthy in retrospect. He peppered his interview with erudite points about the Temple’s philosophy and its commitment to fighting for civil rights of women like Doe. In reality, unbeknownst to reporters and to all but a small circle of Temple’s highest officers, the Temple’s relationship with its poster plaintiff was months away from cracking.

n Greaves’ entourage that day in St. Louis was Nikki Moungo. An atheist activist and a member of both the Temple’s national council and the St. Louis chapter’s board, she’d always liked a good fight against unfair religious privilege. She had recently notched a victory in opposing a plan to install a sign proclaiming “In God We Trust” on city property in her hometown of Ballwin.

After Doe went from abortion charity case to the Temple’s chosen plaintiff, Moungo took on the role of handler.

“I know what it’s like to be a single mother in Missouri with low income,” Moungo says today. “Her predicament is pretty common; I’ve been in that situation. I know what it’s like to get an abortion in Missouri.”

The assignment became something close to a full-time job, with Moungo serving as mom, advocate and arbitrator. Doe didn’t have a stable living situation, and she was raising a young daughter while living in a hotel, its price discounted for the cleaning services she provided. Other times, she wound up at Moungo’s home in Ballwin. Moungo felt largely on her own as Doe’s support group.

“She was getting frustrated and wanted answers from me, answers I couldn’t get my hands on,” Moungo recalls. “We were both feeling shut out.”

It wasn’t just the lack of updates from Greaves or the New Jersey law firm hired by the Temple to handle the lawsuits. The case had made a huge media splash, but Moungo says the national board repeatedly blocked her attempts to organize local rallies around it.

To Moungo, it became clear the campaign was a “Temple effort, not a Missouri effort.”

“You’re separating the action and the people who are affected by the laws, and it really didn’t make any sense to me,” she says.

“It became really weird to us, seeing other chapters in other states promoting our reproductive rights cases without knowing really our laws or being able to address those matters with knowledge.”

In a recent interview, Doe describes feeling similarly frustrated by the Temple’s publicity strategy.

She was hoping to see a wave of local support, an acknowledgement that the front lines of this battle had been drawn in Missouri. Her suggestions led nowhere, and she bristled as the Temple’s reproductive rights campaign turned to gross-out performance art.

Two months after Doe’s lawsuit Continued on pg 21

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was filed, the Temple’s etroit chapter produced an eye-catchingly occult counter-protest outside a Planned Parenthood location in Michigan. Religious groups surrounded the clinic, some carrying signs amplifying the myth that the clinic “harvests baby parts.”

Satanists portrayed priests, who reverently doused two kneeling actresses with milk. Another member held a sign stating, “AMERICA IS NOT A THEOCRACY. END FORCED MOTHERHOOD.” Doe says she felt shamed by the suggestion that she’d been nearly “forced” into motherhood. She also wondered what kind of message the protest had sent to possible allies.

Over time, she stewed on the unfairness of the Temple’s overall strategy, perceiving that Detroit’s shock theater had been chosen over her own suggestions.

“I thought it was a giant mockery,” Doe says.

“Maybe it was trolling, maybe they thought they were doing something effective. I didn’t appreciate it whatsoever. That’s not how I wanted to be represented, it’s not how women in those circumstances should be represented.”

Moungo, too, was increasingly embittered by the national board members’ refusal to grant any sort of Missouri demonstration in support of Doe’s lawsuit.

Moungo proposed a public demonstration in Jefferson City with supporters wearing “I am Mary” T-shirts, but a Temple lawyer suggested that Missouri Satanists merely wear the shirts to a legal hearing.

Despite the early headlines around its fundraiser for Doe’s abortion, the Temple now seemed intent on keeping its activities in issouri low profile. oungo, who felt responsible for the wellbeing of the Temple’s plaintiff, felt a distinct lack of concern from Temple brass.

“It got to the point where I didn’t feel like they cared about her or what was really going on here in Missouri. It was like Temple wanted the case without the plaintiff.”

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hile the Temple’s key plaintiff was stewing in discontent, its hired attorney was grappling with a legal problem. In December 2015, a Cole County judge dismissed the Temple’s case, ruling that it had not shown that Missouri violated Doe’s rights under the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA. Adopted in 2003, the law prohibits the state from restricting “a person’s free exercise of religion,”

torneys, proved that Doe’s rights were intact.

That’s because Doe wasn’t technically required to read the pamphlet, only to have the opportunity to do so. Similarly, the state argued, Doe wasn’t required to view the sonogram or listen to her baby’s heartbeat, only to be given the “opportunity.”

In a motion to dismiss, the attorney general’s office cited obby Lobby, the very U.S. Supreme Court decision that the Satanic

amended lawsuit in state court.

It already had a second lawsuit underway in federal court, again with Mary Doe at its center: It alleged that Missouri’s laws unconstitutionally privileged Christian beliefs about life and abortion over those of Satanists like Doe. The federal case was filed a month after Doe’s abortion. Crucially, that meant the plaintiff was no longer pregnant. MacNaughton had to prove Doe nevertheless had standing, and so he argued that she had in fact suffered “stigmatic injury” when she was presented with the religious-based “opportunities” at the Planned Parenthood clinic.

“Those injuries did not go away after she had her abortion,” MacNaughton explains now, though he also concedes that the scenario weakened his legal arsenal.

“That was a different argument than the liberty rights and privacy rights that underlie Roe v. Wade,” he explains, “since those rights disappear once you have the abortion.”

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ore than four decades separate Mary Doe from Jane Roe, whose attempts at obtaining an abortion led to the Roe v.

Wade decision.

Like Doe in 2015, Roe Nikki Moungo no longer sees the Satanic Temple as “reproductive heroes.” | DANNY WICENTOWSKI had found herself with limited options in 1969 Texas.

Pregnant with her third defined as an act or refusal to act Temple had bragged about using child at 21, she was willing to try that is substantially motivated by as leverage. almost anything. She went to the Missouri’s argument went like police claiming she’d been raped, religious belief, whether or not the religious exercise is compul- this: In Hobby Lobby, federal law hoping Texas law would provide sory or central to a larger system had tried to force a corporation an exception, but she was turned with religious shareholders to away for lack of evidence. She of religious belief.”

Temple’s attorney James Mac- buy contraceptive coverage for tried an illegal abortion clinic, but Naughton had focused his argu- employees, an “act prohibited the building had been raided by ment on the informed consent by their beliefs.” But no one was police. pamphlet handed to patients, forcing Doe into a similar “act” Like Doe, Roe was eventually rewhich defines the life of a fetus on which to judge her claims. Af- ferred to a pair of attorneys seekas “a separate, unique, living hu- ter all, no Satanic tenet prohibits ing a plaintiff to help them chalman.” That position is not based members from having an “oppor- lenge state laws that criminalized tunity” to view a sonogram. Same abortion. in science, MacNaughton says.

“It is a state-approved doctrine with the “opportunity” to read (or After the Supreme Court overfor when a human life comes into not read) a pamphlet. Nor is there turned those laws in 1973, Jane existence, which is fundamentally a Satanic tenet specifying that Roe outed herself as Norma Mca religious principle,” the attorney abortions must occur in under 72 Corvey. But two decades later, her argues. “It’s preaching that tenet hours. legacy would turn dramatically Seven months after the Temple when she became a pro-life Chrisin the waiting rooms of Planned filed its suit, ole ounty ircuit tian. Until her death in 2017, McParenthood.”

But the question of when life Court Judge Jon Beetem agreed Corvey worked to undo the precbegins was never argued before with the state’s motion to dismiss, edent set in her name. She was the Missouri courts. Instead the writing that Doe had “fail[ed] to often quoted describing herself Temple was forced to argue about allege facts which if true, state a as a “pawn” in the schemes of her claim for relief under the RFRA.” ’s definition of an act, pro-abortion lawyers.

The Temple vowed to file an which, according to the state’s atContinued on pg 22

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Continued from pg 21

For Doe, the problem wasn’t a change of belief in the Temple’s tenets. In the summer of 2016, Mary Doe still believed she was doing the right thing. Still, she too felt very much like a pawn.

“I wasn’t being represented in the way I’d hoped,” she says.

Doe claims that she emailed Greaves and MacNaughton that summer to notify them she wanted out of the case. The email triggered a phone call from a furious Greaves.

“Lucien just completely lost his temper,” Doe recalls. “He was just screaming, he was talking fast, I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

After he hung up, I tried to call him back a couple times, but it didn’t work. So I just blocked his number.”

Even though Doe had already given a deposition for the Temple’s lawsuit in Cole County, the shouting match with Greaves had pushed her to the edge. It was MacNaughton’s turn to plead for peace. He deployed what she now describes as “a major guilt trip,” begging her not to damage his reputation by leaving the highprofile case.

MacNaughton disputes Doe’s version of that conversation; he is adamant that she never made a formal demand to leave the case in 2016.

(In general, attorneys are ethically bound to follow client’s instructions for representation. A lawyer refusing a client’s request to leave a case could risk disbarment.)

“That she was being coerced or bulldozed, that absolutely wasn’t the case,” MacNaughton says now.

“My view was that I have a client, I’m representing her interests in the lawsuit, and it would make it easier for me to do that job if she didn’t squabble.”

MacNaughton’s solution was an unusual one. In a letter sent to Doe dated July 5, 2016, MacNaughton proposed what amounted to gag order of his own client, with financial repercussions if she tried to meddle in the case.

As long as MacNaughton remained her attorney, the agreement stipulated that Doe “have no intentional contact with any member of the Satanic Temple” — which would include Nikki Moungo — and that MacNaughton retain “sole authority to make or authorize publicity” for the case.

There was another provision.

If oe tried to fire ac aughton on her own, for any reason but “incompetence,” the agreement made her liable for a $1,500 ter-

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mination fee.

The agreement/gag letter sent

by MacNaughton represented the last piece of direct communication between Doe and the Temple for nearly two years. After that, Doe says, “I got updates on the case through Google alerts.”

It wasn’t ideal for the Temple, either. In an interview, MacNaughton says the feud between Greaves and Doe threatened to derail the case with “a lot of ego.”

Still, MacNaughton maintains that his phone call with Doe ended with her “total agreement” in the conditions of the letter and her continued role as plaintiff. He says he’s ba ed by oe’s claims to the contrary.

the state’s medically dubious requirements for abortion clinics.

Sachs wrote, “The abortion rights of Missouri women, guaranteed by constitutional rulings, are being denied on a daily basis, in irreparable fashion.”

This had nothing to do with the Satanic Temple. Sachs’ broadside was based on the 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, in which the justices found that Texas had enacted medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers, effectively closing clinics and reducing access to health care.

Sachs’ ruling had an immediate effect. Clinics in Kansas City and Columbia, which had long ago lost

The Satanic Temple made headlines by insisting “Baphomet” should be displayed along with the Ten Commandments. | FLICKR/MARC NOZELL “She had the opportunity to drop this case in 2016 when we talked about it,” MacNaughton says. “If she truly felt coerced, that’s news to me. I never got that sense from her.”

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or the next two years, Doe’s lawsuits sputtered along through the appeals courts. Dismissing the federal lawsuit in August 2016, the district judge ruled that Doe lacked standing, as she “is not now pregnant,” and “there is no guarantee that she will become pregnant in the future.” MacNaughton pressed on.

But in 2017, with the Satanic lawsuits all but forgotten, something extremely rare happened in Missouri: Its abortion access expanded.

The previous summer, a different federal judge, Howard Sachs, had dropped a bomb on some of

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their abortion licenses, were suddenly able to serve patients again. or the first time, clinics in oplin and pringfield made plans to offer medication-assisted abortions.

The Satanic Temple managed to clatter into the story. A widely shared Salon.com article declared confidently, and wrongly, that issouri’s ash renaissance of abortion access was “thanks to Planned Parenthood and Satanists.” (Breitbart carried the error into the realm of fantasy, suggesting Planned Parenthood was “teaming up” with the worshipers of the child sacrifice demanding Moloch.)

In reality, the Temple’s lawsuits were irrelevant, though the Satanists did their best to spin to the contrary.

Notably, after the Missouri Supreme Court heard the Temple’s appeal in January 2018, the Temple released a statement touting

an “unprecedented triumph for the Satanic Temple,” a curious claim given that the alleged “triumph” amounted to Missouri’s Solicitor General John Sauer admitting that an abortion patient “is entitled to decline” an ultrasound procedure – a point the state had already acknowledged in its 2015 motion to dismiss Doe’s lawsuit.

It was an example of the Temple clumsily stretching for some positive public attention. Nikki Moungo, who left the Temple in 2017, says she wasn’t surprised by the attempt to create the appearance of victory.

“This was no great epic moment where the Satanic Temple held someone’s feet to the fire, oungo says scornfully. “They called this little clusterfuck a win. I haven’t received any benefit from them not knowing the ultrasound law.”

And in Missouri, any win for abortion rights tends to be shortlived. And so it was in 2018, when a federal court undid the ruling that had allowed Missourians to live, brie y, in a state with more than one abortion provider.

With a ruling by the Eighth District Court of Appeals, the window of expanded abortion access slammed shut. Once again, Missouri mandated that its abortion doctors obtain hospital admitting privileges. In Columbia’s Planned Parenthood clinic, patients were told that they’d have to reschedule and drive to St. Louis. Clinics in oplin and pringfield scrapped plans to offer medical abortions.

Less than a year after Sachs’ ruling seemed to herald a major expansion, Missouri was back to a single abortion provider.

In some alternate version of events, this would have been the perfect moment for the Satanic Temple to ride in to the rescue.

What could be more unprecedented, more triumphant, than someone like Mary Doe forcing the state to reckon with empowered Satanists?

But by February 2019, Doe had lost faith in the Temple. That month, she emailed MacNaughton, making contact for the first time since accepting the gag agreement in 2016. She wrote to serve notice “of my wish to withdraw from the case.” Once again, the Temple and MacNaughton were faced with the alarming possibility that their client wanted to destroy their lengthy and expensive lawsuit.

This time, MacNaughton does not dispute that Doe emailed him with a direct request to leave the case. owever, he says his first attempts to respond by email and phone where unsuccessful.

It didn’t matter. Days after Doe’s email arrived in MacNaughton’s inbox, the Missouri Supreme ourt unanimously affirmed the lower court’s decision to dismiss the case — again without ever addressing the core question of whether Missouri abortion laws infringed on Doe’s Satanic beliefs.

It was over. And Mary Doe wasted no time going public.

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our months prior to emailing MacNaughton to quit the case, Doe had reached out to Nikki Moungo, breaking the years of silence that began with the gag agreement. Moungo was no longer with the Satanic Temple — she’d had her own bitter dispute with the national council, which removed her from its ranks and dissolved the St. Louis chapter in 2017. She’d subsequently founded the Ordo Sororitatis Satanicae, a women-focused Satanist group.

Doe, who was living in a women’s shelter in St. Louis, wanted to air her thoughts. And on the night the Supreme Court dismissed the case, they appeared in a blog post structured as a Q&A. The blog was titled, “Mary Doe Speaks,” but it seemed more like a scream than mere speech when it came to the Temple and its spokesman.

Unlike Roe’s McCorvey, Doe still believed in the overall cause. In the Q&A, she described the feeling of relief around her abortion. She felt “no loss,” only appreciation for the fact that not being pregnant was the best thing she could do to care for her current child.

Yet Doe uncorked her frustration with the Temple spokesman, accusing the Temple of only offering assistance “when it was lucrative for them.” The post also included a redacted, unsigned copy of the gag agreement MacNaughton had sent Doe in 2016. She claimed the Temple had “banished” her after her dispute with Greaves.

“They are out to make a name and nothing else,” she charged.

“They didn’t care about me, I was a cash cow to them.”

One week later, Greaves published a manifesto-length response to his personal blog. Titled “The Savage Saga of Mary Doe,” the nearly 5,000-word chronicle of grievances described Doe as unstable and abusive, “an unmanageable plaintiff” who attempted to manipulate the Temple members trying to help her. Doe, he wrote, had used the threat of dropping out of the case to hold them as hostages to her demands. uring the first year of litigation, Greaves claimed, Doe had

called and texted him late at night, “apparently while inebriated, threatening to pull out of the case if I did not speak to her, and hurling bizarre accusations at me.”

In Greaves’ telling, Doe’s “vague incessant threats” to abandon the case became overwhelming, and he was certain she was about to start requesting more money (even though, he acknowledges, “that demand never arrived.”)

Her unmanageable behavior, Greaves charged, led MacNaughton to employ a gag order.

In a recent interview, Greaves says Doe’s accusation that his group had pursued her case as a “cash cow” was particularly galling.

“We lost so much money in this litigation, with so little to show for it, with the kind of facile dismissals we had,” he says. “We did this with no hope of getting anything out of it but to help reproductive rights.”

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f there’s a single image that clarifies issouri’s position on reproductive rights, it’s the billboard that faces motorists leaving the state just east of St. Louis, the one that says, “Welcome to Illinois, where you can get a safe, legal abortion.”

Inside the Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, Dr. Erin King leads an impromptu tour through the hallways and waiting rooms. Every door is restricted by keycard and capable of locking down in an instant. King notes that the clinic’s previous location had been the target of firebombs.

More than half of King’s patients come from Missouri, and King suspects that the trend will only grow more pronounced. Last year, after a new Missouri law required women to undergo a pelvic exam before receiving a medical abortion, Planned Parenthood in St. Louis began referring patients to Illinois, where prescribing a pill doesn’t require doctors to probe a patient’s vagina.

Even now, King says she still hears from former Missouri patients who struggle to grasp that it is not Planned Parenthood enforcing a 72-hour waiting period, but rather their own state government. In the Hope Clinic, the entire procedure, from intake to surgery to exit, takes a single afternoon.

“Everyone has an ultrasound,” King explains, taking the tour past the exam room. The procedure is used to determine a precise gestational age; no one is forcing Illinois doctors to talk to patients about fetal heartbeat or when the collection of cells becomes a Continued on pg 24

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At the Hope Clinic For Women in Granite City, Illinois, Dr. Erin King says she’s seeing more and more Missouri patients. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI

FAIL SATAN

Continued from pg 23

unique human being.

King comes to a room marked as a counselor’s office. veryone has a meeting here. We do call it ‘counseling,’ but it’s really just education and informed consent,” she says. “Everyone gets seen alone so make sure they’re here of their own free will and not being coerced.”

The clinic couldn’t be more different than the one in Missouri, where lawmakers have seen that ultrasounds and the concept of “informed consent” take on very different meanings. In Missouri’s Republican-dominated General Assembly, most lawmakers appear hopeful that the Supreme Court will soon overturn Roe v.

Wade, freeing them to ban abortion. Missouri Republicans have even filed a bill to enact an abortion “trigger ban” — if it’s passed, the minute Roe is repealed, the vast majority of abortions would immediately become illegal in Missouri, without exclusions for rape or incest.

Even if Roe stands, another provision of the bill would bar abortions after detection of a fetal heartbeat, which can occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy — before many women even know they are pregnant.

The bill has drawn opposition from Democrats and abortion activists, who say it could make Mis-

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souri the most restrictive state in the country for abortion access.

But the pro-choice crowd is badly outnumbered in the state capitol, and while they argue that science is on their side, Missouri lawmakers are happy to cite divine inspiration instead. The GOP bill even begins with a sort of preamble, declaring that the law’s provisions are made “in recognition that God is the author of life.”

That bill seems ripe for challenge by the Satanic Temple, and while Mary Doe’s case has ended, the Satanists’ ambitions have not.

Nikki Moungo hopes to build her own group into a source of political in uence. nd the atanic Temple — recently awarded taxexempt status as a religion by the IRS — has its own plans.

In March 2018, MacNaughton filed a new lawsuit in federal court, this time on behalf of “Judy Doe,” a pregnant Missouri woman who alleges Missouri is violating her Satanic belief in bodily autonomy.

A federal court dismissed the case, but the Temple has filed an appeal. There may be more years of litigation.

And those, too, may prove a high-wire act. During an interview with MacNaughton, RFT inquired about scheduling an interview with Judy Doe, and whether she would speak about her experience with Missouri abortion laws.

The Temple’s attorney offered an immediate, one-word response: “No.” n

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26

CALENDAR

BY PAUL PAUL FRISWOLD FRISWOLD BY

THURSDAY 05/09 The Certain Thing Maxine sits in her nursing home, waiting for the moment when her daughter will spring her trap and order the nurse to kill her. She’s certain it’s coming — the new tax laws that go into effect on January 1 will cut into her daughter’s inheritance, and if Maxine croaks before then, her daughter gets a bigger score. The only answer is a counter-scheme: If Maxine can offer her nurse a larger payday to keep her alive, the daughter loses.

But is that what’s really going on, or is all the drama in the fearful mind of an unwell, elderly woman? Lucas Hnath’s play Death Tax is a darkly comic look at the end of life and family squabbles. Mustard Seed Theatre closes its season with the St. Louis premiere of Death Tax. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (May 9 to 19) at the Fontbonne University Fine Arts Theatre (6800 Wydown Boulevard; www.mustardseedtheatre.com). Tickets are $15 to $35.

FRIDAY 05/10 So Long, Madea Tyler Perry is done with Madea.

After more than a decade on stage

The Laumeier Art Fair features incredible art, like this embroidery. | YANGFANG INLOW and in film, his beloved grandmother with a sharp tongue in her mouth and a gun in her purse is officially retiring. Perry’s giving her a golden swan song with Madea’s Farewell Play. Perry sticks with what works in his shows, which is exactly what the audience wants.

The family (played by Perry regulars Tamela Mann, David Mann and Cassi Davis) will gather for an occasion, a secret or two will be inadvertently revealed and things will turn sour before Madea steps up and talks some sense and calms things down. There will be songs, lots of jokes and a whole lot of love — and in the end, that’s what keeps families together. Ma-

dea’s Farewell Play is performed at 8 p.m. Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

Nights, as well as his own fascination with the perceived exoticism of the Middle East. As for Berlioz, his composition was driven by his very real obsession for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. She never replied to his fervent letters of devotion, and Berlioz channeled what he called “that rage” of unrequited love into a symphony that charted the longing and despair he felt. In it, a man spots the woman he loves at a ball, which is followed by a scene in the country. His pain is too great to bear, and so he poisons himself with opium and oats into a nightmare in which he has killed his beloved and witnesses his own execution.

The finale is a witches’ sabbath, followed by a descent into hell.

(Oddly, Harriet later agreed to meet Berlioz — and marry him!

— after hearing the piece, rather than changing her name and mov-

The musical Come From Away was inspired by real-life events. | MATTHEW MURPHY (May 10 to 12) at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; www.fabulousfox.com). Tickets are $48.50 to $128.50, and don’t show up late: Madea will call you out in front of God and everybody.

Strange Passion

Madea’s going out in style. | COURTESY OF THE FOX THEATRE

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The St. Louis Symphony closes its current season in style, with Music Director Designate Stéphane Denève leading the orchestra through Ravel’s lush Shéhérazade and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. As Ravel’s title implies, his piece is inspired by the Arabian

ing.) It’s a thrilling ride for the listener at any rate. Performances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (May 10 to 12) at Powell Hall (718 North Grand Boulevard; www.slso.org). Tickets are $25 to $92.50.

SATURDAY 05/11 The Perfect Gift If you haven’t found that gift for Mother’s Day (it’s Sunday, May 12, this year), it’s not too late to give her what she really wants. What

WEEK OF OF MAY MAY 9-15 9-15 WEEK could be better than a day spent with her favorite child at the Laumeier Art Fair? A day spent outdoors, wandering among the numerous artists and their work in a lovely park, complete with food and drinks as needed? That’s better than another necktie (some moms wear ties, deal with it). aybe she’ll find a nice hand made gift there you could buy her, or perhaps you’ll see a few somethings that would make good gifts for you — there’s a lot of art on display, after all. The fair takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday (May 10 to 12) at Laumeier Sculpture Park (12580 Rott Road, Sunset Hills; www.laumeier.org). Admission is $10, but free for members.

TUESDAY 05/14 From Nowhere to Newfoundland After the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, air traffic was shut down. The planes in the air needed some place out of harm’s way to land. Newfoundland is an island off the east coast of anada, and it is definitely out of the way. When more than a dozen planes were diverted there and 7,000 confused, weary passengers disembarked, the population of the town instantly doubled. The locals had no problem welcoming strangers into their homes, feeding them and offering them comfort and a shoulder to cry on as the travelers processed what had happened. Newfoundlanders don’t need a reason to sing, and with so many guests in town, the instruments came out. As the songs started, friendships were forged in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland. Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical Come From Away is inspired by the true story of small-town kindness in the aftermath of fear and terror.

The musical is performed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday (May 14 to 26) at the Fox Theatre (527 North Grand Boulevard; www.fabulousfox. com). Tickets are $35 to $115. n

SATURDAY 05/11 Almost Golden

T

ennessee Williams’ plays have been credited with many innovations, from that meme-worthy “Stelllllaa!!!” to the lyrical cannibalism in Suddenly Last Summer. But did a play Williams wrote about St. Louis actually inspire The Golden Girls?

That’s the legend, anyway.

“I’ve been to many Tennessee Williams seminars and panels, and that is what the scholars contend,” says Carrie Houk, the founder and artistic director of the Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. With the unspoken acknowledgment that such evidence is far from definitive, Houk continues, “But if Golden Girls was based on the play, it’s very loosely based.”

The 1979 play, which Houk tapped for this year’s festival, is called “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,” and its Depression-era setting is inspired

by Williams’ early life in St. Louis. In it four women who live in the same building dream of romance, family and escaping their dreary situation, but will settle for a nice Sunday afternoon in Creve Coeur Park.

There are some superficial similarities between Williams’ play and the NBC sitcom, which premiered six years after the play’s debut. Williams’ play has an immigrant named Sophie; Golden Girls has a Sophia. The play has a woman named Dorothea (she goes by Dottie), while Golden Girls has Dorothy. Williams has Bodey; Golden Girls has Betty.

Much of the action in “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur” takes place around the kitchen table in Dottie and Bodey’s apartment, while the Golden Girls’ kitchen table was essentially the fifth member of the cast.

The accepted show biz story for the creation of The Golden Girls is that NBC president Brandon Tartikoff wanted a show for an older audience. Golden Girls’ creator Susan Harris was inspired by her very active grandmother’s social life. (Harris also created the soap opera parody Soap, which focused on two sisters — one practical, one wealthy and moderately delusional about her own life — who regularly sat around the kitchen table discussing their new problems every week.)

Still, references to Williams’ plays run through many of Golden Girls’ 177

The cast of “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur,” part of this year’s Tennessee Williams Festival St. Louis. | PROPHOTOSTL.COM

Did a play Tennessee Williams wrote about St. Louis actually inspire The Golden Girls? episodes, from the names of the main characters to Blanche Deveraux’s mannerisms and her father, whom she calls “Big Daddy,” echoing the name of the patriarch in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. And Rue McClanahan said her portrayal of Blanche was directly inspired by Williams’ famous heroine in A Streetcar Named Desire.

For Houk, the magic of “A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur” is not any real or perceived connection to a beloved sitcom, but the play itself. “It’s about loneliness and the need for human connections,” she explains. “It’s a comedy, but it has a lot of vulnerability. It could just be wisecrack, wisecrack, wisecrack, but there’s this other element, of the characters needing love. All four women are different, but they need each other.”

Like many of Williams’ short plays, the

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condensed nature of the one-act format heightens the impact of his poetic flourishes, and also allows him the luxury of a happy ending. “Here are these women on a flat on Enright Avenue, and they dream about flying away,” marvels Houk.

“Even if there’s just one afternoon at Creve Coeur Park, there’s a respite.”

“A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur” will be directed by Kari Ely and star Maggie Wininger, Kelley Weber, Julie Layton and Ellie Schwetye, which experienced theatergoers will recognize as quite a potent lineup. It will be performed at 1 and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (May 11 to 19) in the Grand Hall at the Grandel Theatre (3610 Grandel Square; www.twstl. org), and tickets are $25 to $45.

The festival’s main stage production, The Night of the Iguana, is performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (May 9 to 19) in the Grandel; tickets are $25 to $45. Additionally, New Orleans native Bryan Batt will star in his one-man show “Dear Mr. Williams,” which is a coming-of-age story about a gay artist, spiced by sex and alcohol; the piece is inspired by some of Williams’ lesser-known stories and love for his adopted hometown (not St. Louis). Batt will perform his show 8:30 p.m. Friday and 3:30 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday (May 10 and 11) at the Curtain Call Lounge (527 North Grand Boulevard). Tickets are $25 to $55. n

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FILM

31

Prospective film students wait to find out if they’ve been accepted to La Fémis. | © ANDOLFI 2015

[REVIEW]

The French Selection Claire Simon’s The Competition takes you inside the selection process at France’s film academy Written by

ROBERT HUNT The Competition Directed by Claire Simon. Starring Alain Bergala, Claire Childeric and Emilie Deleuze.

Shown Friday through Sunday (May 10 to 12) at the Webster Film Series.

L

ocated in Paris in a building that once housed the studios of Pathé Films, La Fémis (an acronym — more or less — of “Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son”) is one of the most prestigious film schools in the world,

offering a four-year program not only in every aspect of production but also distribution, exhibition and programming. Its goal is to provide students with a well rounded knowledge of all aspects of cinema, teaching not only business sense and technical skills but grounding them in an all-encompassing love of movies that is as much a part of French culture of wine and croissants.

The Competition records the entry process at La Fémis as students apply for specific fields of study. ilmed by laire imon, who taught at the school for a decade, it begins with the reconstruction of one of the earlier images in film history, the workers leaving the Lumière factory in 1895. A group of young men and women stand outside a metal gate. The doors open and a crowd of roughly , applicants walk in. fter a short test in which they’re asked to analy e a film clip, more than 900 students are eliminated, leaving a small group to face the approval of a panel of instructors in personal interviews. uch of imon’s film is devoted

to showing these panels at work, grilling the young applicants and often agonizing over their decisions once the panelist has left the room. It’s like a combination of a ob interview and a visit to a high school counselor where you’re not only supposed to provide information but also defend it. Students are judged by the strength of the projects — some bring along storyboards and elaborate charts — but also on their personalities, their passion for their ideas. Some of the students are devoted cinephiliacs their highbrow in uences include Truffaut, Cocteau and emy while others have more difficulty articulating their plans.

The instructors rigorously debate the merits of both, even defending those to whom they’ve reacted negatively. (Simon refrains from showing most of these. s one of the udges sincerely defines her dilemma, I don’t want to stop a guy from doing what he needs to do just because he’s crazy.”

You don’t need a particular interest in film schools to find The Competition absorbing. ollowing in the tradition of Frederick

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Wiseman, Simon turns her camera on the workings of an institution, its traditions as well as its human side. This is a film about people sharing their hopes and ambitions and straining to reach each other. Their goals may be different one young woman e presses a desire to run a smalltown cinema a young man offers a melodramatic scenario so complicated that the panel continues to untangle its string of exspouses and siblings even after he’s left the room), but they’re all presented as important facets of the school and its tradition.

The Competition is also an optimistic film, a hopeful work about the lifeblood of cinema. The teachers express their faith in the students’ projects, the producers and distributors suggest that the new faces before them will keep the industry alive, and the students see a chance to bring their often unsophisticated ideas to life. When imon watches those tall gates open and close on the La Fémis campus, she’s not ust winking at the 124-year-old Lumière tradition she’s watching its future. n

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FEATURED DINING

6 RESTAURANTS YOU NEED TO CHECK OUT...

CARNIVORE STL

SPENCER’S GRILL

CARNIVORE-STL.COM

314.449.6328 5257 SHAW AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110 Carnivore fills a nearly 4,000-square-foot space on The Hill with a dining area, bar lounge, and adjoining outdoor patio gracefully guarded by a bronze steer at the main entrance. Always embracing change, Joe and Kerri Smugala, with business partners Chef Mike and Casie Lutker, launched Carnivore STL this summer. As the Hill’s only steakhouse, Carnivore offers a homestyle menu at budget-friendly prices appealing to the neighborhood’s many families. Steak, of course, takes center stage with juicy filet mignon, top sirloin, strip steak and ribeye leading the menu. Customize any of the succulent meats with sautéed mushrooms, grilled shrimp, or melted housemade butters, such as garlic-and-herb and red wine reduction, on top of the flame-seared steak. Other main dishes include a thick-cut pork steak (smoked at J. Smugs) and the grilled chicken with capers and a white wine-lemonbutter sauce. St. Louis Italian traditions get their due in the Baked Ravioli, smothered in provel cheese and house ragu, and in the Arancini, risotto balls stuffed with provel and swimming in a pool of meat sauce. With an exciting new brunch menu debuting for Saturday and Sunday, Carnivore should be everyone’s new taste of the Hill.

THE CHOCOLATE PIG THECHOCOLATEPIG.COM

314.272.3230 4220 DUNCAN AVE, ST. LOUIS, MO 63110

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314.821.2601 223 S KIRKWOOD RD KIRKWOOD, MO 63122 Spencer’s Grill is a historic diner in the heart of downtown Kirkwood. Bill Spencer opened the Grill on Route 66 back in 1947. Over 70 years later a lot has changed but the diner is still a timeless staple cherished by locals. These days Alex Campbell is the owner and the road goes by S. Kirkwood, but the old grill lives on. Known for its breakfast, Spencer’s cooks up crispy pancakes, from scratch biscuits and gravy, omelets, hash browns, and other traditional breakfast favorites. For the after breakfast crowds, Spencer’s offers a variety of lunch options including sandwiches as well as some of the best burgers in town. Jake Sciales (previously head chef at Farmhaus) runs the kitchen at Spencer’s and creates delicious off-menu specials daily. His culinary excellence makes even the most familiar dishes divine.The charming breakfast bar is welcoming and the service is friendly and fast. Mornings can be busy but the lines move quickly and breakfast comes out fast. Looking for a new breakfast spot? If you haven’t tried Spencer’s yet, you need to check it out. Spencer’s Grill is open 6AM until 2PM seven days a week.

MORRISON’S IRISH PUB MORRISONIRISHPUB.COM

618-433-8900 200 STATE STREET ALTON, IL 62002

Located inside the Cortex Innovation Hall in midtown St. Louis, The Chocolate Pig’s fun, unique location perfectly complements the interesting fare offered up by this well-regarded new entrant to the local dining scene. Open every day, The Chocolate Pig’s primary restaurant space offers salads, sandwiches, burgers, elevated comfort foods such as shrimp and grits and intriguing daily specials inside the attractive dining room and bar. The Market component, meanwhile is a “quick grab kitchen,” allowing those with limited time a chance to order a coffee and sandwich quickly, while offering an elevated set of expectations than the normal “grab & go” concept; it’s open from 7 am-5 pm daily and provides a great option for Cortex workers. Destination diners, though, are going to want to sit and savor the fare from The Chocolate Pig during lunch and dinner service, the restaurant serving moderately-priced entrees that are heavy on locally-sourced ingredients. Though the menu items featuring proteins (especially pork) are among the most-popular, a variety of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free items complement them. All items are offered up in one of the most-unique, thoughtfully-stimulating restaurant environments in town.

Several, long-beloved Irish pubs have staked a claim to being the most-authentic in town, though a strong case be made for one of the newer entrants. Located in the historic and scenic Alton, IL, Morrison’s Irish Pub brings all the elements of a great Irish pub under one roof - which, in this particular case, dates way back to 1865. Live music’s on-hand, with a strong selection of the area’s finest Irish and Irish-tinged groups and solo performers, heard from Thursday-Saturday nights. The selections of whiskey and beer reflect just the right touches of domestic and imported options, with plenty of favorites on-hand, including a wide-and-deep selection of Irish whiskeys that’d rival any other spirits menu in town. But it’s the menu that really solidifies the deal, with corned beef and cabbage, leek soup, Irish stew and Irish soda bread all available on a daily basis, along with rotating specials. Fare such as burgers, salads and wraps add to the traditional Irish fare, giving families a host of options. Open every day but Monday, Morrison’s offers a legit Irish pub feel without any artificial ingredients.

OAKED

THE BLUE DUCK

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314.305.8647 1031 LYNCH ST, ST. LOUIS, MO 63118

314.769.9940 2661 SUTTON BLVD, MAPLEWOOD, MO 63143

Treat yourself to an elevated culinary experience. With spring’s arrival, OAKED introduces its Pink Moon menu.

Diners can order the entire menu inside the speakeasy-feeling lounge, upstairs in the spacious dining room, and now on the beautiful New Orleans-style patio dubbed “the Veranda”. Chef Stephan Ledbetter and crew create new dishes each menu using the finest available ingredients while keeping past winners. This time around includes Duck Breast with charred Cabbage; Ratatouille with Spaghetti Squash and Vegan Burrata; and the housegem - Wild Mushrooms served with Duxellé, Truffle and Mushroom Tea. OAKED ensures their menu includes several vegan and gluten-free options so everyone can savor their evening. OAKED also has one of the better curated wine list in town alongside a selection of whiskeys and craft cocktails. It even has a small cigar bar outside on “the Gallery”. Offering Happy Hour specials from 4-6 daily. Music in the lounge Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Ample parking. Walk-ins are welcome, but reservations are recommended.

There aren’t many businesses named after Adam Sandler movies, but at the Blue Duck, the food is as whimsical as its “Billy Madison” reference. Originally founded in Washington, Mo., owners Chris and Karmen Rayburn opened the Blue Duck’s Maplewood outpost in 2017, bringing with them a seasonal menu full of American comfort-food dishes that are elevated with a dash of panache. Start the meal with the savory fried pork belly, which is rubbed with coffee and served with a sweet bbq sauce and root vegetable slaw. For the main event, the Duck’s signature DLT sandwich substitutes succulent smoked duck breast instead of the traditional bacon, adding fried egg and honey chipotle mayo along with lettuce and tomato on toasted sourdough. Save room for dessert; the Blue Duck’s St. Louberry pie – strawberries and blueberries topped with a gooey buttercake-like surface – is a worthy tribute to the Gateway City.

CAFE

33

[REVIEW]

Almost Famous A celebrity chef fills a void at Grand Tavern by David Burke, but adventurous diners may long for more Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Grand Tavern by David Burke 626 North Grand Boulevard, 314-405-3399.

Sun.-Thurs. 6:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 6:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

I

f you know anything about chef David Burke, you know that he has made a career out of his whimsical panache as much as the substance of his cooking. Hailed by the James Beard Foundation, the Culinary Institute of America and even the government of Japan for his culinary prowess, Burke also bears the distinction of having been deemed “Best Culinary Prankster” by Time Out New York.

It’s no wonder, then, that when the team behind Angad Arts Hotel was looking to develop its restaurant space, it saw Burke as the perfect person to do it. Its five year, $66 million renovation of the longvacant Missouri Theater Building was much more than a way to provide hotel beds to an underserved part of town; it sought to be transformative, blurring the lines between boutique hotel and immersive, sometimes irreverent, art experience. Burke, with his reputation for marrying upscale dining with whimsical, sometimes quirky, touches, fit that ethos.

Since opening last November, the Angad has hit that tone beautifully, garnering national buzz for its impressive art collection, giant, 360-degree immersive video art experience and the fact that it lets guests book color-themed hotel rooms based on their mood. It’s a cool, modern space that matches the grandeur of its Grand Center neighborhood, complete with an indoor-outdoor rooftop lounge

The chef’s whimsy shines in the chocolate mousse served “Radio City Rockette style,” an homage to the building’s previous tenants. | MABEL SUEN that makes cocktail hour in St. Louis seem impossibly hip. Standing around its crowded bar on a Friday night and staring out at the Arch, a gentle breeze blowing and a watermelon-and-basil daiquiri in hand, I was overcome by the feeling that the Angad is exactly what St. Louis has been missing. The question that lingers: Is Grand Tavern?

I’ve been struggling to answer this question since dining here, an experience that was technically good and had elements that made me smile, but that came with a $120/person guest check average and sometimes shaky service in a city whose homegrown restaurant scene is ourishing. nlike the Angad, it’s not clear that rand Tavern fills a void in the overall dining scene.

The dining scene at Grand Center, however, is another story. It’s a part of town that has been largely bereft of quality dining options for quite some time. That’s especially shameful since, as the city’s

theater district, it’s one of the few parts of the city some well-heeled county residents visit. Having them eat dinner in Ladue or Chesterfield before heading into the central corridor for an evening’s entertainment is a huge waste — for the city and for them.

By offering a celebrity chef’s distinct point of view in a cool setting, Grand Tavern is a theater district success. Playing up the building’s Art Deco origins, the restaurant’s 1930s aesthetic carries through in both its front lounge and back dining room. oth are outfitted with sage green fabric banquettes and white marble tables. In the front lounge, a large dark wooden bar, tan-colored couches and sage green chairs provide seating, while an entire wall is covered in individually framed cocktail napkin doodle artwork. Brass mirrors and chandeliers and geometric abstract artwork finish the look of the space.

Though Grand Tavern is Burke’s vision, the day-to-day culinary

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operations are handled by chef Robert Cantu, a Texas native who spent a large part of his restaurant career working for Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and uth’s hris. nder his watch, the kitchen puts out such David Burke signatures as the “Clothesline Bacon,” three-quarters of a pound of thick, awlessly cooked bacon that’s hung by clothespins from a wire attached to a wooden frame. On its face, it’s a gimmick, but every element adds to the experience: A coarse, peppery coating tingles the tongue, but is tempered by maple glaze. A sprig of rosemary, torched tableside, releases its fragrant perfume, filling the air with an intoxicating aroma. A server will heat your bacon with a torch, rendering its fat onto a pickle spear that lays beneath it.

You don’t need the pomp and circumstance of the presentation to make the dish enjoyable — which shows the substance beneath Burke’s showmanship.

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GRAND TAVERN Continued from pg 33

Burke is almost as well known for his “Angry Lobster Dumplings,” although they’re toned down at Grand Tavern and renamed “Emotional Lobster Dumplings” as a nod to the Angad’s mood-matching rooms. Here, the lobster meat is kissed with lemon zest and basil, then tucked into a wonton purse. If the “angry” dumplings listened to Slipknot, these are into Morrissey, their advertised spice barely apparent in a tomato sauce that’s still addictively tart. It’s punctuated with lemon confit for a oral undertone that accents the lobster’s sweetness.

Korean-style “wings and rings” pairs plump, sticky soy-and-gochujang-glazed chicken wings with tender, crispy-breaded calamari rings and tentacles, paperthin slices of watermelon radishes and shishito peppers. The avors work individually, but the dish — while stunning in presentation — was difficult to navigate. hicken, calamari, peppers and radishes are stacked like a kabob, then skewered into a block of wood.

To eat it or, even more difficult, to share it — you have to pull the saucy components off the skewer, ending up with sticky fingers and a mess of ingredients. This is not a first date dish.

Smoked salmon carpaccio was the standout appetizer on my visits, a mélange of salt, black pepper spice and smoke, each element making its presence known without obscuring the rich avor of the fish. Though urke is known

for culinary shenanigans, this dish is surprisingly understated, served with small toasts that are a cross between large croutons and crostini, as well as a piquant artichoke and arugula salad dressed in mustard oil that cuts through the fatty salmon. Between the toasted bread, the mustard and the peppery esh, you’d swear you were eating a pastrami sandwich at a New York deli.

I’m unsure what makes the “St. Louis Salad” anything remotely St. Louis-y. There’s no sweet Italian and Provel to speak of — instead Burke pairs burata, prosciutto, chilled shrimp, melon balls, corn and bell peppers for a dish that is refreshing, if not quizzical. My dining companion likened it to the sort of chilled shellfish salads she ate on the West Coast; I thought it seemed like a fancified take on the canned corn and mixed vegetable salad my aunt brings to our family get-togethers — granted, one I eat it by the bowlful. The refreshing avors and snappy te ture of each component were a pleasant palate energizer, even if I am still trying to figure out what this dish is all about.

Grand Tavern’s entrees may lack the funny names or overthe-top presentations of some of Burke’s appetizers, but they deliver in substance. filet so tender you could use your bread knife to slice through it is paired with barbecue shrimp and creamy grits; the Creole-seasoned butter from the shrimp serves as a rich, herb ecked gravy that begs to be soaked up with every bite.

A bison short-rib pasta was even more da ling. nlike some beef versions, which can be overly fat-

ty, the leaner bison was all meat, but surprisingly tender. A luxurious tru e mousse serves as the sauce, wrapping the bison, wild mushrooms and shell-shaped pasta into earth scented silk, a avor that is positively haunting.

Seafood is also well executed, from a simple grilled branzino that is perfectly cooked to the evening’s biggest surprise, a lobsterfried rice that features a generous portion of beautifully charred lobster tail served atop XO-sauced fried rice. It was one of my favorite Grand Tavern dishes.

Then again, it’s difficult to top Burke’s aged steaks, dry aged between 40 and 55 days using his patented Himalayan salt-brick process. The result is meat that is concentrated, nutty and tastes seasoned throughout. The KC sirloin, awlessly cooked to medium rare, melted on the tongue. Burke needs no gimmicks or special presentation here; the meat itself is the exclamation point. t. ouis’ in uence on the menu is perhaps felt most strongly on the dark chocolate mousse, served “Radio City Rockette Style.” In a nod to the building’s past incarnation as the birthplace of the Rockettes, Burke places an edible silhouette of dancer’s legs, mid kick, on the mousse, as if they are kicking out of a chocolate pool like a synchronized swimmer in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

The mousse itself is a fine enough chocolate bomb, but the garnish steals the show.

Burke’s other wink to St. Louis comes via the gooey butter doughnuts, yeasty rounds filled with a sweet butter sauce that gushes out when they are bitten. Though

tasty enough, they’re more literally gooey than an embodiment of the St. Louis favorite. Rather than expanding on the delightful versions you’d get at Park Avenue Coffee or Russell’s on Macklind, they read like an out-of-towner’s version of the dish.

Burke would admit as much. He is adamant that his intention was not to come to town and put together a restaurant filled with his interpretations of St. Louis dishes.

Why do that, he asks, when the local experts do it better?

The problem for Grand Tavern is just that — the city is bursting with local chefs who are providing innovative options that go beyond the tried and true playbook of a celebrity chef’s longstanding brand. The Angad may have a hip feel, but Grand Tavern seems best suited for the well-to-do theatergoers who may previously have been inclined to dine at a chain steakhouse in the county before heading to Powell Hall.

Those diners will want more polished service for the price tag — say, having a waiter who performs proper wine service on your bottle or clears the table in an efficient manner. ut they may be inclined to pay for the celebrity cache that Burke brings to the area, and happy with the kitchen’s superb execution of a New York chef’s greatest hits. For those of us seeking something new, however, the brand-new playbooks being written by local chefs are much more compelling.

Grand Tavern by David Burke “Clothesline Bacon” ................................. $18 Lobster fried rice ...................................... $38 18-ounce bone-in KC sirloin ..................... $59

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SHORT ORDERS [SIDE DISH]

Quattro Chef Has Spud Sympathy Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

J

osh Wedel can’t help but laugh when he recalls his dad’s lackluster response to his decision to go to culinary school.

“When I told my parents that I wanted to be a chef instead of an electrical engineer, my mom understood right away,” Wedel recalls. “My dad, however, was on the fence about it. He just hadn’t heard a lot about people doing that. ut after my first three months at school, I came back home and cooked him prime rib, he was like, ‘OK, yep. This is legit.’”

In retrospect, Wedel’s parents should not have been surprised with his change of career plans.

The southern Illinois native, who is executive chef at the new Quattro Trattoria & Pizzeria (811 Spruce Street, 314-552-5850) inside the Westin St. Louis, showed an interest in cooking as far back as he can remember. As a young boy, he would stand next to his mother on a stool in their kitchen, watching and learning as she prepared the family’s meals.

As he got older, Wedel grew even more passionate about cooking. In middle school, he would make food for his friends when they came over for sleepovers, and in high school, he ran a little catering operation, cooking for his teachers. Not surprisingly, when it came time to get a job, he found himself in the culinary field, working in grocery store delis through high school and into college.

After leaving his electrical engineering program, Wedel enrolled in culinary school at the Florida Culinary Institute, where he received degrees in culinary arts and food and beverage management. Throughout school, Wedel continued to work in grocery stores, a path he admits was less

Josh Wedel has gone from a small town to the kitchen of the Westin St. Louis. | COURTESY OF QUATTRO TRATTORIA about passion than familiarity.

“It’s where I was comfortable,” Wedel admits. “I wanted to be a chef, and I wanted to work in restaurants, but I was intimidated.”

Wedel would get his chance to make that transition into the restaurant business when he moved back to St. Louis following graduation. While looking for a serving job for herself, his wife came across an opportunity for Wedel at the Westin St. Louis. The pair went to the job fair to apply, but only one of them got the gig.

“I made it through seven interviews, and she didn’t make it past the first, edel laughs. I got the job and was super pumped. She wasn’t too happy.”

Wedel started at the Westin as a line cook, then worked his way up to sous chef within five years.

When the hotel was bought by new owners in 2017, he was promoted to executive chef and tasked with reinventing its restaurant. According to Wedel, Quattro Trattoria & Pizzeria, which opened last month, represents what he saw as a gap in downtown’s dining options, where bar food is the norm.

When he’s not in Quattro’s kitchen making its signature onepound meatball, Wedel can be found in his own kitchen, teaching his kids just like his mom

taught him. Both his son and his daughter have taken to cooking, though it’s his daughter who seems to be taking it and running with it — showing up her dad in the process.

“My daughter just has the temperament for cooking, and she loves to bake,” Wedel says. “She can outdo me on some things, too.

When I try to make macarons, they never turn out right. She got them right the first time she ever made them. She’s killing it.”

Wedel took a break from the kitchen — and getting schooled in baking by his daughter — to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage scene, his passion for health and wellness, and why he is proud to liken himself to the humble potato.

What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did?

I come from a town that is surrounded by cornfields and has a population of less than 1,000 people.

What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? oing to work out at rossfit dwardsville. I hate when I have to miss or skip a workout. If I do, I usually try to make it up later in the day.

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What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?

I think the camaraderie among all the chefs in St. Louis is impressive and goes to show why the food scene here has become as big as it has.

What is something missing in the local food, wine or cocktail scene that you’d like to see?

I know we have some, but we need more upscale gastropubs.

Love them.

Who is your St. Louis food crush? auce on the ide. ver since they opened, I thought it was an amazing concept. Now to see how much they have grown and are expanding — it’s truly a great accomplishment.

Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene? ike ohnson of ugarfire Smoke House. I love his creativity, and the items he is coming up with are amazing.

Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?

Potatoes. I know they are plain and boring, but you can do so many fun and creative things with them. That’s my personality — versatile. I love being all over the place and have so many different traits.

If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing?

I would probably work in a gym as a nutritionist and personal trainer. I love helping others with food.

Name an ingredient never allowed in your restaurant.

White pepper. I don’t like it for anything.

What is your after-work hangout?

Usually at home with the family.

What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure?

Cookies are my weakness — I love warm, fresh-baked cookies.

Beverage-wise, it’s a toss-up between an IPA and Tito’s with club soda. Those are my go-to drinks.

What would be your last meal on earth?

Black Angus burger topped with barbecue sauce, crispy pork belly and a fried egg served with Parmesan tru e oil skinny fries and a warm chocolate chip cookie with a large cold IPA. n

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[FOOD NEWS]

Alta Calle Is Coming to South Grand Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

T

he founder of the homegrown Las Palmas chain of Mexican restaurants, Veronica Morales, is teaming up with family members and a friend to open a new elevated street-food concept on South Grand Boulevard. Alta Calle (3131 South Grand Boulevard) will fill the space that was previously home to Mekong and Upstairs Lounge.

To its owners, the new location feels like fate. Morales and her sister, Dulce, were walking around South Grand’s main drag several month ago, scouting the area for a restaurant space. When they came across the old Mekong storefront, they were struck by its prime corner location and couldn’t help but peek inside, even though there was no “For Lease sign” posted.

The next thing they knew, they were being greeted by the owner.

He was looking for the right people to take over the restaurant,

[FIRST LOOK]

Embraced in STL, Impossible Whopper Is Now Going National Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

E

ver since the Impossible Whopper’s surprise launch on April 1, the wonder of the meatless burger’s very meat-like taste has been a boon — to St. Louis, which was selected as the sole test city for Burger King’s tasty experiment.

For the last month, we have had something no one else had. We were the only place in all of America you could get the Impossible Whopper.

However, in a shameful but expected act of capitalism, the company is now planning to make the Impossible Whopper part of its menu nationwide.

And for that, we can take some credit for being the forward-thinking, plant-

Alta Calle aims to offer elevated Mexican street food, such as these tacos. | CHERYL BAEHR which closed last January after the death of his son, Tu-Tien Tran.

The space had meant so much to his family, and as he chatted with the Moraleses, he knew they would be the right fit.

“We were really hoping it would work out,” Dulce says. “We feel so lucky we were able to get the place.” Now the sisters are going into business with Veronica’s son Steve Suarez and their family friend Mikey Carrasco, who was a co-founder of Taco Circus and has since worked at the Flying Saucer, Copia, Broadway Oyster Bar and, currently, Hamburger Mary’s.

As for Veronica Morales, she opened the original Las Palmas on Woodson Road in 1997, then grew the brand to include several localoving, food-focused city we all know ourselves to be. The Impossible Whopper test in St. Louis went “exceedingly well,” a Burger King spokesman told the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News last week, announcing the company’s decision to wrench from St. Louis its most recently established regional delicacy and make it something common.

The statement noted, “Burger King Restaurants in St. Louis are showing encouraging results and Impossible Whopper sales are complementing traditional Whopper purchases” — suggesting that vegetarians are now visiting the place with their meat-eating friends, a tide that lifts all burger boats. (Or maybe everyone’s just doing side-by-side comparisons, like us?)

Granted, the Impossible Whopper is really tasty and demonstrates that meat alternatives can work even in the fastfood market. It’s hard to blame the company for rolling it out nationwide.

Still, for these past five weeks, St. Louis was the center of the Impossible Whopper empire, where each fortunate citizen could thrill at the knowledge that eaters all over the country, from the posh LA gastropubs to the elite New York pizza basements, were thinking jealous

tions. Over the years, she sold all of the restaurants with the exception of the Maplewood one, but she is ready to branch out again with a new concept.

As Suarez explains, the timing was right for his mother because she will not be alone in the endeavor. Dulce had recently moved back to St. Louis from Atlanta, making the sisters’ longtime dream of opening a restaurant together a reality.

Suarez and Carrasco have been leading the development of Alta Calle’s menu, which they describe as hitting a sweet spot between high-end small plates concepts and the massive Tex-Mex platters often associated with Mexican cuisine in the Midwest. The pair are

experimenting with dishes like street tacos made with shrimp or carnitas, as well as a half chicken that is cooked sous vide with chocolate and spices, then finished in the deep-fryer and served over fries — a common chicken presentation in Mexico. Suarez is even developing a “Mexican Ice Cream Sundae,” a sweet chicharron pastry shell filled with homemade ice cream.

As Suarez explains, the name Alta Calle means “high street” and is a play on both the elevated street-food concept and his hometown in Mexico, where all of the streets in the hilly village are up high. And he’s not just paying homage to his native country with the food and name. Suarez is building the tables himself, making them with traditional Mexican tablecloths and old family photographs.

“We want this to be very familyoriented,” he says.

Suarez and Carrasco both point to the end of May as a projected opening date, though they admit it will take a lot of work to get there.

Once open, they plan to focus on the downstairs restaurant before doing anything with the upstairs space. ventually, though, they plan to open it up to special events and parties.

In the meantime, they are hard at work in Las Palmas’ kitchen, eager to get into their new space but content to develop recipes wherever they can. n

One of these burgers is made of cow, one is made of plants. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI thoughts about St. Louis’ exclusive food offerings.

Anyway, we don’t need the Impossible Whopper to be special. We’ll always have

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Imo’s. Can’t get that in San Francisco.

As for the Impossible Whopper, the nationwide roll-out is expected to hit non-St. Louis locations by the end of the year. n

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Written by

CHELSEA NEULING

S

ynergy Smoothie and Elixir Bar (3674 Forest Park Avenue) is the kind of place you can gather with friends for a good conversation and a drink. But it’s not a bar in the traditional sense: Synergy has no alcohol.

Instead, this new Midtown business focuses on the connection between the body and mind and enhancing health on multiple levels. Instead of getting buzzed on booze, you can feel a different kind of buzz with drinks infused with herbal remedies including Kava and CBD. Owners Danny Hallam and Joe and Genevieve Bill are experts on the products and their benefits. They all want to focus on making their shop not only a platform to teach, but a platform to learn from others in the community.

“We consider Synergy a high-minded sober social house,” says Hallam, “a destination where people come to enjoy their time together without alcohol.”

To that end, they’ve converted the counter-service spot that previously held Dixon’s BBQ into a relaxed space with a bar and tables. Exposed brick walls provide a classic St. Louis feel. Positive and comfortable energy radiates throughout the space.

“We want to create a place where even Grandma can feel comfortable coming in,” adds Joe Bill. “We are not like a head shop.”

Synergy offers traditional mocktails, but if you want to enhance your experience, Kava is the way to go. A cold tea made from the root of the Kava Kava plant from the Polynesian Islands, it has an earthy taste and gives you a euphoric and relaxed feeling — sort of like a buzz without the negative effects of alcohol.

No motor skills are affected and people

tend to be extra chatty afterward. It is a social lubricant that has been used as a ceremonial drink for thousands of years, the owner says. Order one at Synergy, and you may well be served it in a coconut bowl and instructed to toast it while saying, “Bula!” (Why not go with it?)

Synergy’s owners say their herbal blends are tailored to help you respond less to stressors. They swear you’ll have an easier time focusing after a cup of the “Rainforest Clarity” tea. Or you can get a pep in your step with an “Energy Juice Shot” containing pineapple, matcha and ginger.

Enjoy smoothies such as the “Sweet Mana” featuring mango, banana, orange, coconut extract and coconut milk. The “Mayan Warrior” smoothie, meanwhile, is a pleasant surprise with cocoa, banana, strawberry, maple syrup, cayenne, cinnamon, bee pollen and almond milk. All smoothies are sixteen ounces and $7.50.

You can add CBD to your drink for an additional $2. Made from a flower in the cannabis plant, it won’t get you high, but its proponents swear it’s a natural pain reliever that accomplishes any number of other things, including just putting you in a good mood. Synergy’s owners say it helps create a balance in the body.

They’re also planning to introduce a raw vegan food menu, along with CBD desserts. They say they’re using fresh ingredients and work directly with the farmers.

“We even plan to have some of the farmers come and speak,” says Hallam.

Perhaps surprisingly in light of the herbal remedies on offer, Synergy is kid friendly. The business offers a changing table and high chairs. You can expect a kids’ menu in the near future.

That’s not all: They sell crystals and vintage jewelry, and also offer classes and events where you can learn how to make wire-wrapped jewelry, attend Tarot card readings and more. The team is planning poetry, music and open mic nights.

Synergy held a soft opening on March 5 and will be hosting a grand opening on May 11, complete with a DJ. Synergy is open from 4 to 10 p.m Tuesday through Saturday; after the grand opening, it will also be open during the day. n

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MUSIC + CULTURE

41

[HOMESPUN]

Playing With Fire Suzie Cue doesn’t sugarcoat a thing on her latest, The Bridges Were Already Burning Written by

CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER

S

uzie Gilb is no stranger to the taverns and music venues around the south side of St. Louis. She’s a regular performer on the scattershot mosaic oor of the enice afe, where audiences may not blink an eye at her songs, which often pair her acerbic wit with her Rrated lexicon.

In ilb’s delivery, the word shit carries much more than just its scatological weight; the four-letter word encompasses behaviors, moods and actions. You’ll hear it scattered throughout the songs she plays under the name u ie ue with such regularity that you’d be forgiven for thinking that her curse words appear as part of some autonomic process.

So when Gilb wants to share her songs with a wider audience, she has to do some judicious editing of her lyrics — or abandon whole songs altogether.

I ust played a show this weekend that was somewhat family friendly, and I went through my repertoire of songs. ‘Ain’t That ome hit,’ uck Off’ can’t play that she says, laughing.

Those two songs appear on the latest u ie ue release, The Bridges Were Already Burning, and their titles give away much of the rancor that Gilb expresses on parts of the EP. While these recordings were initially intended to be scratch recordings for a fullband album (which is currently being readied for release , she found that these versions told a story by themselves.

I’m sort of an old school album fan, and these days people are more interested in putting out singles, ilb says. o, to set a defini-

Singer-songwriter Suzie Cue’s new album puts her acerbic wit and R-rated vocabulary on full display. | VIA THE ARTIST tive start and stop to the release, Gilb crafted two brief but loaded snippets, Intro and Outro, which are a little more delicate than some of the other songs. She says that they serve both as guideposts and as summaries for what comes in between. hen I went to do the tracklist, I thought of how to make it sound like a cohesive story, in a way that ows and makes sense with the music, she e plains.

That storyline, such as it is, is more a rumination and excavation of a few failed relationships.

The title is The Bridges Were Already Burning, so the theme for me was about having these toxic relationships in your life that you need to get rid of, ilb says. he notes that a few of these relationships were romantic, though not all. And in the course of writing and recording these songs, bridges that were seemingly burnt were reconstructed.

In the process of making this record, I ended up re connecting with my ex and old bandmate teve ickenbrock, who leads the Traveling ound achine , and he’ll be a special guest on the album release show, ilb says.

That release show, on ay at Off roadway, will feature her full

band, including a rhythm section and horn players. ut for Bridges, Gilb kept a stripped-down approach that will be similar to her solo sets and open mic appearances of yore. And while she’s responsible for all the sounds on the P, ilb still wanted a more eshed out sound something she achieved to nice effect on ’s So It Goes EP).

I recorded it myself at home, and for this album too it’s a little more elaborate, as far as the arrangements are concerned, ilb says. She also attempted to bring more orchestration and different instrumentation into the fold, using Garageband software to bring in string and synth sounds as a subtle bed to her voice-and-guitar approach. I’m so used to writing for a small handful of instruments that it was fun to try something new, ilb e plains. ut at their core, u ie ue’s songs are based around Gilb’s expression, no matter the music that supports it, and in singing this set of songs, ilb has found some comfort in revisiting these imperfect partnerships.

I find them really cathartic, especially in’t That ome hit,’ she says. That’s the most intense and honest song on the album.

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About half the album is about one person. I knew it would hurt his feelings, but it needed to be said, but I felt like I was talking about him behind his back when I would play it live. ilb, of course, couldn’t resist twisting the knife and shared the song with its subject. His response wasn’t quite what she expected. s my final fuck you, mic drop moment, I te ted him a shitty voice memo of that song, ilb recalls. e said, ell, that really hurt my feelings, but it might be the best song you’ve ever written.’

Playing these songs live has shown Gilb the translatability of her situation and created some common ground with her audiences.

I’ve had several people come up to me after my set and say, I’ve totally been that person in that situation, she says. The bluntness of her language and the conviction of her delivery are very much part of the experience.

People want to sugarcoat it or make it poetic, she says of pain and trauma, but sometimes it’s ust shitty.

Suzie Cue EP Release 8 p.m. Saturday, May 11. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $10. 314-498-6989.

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[PROFILE]

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Native St. Louisan Dan Eubanks releases solo bluegrass album Look What the City’s Done Written by

THOMAS CRONE

D

an Eubanks, though he’s lived in Nashville for more than a decade now, played a key role in the St. Louis music community for years before his decampment.

A native St. Louisan, Eubanks boasts a history as a player and teacher here dating back to the glory days of Laclede’s Landing, when he played bass in the Louis Michael Band, a group whose local success led to some regional touring. Eubanks would then join some pals in a group called the Kind, which became a Tuesdaynight staple at Molly’s and eventually morphed into a long-running Dead tribute called the Schwag.

A longer commitment came with a respected, gigging band called Dangerous Kitchen, which parlayed a blend of originals and covers into a regular club presence, allowing the members of the group a home base from which outside projects could spring.

“I did a lot of freelancing, playing with jazz artists, doing wedding and country club sets, and then started Dangerous Kitchen,” he recalls. “I really just wanted more control to what I was playing. We started out doing originals and went into all kinds of other stuff from there; bookings followed. We started out as a horn band, then pared down to a five piece, doing any kind of rock from the ’50s to the ’70s plus soul and funk, eventually doing a night of the Band’s The Last Waltz. We were playing stuff we liked and people liked it, too. We weren’t huge, but had a good little following.”

At the time, Eubanks was teaching as an adjunct at several area colleges, with much of his coursework centered at Webster University. As with legions of adjuncts before and since, the lack of certainty eventually led him to decide it was time to make a move. Taking his shot at a professional musician’s life in Nashville was that decision.

I was oating around in all of these different situations,” he says, “sometimes teaching in the

MAY 8-14, 2019

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Dan Eubanks was a key figure in St. Louis music before decamping for Nashville. | VIA THE ARTIST summer and playing all these different gigs. At a certain point, I knew I wasn’t going to get any farther. I was trying to get a fulltime job teaching at Webster and it wasn’t available to me at the time. And when I didn’t get that, I knew I was out and needed to try to make it as a musician.”

He picked Nashville for its scene, of course, but also in part because his wife has family there.

“I was having a resurrection with roots and country music, too,” he says. “As a kid I was into bluegrass, then moved out of it when playing electric bass and getting into different music. But I came around and got back into my roots.”

Working leads provided by some of his friends from here — he mentions Joe Bidewell and the late Black Travis by name — Eubanks found work in every kind of bar band, playing blues and rock covers for a bit before eventually finding his way into pecial Consensus, a touring and recording bluegrass band that’s been in existence since 1975 and has released close to twenty albums, the last two of which feature him.

In a very direct way, that band’s fan base helped inspire Eubanks’ second release as a solo artist, the recent Look What the City’s Done.

And that’s due to the fact, Eubanks says, that bluegrass fans are prone to buying albums at shows. Having a solo work to sell to Special Consensus fans, he says, isn’t an exercise in vanity; these folks actually still buy records.

Another, bigger reason is also baked in.

“Part of me’s always wanted to

be a songwriter,” he says. “Playing live was always going to be my way of making a living, but I’ve wanted to work at songwriting and I’ve got a cool band that doesn’t mind my putting something on the merch table. A big part of the bluegrass scene is putting out physical media; people depend on that for part of their income. I started this wanting to see if I could get my own project on the table. And I wanted to make a little bit of a statement, to try to blow open some expectations. There’s a hardcore traditionalist group in bluegrass, and there’re some that want to push the boundaries a little bit. Then there’s someone who can exist in the middle of it all. I’m kinda that guy, wanting to see if it can all exist together.”

This collection of tracks is his first since ’s Dyed in the Wool, which collected songs recorded over the five year period after moving to Nashville. The new work, though, is a cohesive batch of songs that he hopes will give his music some legs. Maybe a cut will be picked up as bumper music, or another might get covered in a high profile artist’s set. ny number of things could happen, he figures, now that these songs are in the world.

The process “has been cool and exciting,” he says, adding that a limited number of live sessions for these tracks may follow.

On the shortlist of cities for possible gigs? St. Louis, of course.

For more info, visit daneubanks. bandcamp.com.

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Artist Rayland Baxter will perform at the Angad’s rooftop bar. | VIA PARTISAN ARTS BOOKING

[ROOFTOPS]

Angad’s Rainbow Terrace Will Host a Summer Concert Series Written by

DANIEL HILL

D

espite having only opened in April, the Angad Arts Hotel’s rooftop bar, the A.R.T. Angad Rainbow Terrace (3550 Samuel Shepard Drive), is quickly becoming the hottest of St. Louis hot spots.

With food and drinks from the hotel’s restaurant, Grand Tavern (brought to you by star chef David Burke and beverage director Meredith Barry), not to mention that phenomenal thirteenth-floor view of the city, those in the know have been flocking to the Grand Center bar ever since it opened its doors.

And now, with the announcement of a summer concert series, things are about to kick into overdrive. Dubbed “Live in the Sky,” the series is slated for ten Fridays, starting in May and running

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through September, and will feature artists performing on the roof with St. Louis’ gorgeous skyline as the backdrop.

Performers include alt-country artist Rayland Baxter, Australian rock band Castlecomer, indie-rock act Bad Bad Hats, America’s Got Talent finalist Jake Wesley Rogers and American Idol runner-up Clark Beckham, among others.

The series kicked off Friday with a double bill of Jason Eskridge and AJ and the Jiggawatts.

Here’s the full schedule of upcoming shows: • Friday, May 10 Castlecomer • Friday, May 31 Charlie Burg • Friday, June 14 Clark Beckham • Friday, June 28 Rayland Baxter • Friday, July 12 Jake Wesley Rogers • Friday, July 19 Christone “Kingfish” Ingram • Friday, August 9 Great Good Fine Ok • Friday, August 23 Bad Bad Hats • Friday, September 13 Caroline Kole Shows begin at 6 p.m. each night, and tickets are $25 per show — pick them up at angadartshotel.com.

And maybe don’t drag your feet while doing so. Even sans entertainment, the relatively small Angad Rainbow Terrace has been packed to the gills on recent Friday nights. If you want in on the live music action, best to get your tickets now. n

45

Tonina is just one of dozens of artists performing at ShowcaseSTL this year. | VIA THE ARTIST

[ F E S T I VA L S ]

RFT ’s ShowcaseSTL to Return to the Grove

I

t’s baaaack: bands, ten stages, one weekend. howcase T is RFT’s premier music festival where local legends, longtime favorites and fresh faces all converge in the Grove neighborhood for a marathon of live music, taking place this year on aturday, une , with a kickoff party on riday night, une .

This year, not only did we poll the public on this city’s unsung heroes, we took submissions from the artists themselves and even formed a committee to build the best festival yet. The result is once again the largest all-local festival in the city, over owing with all variety of sounds St. Louis’ unparalleled music scene has to offer.

Early bird tickets are on sale now for $25 (that’s just a quarter per band!); pick those up at rftshowcase.com. And stay tuned to Riverfront Times and the ShowcaseSTL website for more updates and coverage. heck out this year’s lineup below: Tonina T ubb O The ion’s

Daughter * The Knuckles * Midwest vengers leepy itty hady ug ooprat ollective hana ai Person racla rother ee the Leather Jackals * DJ Alexis Tucci * Le’Ponds * Janet Evra * Ryan Koenig * Paige Alyssa * Scrub and Ace a and ounting Theresa Payne ec iddles orry, cout tarwolf i y ay evon ahill on onham and riends olden urls gile One aylor e re oot od r. looney lued The incent candal ammoth Piano uppy rangus uht rankie Dowop * Stephanie Stewart * Ryan asoba’s econd ongs esus hrist upercar other tutter amantha lemons immy u oidga er The ppers The tars o Out Teacup ragun uie ue llen ilton ook enny o ues The Opera ell and rystal ady et’s ot ’s rim olla ray ittle owboy P. rown the eon ach ullentrup * Whiskey Raccoons * Syna So Pro * The R6 Implant * Justin Ra * The ollow nds The agged lade and ida de ak loopy c oy ibiru ids anana lips o nn c eil imewire.

Prime * Dcupp * Prime Time Soap iff ’narly the eptilians eil and dam The ound ity lickers e re arm ounce ouse Is or adaver rian c lelland’s o Thunder uhart Only ound t. illagers athias the Pirates Plus a special appearance by the ational lues useum am and and a two hour opening showcase on Saturday by School of Rock!

—RFT Staff

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

47

[CRITIC’S PICK]

Cher. | VIA WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS

Cher 8 p.m. Friday, May 10. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Street. $35 to $196. 314-241-1888.

We’ve become such a spoiler-averse populace that revealing the ending to popculture lodestones (like the final Avengers film, say, or some big Game of Thrones reveal) warrants a hasty tribunal and ritual beheading. So take this as a warning if you’re planning on attending Cher’s upcoming show, but we have it on pretty good authority — a grainy smartphone video taken at a recent New York show — that

THURSDAY 9

BETH BOMBARA: 7 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

MAREN MORRIS: w/ RaeLynn 8 p.m., $40-$50.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NATE LOWERY: 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

RAGK: w/ Battalion of Cloudships, Wamhoda, itchfit, eauty Pageant p.m., . oam, Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

RICH MCDONOUGH & THE RHYTHM RENEGADES: 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

FRIDAY 10

ARCHITECTS: w/ Thy Art Is Murder, While She Sleeps 7:30 p.m., $25-$30. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

THE AUGHT NAUGHTS: w/ River Despair, Cherokee oon p.m., free. chla y Tap oom, Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337.

CHER: w/ Nile Rodgers & Chic 8 p.m., $34.95$195.95. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

ELLE KING: w/ Barns Courtney 9 p.m., $30-$35.

The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

JAKE’S LEG: 10 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

KEVIN BUCKLEY & FRIENDS: 9:30 p.m., free. The risco arroom, ig end lvd., ebster Groves, 314-455-1090.

LUCKY OLD SONS: 8 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

the singer recreates the spirit of the “If I Could Turn Back Time” video by donning the same fishnets-and-leather combo of yore. The “Here We Go Again” tour is heavy on ABBA hits, befitting her appearance in the recent Mamma Mia! sequel, but expect to enjoy the songs (and outfits) that made her an icon.

Good Times? GREAT Times!: Cher may be an icon, but let it be known that Nile Rodgers — that’s Nile Goddamn Rodgers of Chic and countless production credits, mind you — opens the show.

—Christian Schaeffer

MUTTS: 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

MYSPACE EMO PROM: p.m., . ubar, Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PREACHER LAWSON: 8 p.m., $22-$38. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

PRECIOUS CHILD: w/ Hot Pink Satan, Tiger ider, ltamira p.m., . The rack o , 1114 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-621-6900.

SMELLS LIKE NIRVANA: 8 p.m., $18. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE FUTURE IS FEMALE V: A STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW: 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

SATURDAY 11

AL HOLLIDAY & THE EAST SIDE RHYTHM BAND: 8 p.m., $12-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

BEN NORDSTROM & STEVE NEALE: 11 a.m., $12.

The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

BUCKETHEAD: 6 p.m., $25-$30. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

EMO NITE: 8:30 p.m., $10-$12. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

EUGENE & COMPANY: 9 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

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

LOCAL MUSIC SHOWCASE: w/ Current Year, Anchorside, Point Elm, The Shaved Cat Project, y emedy p.m., . ubar, ocust t,

Continued on pg 49

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THE BEST LOCAL MUSIC WEEKEND OF THE YEAR!

PRESENTS

FRIDAYJUNE21+SATURDAYJUNE22,2019

Tonina • T-Dubb-O • The Lion’s Daughter • The Knuckles • Midwest Avengers • Sleepy Kitty • Shady Bug • Looprat Collective • Shana B • Najii Person • Dracla • Brother Lee & the Leather Jackals DJ Alexis Tucci • Le’Ponds • Janet Evra • Ryan Koenig • Paige Alyssa • Scrub and Ace Ha • Rec Riddles • Sorry, Scout • Starwolf • Bizy Jay • Devon Cahill • Jon Bonham and Friends • Golden Curls Agile One • SAYLOR • We Are Root Mod • Jr. Clooney • Glued • The Vincent Scandal • Mammoth Piano • Yuppy • Drangus • Huht • Frankie DoWop • Stephanie Stewart • Ryan Wasoba’s 19 Second Songs Jesus Christ Supercar • Mother Stutter • Samantha Clemons • DJ Kimmy Nu • Voidgazer • The Uppers • The Stars Go Out • Teacup Dragun • Suzie Cue • Ellen Hilton Cook • The Opera Bell Band Crystal Lady • Let’s Not • KDHX’s Crim Dolla Cray • Little Cowboy • P. Brown The Aeon • Zach Sullentrup • Whiskey Raccoons • Syna So Pro • The R6 Implant • Justin Ra • The Hollow Ends The Ragged Blade Band • Zak M • Sloopy McCoy • Nibiru • Banana Clips • JoAnn McNeil • Dcupp • Prime Time Soap • Biff K’narly & the Reptilians • Neil and Adam • The Mound City Slickers We Are Warm • Bounce House • C Is For Cadaver • Brian McClelland’s No Thunder • OnlySound • St. Villagers Plus a special appearance by the National Blues Museum Jam Band and a 2-hour opening showcase on Saturday by School of Rock

INTHE GROVE

Trops • HandleBar • Firecracker Pizza • Atomic Cowboy • The Bootleg BEAST Butcher and Block • Parlor • Gezellig • Ready Room • The Gramophone

EARLYBIRDWRISTBANDSAVAILABLENOW:RFTSHOWCASE.COM

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

DJ Paul. | ALBUM ART

DJ Paul 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Avenue, Sauget, Illinois. $30 to $75. 618-274-6720.

Three 6 Mafia rapper DJ Paul has had a pretty interesting career since his band went on hiatus in 2013. The deaths of compatriots Lord Infamous and Koopsta Knicca stymied efforts at a related effort dubbed Da Mafia 6ix, but that group’s embrace of Three 6 Mafia’s horrorcore roots brought Paul and Co. to the attention of the juggalo community.

Nowadays you’re just as likely to see wicked clowns swinging hatchets and

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 47

St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

LOWER SPECIES: w evil’s en, inal Order, rute orce, Placeholder p.m., . The inkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS: 8 p.m., $36-$38. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SHITSTORM: w/ Pineapple RnR, The Health & ellness Plan p.m., free. chla y Tap oom, 2100 Locust St., St. Louis, 314-241-2337.

THE SPRING MUSIC FESTIVAL: w/ Jaheim, Monica, Tank, Avant, Donell Jones 8 p.m., $59-$99.

Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

SUZIE CUE ALBUM RELEASE SHOW: 8 p.m., $10.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE WIRMS: w/ Musclegoose, Skin Tags, Big hoop p.m., . oam, efferson ve., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

SUNDAY 12

KING’S KALEIDOSCOPE: p.m., . ubar, Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ROLAND JOHNSON: 8 p.m., $7. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

RUM DRUM RAMBLERS: 1 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SLOW MASS: w hady ug, pirits aving un, e’Ponds p.m., . oam, efferson ve., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

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

singing along to the likes of “Sippin’ on Some Syrup,” “Poppin’ My Collar” and “Stay Fly” as anything the Insane Clown Posse has ever released. That explains how the DJ and rapper ended up on the lineup of this determinedly juggaloian affair alongside the likes of ICP, Rittz, Mushroomhead, Ouija Macc and Kissing Candice. Just don’t expect him to don any face paint.

Put Some Spice On It: Be sure to head to the merch booth at the show and pick yourself up some of DJ Paul’s “On Errthang” All-Purpose Seasoning. Tastes great on eggs!

—Daniel Hill

MONDAY 13

BOTTOMS UP BLUES GANG: 6 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

GRAVEYARD WITCH: w/ Mister Malone 7 p.m., $10. ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, .

OLD TIME RELIJUN: p.m., . oam, Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

TOOL: 8 p.m., $75-$125. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

TUESDAY 14

BRING ME THE HORIZON: w carl rd : p.m., $48.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ECSTATIC VISION: w/ Heavy Temple 8 p.m., $12. ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, .

INSANE CLOWN POSSE: w/ Rittz, Mushroomhead, DJ Paul, Ouija Macc, Kissing Candice 6:30 p.m., $30-$75. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

JEN KIRKMAN: 8 p.m., $25. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

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

WEDNESDAY 15

ALEXANDER SINCLAIR: 6 p.m., free. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

AN EVENING WITH DAVID CROSBY & FRIENDS: 8 p.m., $46-$76. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: 8 p.m., $45.50-$115.

Continued on pg 50

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[CRITIC’S PICK]

Mike and the Moonpies. | GREG GIANNUKOS

Mike and the Moonpies 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave. $10 to $13. 314-773-3363.

If you’re gonna start a bar band, you might as well go all in. Mike Harmeier, leader of Mike and the Moonpies, set out to play hard-rocking honky tonk with the aplomb of gnarled journeymen who could care less if they ever make it out of the buckets of blood alive. “12-3 Bam Bam” goes the count off to this year’s swinging Steak Night at the Prairie Rose, the Austin, Texas, band’s most polished and thoroughly enjoyable

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 49

MAY 10TH

Wednesday May 8 9:30PM

Journeyman

Urban Chestnut Presents

A Tribute To Eric Clapton

MAY 17 & 18

Martin Barre’s 50 Years Of Jethro Tull Celebration MAY 31

Sean Canan’s Voodoo Tribute To Ween Friday May10 10PM

Jakes Leg

Sunday May 12 8PM

Thunderstruck

Legends Sunday

America’s premier AC/DC tribute

with Roland Johnson and Soul Endeavor

JUNE 6TH

Monday May 13 9PM

An Evening with

The Longest Running Blues Jam in America

Roger McGuinn JUNE 8TH

hosted by Soulard Blues Band

Al Stewart

playing his Greatest Hits

Wednesday May 15 9:30PM Urban Chestnut Presents

AUGUST 2 & 3

Sean Canan’s Voodoo

John Mayall

Tribute To Leftover Salmon vs String Cheese Incident

Friday May 17 10PM

The Retronerds plus Kick X Tribute To INXS

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Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth ity pwy., aryland eights, .

DAVID CROSBY AND FRIENDS: 8 p.m., $46-$76.

The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

DISPARAGER: w/ Astral Moth 9 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

JIM JAMES: w/ Amo Amo 8 p.m., $41-$46.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

KID SISTER: p.m., . ubar, ocust t, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MIKE AND THE MOONPIES: 8 p.m., $10-$13.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MINOR STORM: w/ Carmel Liburdi, Ordinary Things 8 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

PETE YORN: 8 p.m., $32.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SEGO: p.m., . ubar, ocust t, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SHORELINE MAFIA: w/ Dre Cannon 8 p.m., $25$99. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

TAMECA JONES: 8 p.m., $12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

THIS JUST IN ABOVE & BEYOND: Sat., May 25, 9 p.m. Ameristar Casino, 1 Ameristar Blvd., St. Charles, 636-949-7777.

ACOUSTIK ELEMENT: Sat., May 18, 8 p.m., $15.

Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

ADAM CALHOUN & DEMUN JONES: Mon., June 17,

release. These shitkickers can play, with Telecaster and pedal-steel duels that give no quarter and some of the hottest piano riffs this side of Jerry Lee Lewis.

Surprisingly, the band and the songwriting shine on the ballads, including the warm and wistful title track, which could be a George Strait hit if Strait could still get a hit. Neo-traditional country rarely burns this sweetly.

Dancers Welcome: Buff up your boots and get ready to practice your two-step moves when the Moonpies roll into town.

The dance floor will be open.

—Roy Kasten

p.m., . ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, 314-289-9050.

ADAM GAFFNEY: Thu., May 23, 8:30 p.m., free.

The risco arroom, ig end lvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

APRIL MACIE: ri., une , p.m., .

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BETTER LATE THAN PREGNANT: A FUNDRAISER FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD: ri., une , p.m., . The rack o , Olive t., t.

Louis, 314-621-6900.

BLINK-182 AND LIL WAYNE: W/ Neck Deep, Sat., Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m., $37.50-$127.50. Hollywood asino mphitheatre, I arth ity pwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

BLUE MOON BLUES: W/ Kent Ehrhart, Sat., May 18, 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

BURNING BEATS SPRING DANCE PARTY: ri., ay 31, 10 p.m., free. HandleBar, 4127 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-652-2212.

CHARLIE HUNTER AND LUCY WOODWARD: Sun., July 28, 7:30 p.m., $20-$25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

DAT NEW SHIT POETRY AND OPEN MIC: ri., ay 17, 7 p.m., $5. Legacy Books and Cafe, 5249 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-361-2182.

DAVID DEE & THE HOT TRACKS: ri., ay , p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

DEAD RECKONING: W/ Blood of Heroes, Defcon, un., ug. , : p.m., . ubar, Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

EL HITTA: Thu., une , p.m., . ubar, Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

EL MONSTERO: Sat., June 8, 7 p.m., $20. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City

Continued on pg 51

OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 50

pwy., aryland eights, .

FIT FOR A KING: W/ Norma Jean, Currents, Left ehind, Tue., ug. , p.m., T . ubar, Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FREDO BANG: W/ Lit Yoshi, Wed., June 5, 8 p.m., . ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, 314-289-9050.

THE GREAT ST LOUIS FOLK SCARE: W/ Walter Greiner the Hillbilly Poet, Adam Gaffney, Lacey Williams, Bob Kamoske, Paul Niehaus IV, Sun., May 19, 7:30 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

HAYES CARLL: ri., ug. , : p.m., . Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

HUNTER: Thu., May 30, 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

INCUBUS: W/ Le Butcherettes, Thu., Nov. 14, 7 p.m., TBA. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

JADE BIRD: Sun., Aug. 4, 7:30 p.m., $20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JEREMIAH JOHNSON ACOUSTIC DUO: Thu., May 23, 4 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

JOHN MCVEY BAND: Sat., May 25, 9 p.m., $3.

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

JOHN MORELAND: W/ Caroline Spence, Wed., July 31, 7:30 p.m., $30-$40. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

JONAS BROTHERS: ebe e ha, ordan cGraw, Sat., Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m., $26.95-$496.95.

Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

JOSHUA ABRAMS & NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY: Sat., May 25, 8 p.m., $10-$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

KINGDOM BROTHERS: Thu., May 23, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

KNOBOOZLE 2019: Sat., Aug. 17, 3:30 p.m., $12. ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, .

LARRY GWALTNEY: W/ Stuart Williams, Thu., May 30, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

LENNY KRAVITZ: Tue., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $39-$99.

The o Theatre, . rand lvd., t. ouis, 314-534-1111.

LEO RONDEAU AND JACK GRELLE: ri., une , 8 p.m., $8-$10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

LITTLE DYLAN BLUES BAND: ri., ay , p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

LLMANNY: ates, arrein afron, ri., uly 19, 9 p.m., $10-$15. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

LUCERO NIGHT ONE: W/ The Huntress, Holder of Hands, Wed., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $25-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

LUCERO NIGHT TWO: W/ The Huntress, Holder of Hands, Thu., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $25-$35. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

LUNA: ri., Oct. , p.m., . Off roadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MEGAN THEE STALLION: Thu., June 27, 9 p.m., $25-$37.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NEIL SALSICH: Sat., May 18, 9:30 p.m., free. The risco arroom, ig end lvd., ebster Groves, 314-455-1090.

THE NEIL SALSICH DUO: Sat., May 18, 1 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE NUDE PARTY: W/ Pinky Pinky, Tue., Sept. 3, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

OPERA BELL BAND SHRIMP BOIL AND ALBUM RELEASE: W/ Mother Meat, Ryan Koenig and the Chardonnays, Sat., June 15, noon, $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PARKER MILLSAP: Thu., Aug. 15, 8 p.m., $15.

Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PAUL BONN & THE BLUESMEN: Thu., May 16, 8 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St.,

St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

POWERMAN 5000: Tue., June 25, 6:30 p.m., $18. ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, .

PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA: W/ Kississippi, Retirement Party, Sat., Aug. 24, 8 p.m., $12-$14. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

READ SOUTHALL BAND: ustin eade, ri., Aug. 23, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE RED ALERT TOUR: Mon., June 10, 10 p.m., $20. ubar, ocust t, t. ouis, .

REEL BIG FISH, THE AQUABATS: Sat., July 13, 7:30 p.m., $25-$28. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

RICHARD LLOYD: inn’s otel, un., ay , 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

RIVER CITY OPRY 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY: W/ Old apital uare ance lub, The ighting ide, Les Gruff and the Billy Goat, Old Souls Revival, on onham and riends, The vening lories, Ruby Leigh Pearson Lit’l Miss Country, Sun., June 16, 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

RIVER CITY OPRY MAY EDITION: W/ Caroline Steinkamp, Oddsoul and The Sound, Andrew & the Dolls, Amber Skies, Sun., May 26, 1 p.m., $5. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

ROBERT RANDOLPH AND THE FAMILY BAND: Wed., July 3, 7 p.m., $25-$55. Atomic Cowboy Pavilion, 4140 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis, 314-775-0775.

ROLAND JOHNSON & SOUL ENDEAVOR: ri., ay 24, 8 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

RUSTON KELLY: W/ Donovan Woods, Wed., Oct. 16, 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SCRAMBLED: ri., ay , : p.m., free. The risco arroom, ig end lvd., ebster Groves, 314-455-1090.

SISTER HAZEL: Thu., Nov. 21, 8 p.m., $25-$28.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SONGBIRD CAFE: Wed., May 22, 7:30 p.m., $15. The ocal Point, utton lvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778.

SUMMER CANNIBALS: ri., ug. , p.m., $10-$12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SUN KIL MOON: Sun., Sept. 15, 8 p.m., $20-$30.

Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THE SCANDALEROS: ri., ay , : p.m., free. The risco arroom, ig end lvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

TIM ALBERT & THE BOOGIEMEN: Sat., May 18, 9 p.m., $3. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

THE TOASTERS: Tue., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $13-$15.

Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

TRASHCAN SINATRAS: Tue., Oct. 15, 8 p.m., $22-$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM: ri., ept. , p.m., $12-$15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

TWISTED HOUSE: Sat., June 15, 9 p.m., $5. Taha’a Twisted Tiki, 4199 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-202-8300.

WAR: ri., ug. , p.m., . . . iver City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

THE WESLEY BELL RINGERS: Sun., June 9, 7:30 p.m., free. University United Methodist Church, 6901 Washington Ave., University City, 314-863-8055.

WESTERN STATES RECORD RELEASE SHOW: Sat., July 20, 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

WIZARD FEST: ST. LOUIS’ WILDEST HARRY POTTER THEME PARTY: ri., ept. , p.m., .

The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

WOODEN PUDDIN’: Thu., May 30, 9:30 p.m., free. The risco arroom, ig end lvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. n

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SAVAGE LOVE BEST WISHES

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 43-year-old straight woman, and I spent the majority of my 30s celibate. At 40, I realized that while I wasn’t interested in dating, I was tired of my vibrator. I also realized that it was time to go forth and fuck with the body I had instead of waiting for the idealized body I was going to have someday.

Over the past three years — despite being as fat as ever — I’ve consistently had fun, satisfying, exciting, creative, sometimes weird, occasionally scary, but mostly awesome sex. One guy I met on Craigslist was particularly great: awesome kisser, amazing dick. He came over, we fucked, it was excellent, we chatted, he left. This happened about four times.

And then CL shut down the personals section. The only contact info I have for the guy is the anonymous CL address, and it no longer works. He has my Gmail address (the one I use for dating sites), but he has not e-mailed me. I’m not a crazy stalker (I swear!), but he once told me he teaches at a university in our area, and I managed to find his photo and contact info on the school website. So I know how to reach him — but that’s a spectacularly bad idea, right? Unless you think it isn’t? If a dude I’d fucked a few times tracked me down at my job, I would freak out. But I keep thinking: Would it really be SUCH a bad idea to send him ONE email?

Should I just accept that it was great while it lasted? Or should I e-mail him and run the risk of pissing off/freaking out a nice guy?

Can Really Envision Every Possibility Don’t do it, CREEP — don’t do that thing you already know you shouldn’t, that thing you wouldn’t want some dude to do to you, that thing you were probably hoping I’d give you permission to do.

That thing? Don’t do it.

You’re engaged in what’s called “dickful thinking” when guys do it — at least that’s what I call it, CREEP. It’s like wishful thinking, but with dicks. Men convince themselves of something improb-

able (“I bet she’s one of those women who like unsolicited dick pics!”) or unlikely (“Showing up at her workplace will convince her to take me back!”) because it’s what they want. Think of all the guys you’ve ever known who said, “She wants me!” when in reality he was the one who wanted her.

Clitful thinking may be rarer than dickful thinking — women being less likely to think with their genitals and/or being more risk-averse due to socialization, slut-shaming, and the ever-present threat of gendered violence — but it’s not unheard of for a woman to rationalize unacceptable behavior (contacting this man at work) or deploy a self serving ustification (it’s just ONE e-mail) or solicit a “You go, girl!” from a sex-advice columnist when what she needs to hear is “Hell no, girl!”

Again, don’t do it. This guy has your email address and he knows how to reach you. And since you didn’t have all that fun, satisfying, exciting, creative sex over the last few years with only him, CREEP, I shouldn’t have to tell you to focus on your other options. But since your clit is doing your thinking for you right now, I must: Leave this dude alone and go fuck some other dudes.

Hey, Dan: I have a desperate question for you. I’ve worked with a vivacious 30-year-old for five years.

For three and a half years, she had a live-in boyfriend. She had a different boyfriend recently. I’m 58 years old and not good-looking. She is always sweet to me and always compliments me. She’s said that I’m a genius and a gentleman, that I’m a hoot, and that I have a confident walk. I’ve also overheard her say that she likes older men. However, a few months ago she walked up to me out of the blue and said that she just wants platonic relationships with coworkers. Then I overheard her say to another coworker: “I put out a sign, he will figure it out eventually.” But which sign did she mean? The “platonic” thing or the constant kindness?

Wondering On Reciprocated Kindnesses This probably isn’t what you wanted to hear either, WORK, but this woman isn’t interested in you — and if you weren’t engaged in dickful thinking, you’d know that.

“I’ve taken good care of myself — and at 50, I find that I’m attracting guys half my age. Sometimes, in the heat of passion, they call me ‘daddy.’This took a LOT of getting used to, but am I going to stop what we’re doing to discuss nomenclature?”

But your dick has somehow managed to convince you that you’re the “he” she was referring to when she talked about sending someone a sign. But you need to ask yourself — and it’s best to ask right after you masturbate, as that’s when we’re least prone to dickful thinking — which is likelier: she went out of her way to let you know she’s not interested in dating anyone at work and you’re the “he” she was referring to, or the “he” she was referring to was one of the roughly four billion other men on the planet and not a coworker?

I don’t mean to be cruel, WORK, I just want to stop you from doing something that could get you fired or screw up what has, up to now, been a pleasant work relationship. While kindness can sometimes signal romantic interest, the full weight of the evidence here — including the fact that she didn’t send an unambiguous signal when she was brie y single indicates otherwise.

Hey, Dan: I’m a cis, white, gay male — partnered fifteen years, monogamous for the first fourteen. About a year ago, my partner agreed to let

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me play on my own outside of the relationship. The rules: not when he’s in town, no one comes home, no regulars.

I’ve taken good care of myself (sexual frustration + gym) — and at 50, I find that I’m attracting guys half my age. Sometimes, in the heat of passion, they call me “daddy.”

This took a LOT of getting used to, but am I going to stop what we’re doing to discuss nomenclature?

Anyway, I refuse to call them “son,” because I find that creepy. “Baby” doesn’t really work for me, either — it’s what I call my partner. That leaves “boy.” Which is fine if they’re white. The problem is, some of the jaw-droppers calling me “daddy” have been black. And I absolutely refuse to call a black guy “boy.” I want to leave them feeling amazing, not brooding on race relations and power imbalances. So what does a beautiful, dark-skinned, daddy-loving young man want to be called by the older white guy pounding him?

Daddy’s Uncomfortable Race Relations Good for you for being able to think clearly even when your dick is hard — even when it’s buried in some hot guy — but I have to fault you for not reasoning your way to the obvious answer.

You’re a white guy who doesn’t feel comfortable calling a black sex partner “boy,” which is usually what gay guys who call older partners “daddy” want to hear. But instead of asking the black guys you’re fucking what they want to be called, DURR, you opted to ask some other old white dude what he thinks the black guys you’re fucking might want to be called.

Do you see the problem here? The guys you should be asking about this… are the guys you’re fucking.

And you don’t even have to call a halt to the action in order to ask them! Next time you’re balls-deep in some hot guy and he says, “Fuck me, daddy,” growl and say, “That’s right, I’m your daddy — and what are you?” If he says, “I’m your boy,” then that’s obviously what he wants to be called.

Listen Dan Savage online at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org

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HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS

OLD HERALD Recently opened and rapidly growing, Old Herald Brewery and Distillery in Collinsville lights a fire with their house ardent spirits! While competing in the 19th San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Old Herald received a bronze medal for their agave and a silver medal for their rum.

Starting the line off with rum as the first spirit fermented and distilled from scratch on site, an agave recipe shortly added to the menu. Their bourbon, single grain and malt whiskey programs are on the way but will take a couple years to mature.

If you’re in the mood for something new and fresh, Old Herald also features a unique Citrus orward Gin. loody Mary fans love the new Horseradish Vodka to add an extra kick to their drink.

All specialty cocktails use in-house spirits that are produced or blended and finished onsite, fresh squee ed juices and house made syrups, bitters and garnishes. Also included in their delicious drink selection are a broad range of house-made beers, with 8 revolving taps, and new releases every couple of weeks.

Executive chef Krissana rawley, previously worked with east and Cleveland-Heath, created a full menu including comfort food favorites for everyone to enjoy such as acon eer Mac Cheese, ashville Hot Chicken Sandwich, and Chocolate Stout rownie.

Old Herald Distillery and Brewery is bringing a new spot to sit back and relax to the Metro East.

OLD HERALD 115 E CLA ST, COLLI S ILLE, IL 6

St. Louis’ ONLY Axe Throwing Bar and Grill FREE Axe Throwing with Food and Beverage Purchase!

720 N. 1ST ST, ST. LOUIS, MO 63102

4 OldHerald rewing.com

HAPPY HOUR @ BARCELONA M-F 3:30 – 6:30 •The ONLY place where you can get $12 Pitchers of SANGRIA in Town!!!

•The BEST Calamari!

•The BEST VIBE!

•The Usual stuff everybody else does!

314.863.9909 BARCELONATAPAS.COM 34N. CENTRAL AVE. ST. LOUIS, MO 63105

THE HAUNT

St Louis’ Original Halloween Bar

Happy Hour Every Day 3-7pm $13 Domestic Buckets • $2.25 Rails

Ladies Night Every Wed 9pm to Close $1.50 Domestic Beer or Rail Drinks

KARAOKE MADNESS

Every Thursday 9pm to close Check us out on FaceBook for upcoming live music and events

5000 Alaska Ave 314.481.5003

HAPPY HOUR