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THE LEDE
PHOTO BY THEO WELLING
“I was eleven years old [when] I came here. New York on the boat, then came to St. Louis. We ride ten days on the water. The priest took us to St. Louis. He sponsored us.” PETER EMELKO, PHOTOGRAPHED ON HAMPTON AVENUE IN HOLLY HILLS ON SEPTEMBER 1
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Publisher Chris Keating Interim Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy
E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Liz Miller Arts & Culture Editor Paul Friswold Music Editor Daniel Hill Digital Editor Jaime Lees Staff Writer 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 Katie Counts, Joshua Phelps, James Pollard
COVER
Weird & Wonderful Gravois Anything is possible along the king of south St. Louis streets Cover photography by
THEO WELLING
A R T Art Director Evan Sult Contributing Photographers Virginia Harold, Stephen Kennedy, Monica Mileur, Zia Nizami, Andy Paulissen, Nick Schnelle, Mabel Suen, Micah Usher, Theo Welling, Jen West P R O D U C T I O N Production Manager Haimanti Germain
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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. Allow 6-10 days for standard delivery. www.riverfronttimes.com The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group Verified Audit Member Riverfront Times 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103 www.riverfronttimes.com General information: 314-754-5966 Fax administrative: 314-754-5955 Fax editorial: 314-754-6416 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977
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HARTMANN Shelve this Library Plan Frontenac’s rights are being trampled. Even if the St. Louis suburb is an unlikely victim BY RAY HARTMANN
J
oin me, dear readers, as we rise now as one in defense of our brothers and sisters, the oppressed peoples of Frontenac! Now there’s something I never thought I’d write. Most of us have come to stereotype the residents of Frontenac as rather well-heeled individuals, seemingly in the top one percent of the top one percent. There’s nothing wrong with that, but those concerned with victimization of one sort or another don’t
typically regard the suburb as ground zero for their operations. There are pockets of the city not so wealthy: famously the Daniel Boone Mobile Home Park, which only recently was given the boot after a seven-decade run that preceded the city’s very existence. That was sad. This is the sort of story to which we in the media gravitate, fairly or not, so when the news first broke last February in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Frontenac was being bullied, it seemed a bit counterintuitive. Throw in the surreal notion that the alleged bully was the much-respected St. Louis County Library system — are you kidding me? — and this just couldn’t be a thing. Could it? Well, it turns out it is. If all goes according to plan, the county library will be wedging an 82,000-square-foot, not-at-all-residential facility into a six-acre site on a residentially zoned piece of land on a two-lane (not expandable) street at the corner of Clay-
ton and Spoede roads. It will also serve as home base and fueling site for the library’s four large bookmobiles. It’s a really bad idea, not mitigated by the fact that it is foisted upon Frontenac by a really good institution. The county library system is widely respected and performs wonderful service for hundreds of thousands of county residents, especially children. Its marquee purpose here is unassailable: to open a genealogy center, featuring wonderful collections of African American, Jewish and other historic content. But that’s just a tiny part of a giant structure that will serve as office space for library employees and apparently provide some sort of storage or other physical functions related to the bookmobiles. Generations of journalists have learned not to mess with the genealogy people. But that doesn’t mean this is a good idea, because it isn’t. And it doesn’t mean there
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aren’t some broader issues of real concern to county taxpayers writ large, because there are. The headline from the February Post-Dispatch pretty well sums up the largest issue, which is accountability of the largely insulated, five member library board of trustees: “County library paid . million for acres in Frontenac — and didn’t get an appraisal first.” Through this good journalism and some more that has followed, it’s become clear the library trustees, well-intended souls, have made some awful collective judgments. And when cornered — as they have been by Frontenac, which is fighting against their project in court — they’ve doubled down defensively and made things worse. As the Post-Dispatch has reported, the four houses involved were valued by the county assessor at a total of . million. That’s more than $4 million less than what
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the library shelled out, which included paying $2.4 million for the house of a Frontenac alderman who had paid $400,000 for it in 2008. None of this looks good, and recent attempts by the library to produce appraisals claiming that the sum of these overpaid parts is now magically a great investment worth more than it paid really stretch credulity. If it is, sell. There’s also a bit of an arrogance factor here. A little-known fact of life is that state or county institutions such as the library — or school districts — are largely unbound by the local zoning ordinances and rules of the cities they occupy. But the board of trustees has at times appeared gleeful in repeatedly asserting that point. Personally, I think we should be talking more about the old facility, the current headquarters library at 40 South Lindbergh Boulevard, which the library plans to raze and replace with a new branch featuring dramatically enhanced event and meeting space in a few years. All of the functions of the proposed new space are housed now at the headquarters (albeit with the genealogy materials being stashed rather than featured). As someone who has been going there pretty much since it opened with much fanfare in 0, I’d like to ask one question that no one seems to be raising: Why not renovate the building, rather than tear it down? Does it not have some historic value? If it does, it’s generally the case that renovating old structures is less costly than razing and replacing them. And maybe if that happened, the physical plant nature of the bookmobile parking and servicing could stay put. If all the library was doing was opening a 0,000 to ,000 square-foot genealogy center at layton and Spoede, I’d say fine, although it could be better used as a small county park. But this is a strange place for what is essentially office space and parking for employees and an even stranger one for storing bookmobiles. One argument from the library side is that there’s an imperative to have a central location accessible to major highways for the bookmobiles. Enter Google maps. If you draw a line from the northernmost county library (Jamestown Bluffs Branch) to the southernmost (Cliff Cave Branch),
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It has become clear that the library trustees, well-intended souls, have made some awful collective judgments. the truly central location is somewhere around Page and Olive boulevards, both of which are lined with industrial facilities far better suited to bookmobile servicing and which meet those highway access criteria far more logically than a tiny intersection of two-lane roads in Frontenac. I’m about the last person qualified to weigh in on commercial real estate matters — believe me — but I do question the entire premise that the distinctive functions of a genealogy center, office space for employees and servicing bookmobiles all need to fall under the same 82,000-squarefoot roof. I say go back to the drawing board. That would undoubtedly require that County xecutive Sam Page replace five library board members — all of who serve on expired terms — as county Councilman Tim Fitch has suggested. Otherwise, don’t expect some grand compromise to emerge here. One of the distinctive features of this controversy — a bit comical, frankly, from afar — is that the two sides have hurled invective at one another that one would not expect from a quiet community like Frontenac and the even quieter world of librarians, who usually whisper even when they’re admonishing you to shut up. This is a knife fight on the streets by the standards of such genteel combatants. So while I remain an admirer and patron of the library — and a bit of a cynic when it comes to the one percenters — I find myself in a strange position. I’m rooting for the rich guys. 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).
NEWS Tweet Storm Written by
DANNY WICENTOWSKI
I
t doesn’t take much to stoke new controversy around the polarizing figure of St. Louis ircuit Attorney Kim Gardner. In the latest round, calls for Gardner’s resignation have come down to a single word she tweeted on September : “ xactly.” Gardner’s terse message of approval came in the context of a lengthy thread from St. Louis Alderwoman Megan Green, who had sought to connect that day’s fatal police shooting of a year old black man, ortez Shepherd, with a larger argument about whether police should ever be able to use the mere suspicion of marijuana possession as “probable cause” to initiate a confrontation with a suspect. Green, who represents ard , tagged Gardner in the tweet and noted that the circuit attorney had already made it policy to refuse prosecuting marijuana possession cases of less than 00 grams. “ O ur police also need to be instructed to abide by these rules,” Green wrote in the tweet. “This is
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner’s one-word tweet infuriated the cop union. | DOYLE MURPHY a waste of Police resources. This interaction never should have happened.” And that’s when Gardner joined the fray. About an hour later, Gardner’s Twitter account shared Green’s post. Her commentary on Green’s tweet “ xactly” has now drawn condemnation from police union officials at both the national and local level. On Monday, during an interview on the Marc ox Morning Show on . M, eff Roorda, the
Arrests in Child Gun Deaths Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
S
t. Louis prosecutors have charged the father of a three-year-old who shot himself with a gun the boy found in the family’s home. On Friday Rodney March II, 28, was charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors say March left a loaded .40-caliber Glock handgun in reach of his son, Rodney March III. The curious toddler got ahold of it on Thursday morning and accidentally shot himself in the head, authorities say. Shortly after the shooting, St. Louis County police spotted the boy’s mother driving erratically on Halls Ferry Road before she flagged them down and showed them her wounded son. Officers put him in a police vehicle and raced toward the
Rodney March II faces a child endangerment charge. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE hospital. One officer provided medical aid, while the other officer drove, police say. Once at the hospital, there were plans to fly the child to a second hospital, but he didn’t live long enough for that to happen.
business manager of the St. Louis Police Officers Association, continued his long campaign against Gardner — and he hammered at the implications of Gardner’s statement on the shooting. “This woman needs to go, she’s a menace to society,” Roorda said in the interview, which quickly went from Roorda’s run of the mill criti ues of Gardner such as her “propensity to plop down the race card” to calling for the prosecutor’s removal from office “by force Both the father and mother were home in the apartment in the 9500 block of Jacobi Avenue at the time of the shooting, police say. The dad has been arrested and is being held in jail on $100,000 cash-only bond. The three-year-old was one of two children to die by guns on Thursday in north St. Louis County. About 6 p.m., less than seven hours after Rodney was shot, thirteen-year-old Clifford Swan was walking with two other people across the grounds of the Oak Park Apartments in Spanish Lake when a gunman opened fire, police say. Swan was hit and died shortly after reaching the hospital. Prosecutors have charged eighteen-year-old Jabari Lowery of Riverview with first-degree murder and armed criminal action. A second person, seventeen-year-old Montez Eskew of Florissant, was also arrested on charges of third-degree assault and resisting/interfering with an arrest. Police say he fought officers when they came to arrest Lowery. Bond was set at $500,000 for Lowery and $50,000 for Eskew. n
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or by choice.” ven for Roorda, who has gone as far as publishing a hristmas carol parody with Gardner as the Grinch, the suggestion that a sitting prosecutor would be removed “by force” is a new benchmark in the ongoing battle between Gardner and her opponents. Roorda, who in the past has blamed Barack Obama for officer deaths and earlier this year wished ex erguson officer arren ilson a “Happy Alive ay” on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, told ox that Gardner had ethically compromised her office. “She’s supposed to look at this case objectively,” he said, “and she’s tweeting her ignorance to the rest of the world.” But beyond Gardner’s tweet, the status of St. Louis’ marijuana laws, in the context of a regional legalization push, complicates the narrative of good cops taking down a bad guy with a gun. On the ip side, though, is the fact that even at the time Gardner sent her tweet, the early police statements indicated that there was more going on than just marijuana possession. In an early morning press conference hours after the shooting, St. Louis Metropolitan Police hief ohn Hayden stated that the incident took place at : 0 a.m. on a mostly vacant street in the Greater Ville neighborhood, an area officers recognize for “heavy drug activity,” the chief said. Multiple people had gathered around a vehicle, and a sevenyear old girl the daughter of ortez’s girlfriend had been sitting in the back seat when police said they spotted the marijuana on the man’s lap. Hayden said that officers ordered ortez out of the car, but he’d refused. One officer tried tasering ortez, but that didn’t work, the chief said. According to an incident report, the confrontation turned deadly after an officer spotted ortez trying to withdraw a revolver from his pocket. “A struggle then began as the suspect attempted to retrieve the firearm,” police claimed in the report. The struggle ended with a second officer putting a bullet in ortez’s chest. ortez was transported to a hospital, where he was
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Undercover Beaten by Fellow Cops Sues
capacity because of surveillance footage he had provided” during briefings that weekend. Krewson, in an emailed statement to Riverfront Times, countered the lawsuit’s description of that night. She writes that she doesn’t remember riding the elevator with Hall or making the comment quoted in the suit. “I saw Luther Hall Sunday evening when he was walking around in the Real Time Crime Center,” she writes. “[Acting Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole] introduced us. I did not know who he was previously. He had some cuts on his face.” That timing of this interaction is significant. September 17 was the third day of the protests after a St. Louis judge found
Stockley not guilty of murder in the 2011 shooting of Anthony Lamar Smith. That night, while Hall had been deployed undercover amid the protesters, officers maneuvered into a “kettle” formation around the intersection of Washington Avenue and Tucker Boulevard, blocking protesters from leaving — and then arrested more than 80 people, charging them with “failure to disperse.” But it turned out that the kettle had captured more than protesters, as officers seemingly made no distinction between the vandals and the peaceful demonstrators, uninvolved pedestrians and even residents of the area. Caught in the chaos was Hall, who had been tailing “some demonstrators
who started breaking windows and flowerpots,” the lawsuit states. Hall’s recollection of that night is strikingly familiar to the civil rights complaints aired by protesters in St. Louis and in Ferguson. Hall, the lawsuit continues, “never heard an order to disperse before police officers began firing upon and macing the crowd and saw no justification for this use of force by the officers at the scene.” Hall would later tell investigators that the officers “beat the fuck out of him like Rodney King.” According to the lawsuit, “Hall was surrounded by police officers who beat him with their batons and fists and kicked him with their boots. He could feel blows landing all over his body to include his neck and the side of his head… When officers told Hall to put him hands behind his back, they were standing on his arms.” After Hall had been separated out from the other arrestees, the lawsuit claims that he was driven to a triage center by Krewson’s own driver. The question is: What did Krewson know at the time? This is where the mayor’s alleged comment to Hall in the elevator becomes more than just a weird quote in a lawsuit: If Krewson did know that Hall had been beaten by other officers as early as that very night, it raises questions about her comments in the coming days. In a press conference On September 18, for instance, the lawsuit notes that Krewson thanked first responders, saying, “Law enforcement has my full support.” At another press conference several days later, the suit adds, Krewson “denied knowing anything about an undercover police officer being injured on
able cause” than the marijuana possession. Cortez also had a complicated background. As subse uent news reports soon revealed, he had recently been paroled after nine years in prison he’d been serving a sentence for a 0 0 incident in which he’d stolen a car with a toddler sleeping in the backseat, led police on a car chase, crashed into a police car and punched a cop who was trying to arrest him. “I caution us not to get hung up on individual cases,” Green said, “because we can’t go back in time, we can’t change what happened.” And even if ortez deserved police attention, the result of a conviction for drug and firearm charges “would not have been death,” she added. In the interview, Green noted that the known details of the confrontation between the officers and ortez are entirely based on the officers’ own reports. ithout body-
cam footage or other witnesses, she added, “we will never know what the interaction was that led to this tragedy.” What we do know, according to police, was that it was the presence of marijuana that pulled officers into contact with Cortez, and it’s this very type of marijuana enforcement that’s “fraying trust” between the community and police, Green said. Indeed, even after St. Louis decriminalized marijuana in 0 4 which turned the punishment for marijuana possession into a municipal citation instead of state charges the citations continued to fall disproportionately on black suspects. To Green, the current state of marijuana enforcement in St. Louis is broken, and with the legalization of medical marijuana in Missouri and recreational marijuana in Illinois, she argues that using marijuana possession as probable cause makes even less sense.
“ e can recognize there are soon going to be people in legal possession of marijuana on their person,” she says. “ e need training, and I think that will produce better policing with other means of probable cause than marijuana. e need to adopt police practices to make sure we do not end up with situations like this.” The RFT reached out to the Circuit Attorney’s Office through a spokeswoman for comment, but our emails were not returned. Later that evening, however, the PostDispatch reported that Gardner “called on the unions to work with her office instead of against it.” Gardner, in a statement to the newspaper, didn’t appear to back down but she also didn’t offer any more explanation of her thoughts on the way police handled the ortez case. Addressing the criticism from the police union officials, she said only that “enough is enough.” n
Written by
DANNY WICENTOWSKI
T
wo years after the acquittal of former St. Louis cop Jason Stockley, an officer deployed undercover during the ensuing protests is now suing the cops who beat him — and he’s accusing city leaders, including St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson, of complicity in the cover-up. It is Krewson, in fact, whose behavior is highlighted most notably in the civil rights lawsuit filed Monday in federal court by Detective Luther Hall. On the night of September 17, 2017, shortly after Hall had been treated for his injuries sustained during a violent arrest, the lawsuit alleges, he shared an elevator ride with Krewson inside police headquarters. In Hall’s telling, Krewson remarked about his injuries, saying, “Oh, they messed up your cute face.” Aside from sounding like a shockingly casual thing to say to anyone who was visibly wounded from a beating — Hall had to get stitches to close “a hole in his face above his lip,” among other injuries — the lawsuit argues that Krewson’s comment supports its charge that the mayor hadn’t just recognized Hall’s “cute face,” but that she knew he’d been serving as an undercover officer and what his injuries signified. The lawsuit makes the case that Krewson, who is one of twelve defendants, “knew Hall was working in an undercover
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pronounced dead. Later that afternoon, the police department added its own perspective, posting images of the tape-wrapped revolver and various drugs recovered at the scene, including what appears to be a very small amount of marijuana. In an interview last week, Alderwoman Green, whose Twitter thread sparked Gardner’s response and the subse uent controversy, said that she’d read an early news report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the incident before composing her tweets. Green acknowledged that, given ortez’s background and the additional details about the incident, such as the presence of a young child in his car, officers “probably had some other grounds for prob-
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St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and Lt. Col. Lawrence O’Toole, at a news conference in September 2017, address the police department’s response to protests in the city. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI
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September 17, 2017, even though she had seen Hall was injured.” What Krewson and other city officials knew of Hall’s beating, and when they knew it, could play a key role in the lawsuit; citing her comment in the elevator, the suit accuses the mayor of showing “deliberate indifference to or tacit authorization” of the police misconduct that brutalized Hall. The lawsuit also names Lt. Col. Lawrence O’Toole, who as the interim chief at the time, had cheered his officers’ conduct just one day after the September 17 kettle, telling reporters that they had “owned the night.”
The legacy of that night, however, is a creeping stain on the department, one that’s already led to more than a dozen lawsuits filed against the city. The beating of Hall has already resulted in criminal charges. And indeed, Hall’s lawsuit names officers Dustin Boone, Randy Hays and Christopher Myers, each of whom is facing federal charges in connection to the beating. A fourth officer, Bailey Colletta, who is named in the lawsuit, pleaded guilty and was terminated from the department earlier this month after admitting she lied to an FBI agent and a grand jury while trying to protect the other cops. n
St. Louis police check out the stolen Spire truck. | DOYLE MURPHY
Mellow End to Stolen Spire Truck Chase Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
A
man stole a pickup from utility company Spire, and then raced through Monday afternoon traffic while a news helicopter followed overhead, broadcasting the action live. The chase wound through Illinois and parts of St. Louis city and county. Shortly before 4:30 p.m., the driver slowed in the 3300 block of Locust Street in the city, parallel parked behind a dumpster and strolled down the block. A KMOV news chopper was still filming from overhead as the man wandered. A full minute passed as he walked west past SLU’s Robert May Hall and then began to cross
Locust on a diagonal. That’s when two unmarked police cars raced up and officers ordered him to the ground. The man, dressed in a red jersey and black sunglasses, complied and was taken into custody. Within minutes, news reporters were pulling into the neighborhood. By then, the man had been loaded into a police arrest van. Mostly obscured by the thick window glass and metal cage, he sat in the back, seemingly calm as he peered out at the reporters trying to peer in. Nearby, investigators chatted and examined the truck. An officer on scene told others the man had refused to tell them his name. “He won’t?” asked one. “Nope,” replied the officer. Spire says the truck had been stolen this afternoon from its Shrewsbury site and they have worked closely with law enforcement to provide info about the vehicle. KMOV reported the company had been tracking it by GPS as it zigzagged across the Metro. The truck appeared no worse for the wear. After the man parked it, but before he walked away, he gently closed the door and gave it a pat. n
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3rd a ual
mo ys in sOULARD 11:30AM-2:30PM Grilled Oysters • Raw Oysters • Oyster Shooters Open Bar • Additional Food & Music
Celebrate your favorite briny bivalves at Riverfront Times' 3rd Annual Shuck Yeah! This party on the patio will bring together oysters from both coasts for a celebration of all-things-oyster and other bites from your favorite local restaurants at Mollys in Soulard. Plus enjoy craft cocktails and beer and live music from Funky Butt Brass Band.
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Anything is possible along the king of south St. Louis streets BY THOMAS CRONE
T
o walk into Aqua World in 2019 is, in many respects, the same experience as walking into Aqua World in 1979. Differences exist, of course, but they’re relatively minor. Situated on a little hill at the corner of Gravois and Gustine avenues, the aquatics shop is possibly a bit less stocked than it was 40 years ago, when every house seemed to have a fish tank, or two. But the business’s layout remains the same, with rows of tanks aligned to different options saltwater fish in one zone, cichlids in another, community tropicals in the rest. Here, patrons walk past countless tanks, slowly crouching and peering and gazing for a few seconds before moving on to the next, in search of popular faves and exotics. Often, they step past an employee engaged in what is a daily job at Aqua World, draining and refreshing water in the dozens of tanks, with the shop uniquely set up to allow for the maximum amount of showroom, organized both horizontally and vertically. Like other businesses of a certain, specific sort, A ua orld
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PHOTOS BY THEO WELLING has held on despite chain stores coming into the equation over the decades. When the Schneiderhahn family began the business more than 50 years ago, a lot of neighborhoods had pet shops. Eventually, a second location of their business would crop up on Manchester in deep west St. Louis County, but even then the city location remained. You could look at a shop like this and think that it could exist in a variety of settings within the city of St. Louis, and maybe you’d be right. Probably not, though; Gravois is unique. It’s a place where businesses can set up shop and last a few months, selling wares that seem impossibly specific. Others hang around for decades. From the beginning of Gravois near downtown to the street’s crossing of the city/county border just west of River Des Peres, Gravois offers arguably the quirkiest blend of businesses in the entire metro area. Nowhere else can you find a timepiece bar like Tim’s Chrome Lounge in the same strip of buildings as the Miniature Museum. Used car lots inhabit tiny tracts of real estate. Head
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shops are found in abundance, and you’ll never want for CBD if traveling Gravois. It’s a road that, in the city alone, offers a chance to drink strong Albanian coffee, buy a new bike or enjoy tacos of every avor. It’s a place where hundreds of St. Louisans have invested in their dreams. Some of these entrepreneurs have made said dreams work here, others have lost the proverbial farm. But there’re always more storefronts to fill, more opportunities. Among the businesses that have made it, quite a few exist in the heart of the city’s Gravois, near Bevo Mill. Among that number is the Heavy Anchor, which was enjoying a lively Friday afternoon happy hour recently …
J
odie Timbrook, when standing near the big front windows of her bar and venue, the Heavy Anchor, can look out onto Gravois with visuals of the street’s past, present and future all coming together. (RIP, Rockhound Supplies.) Within the time that she and her husband, Joshua Timbrook, have owned the Continued on pg 16
Gravois once cut along the far reaches of the city, which probably accounts for all the nearby cemeteries, says historian Michael Allen (middle right). The rest of the sights? They have their own stories.
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Jodie and Joshua Timbrook have created a home for comedy and live music in their bar, the Heavy Anchor.
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venue, the street outside has transitioned from a four-lane road to half that, with bike lanes, a turn lane and, theoretically, a bit of traffic uieting coming along with the new striping. “I like it,” she says of the overall effects, noting that “it’s become a lot more pedestrian friendly.” Though as with any sort of change, “there were some people who didn’t like it.” Those folks are going to be in for more gripes, as the road experiments with new curb cuts, crosswalks and other traffic amenities that are meant to settle things down a bit. Those efforts are decades in the mak-
ing for business owners who, at nighttime, see cars traveling their road at interstate speeds. In a society built for speed, cars move fast on Gravois and, when doing so, the drivers and passengers are speeding along the street that, in many respects, is St. Louis’ ultimate melting pot. And, with dozens of examples to prove the point, it’s also the ultimate incubator. Retail businesses, service providers, bars and restaurants, things you can’t even quite ID from the street — all kinds of commerce takes place on this road. Sometimes, the businesses stick around for years; other times, the dreams of owners die hard and fast. A few change as they need to. The Heavy Anchor is an example. When the Timbrooks decided
to become club owners, they took over a space called Antarctica, which had booked music, but irregularly. With their ownership, the bar became a six-days-a-week operation, with a vibe that differed wildly from some of the nearby smoking-and-billiards rooms. For years, music was the predominant form of booking, but the venue is now well known for being a home for independent comedy, including standup, sketch and variety shows. And, over time, the neighborhood imprint has come into play as the Anchor hosts things like a low-key farmers market, clothing swaps and the occasional aldermanic election watch party. As the business has changed, the Timbrooks have adapted to their own new
role in the area, including a civic component they likely wouldn’t have anticipated at the start. Jodie Timbrook, for example, has become heavily involved in the Bevo Community Improvement District, or CID, which is attempting to stimulate some positive economic impact between Taft Avenue on the northeast and Christy Boulevard on the southwest. Traffic calming is part of those efforts, but only part. There has been a recent grant from the Great Streets program, allowing for a half-million dollars to be spent, largely, on planning for next steps which could launch a number of different elements to knit together that particular zone, eventually expanding it north on Continued on pg 19
Sadik Kukic, owner of Taft Street Restaurant & Bar, is ready to hand over his corner of Gravois to a new generation.
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are especially affordable.
DB Cooper’s Safe House looks out over Christy Park.
Mariscos el Gato (4561 Gravois Avenue, 314-282-0772): Gravois’ transition into a destination zone for Mexican food (and a street of ever-changing identities) is well represented by this restaurant, which opened in the area after the owners split from an operation on Cherokee Street and moved into a space originally built as a German bar and restaurant. See the phenomenal backbar for evidence of such, the craftsmanship of that piece among the greatest of any in town. After a run of short-lived bars called this place home, Mariscos el Gato has found quite a spot for growth, in a neighborhood that’s seen new Mexican restaurants pop up with regularity.
feeling of being both public walking park and decommissioned boneyard. A walk through the Old St. Marcus, rehabbed over the past couple of years, gives you all the unique and compelling feelings. And, it should be noted, it’s October soon, and all the local teens are readying themselves for some aftermidnight strolls. Papa Legba’s Spiritual Supply (4535 Gravois Avenue, 314-556-3164): It wouldn’t be a shocker to walk down a major thoroughfare in New Orleans and run into a shop like this. On Gravois, though, Papa Legba’s causes at least a few second glances. The shop is a classic, stocking all manner of incense, candles, books, tracts, oils, spell casters and assorted oddities, dedicated to dif-
A Gravois Sampler Platter
T
he problem for St. Louis historian Michael Allen is that he can’t pop into a bar without someone asking him a question about the city’s past. And present. Or future. For example, he figures that the preponderance of graveyards that exist along Gravois came about due to that property lying on what was then the outer edge of the city at the time of the 1876 city/county split, with decades to follow before major development would begin to creep towards that county line. The Gravois graveyards are a distinctive feature of the city’s weirdest, wackiest road, but it’s not as if there’s only one thing that categorizes the street as it winds out of the split with Tucker in Soulard and slashes its way across the city’s terrain on the way to Affton. In the interests of good journalism, we popped into a few of the myriad businesses that call Gravois home, picking up on the weird and wonderful vibes that many of them offer.
Area 51 Gifts (6925 Gravois Avenue, 314-353-5192) and Eclipse Gifts and Smoking Accessories (6917 Gravois, 314-457-9503): You can find classic headshops throughout the region, but you can’t always find two of them on the same block. Different sides of a similar coin, Eclipse has the poster game on lock; if you’ve been thinking about making your basement a D&D destination, this shop has your black light poster needs covered. Area 51, meanwhile, is deep in the CBD/kratom scene, with an array of items from that world and a staff that’ll quickly inquire as to your pain relief or alt-smoking needs. Bob Stevenson’s Shoe Repair & Leatherwork & Orthotics (5423 Gravois, 314-481-1138): Old-school to a T and possessing the mastercraft of its namesake proprietor, this is a place where you can get your shoes repaired. By Bob Stevenson.
Ciggfreeds Liquid and Lace (6839 Gravois Avenue, 314-300-8750): Some businesses are content and able to deal in only one product line. Others opt for variety as the spice of life. An example: Ciggfreeds. Enter this place and be greeted by a friendly staffer, who efficiently gives you the lay of the land. Go upstairs for the smoking/vaping/CBD/kratom world of products and down to the sub-basement for quite the selection of sexy-time accessories. The choice, then, is yours. DB Cooper’s Safe House (6109 Gravois Avenue, 314-499-7119): There are bars that play to their strengths and their basic appeals, and there is nothing at DB Cooper’s that’ll surprise a first-time visitor to this spot. And, yet … there aren’t a lot of bars in St. Louis with this sort of open-door front wall approach, giving a sense of the vibe of bars in Southern college towns, like Austin or Athens. In most respects, this place couldn’t be further from a spot in those locales, but the views of Christy Park are solid and the local macro-micro beers (like UCBC)
Papa Legba’s Spiritual Supply begs a look. Old St. Marcus Cemetery (6638 Gravois Avenue): An oddity no matter where located in the city, this cemetery was created in 1865 and closed in 1960. By 1977 it became a St. Louis park, with many of the graves moving further out on Gravois to the New St. Marcus Cemetery. A number of them, though, were left in this space, which has the eerie
ferent faith traditions, including those of the non-mainstream sort. The dusty charm only adds to the appeal. While the owners are probably okay without every lookie-loo popping through for a quick visual gander, our guess is that more than a few sales have resulted from folks simply scratching the itch to see what’s inside, before leaving with an intentional candle. Southside City Speed Shop (5616 Gravois Avenue, 314-481-7500): It’s doubtful that any fans of hot rods don’t know about this space, which rebuilds engines for classic and high-performance cars, as well as after-market items for the same. Considering how often fast cars enter the conversation of Gravois’ future, this place has to make any such list.
Chicago Fish & Chicken Grill has a following of fried food aficionados.
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Chicago Fish & Chicken Grill (3909 Gravois Avenue, 314-240-5051): If it’s food and can be fried, it’s on the menu at Chicago Grill, formerly Tasty Shack. Equidistant from Gravois’ intersections with Grand and with Chippewa, this spot has gained a cult following, of sorts, in a space that had/has been a revolving door of fast-food options. This ain’t health food. But it’s tasty, if no long Tasty. n
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Gravois cuts a diagonal path across south St. Louis, creating a world of its own.
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Morganford. Even without certain forms of direct city support, they’ve made things work at the Anchor, creating a fun, unpretentious environment. That could be said about the blocks that surround their place, too. In fact, just across the street there’s a place called the Bistro ...
S
adik Kukic is in a moment of transition, personally and professionally. Sipping ice water and quick in response to a series of texts and calls that arrive during a half-hour visit, Kukic is amiable in conversation and direct in saying that he’s tired of working 100-hour weeks, whether spent on his own businesses or in civic duties. “I’ve decided to have a little time for myself,” he says, adding a bit of a macabre touch. “When I go to funerals of people a lot younger than me and when you’ve gone what I’ve gone through, I don’t think I’ll live forever.” He says this within the seafoodcentric Taft Avenue Restaurant & Bar, a business that sits on, yes, Taft, just at the tail end of the Gravois viaduct. It’s a quirky spot, almost hidden from plain view, a business that has brought in a Bosnian-heavy dining clientele over its years in operation. “I lived in this building in 1995,” says Kukic, who spent part of the Bosnian War in a concentration camp before moving to St. Louis. “I purchased the property in 2002. I had a restaurant on South
Grand, the Gulf Coast Cafe, at that time and did a lot of catering for doctors’ lunches at Saint Louis University Hospital. I wanted this for a catering kitchen, but the city wanted a restaurant or tavern here, as it used to be, so we changed it back. We rebuilt everything here, from top to bottom. We opened in 2004, March, and we’ve been here ever since.” With a small connected side building, a large apartment upstairs and the main dining room downstairs, the Taft has been a big part of Kukic’s life for the better part of two decades; he took over from a lesbian coffeeshop and candy manufacturer called the Purple Cat at a down point in the neighborhood’s history. Right now, though, he’s got the building on the market and, as of press time, he’d fielded at least one legit offer for the place. He’s not in a rush to sell, not if he doesn’t get his price. After all, he’s got another business up the block. The Bistro (formerly Melle’s) is that space, located directly across the street from the Heavy Anchor. There, a multi-roomed space for special events and catering has allowed Kukic an opportunity to expand and adapt his presence on the block. That business, like Taft Avenue, is based on a foundation of Bosnian patrons, though he finds some other parties interested in his services as well. The Bevo CID, running from Taft to Christy, also contains a Bosnian in uence he estimates that 50 percent of the businesses or buildings in that stretch are Bosnian-owned. He says this having served as the president of the Bevo CID before a recent stepping down from
that post. He also heads up the Bosnian Chamber of Commerce, though he’s planning on leaving that post at the rate of “soon.” His work has provided some growth to the community, though he’d love to see a quickening of the pace. “We’re really hoping to see this Bevo neighborhood, with the help of Great Streets, become like South Grand from Arsenal to Utah,” he says optimistically of this Taft-to-Christy strip. “The city will one day decide to do some infrastructure and lighting. People are already going into the open storefronts, but we are moving slow. I would like to see a faster progress, and within a year or two we’ll see some of that progress. It’s just moving more slowly than I’d like.” What doesn’t move slowly — and it’s discussed by anyone involved in a business on Gravois — is the passing traffic. Kukic thinks he’s seen at least “two dozen major accidents” outside his restaurant throughout the years, as well as countless smaller ones. But as he mentions this, he also notes, with a light hush to his voice, that crime has dropped significantly in recent years, though some highprofile cases have skewed the impression of Bevo’s general safety. He figures that when his restaurant sells, the place will offer a positive continuation of things on his very particular, tuckedback corner of Gravois. He won’t have a say in what they serve and won’t have to worry about a piece of brick and mortar that’s been in his life since the mid-1990s. “What I would like to see here is more younger people,” he says.
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“A brewery, if possible. Things like that, which draw a crowd. I think we have potential in these buildings. We like diversity and have Bosnian, Mexican and Middle Eastern businesses.” Of all of them, he says, “people here are doing it for themselves.” And the city’s role in redevelopment? Well, alderfolks have a role to play ...
T
he owners of the Heavy Anchor have a situation that’s not uncommon in the city of St. Louis. Living close to their bar, they reside in one aldermanic district, while their bar sits in another. For them, that means living in Carol Howard’s 14th Ward, while their business is in Beth Murphy’s 13th. To date, Timbrook says, that’s been a workable situation, with the two alders tagteaming projects. One that they’d love to see happen is, yes, the elusive unicorn of St. Louis development, a microbrewery. While the trend of neighborhoods having their own small brewhouse and pub isn’t exactly new, the desire to secure one absolutely rocketed when Urban Chestnut’s massive development on Manchester Road all but locked down the fortunes of the western edge of the Grove. Even with some spots now closing and the industry retrenching, the appeal of a brewpub for Gravois is strong. Howard has it on a list of wants for Gravois. “I’d like to see a brewery or maybe a craft liquor store,” she says. “I think that would be a dream, though I know the market’s
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Old St. Marcus Cemetery is now used as a walking park.
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become saturated with craft breweries. But I could see a place open here and think it would do well. And we’d like to see a little more retail, craft and unique types of businesses. And we may, as we see things unfolding, have an opportunity for something relating to the medical marijuana industry.” When Murphy is asked about her wish list, one question becomes a rush of linked and unlinked responses. Another brings a ten-minute pitch on the strengths of Gravois, for which she needlessly apologizes. The enthusiasm is real. “I like the eclectic mix we have,” she says. “I think we could use more bakeries, a grocery store. And I’m hoping that the CID will give some kind of identity to the street. Like adding banners; you knew you were in the Grove with the sign. I’d like to see some continuity with benches, plants, trees; though sometimes trees aren’t the best, in that they cover signs. But something that just says, ‘You’re in Bevo now, you’re on Gravois.’ We need to work on the identity, I think. Just working on the Great Streets projects, we have a lot of good thoughts and ideas that’ve come from them. “Executing,” she adds, “is always the question. You need money. We’ve gotten a lot of good input from neighbors and people who’ve lived there over these past six months. [The feedback is] unifying the area, so to speak, doing different things to promote the area. And we’re working on set-
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The graveyards add their own character to a landscape that stands out in the city. ting up a SUD, or Special Use District, which is a way of keeping certain things out. We’ve kind of decided that we don’t need more used car lots, things like that, and the SUD would be a way to eliminate (new ones).” SUDs and their equivalent are a fascinating bit of city building in that they limit what specific neighborhood property owners can book. Gravois, with its long reach, stretches through a variety pack of neighborhoods and wards, with different sensitivities to new businesses. In the past, SUDs have limited things like auto repair facilities, bars, hair salons and, in a different age, tattoo shops. (Which Murphy brings up without prompting, saying, “As
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is the case now, tattoo shops are much more acceptable.”) For Howard, it’s about balance, giving the sense that the neighborhood is open to new things but within a reasonable range. Even with new businesses arriving regularly, a number of storefronts remain open in Gravois’ heart — in lots of conditions and at lots of price points. “I’m looking forward to seeing more businesses that are unique,” she says. “I try to recruit as much as I can, but that isn’t my sole job, of course. The CID has been active in recruiting, and if I hear of something, I try to pass that along.” Murphy believes that the Timbrooks provide an angle worth shooting for: business owners
who wind up moving into the surrounding neighborhood. “One reason that the Grove became what it is is that the Central West End got too expensive,” Murphy figures. “ e don’t want to become so gentrified that we can’t accept everybody. But I think the housing stock down here isn’t conducive to that (model). These aren’t giant houses down here and, for the most part, they’d stay within reach of young people.” And if those young people do move to the greater Gravois environs, they’ll never lack for a local spot to buy a vape pen, burrito or betta fish. On those fronts, Gravois may not have it all, but it’s ever close. n
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CALENDAR
BY PAUL FRISWOLD
Herbert Gentry, American, 1919–2003; Today, 1987; screenprint; Saint Louis Art Museum, The Thelma and Bert Ollie Memorial Collection, Gift of Ronald and Monique Ollie 140:2017; © Estate of Herbert Gentry
FRIDAY 09/20 All Shapes
Alone at Last
The Thelma and Bert Ollie Memorial Collection of abstract art officially went on display Tuesday, September , at the Saint Louis Art Museum ine Arts rive www.slam.org . The collection was gifted to the museum in 0 by New ersey based art collector Ronald Maurice Ollie and his wife, Moni ue McRipley Ollie, in honor of Ronald’s parents. The elder Ollies often visited the Saint Louis Art Museum with their children, instilling a lifelong passion for art. Ronald and Moni ue Ollie together collected art for many years, particularly work by contemporary black artists. Among the treasures in the exhibit, The Shape Of Abstraction: Selections from the Ollie Collection, are important works such as Robert Blackburn’s lithograph Faux Pas, Mary Lovelace O’Neal’s City Lights and rank Bowling’s Fishes, Wishes and Star Apple Blue, which demonstrates Bowling’s innovative painting techni ue. In all, 40 works are displayed in the show, which draws its title from a poem by uincy Troupe. The St. Louis native was inspired by the artworks in the Ollie ollection and wrote “The Shape of Abstraction for Ron Ollie” in response. Troupe’s poem is included in the exhibit catalog.
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It’s been a long time since an and her husband, Adam, have had the place to themselves. Between their son, their jobs and the distractions of everyday life, the couple haven’t spent an evening at home together just the two of them in years. hat will they do to pass the time? Adam has an idea, but an isn’t on board. This is one of many rifts they must cross in Michael eller’s Fifty Words. an a long married couple talk about anything other than their annoyances and disappointments with their respective partner, or has the marriage soured so thoroughly? St. Louis Actors’ Studio opens its thirteenth season with the drama Fifty Words. Performances are at p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday September 0 to October at the Gaslight Theater 3 North Boyle Avenue www.stlas.org . Tickets are 30 to 3 .
SATURDAY 09/21 Books, Mark It Technically, the 0 edition of BookFest St. Louis starts at p.m. riday, September 0, with a marathon reading of alt hitman’s “Song of Myself” at the Mahler Ballroom 4 ashington Boulevard to celebrate the American
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Poet Aaron Coleman discusses his craft at BookFest St. Louis. poet’s bicentennial. To put that in literary terms, it’s the e uivalent of the introduction. The actual plot of Book est kicks off at at 0:30 a.m. Saturday, September , and concludes at :30 p.m. In between are a children’s storytime, presentations on young adult fiction, literature, poetry and a panel on writing for LGBT IA teens. All of these sessions include multiple working authors, poets and authors discussing their works and books. Among the many participants are lizabeth Mc racken, Sonali ev, ohn Hendrix, Aaron oleman and Mary ngelbreit. Book est St. Louis takes place at several locations in the entral est nd, with the main tent set up near the intersection of uclid and McPherson avenues www. bookfeststl.com . Left Bank Books will be selling copies of everybody’s books, and authors will be available to sign copies after their presentations. Best of all, admission is free, which is very easy on any book budget.
Skypilots Ahoy ou’d better get up early if you want to get a good spot at the
Great Forest Park Balloon Race, because seemingly everyone in the metro area attends. Alright, it’s actually only 0,000 people, but they’re all camped out on orest Park’s www.greatforestparkballoonrace.com entral ield well before noon. This year’s race features more than 0 balloons and pilots, who start their engines gas burners? at 4:4 p.m. on Saturday, September . In the time leading up to that magic moment you can picnic in the park, or avail yourself of one of several food trucks that will be parked nearby. The children’s area opens at noon, with in atables, games and Purina Pro Plan Performance Team’s very agile dogs. Admission is free.
SUNDAY 09/22 A Salty Salute The typical brunch menu makes you choose between the two stalwarts of breakfast: bacon and sausage. ou can opt to pay extra and get both that’s a pro tip, Tex , or you can go to Bacon and Brunch Fest to load up on
WEEK OF OF SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 19-25 19-25 WEEK on the ashy choice. Salty, crispy bacon is the heart of this brunch extravaganza, which starts at a.m. on Sunday, September , at Ballpark Village 0 lark Avenue www.stlballparkvillage.com . Restaurants and food trucks, including olklore and Super Smokers BB , will be slinging strips all morning, and there’s even bacon in many of the cocktails. There will be non bacon dining options as well, and proceeds go to HAMP assistance dogs, which places service dogs with disabled people. Tickets are 0 to 0.
The Champs Return The greatest sporting event of our lifetimes happened this past une, when the good and noble St. Louis Blues made Brad Marchand cry. On top of that joy, the Blues won hockey’s greatest prize, a feat that can only be exceeded by winning it again. That journey of a thousand bodychecks begins with preseason hockey, and the Blues’ first home game of the warmup season takes place at :30 p.m. Sunday, September , at the nterprise enter 40 lark Avenue www. stlblues.com . hat’s left of the olumbus Bluejackets the team that lost both its starting goalie and offensive stud Artemi Panarin, among many other skaters,
in the off season are the afternoon’s opponents, but they’re the sideshow, really. ans are showing up to see the champs, and it will never get old to say that. Tickets for the game are to .
MONDAY 09/23 Will You Be There? Because we live in strange times, there’s currently a revived interest in the 0s. Is it the baggy, shapeless fashion that people miss? The grungy music? The comfort of knowing our horny, self involved president was only screwing the interns and not the nation? Regardless, the ’ 0s are back and so is Friends. Netflix’s current most watched show marks its th anniversary with a nationwide broadcast of its most popular and memorable episodes in movie theaters. Return to those thrilling ? days of yesteryear as Monica Geller gets an unsought roommate, neurotic wiseacre handler Bing spends Thanksgiving in a wooden box and terminal asshat Ross Geller gets high, and so on and so on. Blocks of episodes are shown at p.m. Monday, September 3 Saturday, September and ednesday, October at select theaters including the AM reve oeur 04 Olive Boulevard www.fathomevents.com . Tickets are 3. . n
A group of young New Yorkers in their natural habitat. | COURTESY OF FATHOM EVENTS
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PING PONG TABLE • POOL TABLE • BOARD GAMES WEDNESDAY TRIVIA • LIVE MUSIC / DJS 5 DAYS A WEEK
THIS WEEK THE GROVE SELECTED HAPPENINGS
IN
Day or night, there’s always something going on in The Grove: live bands, great food, beer tastings, shopping events, and so much more. Visit thegrovestl.com for a whole lot more of what makes this neighborhood great.
22 44 R RIRVII VEV ERE RFR RFF ROR ONO NTN TTT ITTMII MME ESE SS MF EJSAUBERNRPCEUTHAE2RM104YB- -E22R680,-,1M2820A-02R1148C8,H 2r5r0i,iv1ve92er0rf1frrr8ooi nvntetrtrti fivmrmeoeernsfs.tr.ctocionommtmet si m. ceos m. c o m
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
5 PM AT INTOXICOLOGY
THE MIDNIGHT
2019 COMPASS IMPROV FESTIVAL
$59, 7
PM AT
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DRAGMETOHANDLEBAR 8
PM AT
HANDLEBAR
6 PM AT THE IMPROV SHOP
LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS W/ NEAL FRANCIS
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
$20, 7 PM AT THE READY ROOM
COMPLIMENTARY 1220 SPIRITS TASTING
DREAMGIRL W/ GOLDEN CURLS & HOLY POSERS AT THE BOOTLEG
4130 MANCHESTER AVE. IN THE GROVE FIRECRACKERPIZZA.COM $7, 8 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY
9 PM AT THE READY ROOM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
MELVINS, REDD KROSS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
BROADWAY PIANO KARAOKE
7 PM AT THE READY ROOM
WIZARD FEST
WALKER LUKENS W/ PONO AM & LE'PONDS
8 PM AT HANDLEBAR
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
$10, 7 PM AT THE READY ROOM
TECH • NOIR AT THE BOOTLEG
$10, 8 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY
JUST JOHN NIGHT AT THE BALLPARK
11 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
5 PM AT JUST JOHN
RALLY TO NOT NAME THE NEW MLS TEAM THE ST. LOUIS "CHUCKBERRIES"
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
THE MYNABIRDS
VOODOO STEELY DANCE PARTY!
9 PM AT THE READY ROOM
SPIN DEEP - PARK JAM AFTERPARTY
$12, 7 PM AT THE READY ROOM
FREE! 6 PM AT ATOMIC COWBOY
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In May of 2019, Sedara Sweets joined the community of Affton. Sedara serves a variety of baked goods including fifteen types of baklava—both Iraqi and Turkish. Just like the name says, Sedara sells ice cream, using products from Wisconsin-based Cedar Crest, and milkshakes. The cafe offers a small savory menu featuring breakfast bread, falafel and shawarma sandwiches, with rotisserie versions of beef or chicken both on offer. Whether you are looking for something to satisfy your sweet tooth, or a new option for lunch and dinner, Sedara has you covered. “We want to have something for everybody” Sedara Sweets is both family owned and operated. They offer dine in and take out food services, as well as an amazing Baklava gift box that can be ordered online, or even delivered! Owners George and Esraa Simon look forward to meeting their new neighbors and sharing some of their favorite dishes with the community!
Located on both Page Avenue, as well as the upcoming location in the Saint Louis Galleria, Cluster Busters hopes to provide Saint Louis with high quality seafood at affordable prices. Cluster Busters offers both dine in and carry out seafood, with recipes from Chef Deion Woodard. You will find all your favorites dishes such as seafood, pasta, gumbo, and fried fish. Whether you want to try their flagship “Cluster Buster” or the Lobster Mac and Cheese, Cluster Busters offers something for everyone. Since 2017, Cluster Busters continues to grow as part of a staple of the North Saint Louis community, and is very excited to bring their offerings to the Galleria. Keep an eye out for menu additions as well as daily specials. Cluster Busters is also available for catering and private events, so consider them for your next event. At Cluster Busters, you’re invited to come catch this drip!
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CARNIVORE STL 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-lemon-butter 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.
314.833.5900 8 S EUCLID AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63108 314.553.9440 6316 DELMAR BLVD UNIVERSITY CITY, MO 63130 Poke Doke offers St. Louis their energized recipes intertwined in a fast-casual model. Best part is every bowl is customizable to the patron -- whether you know what you want and can come up with your own flavor pairings — but it’s certain your heart will be content with the rich, high-quality seafood. Customers choose a size, a base, (such as rice, greens, or soba noodles) and choose from proteins (such as salmon ahi tuna, spicy tuna, shrimp or tofu), then add as many toppings and drizzles as they wish. If you’re less interested in the simple pleasures of fish and more in playing around with accoutrements, both the shrimp and tofu are neutral enough that they benefit from the enhancements. The menu also offers appetizers such as pork-filled pot stickers, miso soup, and crab rangoon, along with an assortment of bubble milk teas and soft serve ice cream. With locations in both the Central West End and the Delmar Loop, Poke Doke is the perfect spot to grab a quick bite!
BLK MKT EATS
CRAWLING CRAB
BLKMKTEATS.COM
314.328.3421 6730 PAGE AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63138
314.391.5100 9 S. VANDEVENTER AVE. ST. LOUIS, MO 63108
Looking for the best seafood in St. Louis or the Midwest—don’t fret, Crawling Crab is now open! Here, we drizzle everything in garlic butter and then sprinkle on our magic dust! In a fun and casual atmosphere, you’ll enjoy fresh, hand-cleaned seafood ranging from lobster, shrimp, and of course crab legs. All platters come with corn sausage potatoes and Cajun boiled eggs and shrimp that won’t disappoint. For those pasta and veggie lovers out there, there is a spot for you here too! Enjoy our double dipped garlic butter rolls along side with your meal. And if you are still not stuffed, we have homemade dessert on the menu too! Have a big family coming in or an event coming up? Enjoy our family meal options and our beautiful seafood tables. As we continue to grow, we are excited to add new items to the menu, get creative with new recipes, and give back within the community. Join us on the first Tuesday of the month for $20 platter specials, and $5 appetizers on every Wild Wednesday! Open Tuesday thru Saturday 4pm-10pm, currently located in the 24:1 Coffee House Cafe.
The fast-fresh, made-to-order concept has been applied to everything from pizza to pasta in St. Louis, but the sushi burrito surprisingly had no Gateway City home until BLK MKT Eats opened near Saint Louis University last fall. It was worth the wait, though, because BLK MKT Eats combines bold flavors and convenience into a perfectly wrapped package that’s ideal for those in a rush. Cousins and co-owners Kati Fahrney and Ron Turigliatto offer a casual menu full of high-quality, all-natural ingredients that fit everything you love about sushi and NOT burritos right in your hand. The Swedish Fish layers Scandinavian YOUR AVERAGE SUSHI SPOT cured salmon, yuzu dill slaw, Persian cucumbers and avocado for a fresh flavor explosion. Another 9 SOUTH VANDEVENTER DINE-IN, TAKEOUT OR DELIVERY MON-SAT 11AM-9PM favorite, the OG Fire, features your choice of spicy tuna or salmon alongside tempura crunch, masago, shallots, jalapeño and piquant namesake sauce; Persian cucumbers and avocado soothe your tongue from the sauce’s kick. All burrito rolls come with sticky rice wrapped in nori or can be made into poké
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CAFE
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[REVIEW]
BoBQ Turns Up the Heat Digging into some of the best, most affordable Korean ’cue in town Written by
CHERYL BAEHR BoBQ 571 Melville Avenue, University City; 314659-8439. Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sun. noon-9 p.m. (Closed Mondays.)
B
oBQ’s kimchi is perfection of the form — a generously sized portion of cabbage, fermented to the point that its esh begins to break down so that it releases a wonderful, earthy funk. Through some feat of magic, the cabbage retains just enough of its crispness, even after it is saturated in a vibrant orange-red chili sauce that is spicy enough to tingle the tongue but balanced with the pungent brine to soften its punch. It’s fiery, refreshing, visually stunning and takes two days to make. And it only costs $1. That such a time-intensive delight comes at this accessible price is the reason BoBQ exists at all. Owned by husband and wife team Victor Jang and Moon Kim, the tiny storefront is their answer to what they saw as a dearth of Korean restaurants in St. Louis — at least ones providing a quick and inexpensive window into the country’s rich culinary offerings. This is the second time in three years that Jang and Kim have sought to add more Korean fare to St. Louis’ food scene: In 2016, the pair opened the Korean barbecue hot spot Wudon in Creve Coeur to roaring success. Their stellar reputation is anchored by the highquality Korean barbecue meats that are cooked atop individual grills on the table, right in front of (and in most cases, by) guests. Though admittedly not the first — and certainly not the only — Korean restaurant in town, the one thing Jang and Kim couldn’t help
At BoBQ, the spicy pork bowl tops perfectly cooked rice with fiery and succulent sliced pork. | MABEL SUEN but notice was the area’s shortage of grab-and-go Korean food compared to other cities they’ve lived in. They knew they had a good product: After all, many of their dishes were created from Kim’s family recipes passed down through generations. However, the fact that diners had to commit themselves to a three-hour meal and an upscale price tag meant they were missing a chance to bring their food to a broader audience. Their customers, many of them students at Washington University, told them as much and begged for them to open something low key and close to the school so that they could experience their cooking on a regular basis. Jang and Kim would get the opportunity to do just that in the form of a tiny storefront on a side street in the Delmar Loop. The pair snatched up the property after its former tenant, Schwarma King, vacated, and got to work transforming the spot
into a stylish, quick-serve restaurant with an open kitchen, a stone-fronted order counter and a handful of gray metal tables and chairs for guests who choose to dine in. Like udon, the walls are painted black and covered in Kim’s uni ue, pop art murals with cartoon style chalk drawings of animals and eye-catching phrases such as “ ow” and “Bam” emblazoned in large letters. In addition to the aesthetic changes, Jang and Kim realized they needed to tweak their dishes for the fast-casual platform. Though the avors would be the same, they needed to make sure their food would travel well and still be good even if someone didn’t sit down to eat a dish until 30 minutes after it was prepared. Jang obsessed over every last detail — extra sesame oil on the rice to keep it from getting sticky, extra sauce on the barbecue to prevent it from drying out, griddling the meat for a precise amount of time to mimic the Korean barbe-
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cue experience — and after several months, he and his wife were prepared to roll out their wares to their eager customers. BoBQ opened quietly in March but did not celebrate its grand opening until June in order for Jang and Kim to get their bearings about them. It’s also the reason that BoBQ has such a small menu; serving just four different bowls, one variety of dumplings and a soup, the selection is rather limited. However, what it lacks in breadth, it makes up for in some of the best Korean food — if not some of the best fast-casual food, period in town. On the surface, BoB ’s bowls are straightforward: white rice, grilled onions, shredded romaine lettuce and some meat or tofu. However, all it takes is one bite of the spicy pork bowl to understand how much uality and avor can be packed into a seemingly simple fast-casual entree. Jang’s insistence on getting the rice just right
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results in a uffy, semi sticky texture slicked with rich sesame oil. It serves as the base for the succulent sliced pork, which has been marinated in a fiery, garlic laden gochujang barbecue sauce that caramelizes onto the meat when cooked. The pork’s rendered fat and the sauce mingle together, forming a spicy-savory concoction that soaks into the rice; accents of grilled onions and red bell pepper add subtle sweetness to this magnificent dish. The chicken, while not as rich as the pork, is another worthy offering. Jang and Kim use the same sauce that is on the pork, and it plays well here, giving the chicken not only avor but a buffer against drying out. The little bits of caramelized sauce form a glaze over the meat, like a Korean version of a Buffalo chicken tender. BoBQ’s tofu is also impressive, especially its texture. Inside, the cubes are as creamy as custard while the exterior crisps up when cooked to form a crunchy shell. Unlike the pork or chicken, the tofu does not come sauced, but rather is served with a side of a
BoBQ chef and co-owner Victor Jang runs the restaurant with his wife, Moon Kim. | MABEL SUEN delicate soy-chili sauce that lightly coats the entire dish in spice. The bulgogi bowl, however, is the restaurant’s calling card, a subtly sweet, garlicky, soy kissed mound of sliced beef so wonderful it will haunt you from your last bite until your return visit. Jang and Kim’s version of the
Korean barbecue staple is based on an old family recipe that uses apples, honey and Asian pears in addition to the standard soy, garlic and chiles. The result is a more complex, brighter sweetness that, when cooked on the griddle, crystallizes around the meat, forming a mouthwatering coating of
sweetness, salt and umami. The marinade seeps into the rice and mixes with grilled onions, forming an utterly magnificent sauce that is worth far more than its $8.99 price tag. Aside from the bowls, BoB offers a simple tofu soup and wonderful fried vegetarian dumplings. The latter are half-moon shaped and filled with cabbage, tofu and jalapeños; the contents are so rich and satisfying, my vegetarian friend had to ask twice whether or not they were filled with pork. BoBQ gets busy, and my only issue with this otherwise awless restaurant is how smoky it can become when the place gets hopping. It’s typical of the genre for sure anyone who has had the pleasure of going to a Korean barbecue restaurant knows that you come out smelling of grilled beef and garlic. Personally, I think of it as a badge of honor. For less than $10, you get not just dinner, but also a most exquisite perfume that will make you the envy of anyone who smells it. If that’s not a value, what is?
BoBQ Bulgogi bowl .......................................... $8.99 Spicy pork bowl...................................... $7.99 Dumplings .............................................. $4.99
Your music has a history! Tuesday, MAY 7
Kim Massie’s Tribute to Aretha Franklin Tuesday, MAY 14
Dreamgirls Performed by Willena Vaughn Tuesday, MAY 21
R&B and Jazz Night with Love Jones the Band 6–8pm Forest Park • Museum’s North Lawn mohistory.org/twilight-tuesdays
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Tuesday, MAY 28
A Tribute to the Isley Brothers
SHORT ORDERS
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[SIDE DISH]
At Doggie Mac’s, Chef Bryan Scott Is on a Roll Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
C
hef Bryan Scott remembers the moment he decided he needed to chuck it all out the window and quit his day job as a bank branch manager to launch his food truck: about a minute into his first day. “I went to work for Bank of America as a branch manager, and on day one, I realized that I hated it and it was the worst decision I’d ever made,” Scott recalls. “My first day was so bad, literally from beginning to end, just one thing after another. That day, I went home and said to myself, I have got to figure out my exit out of here.’ That’s when I started working on the food truck.” Scott’s journey to his food truck, Doggie Mac’s Food Truck by Chef B (@DoggieMacsFoodTruck), may have begun in earnest that fateful day, but he can trace his path to the roving restaurant back much further. A 30 year veteran of the restaurant business, Scott began his cooking career right out of high school when a guidance counselor facilitated a scholarship to St. Louis ommunity ollege orest Park’s culinary school. Food had been a passion for Scott ever since he was a little boy watching his father and grandfather cook, so it was an easy path for him to take. Still, his introduction into the professional kitchen was anything but easy. As part of his education, Scott was given an internship at the former Adam’s Mark Hotel downtown, where he found its militaristic, old-school French way of doing things not just difficult but terrifying. It wasn’t uncommon for the chefs to come in at a.m. and work until a.m.,
Chef Bryan Scott is happy to finally be doing his own thing with Doggie Mac’s. | ANDY PAULISSEN sleeping under their desks in the kitchen’s office because it was easier than going home. “It was, ‘Yes, chef,’ or you got slammed into a wall,” Scott recalls. “I learned a lot from those guys, but there was so much anger and vitriol in it that I am still trying to shake it out. ven my crew notices, but I tell them that this is culinary and we have standards. They tell me to relax.” Scott knew that the hotel side of the business was not for him, so after graduating, he got a job with the restaurant group behind the now-shuttered Patrick’s at Westport Plaza. There, he and his chef ran the culinary operations for several of the group’s properties, including Patrick’s, Ozzie’s and the Bevo Mill before leaving for other kitchens around town. Scott bounced around for a bit, all the while working on his own private chef business that involved him cooking small dinners for people in their homes. He made no money doing it, but he loved that, for the first time, diners were getting to taste his food the way he wanted to do it. It gave him a taste for running his own business that he would carry with
him for years. After leaving the kitchen for the front of the house, Scott found himself managing big chains such as hili’s, Applebee’s and hipotle. At hipotle, in particular, he learned the nuts and bolts of running a business with an emphasis on operations. Still, he did not feel he was in a position to strike out on his own, and instead, he decided to leave the industry to try his hand at a nine to five job at Bank of America. “I wanted to wear a suit and a tie and leave smelling the same way that I did when I came in,” Scott laughs. “I’d work bankers’ hours, have weekends off. I thought it was going to be great.” It was far from great, but Scott’s discontent was the push he needed to start his own full-time culinary business. He’d been intrigued by food trucks ever since having his first taste of Guerrilla Street ood and chatting up its co-owner, Joel respo, eight or nine years ago. respo graciously offered insight into the then-nascent scene, and Scott bookmarked that conversation and watched as more and more trucks opened for business. Once he realized that Bank of
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America was the wrong fit, he figured it was time to take his food business to the streets. All he needed was a concept, and he got just the inspiration he needed around the time of his daughter’s first birthday party. He’d been looking to put together a menu for the festivities that would appeal to both children and adults, and he decided a fun way to do that would be to combine hot dogs with his grandmother’s mac and cheese recipe. It took some encouragement, but eventually the guests at the party gave in to his insistence and allowed Scott to put the mac and cheese on top of the hot dogs; they reveled in the experience. After his stepdaughter came up with the Doggie Mac’s name, the rest was history. “In October 0 I did my first party,” Scott explains. “I ended up buying Guerrilla Street ood’s old truck, and it still had their [logo] on it. People were lining up at the window, trying to get some of their food, while I was setting up shop outside of the truck. I kept yelling at them to come and check me out.” It became immediately clear to
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Scott that food truck life would not be as easy as he had thought. On that first outing, he and his crew found themselves driving without functioning windshield wipers in mist and fog, causing them to nearly run off the road. Then there was the rebranding and repairs to the truck, followed by frozen pipes and lack of customers in the winter months. “It was January, and it was brutal,” Scott explains. “I was out there freezing in the snow and ice trying to keep my pipes from freezing. Looking back, I probably wouldn’t have opened in the winter, but it was definitely an interesting way to break myself into the business.” For all the headaches, Scott can’t help but love the food industry and the opportunity to finally be cooking his food, on his terms, for an audience that appreciates what he does. It’s a tough gig, he admits, but he wouldn’t have it
any other way. “I quit my job, burned all my bridges and learned many lessons along the way,” Scott says. “But this business has a way of getting into you. Once you do it, you can’t imagine doing anything else.” Scott recently took a break from Doggie Mac’s to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and beverage community, the importance of alone time and the one thing he thinks could make the city’s thriving food truck scene even better. What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did? That I’m really a nice guy. What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you? My morning alone time. I need an hour alone each day. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? ly. I think everyone has that dream at night ... right? What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?
Not to sound biased, but the food truck scene is very interesting right now. ou have food truck owners starting, not one, but multiple restaurants, while others are being asked to consult on other projects. It will be interesting to see what the next evolution is. Also the barbecue scene is crazy right now. What is something missing in the local food, wine or cocktail scene that you’d like to see? Again not to sound biased, but a food truck park. ood trucks are giving local chefs the opportunity to showcase their amazing food when they might not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise. These chefs need more exposure and a permanent location where patrons know they can find uality food trucks seven days a week. It would shine a bigger spotlight on the industry. Who is your St. Louis food crush? Gobble Stop Smokehouse best wings and turkey ribs in town. Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene?
[FIRST LOOK]
The Last Kitchen Explores Vibrant Mississippi River Food Culture Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
C
hef Evy Swoboda doesn’t want you to think of the Last Kitchen & Bar (1501 Washington Avenue, 314-390-2500) as just another hotel restaurant. In fact, she doesn’t want you to think of it as a hotel restaurant at all. “We describe it as a restaurant and kitchen with rooms, not the other way around,” Swoboda explains. Located inside new boutique property the Last Hotel, the Last Kitchen opened at the end of July as a vibrant addition to Washington Avenue’s dining scene. Anchored by the talented Swoboda, the restaurant is an exploration of the different food cultures along the Mississippi, from its northernmost origins to its southern mouth. As Swoboda explains, the point is to represent the region in a different, thoughtful way and to pay homage to its heritage as a river city. To execute this vision, Swoboda traveled along the Mississippi, beginning in Minnesota and all the way down to New Orleans, cooking with chefs in several of the cities she passed along the way. It helped her appreciate not only the differ-
At the Last Kitchen, chef Evy Swoboda explores food culture along the Mississippi. CHERYL BAEHR
ences in the cooking styles, but the similarities as well, and the menu at the Last Kitchen is a holistic representation of the river’s influence on food. However, her journey to the Last Kitchen started way before that trip — about four years ago, to be precise. Swoboda is a Wisconsin native, and her family lives close to the Iron Horse Hotel, a unique property brought to life by developer Tim Dixon. When her father heard that Dixon was looking to develop the old International Shoe Company Building in St. Louis, he encouraged his daughter to connect with him. She did, and before she knew it, she was serving as Dixon’s culinary ambassador to St. Louis, show-
ing his team around town to steep them in the city’s history and culture. At the time, Swoboda was working for Gerard Craft’s Pastaria, and she had no intention of leaving. However, when Dixon offered her the chance to be a part of developing the hotel and restaurant from the ground up, it was an opportunity she could not pass up. The result of Dixon and Swoboda’s efforts is nothing short of stunning. The Last Hotel is a vintage gem that honors the city’s history as a major force in the shoe industry. In fact, that’s where the name of the hotel and restaurant comes from: “Last” has nothing to do with an ending point but is instead a reference
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hef Ben elch at the Midwestern. Big things Which ingredient is most representative of your personality? Garlic. On its own, it’s a little overpowering, but add it as the main ingredient, and it just makes everything better If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing? Public speaking. It’s what I’d like to do in my second act. Name an ingredient never allowed in your restaurant. Sour cream. an’t stand the stuff. What is your after-work hangout? My sofa I’m exhausted after work. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure? illy’s upcakes and the hopper sandwich. What would be your last meal on earth? A soft pretzel with extra butter, an all-beef hot dog, a grape Slurpee, and I’ll give an honorable mention to Gordon Ramsay’s beef ellington. n
to a cobbler’s last, which is a form used to make shoes. Small touches that nod to its previous occupant are scattered throughout the property — a pool table from 1909, the year the building opened, coasters made from the heels of shoes, vintage shoeshine chairs. The details are not obvious, however, and blend into the gorgeous, vintage decor like little secrets waiting to be discovered. The dining room is outfitted in gray marble, rust-colored velvet and gray tweed upholstery. An open kitchen allows diners to have a peek at the action, and two beautiful bars provide additional seating in the dining room. The restaurant has two chef’s tables toward the kitchen, and a “bartender’s table” toward the front of the space where diners will have the opportunity to experience liquor tastings and wine and spirits dinners. Entrees at the Last Kitchen include dishes like salsiccia pizza, its spicy Italian sausage an old family recipe from Swoboda’s grandfather. Duck breast with spaetzel, salmon with black beans and a roasted half chicken with rainbow Swiss chard are also some of the current offerings, though Swoboda insists that the menu is designed to change with the seasons and is dependent on what is currently available. In addition to the main-floor dining room and bar, the Last Kitchen has a stunning rooftop bar and pool that are both open to the public. Look for a variety of adult frozen drinks, as well as small bites available to satiate your post-swim appetite. The Last Kitchen & Bar is open daily from 6:30 a.m. to midnight. n
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[FOOD NEWS]
Mission Taco Joint in Kirkwood to Include Arcade, Bar Written by
LIZ MILLER
B
ig news last week from Mission Taco Joint: ome early 0 0, the St. Louis based est oast style street food concept will open a location at 0 ast efferson Street in Kirkwood, according to a press release. Located in the former Kirkwood Station Brewing ompany space, the restaurant will mark the largest footprint yet for Mission, which operates six other locations in the St. Louis area and Kansas ity. The ,000 s uare foot space will allow Mission to grow its concept as well, offering a main dining room and bar area to seat 3 plus a 0 person private event space, a new and visible tortilla production line and a separate arcade space. The arcade, the first of its kind for Mission, will feature sixteen vintage arcade games, six pinball ma-
[FOOD NEWS]
Grace and Perennial Releasing Hominy Lager Written by
LIZ MILLER
M
exican-style lagers are one of the trendiest beer styles of the year, and now, two local favorites are teaming up to release one of their own. Made with heirloom Bloody Butcher corn, Grace Hominy Lager is a collaboration between Rick Lewis at Grace Meat + Three (4270 Manchester Avenue, 314533-2700) and Phil Wymore of Perennial Artisan Ales (8125 Michigan Avenue; 314-631-7300). The dried corn will first be cooked in an acauline solution using pecan wood ash at Grace, in the restaurant’s barbecue pit, lovingly nicknamed
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A rendering shows the plans for the arcade and bar at a new Missission Taco Joint opening in 2020 in Kirkwood. | COURTESY MISSION TACO JOINT chines and four Skee-Ball games, as well as a quick-service test kitchen for new grab-and-go menu items and a bar dedicated to serving experimental cocktails. “We are going to be able to have some fun with the space, especially on the arcade side,” Mission co owner Adam Tilford said in the release. “ hile our normal menu of Mission Taco oint favorites will be available in the main dining room, the test kitchen in the Mission Arcade will be a place for our team to experiment with
Bruce Almighty. “Bloody Butcher red corn is an heirloom dent corn that has been grown in the United States since the 1840s,” Lewis said in a release. “We choose this corn because of its flavor and aromatics. We are excited to have the opportunity to brew a Grace featured beer with Perennial. This has been something we have been discussing with Phil and the Perennial team since our days back at Quincy Street Bistro.” The crisp Mexican-style lager was chosen to complement the Southern eats at Grace — especially Lewis’ famous fried chicken, says Wymore. “Clocking in at 4.8 percent ABV, it’s refreshing and a perfect companion for southern cuisine, especially fried chicken,” Wymore said in the release. Grace Hominy Lager will be available on draft at both Grace Meat + Three and Perennial Artisan Ales. Follow both businesses on social media to keep updated on official release-party details, which the release says are coming soon. n
SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
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dishes that could potentially rollout to our other locations.” hef and co owner ason Tilford elaborates, explaining that the test kitchen menu will rotate often, affording regulars the chance to always try something new and exciting. “The test kitchen menu will change frequently and will focus on masa-centric items such as empanadas, tamales, sopes, Mexico ity style uesadillas dishes that can be portable and easy to eat while playing games,” he said
in the release. “ e will be exploring that same philosophy with the small bar with seating for eight in the arcade space as well. e will have signature drinks like our Mission Margarita and Paloma, but we will also feature new creations from our beverage team led by Beverage irector Kyle Harlan.” Guests can expect to see a front facing patio during warmer months. Space Architecture esign will be managing the renovation and build out. n
Rick Lewis, left, with Grace Hominy Lager collaborator Phil Wymore. | SPENCER PERNIKOFF
[FOOD NEWS]
Balkan Treat Box Chef Introducing ‘Good Magic’ Dinners Written by
LIZ MILLER
L
ast week was a big one for Loryn Nalic, chef-owner of Balkan Treat Box 103 Big Bend Boulevard, 314-733-5700) in ebster Groves, Missouri. On September 0, Balkan Treat Box was named one of the top 0 restaurants in the country by Bon Appétit magazine, and two days later, Nalic announced big news of her own. Later this month, she will debut the first event in her new Good Magic collaboration dinner series. The series will
Chefs Loryn Nalic, left, and Nate Hereford. | COURTESY BALKAN TREAT BOX spotlight Nalic’s “global cuisines and cooking styles in collaboration with guest chefs,” according to a press release. The first dinner will be held on Monday, September 3, at p.m. with lauded chef Nate Hereford at Balkan Treat Box, which will act as home base for Good Magic as the restaurant
is not currently open for dinner service . Guests can expect a five course meal with craft cocktails, local beer and wine pairings. “Good Magic is kind of my mantra,” Nalic says in a release. “ ou’ll hear me say, ‘Spread good magic or share good magic.’ Magic to me means doing something that
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seems impossible. e wouldn’t be where we are today at Balkan Treat Box without the support of our hospitality community here in St. Louis and individuals like Nate. To be cooking next to a chef of his caliber, it doesn’t seem real, but here we are ” Hereford, who previously helmed the kitchen at Gerard raft’s late great Niche, expressed similar excitement to work with Nalic. The pair will be “highlighting the in uence of Balkan cuisine on astern urope from the Black Sea to Russia.” A few courses have been announced so far, including shish kebabs, a herring dish and lamb served family style with bread, crispy rice and vegetables. “I am super excited to cook up some good magic with Loryn,” Hereford said in the release. “She is a super inspiring individual to be around in the kitchen. I really appreciate the way that she thinks about food and culture. I think that this dinner will exemplify that and push each other to come up with some delicious and fun food.” Tickets for the first Good Magic dinner are 0, including gratuity and tax, and are now available for purchase online. Look for future dates and chef collaboration announcements throughout the fall. n
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Authentic Hong Kong Style Cuisine
VOTED ST. LOUIS’ #1 CHINESE CUISINE! FRESH & HEALTHY.
WE CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU EAT!
OPEN DAILY
DIM SUM
EVERYDAY 11AM-3PM
11AM-10PM 8116 OLIVE BLVD. • (314) 567-9997 • WONTONKINGSTL.COM
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MUSIC + CULTURE [HOMESPUN]
After the Empire Pretty Little Empire’s Justin Johnson finds his voice with new solo EP Written by
CHRISTIAN SCHAEFFER
A
fter three albums, a few regional tours and countless local sets, the emotive rock quartet Pretty Little Empire quietly folded up shop a few years ago. There was no formal goodbye show and no bitter parting among bandmates, just the slow accretion of years, experiences and adult responsibilities that make twice-weekly practices and regular gigs more of a chore than a blessing. At least that’s how it began to feel for former lead singer and acoustic guitarist Justin Johnson. “I don’t know if I was burned out, but trying to keep a band together and scheduling and setting up shows and promoting shows — I had done so much of that for so long, and felt like I needed a break,” says Johnson. The band’s songs could range from direct and energetic to languid and atmospheric, but Johnson held the center of the song, no matter the setting. His lyrics were artful but guileless, elliptical but searching, and his performance — especially in the band’s sweaty, full-bodied live shows — never suggested anything less than a heart-bursting commitment to the music. And while he brie y kept busy with other bands — as part of the Jump Starts with drummer Sarah Ross and in the duo the Fog Lights with Jim Peters — Johnson has been mostly content to play a few solo shows a year. He found that those shows came with benefits and drawbacks. “If I just play by myself, it’s easier. I can practice whenever; I don’t have to check with anyone’s schedule,” he says. “But I found that it was much more limiting
Pretty Little Empire faded into history, but Justin Johnson has soldiered on solo. | VIA THE ARTIST to get shows. And I didn’t really bring people out when I played solo. It’s a hard thing to promote — ‘Oh, come hear me sing some sad songs on a Friday night,’” Johnson says with a laugh. With his forthcoming solo EP Never Coming Home, Johnson has found the best of both worlds. He’s free from the strictures and responsibilities of being in a multimember band, but able to make a record as eshed out and melodically driven as his old band’s best recordings. Fans of PLE will instantly recognize Johnson’s high, yearning voice and strummy, Americana-tinged compositions. He mixes lightness — especially through a couple of super-short tracks and a cover of the recently departed Daniel Johnston’s “Devil Town” — with some more resonant and affecting material, the title track in particular. Johnson had little inclination to record his solo material, but a chance meeting with an old family friend, Vince Corkery, led to an exploratory session in Corkery’s
“My just letting go and not caring how it looked or sounded somehow made it the best experience to play music.” Rock Hill home studio. “I thought about doing two songs, and then that turned into seven,” Johnson says. “At first I said, Ah, I’m gonna do this real stripped down,’ and then I started thinking I wanted to do more full-band arrangements.” That meant that the solo artist had to put a band together. Luckily, Johnson has friends in medium-height places: Melinda Cooper of Town Cars signed up to play
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bass and electric guitar without having heard a note; journeyman (and occasional RFT contributor) Corey Woodruff played drums on several tracks as well. “Over the span of about four texts, I had a band ready to come in and record,” Johnson recalls. “It didn’t take a whole lot of time.” Likewise, the recording went quickly. Compared with the numerous sessions it took to finish the last Pretty Little Empire record, Johnson appreciated the efficiency of working with orkery. “I think it’s better that way,” he says. “If you’re four people working on something and you all have your parts and you’re deliberating a lot, it can take longer.” Having over a decade of live performance behind him, Johnson has embraced the ancient adage “know thyself.” Whatever misgivings Johnson had as a younger performer — about the quality of his songs or his ability to transmit them effectively — has been quelled by years of live and in-studio performance. “For the longest time, I had the worst kind of stage fright,” Johnson says. “There just got to a point where I could channel those nerves into my performance; my just letting go and not caring how it looked or sounded somehow made it the best experience to play music. “Over the past few years, I think I know my traits as a songwriter, or how my voice sounds as a singer. I was no longer hindered by, like, not enough self confidence with my voice,” Johnson continues. “This is how I sound. It’s not getting any better or any worse. It’s where it’s at, in a comfortable place. I know where my range is.” For his upcoming EP release show at Off Broadway on Saturday, September 28, Johnson will again be in front of a live rock & roll band, with Cooper, Woodruff and PLE bassist Sean McElroy supporting him. It may be only a oneoff gig, but he’s looking forward to being back in a familiar setting. “I’m excited to be actually playing with a group instead of acoustic with maybe one accompaniment,” Johnsons says. “I don’t know — I haven’t really enjoyed playing solo like I thought I would. I thought that it would be this fun, freeing thing, but I miss the excitement of playing more up-tem-
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[COMICS]
Drawn Together St. Louis’ Jim Ousley and Ben Sawyer release Butcher Queen sci-fi comic series Written by
THOMAS CRONE
J
im Ousley and Ben Sawyer are friends, now. But they weren’t when they began working together on comics, at which point they were simply a writer and illustrator looking to collaborate on some cool projects. Over time, they’ve achieved that — and then some. This month, the pair will offer up a four-issue run of a series called Butcher Queen through Red 5 Comics. A “one-shot” version of the title already landed them a coveted spot selling their wares at the most recent San Diego Comic Con, allowing Ousley a unique chance to experience fandom’s biggest event on his very first visit. “Ben and I met when working with Ink & Drink Comics, our hometown publisher here [in St. Louis],” Ousley says. “They publish anthologies about twice a year, and each has a different theme. My friend Oscar Madrid and I got interested in comics around the same time, and we automatically gravitated to Ben.” This draws a response of, “I don’t remember our first encounter at all” from Sawyer, which meets with laughter. And from Ousley: “Ben, I’ll never forget it.” The joshing about that moment aside, Ousley says that he was coming into his own stories at the time. “I just went to Ben with these ideas,” he says. “And a few years ago we decided to do our own anthology, a horror one called Dead Palace. And there was a character in it named Syd Kiowa.” As Ousley explains it, the character of Syd Kiowa wound up being the key to landing a deal with Red 5, as they’d initially contacted the publisher about a horror series. Instead, they successfully pitched Red 5 on a story centered on Kiowa, set in a world that will please fans of ’80s sci-fi, in the spirit of classics like Mad Max or Blade Runner. In the “ashcan” edition of their first issue, also sold at Comic Con, the series is set up like so: “In Black Star City, alien off-worlders are being systematically attacked and removed from society by a clandestine paramilitary group called the Overseers. When fugitive cop-turnedmercenary Syd Kiowa is contacted by a victim who escaped their grip, she is thrust into a horrifying war of secrets that will determine the future of human and alien relations on Earth forever.” Ousley says that Syd Kiowa was not based on an actual ex-cop, or any other
Butcher Queen artist Ben Sawyer and writer Jim Ousley at San Diego Comic Con. | VIA THE ARTIST
Butcher Queen is set in a world not unlike those found in ’80s sci-fi movies like Mad Max and Blade Runner. VIA THE ARTIST character that he’d seen. “The original idea for Butcher Queen happened as I was going through a really, really terrible personal thing and there was some real regret involved,” he explains. “No matter how much of a good person you are, you sometimes have to fight to get the feeling back that you are a
good person. So it didn’t even come from sci-fi, but just that feeling. I thought of the title ‘Butcher Queen’ and put these things together, then talked to Ben and developed that.” Sawyer suggests that their creation, to date, has tried to go beyond the usual tropes and, rather, “be a character
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The comic is centered on Syd Kiowa, a fugitive cop-turned-mercenary. | VIA THE ARTIST piece in a sci-fi setting.” “Like Star Wars, which isn’t about XWings, but is about a boy who doesn’t know his father and inadvertently kills a lot of people,” he says. “We wanted our lead character to be of mixed-ethnicity and took her as sort of a Michelle Rodriguez type, based on the ass-kickers of Hollywood, like a Sigourney Weaver. She’s a tank. I knew if I ever had the opportunity to feature a woman on a cover, I was going to make her strong.” Having knocked at the door for a good while, Sawyer says that he’d almost given up the ghost on comics, working in other creative forms combining art and tech. The arrival of the Red 5 contract came at a fortuitous time. “Last year, I’d almost given up completely. Comics aren’t a lucrative game, unless you’ve already made your name or Netflix finds you,” Sawyer says. “I was ten years into not filling the coffers and then Red 5 hit us up, so it was, ‘Let’s give it another year.’ It was a trajectory, and I was almost done.” Instead, Sawyer’s now spending time catching up to Ousley’s vision of the Butcher Queen universe. Ousley is working on the fourth (and presumably final) edition, while Sawyer’s deep into the second. Trading ideas via a Dropbox account and occasional real-life conversations, the pair have found a comfortable groove in the creation of the turbulent fiction of Black Star City. “In how we collaborate, there’s a trust that has to be established,” Ousley says. “If he has a criticism, I won’t take it personally. If we have something we disagree on, which is rare, then it becomes a negotiation. In the context of things, that’s not a bad feeling.” The release party for Butcher Queen will be held on Friday, September 20, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Wizard’s Wagon, 6388 Delmar Boulevard.
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[CRITIC’S PICK]
Lee Fields. | VIA THE BILLIONS CORPORATION
Lee Fields & the Expressions 8 p.m. Thursday, September 19. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Avenue. $20 to $25. 314-833-3929. There aren’t many artists out there who, 50 years in, can honestly say they’re still at the top of their game — but then too, there aren’t many artists like Lee Fields. Nicknamed “Little JB” for the similarities in both his appearance and voice to the great James Brown, Fields has specialized in achingly sincere soul music since his first release in 1969, and especially
THURSDAY 19
BROTHER JEFFERSON DUO: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE FERBER BOYS: 8:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. FRONT COUNTRY: w One ay Traffic p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. GOODBYE LOSER: A FAREWELL PARTY FOR JEREMY ESSIG: w/ Tina Dybal, Party Bear, Sisser, Let’s Not, Kenny Kinds, Emily Hickner, Jon Venegoni 8 p.m., free. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. JIMMY HERRING AND THE 5 OF 7: 4 p.m., $25-$30. El Volcan, 4920 Northrup Ave., St. Louis, 314-971-9543. LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. LOW END: w/ Adrenaline, Jocko 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. MARTY SPIKENER & ON CALL BAND: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. MEGHAN YANKOWSKAS EP RELEASE PARTY: 8 p.m., free. Gaslight Lounge, 4916 Shaw Ave, St. Louis, 314-496-0628. SEBASTIAN BACH: 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SHAUN MUNDAY: 8 p.m., $15. Joe’s Cafe, 6014
ever since he teamed up with his band, the Expressions, in 2009. His latest, April’s It Rains Love, is another set of sublimely delivered songs that call to mind the horn-drenched sounds of ’60s soul acts while still remaining unmistakably of the current time. Just a Sample: Fields’ music is so completely authentic that hip-hop artists have taken to sampling his tracks just as rappers so frequently did during the genre’s golden era — Travis Scott, J. Cole and Slum Village have all borrowed from his catalog. —Daniel Hill
Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis. TODD SNIDER: 8 p.m., $25-$35. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. TRIPTIDES: w/ Flaurel, Sexdad 8 p.m., $10. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. THE WLDLFE: 8 p.m., $10-$12. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.
FRIDAY 20
AMERICA: 8 p.m., $39. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. BLESS THE FALL: w/ Escape the Fate 6:30 p.m., $22.50. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. BRANTLEY GILBERT: w/ Michael Ray, Lindsay Ell 7 p.m., $89. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. CATL: 9 p.m., $5. Livery Company, 6728 S Broadway, St. Louis, 314-558-2330. THE FOGGY MEMORY BOYS: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. FUTURE OF THE CITY MUSIC SHOWCASE: w/ Yiz, DJ Code Zero 6:30 p.m., $7-$20. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. GRIVO: w/ Cold Rooms, Lightrider, Seashine 9 p.m., $7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. HALLOW POINT: w/ Summoning the Lich, Broken
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[CRITIC’S PICK]
Pup. | VANESSA HEINS
Pup 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 24. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Boulevard. $22. 314-726-6161. As far as telling song titles go, “See You At Your Funeral” doesn’t have the same snort-punch as Pup’s previous album opener “If This Tour Doesn’t Kill You, I Will.” But the Toronto-based punk band manages to wring vitriol, hooks and plenty of lolz out its latest LP Morbid Stuff. Singer and guitarist Stefan Babcock rips
OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 39
Youth, In My Silence, Signals From Saturn 7 p.m., $5-$8. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. HIDE: w/ Plack Blague, Transgression, DJ Ghost Ice 8 p.m., $12. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. HORSE FEATHERS: 8 p.m., $12. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. JAKE’S LEG: 9 p.m., $10-$12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. KIM MASSIE: 7 p.m., $20. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE LOWEST PAIR CONCERT: 7:30 p.m., $10-$15. Espenschied Chapel, 317 County Road, Mascoutah, 618-566-7425. P.R.E.A.C.H. & A.O.2.: w/ Big Lou Stl, Rip James, D’frynce, R.G.D., Skinny B, Lil Robby 314, $tu, and Hvrt 8 p.m., $8-$12. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. RED HANDED DENIAL: w/ Skyfallsdown 6:30 p.m., $10. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. ROCKY MANTIA & KILLER COMBO: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. WINE & JAZZ UNDER THE STARS: 6 p.m., $75$190. Columbia Foundation for the Arts, 5333 Columbia Ave., St. Louis, 314-771-1492.
SATURDAY 21
BIG MIKE AGUIRRE: 7 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. CULTURAL DANCES FROM NORTHEAST CHINA: 8 p.m., $20. Blanche M Touhill Performing Arts Center, 1 University Dr at Natural Bridge Road, Normandy, 314-516-4949. ELOUR: w/ Adam Gaffney & The Highway Saints 8 p.m., $7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100. GLORY FELL: w/ Eyes From Above, Defcon, Dead Wolvs, Wolves But Wiser 7 p.m., $5-$8. Pop’s
through the songs with the dexterous verbosity of a young Craig Finn and the foul-mouthed vocabulary of an eternal fourteen-year-old. The album is a pretty engrossing snapshot of what happens when scenes turn toxic and the endless youth of your early twenties takes a sharp turn toward adulthood. Dontcha Wanna Dance?: Illuminati Hotties, who followed up 2018’s Kiss Yr Frenemies with a slow-drip cover of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),” opens the show. —Christian Schaeffer Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. HELLO IT’S ME: A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF TODD RUNDGREN: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. KENT EHRHARDT & THE BLUE MOON BAND: 8 p.m., $5. Hwy 61 Roadhouse and Kitchen, 34 S Old Orchard Ave, Webster Groves, 314-968-0061. KILBORN ALLEY BLUES BAND: 10 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. KIM MASSIE: 5 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE KINGDOM BROTHERS: 7 p.m., $15. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis. MISS MAYBELL: 9:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. SEVENTH PLANET: 9 p.m., free. Nightshift Bar & Grill, 3979 Mexico Road, St. Peters, 636-441-8300. SIMPLY SAUCER: w/ Maximum Effort, Kool 100s, Cyanides 9 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. SPIN DEEP: 9 p.m., $10. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. STUNNA 4 VEGAS: 9 p.m., $25-$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE SWEET SPOT BURLESQUE SHOW: 7:30 p.m., $25-$50. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. TAKING BACK SUNDAY: 8 p.m., $20. Ballpark Village, 601 Clark Ave, St. Louis, 314-345-9481. THE DONALD WOODYARD INC. ALBUM RELEASE: 9 p.m., free. Livery Company, 6728 S Broadway, St. Louis, 314-558-2330. THE U-TURNS: 7 p.m., free. Pat Connolly Tavern, 6400 Oakland Ave., St. Louis, 314-647-7287. THE VOODOO BLUES BAND: 7 p.m., $15. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.
SUNDAY 22
ANGELS & AIRWAVES: 7:30 p.m., $35-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DAWN WEBER TRIO: 4 p.m., free. Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place, St. Louis, 314-367-0366.
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[CRITIC’S PICK]
Black Pumas. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP
Black Pumas 8 p.m. Wednesday, September 25. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $15 to $17. 314-773-3363. Take a country-crossing street singer, add a Latin jazz funk orchestra leader, throw in a bunch of dollar-bin Blaxploitation soundtracks, and subtract any trace of irony or self-consciousness — that’s the essence of the Austin-based band Black Pumas. Formed by a chance meeting between Adrian Quesada of Grammy-winning band Grupo Fantasma
OUT EVERY NIGHT Continued from pg 41
LOVE JONES “THE BAND”: 6 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. MARIANAS TRENCH: 8 p.m., $25-$28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. NINE’S 65TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT: w/ Marty Stewart and His Fabulous Superlatives 7 p.m., $65. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. NORM MACDONALD: 7:30 p.m., $28. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777. ST. LOUIS BLUES SOCIETY INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE: noon, $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. UNDERWEAR: w/ Death Hags, Big-Step, Syna So Pro, JoAnn McNeil 8:30 p.m., $5. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. WALKER LUKENS: 8 p.m., $10-$13. The Bootleg, 4140 Manchester Ave., St. Louis, 314-775-0775.
MONDAY 23
1476: 8 p.m., $8. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. ASHE: w/ Charlie Burg 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. THIRD SIGHT BAND “SPECIAL EDITION”: 8 p.m., $10. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. XIU XIU: 8 p.m., $17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.
TUESDAY 24
GOLDEN PELICANS: w/ Foster Care, Warm Leather, Wet Nights 9 p.m., $8-$10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. JESSE GANNON & THE TRUTH: 8 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE MEMORY PALACE: 8 p.m., $20. Old Rock
and creamy, falsetto-voiced busker Eric Burton, the band’s self-titled debut from this year sounds like little else on the soul-revival scene, thanks largely to the expertise of Quesada’s string-soaked psychedelic vision, timelessly romantic lyricism and some wickedly slinky guitar hooks — oh, and a groove that sweats and cooks and never ever quits. The Early Bird Gets The Funk: Opening this night is another Austin R&B group, the quietly stormy, synth-friendly MAMAHAWK. Arrive early and stake out a spot on the dance floor. —Roy Kasten House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. THE MYNABIRDS: 8 p.m., $12-$14. The Ready Room, 4195 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929. PUP: w/ Illuminati Hotties 8 p.m., $22-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. ’68: w/ the Inspector Cluzo, the Messenger Birds 7 p.m., $13. Fubar, 3108 Locust St, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. THE STANDBY: w/ The Ricters, The Astounds 8 p.m., $8. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. SUMMER LIKE THE SEASON: w/ Frankie Valet, Jackie Presley, Hover 8 p.m., $7. Foam, 3359 Jefferson Ave., St. Louis, 314-772-2100.
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BIG RICH MCDONOUGH & RHYTHM RENEGADES: 7 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. THE BLACK KEYS: w/ Modest Mouse, Repeat Repeat 7 p.m., $36.50-$496.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. BLACK PUMAS: 8 p.m., $15-$17. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. BLAKE BERGLUND: w/ Les Gruff and Billy Goat 8 p.m., $7. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226. CARBON LEAF: 7 p.m., $20-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. DANIEL HAMM & GHOSTLEG: 10 p.m., $5. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222. JUST FRIENDS: w/ Save Face, The Sonder Bombs, Candy Pop 7:30 p.m., $15. The Firebird, 2706 Olive St., St. Louis, 314-535-0353. MDOU MOCTAR: 8 p.m., $15-$18. Blueberry Hill The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. SCUM & ROZZ DYLIAMS: w/ Sawblade, P.O.W., The Real RJ, Marzo, Blaze Propane, V_X 6:30 p.m., $15. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. SONGBIRD CAFE: 7:30 p.m., $25-$30. The Focal Point, 2720 Sutton Blvd, St. Louis, 314-560-2778. n
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SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
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SAVAGE LOVE BOUNDARIES BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: My son has always liked handcuffs and tying people up as a form of play. He is 12 now, and the delight he finds in cuffing has not faded along with his love of Legos. He lobbied hard to be allowed to buy a hefty pair of handcuffs. We cautioned him strongly about consent — he has a younger brother — and he has been good about it. In the last year, though, I found out that he is cuffing himself while alone in the house — and when discovered, he becomes embarrassed and insists it’s a joke. I found him asleep one night with his wrists cuffed. I removed the cuffs and spoke to him the next morning about safety. Then recently, when returning home late, I saw him (through his window, from the back of the house) naked and cuffed with a leather belt around his waist, which seemed attached to the cuffs. This escalation was scarier. I haven’t spoken to him about it. My concern about the bondage stuff is that there are some risks (like escaping a fire), particularly if he gets more adventurous (restricting breathing, etc.). This is something he is doing secretly and alone. He is a smart kid, an athlete and a fairly conscientious scholar. He has friends but sometimes feels lonely. He is going through puberty with its attendant madness — defiance, surliness, etc. — but he is also very loving and kind. He is also quite boastful, which I interpret as insecurity. I can’t help feeling that this bondage stuff is related to these issues, and I worry about self-esteem and selfloathing. We are considering getting him some help. Any advice for us? Completely Understandable Fears For Son When a concerned parent reaches out to an advice columnist with a question like yours, CUFFS, the columnist is supposed to call in the child psychologists. But I thought it might be more interesting — I actually thought it might be more helpful — if I shared your letter with a different class of experts: adult men who were tying themselves up when they were 12 years old. “This boy sounds a lot like how
I was at his age,” said James “Jimmy” Woelfel, a bondage porn star with a huge online following. “I want to reassure CUFFS that the discovery of things like this, even at a young age, is extremely common. We may not know why we like this stuff at the time, we just know we do.” Jimmy is correct: Many adults who are into bondage, heavy or otherwise, became aware of their bondage kinks at a very early age. “The vast majority of BDSM practitioners report that their sexual interests developed relatively early in life, specifically before the age of 25,” Dr. Justin Lehmiller wrote in a recent post on his invaluable Sex and Psychology blog. “Further, a minority of these folks (7–12% across studies) report that their interests actually developed around the time of puberty (ages 10–12), which is when other traditional aspects of sexual orientation develop (e.g., attraction based on sex/gender).” While an obsession with handcuffs at age 6 isn’t proof a kid is going to grow up with an erotic interest in bondage — lots of kids like to play cops and robbers — a boy who’s cuffing himself in the throes of puberty and doing so in the nude and in secret … yeah, that boy is almost certainly going to be into bondage when he grows up. And that boy is also going to be embarrassed when his parents discover him in handcuffs for the exact same reason a boy is going to be embarrassed when his parents walk in on him masturbating — because he’s having a private sexual experience that he really doesn’t want to discuss with his parents. As for your son’s insecurities and loneliness, CUFFS, they may not be related to his interest in bondage at all. They’re more likely a reaction to the shame he feels about his kinks than to the kinks themselves. (And aren’t most 12-year-olds, handcuff obsession or no, insecure?) “People do bondage for various reasons,” said Trikoot, a selfdescribed “bondage fanatic” and occasional kink educator from Helsinki, Finland. “It’s not always sexual, and it’s almost never a symptom of self-loathing — and a counselor will not ‘erase’ a taste for bondage. Too many kinksters had young lives full of shame and hiding, only to accept themselves
Stop peeping in your son’s bedroom window at night. That’s creepy. years later and then discover what they’ve missed out on.” In other words, CUFFS, parents and counselors can’t talk a child out of his kinks any more than they can talk a child out of his sexual orientation. This stuff is hardwired. And once someone accepts his kinks, whatever anxiety he feels about them eventually evaporates. All that said, however awkward it was for you and mortifying for him when you found him asleep in his handcuffs, Jimmy thinks there may be an upside. “I was extremely embarrassed when my mom caught me,” said Jimmy. “She didn’t know how to respond and neither did I at the time. We merely went on as if it never happened. But it was somewhat comforting to know there wasn’t going to be a major backlash. It was better than living in fear.” Now that you know what you know about your son, CUFFS, what do you do? Well, with the burden of knowing comes the responsibility — not just to educate and warn, but to offer your son a little hope for his future. “Consent and safety are two of the most important universal issues in bondage, and CUFFS has wisely addressed both of them,” said Trikoot. And you should stress both in a follow-up conversation. “There are boundaries that should never be crossed, such as solo breath play, which regularly kills even experienced adults. But dabbling with wrist and ankle restraints while being within shouting distance of the rest of the family is not a serious safety issue.” (Sleeping in handcuffs, however, is a serious safety issue — they can twist, compress nerves, and damage the delicate bones of the wrist. He should not be sleeping in them.) Now for the tricky and super awkward and what will definitely feel somewhat age-inappropriate part: At some point — maybe in a
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year or two — you need to let your son know that he has a community out there. “When done safely, bondage/ kink can be an extremely rewarding experience as he grows into adulthood,” said Jimmy. “Some of the most important people in my life are those whom I’ve shared this love with. It is nothing to be ashamed of — though at his age, it is unfortunately inevitable. How you react can help mitigate such a reaction.” Oh, and stop peeping in your son’s bedroom window at night. That’s creepy. Follow Jimmy Woelfel on Twitter @for_heavy and on Instagram @heavybondageforlife. Follow Trikoot on Twitter @trikoot. Hey, Dan: My 12-year-old son wants us to buy him a vibrator. Apparently he had a good experience with a hot tub jet and is looking to replicate that “good” feeling. He has tried replicating it, but is feeling very frustrated. (I always wanted an open and honest relationship with my kids so, um, yay for us?) Additional information: My son is on an SSRI. My husband feels uncomfortable buying my son a sex toy, but I find myself sympathizing with my son’s frustration. But I would be more comfortable if he were 15. We are hoping to figure it out without devices. Are we being reasonable or squeamish? Entirely Mortified Mom When this issue has come up in the past — usually it’s about a daughter who wants a vibrator — my readers have endorsed getting the kid an Amazon gift card and getting out of the way, i.e., letting them get online and buy themselves something and not scrutinizing the purchase once it arrives. You could go that route, EMM. Or you could make an end run around this whole issue by installing a pulsating shower head in your bathroom or getting your son an electric toothbrush. (Also, antidepressants — SSRIs — can make it more difficult for a person to climax, so you may not be able to “figure it out without devices.” Check out Dan’s podcast at savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage on Twitter ITMFA.org
SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
RIVERFRONT TIMES
45
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RIVERFRONT TIMES
SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
riverfronttimes.com
riverfronttimes.com
SEPTEMBER 18-24, 2019
RIVERFRONT TIMES
47
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