Riverfront Times, November 17, 2021 by Riverfront Times

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MARCH 6-12, 2019

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THE LEDE

“Myself, I’m a vegan. I backslide once in a while here and there, but for the most part, I try and be a vegan, and I’m an animal advocate. And I think people just seeing horses up close — and we used to have chickens — it makes them think, you know? People live in the city all the time and maybe never think about it. You know, they come up and ‘coochie coo’ the horses and they say, ‘Hey, these aren’t just walking vegetables, you know? These are real creatures that enjoy things and ... and they can either be suffering or they can be happy.’”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

JEFF KINMAN, STABLE MANAGER AT TOWER GROVE PARK AND ARBORETUM, PHOTOGRAPHED WITH THE PARK’S SHETLAND PONY, SHEFFIELD, ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 30 riverfronttimes.com

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When the Spotlight Fades

n May and June, Andy Neiman was all over the news. The talented actor and St. Louis native had gone missing in New York’s Hudson Valley, sparking a frantic search. There were stories in national media and back in his hometown. His body was eventually discovered in a river, and the attention soon faded, as it always does. But Andy is not one who should be forgotten so easily. In this week’s cover story, veteran journalist Richard Weiss returns to the story of one of St. Louis’ brightest lights, speaking with Andy’s friends and relatives about the joys and struggles of a remarkable life. Those who knew Andy will never forget him. Read Richard’s expertly told story, and you’ll understand why. —Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Daniel Hill Digital Content Editors Jenna Jones, Jaime Lees Food Editor Cheryl Baehr Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski Contributors Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Mike Fitzgerald, Eileen G’Sell, Kathy Gilsinan, Reuben Hemmer, Ryan Krull, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Jack Probst, Richard Weiss, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnists Thomas Chimchards, Ray Hartmann Editorial Interns Phuong Bui, Zoë Butler, Madyson Dixon A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Production Manager Haimanti Germain

COVER Andy’s Comet Actor Andy Neiman was a bright light plunging through the darkness Photos of Andy Neiman courtesy Cover design by

EVAN SULT

N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

Above photo of Andy from Richard !!! by

J. DAVID LEVY

INSIDE

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C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com

THE NEIMAN FAMILY

The Lede Hartmann News Big Mad Feature Cafe Short Orders St. Louis Standards Reeferfront Times Culture Savage Love

M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Associate Publisher Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Director of Business Development Brittany Forrest, Rachel Hoppman Director of Marketing and Events Olia Friedrichs Regional Director of Marketing and Events Kristina Linden

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HARTMANN Governor Handout Parson finally embraces welfare — for anti-vaxxers BY RAY HARTMANN

issouri Governor Mike Parson seems a little confused lately. Decades into a political career of faithfully resisting such scourges as health care and jobless benefits for poor people, Parson has stumbled upon a handout he can get behind: welfare for people who would rather lose their jobs than get vaccinated for COVID-19. But that can get a little fuzzy. Parson let it be known through a spokesperson that he’s “mulling” the idea of granting carte blanche unemployment benefits to the oppressed and marginalized vaccine resisters of Missouri. Perhaps Parson is really mulling someone else’s idea, likely from a national Republican think tank. Parson seldom gets confused with Socrates on policy matters. Doesn’t matter. These downtrodden souls employed in Missouri sometimes face the ultimate tyranny: having an employer curtail their right to endanger the health and lives of whomever they please, whenever they please and wherever they please, so help them God. That’s simple enough. But so are the rules laid out by the Parson Administration at the website of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations: “To be eligible for unemployment benefit payments, you must Lose your job through no fault of your own OR quit for good cause related to the work or the employer.” Some Missouri employers have taken to telling its workers that they must become vaccinated against COVID-19 or — lacking that — work remotely or submit to weekly testing. These evildoers are clearly trampling the “right to spread.” Parson will not sit still for this. The governor has no choice but to

take the principled stand of rejecting all the principles of his career. Parson has postured as an unwavering advocate of reducing the role of government in the lives of citizens. He constantly drones on about how businesses large and small are the backbone of the state. He stands against greedy workers trying to game the jobless-benefits system. Parson is an anti-welfare man and anti-big-government man. So, of course he wouldn’t change the laws governing jobless benefits to accommodate people who choose not to get vaccinated. Or of course he would. The most important thing to understand is that whatever Parson is doing, or attempting to do, it’s for the higher cause of freedom. Or maybe not freedom. All rationalized as fighting rules from the Biden Administration that haven’t even arrived. It’s a tad out of character for Parson to stand tall for greedy workers wanting to skirt the laws of government unemployment benefits. It’s even more unnatural for Parson’s state government to dictate to employers that they can’t set their own workplace rules based on their own needs. If it were any more of a bizarre departure from his own philosophy, Parson would need a disclaimer stating he hasn’t been taking shrooms. It would provide more comfort if he were. At the start of the pandemic, Parson resisted all calls to extend Missouri’s lowly unemployment benefits. And just three months into the pandemic, Parson saw to it that the state was among the first to reinstitute work-search requirements for those lazy freeloaders. At the time, Parson was concerned that the real problem wasn’t this overhyped pandemic but rather the damage caused to the economy because some fools thought they’d be risking the lives of themselves and their families by returning to unsafe workplaces. Where did they get that idea? Fake news. Parson wasn’t going to be captive to any of that. He was one of the few with the courage to point out in June 2020 that the pandemic was already winding down to almost nothing. As if it had ever really been that bad.

The vaccine resisters are heroes, you know, front-line workers in the struggle to prevent the nation from reaching herd immunity during a Democratic administration. These are patriots. It was basically over. Why just a month later, Parson — unmasked as usual — famously told a Sedalia audience, “You don’t need government to tell you to wear a dang mask. If you want to wear a dang mask, wear a mask.” Less than three months later, Parson was vindicated and totally exonerated when he and First Lady Teresa Parson contracted COVID-19. Well, sort of vindicated and totally exonerated. They lived, after all. But at least the governor remained consistent in his hostility to masks and proudly can say he was one of only eleven governors in the nation who refused to impose some draconian mask mandate. Fair enough. It’s not like unmasked people were getting COVID-19. Or something. OK, so logic hasn’t been the governor’s strong point on this. But passion has been. The man is a freedom fighter when it comes to the pandemic, and he’s not about to allow state government to trample anyone’s right to their own health-care expertise. The key here is to understand that vaccine-resistant employees must be treated differently — meaning better — than the vax heads. The vaccine resisters are heroes, you know, front-line workers in the struggle to prevent the nation from reaching herd immunity during a Democratic ad-

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ministration. These are patriots. And why shouldn’t everyone be treated the same? We can all agree on that, can’t we? That’s as American as inventing lies of fraud when you lose an election: The unvaccinated must be treated the same as the vaccinated. Of course, there is an opposing view from some in government. “To try to treat vaccinated people the same as unvaccinated people and not recognize there is a difference, totally is irresponsible. To us, to the leaders of this state and health-care workers, we need to make sure people understand there’s a difference between the two and not treat them the same.” Ah, but enough from Parson. Yes, that was him in July, talking about how disgusting it was for places like St. Louis, St. Louis County and Kansas City to impose mask mandates last spring. The problem with that, he said, was this: “These policies that don’t consider vaccination status reduce the incentive of getting the vaccine and undermine its integrity. The vaccine is how we rid ourselves of COVID-19, not mask mandates that ignore common sense. We know [the vaccine] works.” Exactly. We know the vaccine works. Businesses know the vaccine works. Employees know it, too. But wing-nut politics work better for politicians like Parson. That’s why it’s so easy for him to discard the presumed principles of an entire career to hop on a national bandwagon of a Republican Party that has lost its soul. No rationalization and no phony bastardization of “liberty” can conceal the worst part of what is happening. That is vaccinated opinion leaders such as Parson literally sacrificing the lives of people who put their trust in them to achieve the next short-run political goal. Sadly, I don’t believe Mike Parson is confused about that at all. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on Nine PBS and St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS Ex-Cop’s Supporters Plea for Leniency as Sentencing Looms Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

espite ex-St. Louis cop Dustin Boone’s role in the beating of an undercover police o cer, his texts in which he freely used the -word, and his habit of bragging about violently abusing and humiliating people he arrested, his family and friends say he’s a great guy. “I agree that the text messages pulled from Dustin’s phone are vile, but these te ts do not portray the true ustin Boone, his stepfather, retired t. Louis police ergeant Anthony Boone, writes in a letter — one among a dozen testimonials sent by fellow cops, relatives and friends of Dustin Boone to Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Webber in advance of the former police o cer’s sentencing next week. he letters re ect the longrunning tension around the case against Boone, which has now run through two trials. Along with extensive witness testimony and troves of photographic evidence, the te ts showed o cers at their unguarded worst. They revealed not only the mindset of multiple police o cers giddy about beating protesters, but, in Boone’s case, apparent evidence of a cop who had gone bad long before the night the assault on an undercover detective. Boone was one of five t. Louis police o cers indicted in the attack on Detective Luther Hall in eptember . all, who is Black, was working undercover, posing as a protester during the unrest that followed the acquittal of another e -cop, ason tockley,

Dustin Boone (right) walks to the federal courthouse in St. Louis with his family. | DOYLE MURPHY of a murder charge. As o cers on the police department’s Civil Disobedience eam, better known as the riot police, swarmed downtown, firing pepper balls and making mass arrests, all was tackled, slammed to the street and beaten so savagely that he was not able to eat solid food for weeks after. is partner, who is white, was detained the same night but released without injury. Boone was convicted this past une, in the second of two trials, of depriving Hall of his civil rights. e faces ten years in prison, and that’s the sentence federal prosecutors recommended in a filing last week. wo other e -o cers pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. andy ays, who admitted beating Hall with a baton and testified against Boone, was sentenced to 52 months. Bailey olletta, who helped try to cover up what happened, got two weekends in jail and probation. Boone’s supporters are hoping for a sentence well under the ten years. is attorneys, ustin uehn and tephen illiams, suggested months, writing in their sentencing memorandum that Boone “fell prey to a police culture of excessive force that permeated his own department. The defense team admits Boone pinned Hall to the ground during the attack and concedes that jurors ultimately determined that Boone’s behavior made him at least partially responsible for

what happened. ustin Boone should not, however, serve as a sacrificial lamb, the attorneys write. Instead, they argue that all would have been beaten whether Boone was there or not; his role was that of an accomplice. Instead, they say, much of the e o cer’s trouble in the case comes from the te t messages he sent, which included gleeful accounts of beating protesters and racist comments. A common thread through the attorneys’ argument and the letters from supporters is that the te ts were bad, but somehow out of character. Friends and family told stories of Boone, who worked as an electrician before joining the force in , helping out friends and acquaintances with electrical work and doting on his young daughter. “I know Dustin had texts in his phone used language that some people want to use to label him as a racist, the wife of another o cer writes, noting that she is Black. Being considered family, I sat in on the trial and I know Dustin is ashamed of some of the things he said in the text messages. ... I know ustin loves me, my husband, and my kids as family. No texts using racist words changes that. Racist words were common in the texts FBI agents recovered from Boone’s phone. “There are r n*****s running wild all across the city and even if/when we catch them..... they don’t get in any trouble because

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there are plate lips running the A Boone wrote in a group te t to other o cers in uly , two months before the assault on Hall. CAO is apparently a reference to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office, which is under the supervision of the city’s first Black circuit attorney, im ardner. here were many e amples, including messages he sent to some of the same family members who wrote letters attesting to his character. But prosecutors say Boone’s texts weren’t just “racist words but evidence of his penchant for violence against those who encountered him on the streets. “Defendant has no criminal convictions, Assistant . . Attorney Carrie Constantin writes. “However, his te ts indicate that he participated in at least four other assaults during the short time that he was a police o cer. In an e ample from April , , he te ted other o cers to brag that he and another o cer had tasered a suspected car thief in the head. ude caught a tampering st, resisting stealing of a motor vehicle out of the county and a TASER to the fuckin dome Boone wrote, adding, aught him in some I over grow in a side vacant lot, there was nobody around except me. haw, shithead and god... he is at the hospital now... poor guy. Encouraged by at least one other o cer on the te t thread, Boone added, ahaha we made him tell the other o cers on scene that he is a pussy! Hahaha he was puking on himself while EMS was looking at him and saying I’m a pussy, in a pussy.’ And crying...... it was the greatest moment of my short career Lol. During the Stockley protests in , Boone te ted that his role on the Civil Disobedience Team was “... just fuck people up when they don’t act right. Prosecutors also noted that he live-streamed Hall’s beating to his then-girlfriend, whom he uickly married after it became clear she might be called by prosecutors to testify. After Boone learned the supposed protester beaten that night was actually an undercover police o cer, he sent the girlfriend te ts, asking her to keep quiet: “Nothing about that story to

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“The only way you can create a level playing field for a city this diverse is by listening to those people.”

Fighting for a Voice in New City Ward Maps Written by

JENNA JONES

s elected officials prepare to overhaul long-established city wards, a coalition of community organizers has fought to make them listen to one message: Don’t erase us, include us. St. Louisans voted in 2012 to halve the number of wards in the city to fourteen from 28, a political shift unlike any seen in the city in more than a century. The redistricting process — led by Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and the aldermen’s thirteen-member Legislation Committee — has come under sharp criticism from the groups. An initial map, released November 1, immediately triggered complaints. It was released the night before the board met, giving residents little time to comment. And the images of the map weren’t exactly user friendly; renderings were pixelated and not interactive. A second map that was released on November 9 solved the pixelation issues, but activists were still upset about the process. The coalition took their concerns public at a press conference on November 10. On the second floor of City Hall, about ten speakers from a variety of organizations cited concerns with the transparency of the redistricting process, as well as the people drawing the map. “We cannot have a process where folks are not included, where folks are not talked to, where you put out a notice five days before you hold a hearing and put the map out the night before,” activist Marquis Govan said at the news conference. “So we’re asking President Reed and members of the board to make this

DUSTIN BOONE Continued from pg 9

anyone please.” Anthony Boone, the retired sergeant and stepfather, writes in his letter to the judge that Hall was a friend of his. He says he was the one who gave the younger Boone the beaten detective’s cell phone number. Dustin Boone texted Hall to apologize, and the attempt became evidence in court, as prosecutors included it in the criminal complaint as proof of Boone’s involvement. Anthony Boone says that wasn’t the admission of guilt that prosecutors made it out to be. “I supplied Luther Hall’s phone number to Dustin, and he subsequently sent him the apologize

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Third proposed ward map. | CITY OF ST. LOUIS

process transparent. And we’re asking them to make a map based on the people and not themselves.” Rev. Darryl Gray shared Govan’s worry. When his turn at the mic came, Gray questioned Reed’s involvement in the map drawing process. Gray and other speakers insisted that Reed and the Board of Aldermen had plenty of time to hire an independent committee to draw the map. They also claimed Reed had been unavailable for meetings with constituents. Former University of Missouri-St. Louis political theory professor Wally Siewert said after studying 2,000 years of human history and how people ought to live in a community, one thing is clear about democracy: It’s a high wire act. When in balance, it’s beautiful. Out of balance, it’s terrifying with disastrous consequences. And what sets that balance, he said, are the fundamental processes that create a

text,” Anthony Boone writes. “That apology was nothing more than that, that he was upset for being on scene, that it happened to him (Luther) and because Luther and I are friends.” Hall did not text back. He later won a $5 million settlement from the city in a civil lawsuit. Dustin Boone’s attorneys admit his text messages were terrible but argue that they were primarily bluster, his attempt to fit into a department where revolting tales of abuse became a “cocktail hour joke.” Boone’s texts are not that of an outlier, they write, but a sign of assimilation: “If FBI agents did a department-wide forensic search of everyone’s iphone databases, the same material would surely surface everywhere.” n

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playing field for people to vote on who represents their ideals. Siewert said redrawing the ward map creates that playing field. “And the only way you can create a level playing field for a city this diverse,” Siewert said, “is by listening to those people.” Siewert noted St. Louis’ decreasing population, saying that residents felt “disconnected, disrespected and disregarded.” He said redistricting was the opportunity to change that through disclosure of methodology and criteria, while also providing legal analyses of how the map is drawn and soliciting vast public input. As the activists’ voices filled the second floor of City Hall, Reed stepped out of his office to listen. When the leaders were asked at the end of their news conference if it meant anything that Reed had shown up, Gray stepped forward. “It only means something that if he leaves here, he asks for a meeting, that when he leaves here, he shows us he has heard us and opens up the process,” Gray said. “The fact that someone is present doesn’t mean they are paying attention. I’m hoping that President Reed being here today is an indication he is prepared to hear and talk about what I’m talking about.” Reed denied that the process was not open, telling reporters after the press conference that the board had given the community plenty of time to provide feedback. He said that the board has “had more hours of public hearings already on this bill than any bill that I’ve seen since 1999.” He also said that the committee had to wait until 2020 U.S. Census numbers were released in order to begin the redistricting process due to legal concerns, but activists pushed back against that claim. They said other planning could’ve begun before the census numbers came in. The third map currently being debated has seven white-majority population wards and seven Black-majority population wards. A press release from Reed’s office said the committee followed community input to keep more neighborhoods together in the third map, with 80 percent of neighborhoods in one ward, and 20 percent of neighborhoods in no more than two wards. The final legislation committee meetings to apply changes to the map take place November 17 and 18. The map is expected to be passed out of the Board of Aldermen by December 3, according to the city website. Mayor Tishaura Jones has until December 31 to sign off on it. n

South-City Bar Owner Killed Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

Friday morning fight at Bomber O’Brien’s Sports Bar and Grill turned into a hit-and-run — killing the bar’s owner and leaving another man injured. The incident involved five victims and four suspects. Late Friday afternoon, the St. Louis police announced they had arrested 26-year-old William Warden and would be seeking charges on firstdegree murder, armed criminal action and assault. In a press release, the department said it would seek assault charges against the remaining three suspects, though none had been identified. According to a police incident report, officers were initially called to the south St. Louis sports bar shortly after midnight on Friday, “wherein two victims were struck by a vehicle after an altercation between several subjects.” During the fight, police said, the suspects entered a Chevrolet Cruze and “intentionally struck” multiple people with the vehicle. Among them was the bar’s owner, 54-year-old James Wors of Oakville, who died. Another man was taken to a hospital “suffering from fractures and abrasions,” while a third was treated for injuries at a hospital and released. The two other victims did not require medical attention, police said. While the police Homicide Division and Accident Reconstruction teams investigate, local news stations reported additional information about the deadly incident: Citing a lieutenant at the scene, KSDK reported that the altercation involved two bar employees and eventually moved into the street. Fox 2’s Jason Maxwell tweeted from the scene that the victims were “intentionally struck after an argument.” St. Louis police officers located the Cruze involved in the collision a few blocks away from the establishment and arrested three suspects in the area. Warden later turned himself in. n

Bomber O’Brien’s owner was run down outside his sports bar. | DOYLE MURPHY

THE BIG MAD Oh Say Can You See COVID cats, crooked cops and cancel culture’s cannon colleagues Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

elcome back to the Big Mad, the RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is hot: BIRDBRAINS OF A FEATHER: We here at the RFT previously have given Mark McCloskey a hard time for showing up in places he’s not needed (the recent mask-debating county council meetings for one, and of course there’s the whole Senate race in general if you want a more evergreen example) but we’ll admit: If there’s one thing the man knows a thing or two about it’s needlessly introducing a firearm into a protest setting. And so it makes sense that St. Louis’ most gun-surrendering lawyer popped up with his equally infamous wife at Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial this week to show his support for the concept of shooting people with whom you disagree politically. Rittenhouse is a victim of “cancel culture,” alleges McCloskey, which really stretches that exhausting cliche to its fucking breaking point, considering the fact the young man killed two people. It’s up to a jury now to decide whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, but if I were on the defense team, I’d be pretty stressed out to see these criminals coming to court to rally behind my guy. Remember how your own case played out, Mark? WHATABUMMER: With the help of Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the first Whataburger opened in Missouri this week — but the heavenly burgers are all the way on the other side of the state, in Lee’s Summit, a roughly eight-hour round trip from St. Louis. Even worse, while Mahomes and the company plan to open dozens more restaurants in the coming years, the future locations are all clustered around Kansas City. Which prompts us to raise the question: Patrick, buddy, could you shine a bit of that burger light on us? Without the Rams, you’re the quarterback for the whole state, and that means you have to embrace both borders, like two perfect buns of equity containing all Missourians. Kansas City is so close, but still so far. It was hard enough with Whataburger stranded in Texas, and now, the proximity only makes our hearts

grow hungrier. NINE LIVES: Listen, we don’t know what part of “get vaccinated, ya filthy animals” people don’t understand, but in Steve Irwin’s good name, if we lose any of the zoo animals because someone decided to show up sick with COVID, we will go crazy. Nebraska just lost three of its snow leopards to COVID-19, and now we have eight of our animals that are sick with the virus. Saint Louis Zoo officials expect the big cats to make a full recovery due to their vaccination status, but as St. Louisans, we should ask ourselves: Is this really something that we want to risk? The zoo is one of the finest things we can tell people to visit when they get to St. Louis. What will we do if we lose our big cats? Our chimpanzees? It’ll be anarchy. We’ll have to entertain our out-of-town guests with more expensive (nothing beats free), albeit still enjoyable attractions. The animals in the Saint Louis Zoo deserve the very best, and us humans getting them sick with COVID-19 is not that. The zoo doesn’t know who infected the cats — their staff is fully vaccinated and follows strict COVID-19 protocols — but we’re pleading with the general public to keep our zoo safe. The pandemic has taken so much from us; we can’t let it take our zoo animals, too. COMMON INDECENCY: Putting the best spin they could on ex-cop Dustin Boone’s miserable career with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, his attorneys argued that he was far from the only police officer doing bad things. Their 29-page sentencing memorandum takes some acrobatic turns, as these things do, but the truly upsetting part of the argument is what they got right: Boone isn’t the only one. He texted racist, disturbing messages about racist, disturbing violence to fellow officers, who treated it as a joke. And it was only when he helped in a vicious beating of an undercover cop — one who they thought was a protester — that there were any consequences. Actual protesters who told strikingly similar stories of being assaulted at the same time as the detective aren’t seeing their assailants hauled in front of a judge. Boone and other officers regularly texted about beating people and humiliating people for sport. No charges have been filed in any of those cases. And without that, taking Boone off the force does little to change the momentum of the police department. Looking at the night Hall was beaten, Boone’s attorneys observed, “if Mr. Boone had called in sick that night, if he was nowhere around, the Luther Hall beating would look practically the same.” That may be intended as a defense of Boone, but it’s surely an indictment of somebody. n

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Andy Neiman, left, with his brother, David, in Austin, Texas, in May 2021. David had traveled from his home in New York to escort Andy to a psychiatric facility in Pennsylvania. Andy’s stay there did not go well and he left within days for his sister Emily’s home in High Falls, New York. Not long after his arrival, Emily took Andy to a hospital in Poughkeepsie. After waiting many hours for attention, Andy left the facility and went missing. His body was found June 19 in the Hudson River. | COURTESY OF THE NEIMAN FAMILY

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Andy’s Comet

Actor Andy Neim

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Big Bang Andy Neiman burst into the universe unday, une , . e was the first of three children for Lainie Collinger Neiman and Bennett eiman with avid and mily to follow in and . Andy broke me in as a mom, Lainie would say. Then she went celestial again. “When I got my first glimpse of Andy at three minutes old, I felt we had already known each other. We were like . . and lliott. It wasn’t long before Lainie and everyone noticed that this child had developed an enormous sense of whimsy and a need for attention. At the memorial service, Lainie recalled toddler Andy “saying hello to every lady in the grocery store. And when they failed to respond, he would take umbrage: ‘I said, ‘HI!’ Andy learned to play chess at age three. He would ask questions that were at once impertinent and adorable. “Are you Christian or ewish he would ask. o you believe in esus

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Andy found an audience beyond family, friends and shoppers at age eight at the Jewish Community Center arts camp where he stepped into the title role of Pinocchio. Lainie Neiman remembered Andy reveling in the applause and adulation. But he would add: “Mom, it’s so hard when the applause stops. So he would do what he could to remedy that. here was his bar mit vah a few years later, special because it was the first for entral eform ongregation. The congregation was then establishing itself in St. Louis’ entral est nd, with abbi usan alve, who went on to become a moral force across the region. The occasion was special, too, because like a sponge Neiman absorbed ’s teachings, its values, its essence. “Studying for his bar mit vah with me, alve said, Andy never settled for easy answers. eiman’s devotion to orah study would continue throughout his life. “Andy knew more Torah than many rabbis and more hakespeare than many nglish actors, his mother said. In eighth grade, Neiman produced a video a kind of ik ok

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relatives and friends are educators, scholars, marketing experts, social workers, attorneys, playwrights and actors. “I come from a family of communicators, Lainie eiman said. his is an understatement: The family teems with e troverts, comfortable with living life out loud, arguing, laughing, walking in the valley of the shadow of death and fearing no evil. hey, too, burn bright.

By Richard H. Weiss

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lieved that these shooting stars made one pass through the solar system never to return. But then they took note that Halley was returning appro imately every years. And so it might be — at least metaphorically — for Andy’s Comet. That’s if his family and friends have anything to say about it. Many are determined to draw lessons from Neiman’s life and death to move it from metaphor to practical for the benefit of his beloved daughter, liyah, age eight, but also for people who suffer from mental illnesses. They believe that sharing his story is one way to do that. Neiman’s illness was bipolar disorder. Many stories, books and scholarly papers have been written about this peculiar and pernicious disease that has a icted so many brilliant people, including performers such as Mariah Carey, Jimi Hendrix and Carrie Fisher. With each story shared, a greater understanding develops. he stigma attached to mental illness that over centuries provoked people to murder, institutionalize and marginalize humans with mental disorders slowly recedes. Researchers, physicians, therapists and policymakers are encouraged to develop new approaches. But there is still much to be done. And there is reason to believe that Andy’s family and friends could make a substantial difference because of the skills and passion they will bring as they honor his memory. Among Andy’s closest

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ow 48 and a half years since his birth, six months since his disappearance and five months since he was found in the udson iver near Poughkeepsie, New York, we are called to think of St. Louis actorproducer-writer-teacher-musician Andy Neiman in a celestial way. At his memorial service, held June 25, his father, Ben, and brother, avid, remembered how eiman as a small boy wept when uperman, who arrived with superpowers from the dying planet Krypton, relinquished them so he could marry Lois Lane. “My brother threw a stage 5 tantrum and couldn’t understand why Superman gave them up, avid said. “He wanted superpowers, and at times, he believed he had them. His mother, Lainie, remembered toddler Andy crooning “My Blue eaven to gatherings of relatives and friends. Andy seemed a little closer to God and the angels, she would say. His uncle, Tom Collinger, applied more than two dozen nouns to Neiman, including philosopher, teacher, tutor, scholar, master of unease and unrest, but landed on comet. “Andy was a comet that burst upon us so as to cause gasps and oohs and ahhs as comets do, Collinger said. “And, as comets do, they e it, and we can’t ever forget them . Until the meteor that came to be known as Halley’s Comet was spotted traversing our corner of the universe, cosmologists be-

s ab

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Andy was a performer and family man. Clockwise from top left: as Herman Hesse in Siddartha: A Jungian Fantasy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (photo by Kevin Sprague); with daughter Ellie and wife Louise Edwards Neiman at a family dinner last fall; strumming his guitar; with his sister Emily and brother David; and with his mother Lainie and brother David in about 1995. | COURTESY NEIMAN FAMILY

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precursor later posted on YouTube — in which he and his classmates

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danced, pranced and lip-synched to the tune of the Cars’ “Magic” around suburban Clayton where he grew up. Watch it and you will find eiman redefining est. Neiman went on to perform

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in high school musicals and college productions. As an adult, his passion grew, and there wasn’t a boundary he feared crossing. He was Avigdor in Yentl; the columnist Mitch Albom in Tuesdays with

Morrie; Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man. Likely you saw him in many productions at St. Louis’ Shakespeare Festival. A playwright as well, Andy adapted Shakespeare’s Much Ado

Neiman suffered a psychotic break. His brother David was with him. They stayed up all night, as David remembered, “unearthing hard truths that had come to light,” working through a relationship that had grown di cult and complicated. At dawn, as David recalled in his eulogy, “Andy wrote on the wall in huge magic marker the words, ‘On June 19, 1995, Andy Neiman was reborn.’ And underneath I wrote in slightly smaller writing, ‘And on that night so was David.’ By noon the next day Andy held my face in his hands and revealed to me that he was the Messiah. “It was terrifying and disturbing,” David recalled, “but a small part of me wondered if it were true. That is the level of reverence that I had for my spectacular brother.” Neiman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During the summer of 1995, he was in and out of SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital’s psychiatric unit as he tried to come to grips with the emotional roller coaster that is the bipolar mind. At the time, Lainie Neiman was working with St. Mary’s as a marketing and communications specialist for the psychiatric department and had a sophisticated understanding of his treatment. Looking back, she said the staff members could not have been more attentive and caring toward her son. His later interactions with health-care systems in several other states would not go nearly as well.

TOP: In 2008, Neiman played three roles in the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s production of The Tragedy of King Richard III. | J. DAVID LEVY BOTTOM: Headshots Andy sent for auditions as he became a rising star in theater circles in the 1990s and early 2000s. | COURTESY NEIMAN FAMILY About Nothing into Much A Doo Wop About Nothing, a 50-minute musical with original songs and lyrics which he took on tour to more than 100 schools. He also crafted a hip-hop version of Julius Caesar. Neiman brought so much passion to his work that it sometimes concerned his mother. “Are you sure you want to be an actor?” she asked. To which he responded: “Mom, are you sure you want to be a woman?” Tortured Artist Lainie’s concerns were not misplaced. His siblings began to notice Andy losing the boyhood buoyancy he displayed in his “Magic” video. Andy was as popular and successful a student as ever there was at Clayton High School, David observed, but without ever enjoy-

ing himself that much. “He was runner-up for prom king and yet never hung out with anybody outside of school. How does that happen?” David observed. Even as a teenager, “I think he was a true tortured artist,” his sister Emily said. Neiman attended college at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he did forge friendships, including with Danny Greene, who found himself playing a role in a real-life version of The Odd Couple. In his eulogy for Neiman, Greene compared himself to uptight Felix Ungar living with Neiman’s Oscar Madison. “I liked order,” Greene said. “Andy could live in the mess.” Beyond his acting and producing Neiman had developed another skill — pie making. With Greene performing as sous chef,

the two would stay up late making pies and then diving right in to eat them. “There was so much pie,” Greene recalled in his eulogy. “So many dirty baking dishes that I got to wash.” It was exciting to be with Andy, Greene recalled. “He could impersonate any character in any movie or any TV show. He could do a Shakespearean monologue, deliver it in the voice of a stuckup aristocrat, Kermit or Yoda. Out on the street, he would just start singing at the top of his lungs.” But Greene experienced hard times with Neiman as well. Neiman had broken up with a girlfriend in his sophomore year. The student moved on, forging a relationship with one of Neiman’s friends. Neiman could not get past it. A month after his graduation from Wesleyan, on June 19, 1995,

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From Recovery to Rom-Com For many years, Neiman, thanks in some measure to an antipsychotic medication called Seroquel, coped with and managed his illness effectively. He became one of St. Louis’ most decorated and well-known actors and, as well, met the love of his life. Neiman encountered Louise Edwards in 2000 through St. Louis Shakespeare, a professional company founded in 1984 to perform the bard’s work throughout the region. Their relationship remained platonic for a decade, at least in Edwards’ mind. Then, without realizing it, the two produced a rom-com. By 2010, Edwards was attending Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, to pursue a PhD. As it turned out, Neiman’s ambitions gave him reason to move to Chicago as well. When he mentioned that to Edwards over a coffee one day, she suggested that Neiman

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Andy was a critics’ favorite. Pictured at left in Tuesdays with Morrie and at right as Avigdor with Shanara Gabrielle as Yentl in the New Jewish Theatre production of Yentl in 2016. | ERIC WOOLSEY

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might move in with her and split the rent. She was looking for a roommate, not a romance. “I loved him as a friend. I thought if anything was going to happen between us romantically, it surely would have happened by then,” Edwards recalled. Without missing a beat, Edwards added, “Our lease started in September and by October we were romantically involved.” That fall Edwards’ father, John Edwards Sr., had died after a yearlong battle with cancer. Through her grief, Edwards learned that her roommate was as compassionate as he was passionate. Somehow, she said, he would know instinctively that what she might need in the moment was a bike ride to the IHOP for a stack of pancakes. “Andy just knew these lovely simple ways to care for someone,” she said. The two got engaged the following spring and married in June 2012. In 2013, their daughter, Eliyah “Ellie” Neiman, arrived. Ellie and Andy were immediately smitten with one another. Imagine having a dad who was — as Lainie once described him — a guitar-strumming combo of Willy Wonka and Kermit the Frog. He was not one to impose boundaries on Ellie, but to present her with possibilities. Naps were optional for toddler Ellie when dancing around to Broadway show tunes with Dada was more compelling. More recently, after the fam-

ily had moved back to St. Louis, Lainie recalled that Andy and Ellie would often walk over from their place to hers, covering about a mile. “When I asked where her shoes were, Andy replied, ‘She didn’t want to wear them.’ “‘Andy,’ I said, ‘she’s seven years old. She doesn’t get to decide!’” Desperate Measures As an actor, producer, writer and musician, Neiman had been on a high wire. Now as a father, a husband and a provider who was on medication for a depressive disorder, he was performing a juggling act on the wire as well. In some ways, such a life could be ideal for someone with Neiman’s interests and energy. He had side gigs that gave him an audience, as a waiter at Acero in Maplewood and the Crossing in Clayton; and as an Uber driver. He loved making connections with his customers and making their meal or their ride memorable. And neither tied him down so much that he couldn’t break away to take on a role in a production. But because his connections were also transitory and transactional, Louise said, “the work could be more depleting than sustaining.” Then COVID-19 came to amplify his depression. By late winter 2020, audiences for Neiman’s work (and every other local thespian) evaporated. His Seroquel medication was no longer helping even at higher doses. Friends and family rallied to supply resources and expertise for Neiman as he grew increasingly despondent and delusional, and, most alarmingly, talked about ending his life.

Over the course of many years, family members had educated themselves about bipolar illness. But as Neiman’s situation grew more desperate, they were finding potholes in the roads that might lead to his recovery. As Andy spent days and weeks in facilities, they were seeing how caregivers were ill prepared to deal with patients who frequently could present well in the moment, but required much more intensive therapy. “Their goal is to get you stabilized and get you out,” said Louise. Added Lainie: “The mental health-care system is the stepchild of all health care. With the resources we have in this country, it is beyond appalling.” Neiman checked in and out of St. Mary’s psych unit in St. Louis for one-week stays in February and March 2021. Later he would spend five weeks at a treatment center in Tucson, Arizona, then a week at a center in his father’s hometown of Austin, Texas. In ay, his brother, avid, ew to Austin to escort Neiman to New York and on to a facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Neiman stayed only two days, finding his experience there intolerable. It was then that he called his sister, Emily. And, of course, he would. hey had long been first responders to one another. Emily remembers her year in the eighth grade — “the nadir of my life” — when she visited her brother at Wesleyan for what she called a magical weekend. Andy treated her to all the respect and interest that he showed his peers. Looking back, Emily said her brother had given her “a glimpse of the beautiful and joyous future that awaited me. And I knew my pain

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would be finite. Emily urged Andy to take the Amtrak to Poughkeepsie, New York, where she picked him up and brought him to her home in nearby High Falls with her husband, Simon Abramson, and three daughters. As Emily remembers, her brother woke her about 3:30 a.m. on May 21 in deep distress, saying he had poison all over his body and needed to go to the hospital. The two jumped into her vehicle and arrived about 30 minutes later at the emergency room at MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie. Because of COVID-19 protocols, Emily could not accompany her brother beyond the ER waiting room. She was told that Neiman would be admitted to the psychiatric unit by 4 o’clock that afternoon. Emily later learned that her brother was kept waiting well past that time, and, in fact, was never admitted. At 9:30 p.m., police in Poughkeepsie called Emily to tell her that her brother had gone missing a half hour earlier from the ER, wearing hospital scrubs and slippers. He had left behind his glasses, shoes, phone and ID. Police began their search that night and the next day alerted authorities across the region. The Neiman family and friends kicked into high gear. Simon created a “Find Andy” Facebook group, then a GoFundMe site that raised more than $40,000 to hire private investigators. Andy Cohen, the celebrity Bravo host and a fellow Clayton High School alum, used his social media platforms to bring attention to his plight, which in turn drew coverage from The Today Show and People Magazine. As search parties made up of local

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ANDY’S COMET Continued from pg 17

volunteers scoured the region, Simon created a hotline and sorted through tips of sightings from as far away as New Jersey. On June 19, Poughkeepsie police reported to the family that Neiman’s body had been found in the Hudson River. It had been nearly a month since his disappearance. Honoring the Struggle The Neimans are still trying to sort through what happened to Andy on the day that he went missing and how they should respond. The hospital, while publicly expressing condolences to family and friends, has remained mum about its role in Neiman’s disappearance and death. So too has the o cer given the responsibility for the search and subsequent investigation. No one suspects foul play. But family members reject use of the term suicide. What do we mean by that word anyway? To many it seems to suggest that a person has intentionally taken his life. In a new book, One Friday in April, Donald Antrim, an award-winning author and selfdescribed suicide survivor, writes that suicide is “a disease process, not an act or a choice.” “As long as we see suicide as a rational act taken after rational deliberation, it will remain incomprehensible,” Antrim writes. “Stigma, society’s unacknowledged violence toward the sick will remain strong. But if we accept that that the [person attempting suicide] is trying to survive, then we can begin to describe an illness.” The Neiman clan will probably never know the exact circumstances of Andy Neiman’s death, but here’s what they make of Andy’s Comet as it orbits ’round the sun and the Earth. David (at Neiman’s memorial service): “My brother was so theatrical. So exuberant. He was just never going to die in a bed. And, no, even pills weren’t going to cut it. It is so utterly on brand Andy Neiman that his death would be in the most dramatic fashion possible, drawing the attention of the whole world and bringing an entire loving community together, and finally leaving us all by owing back into the deep waters of the Hudson River with all the symbolic, poetic Shakespearean implications that I assure you my brother intended. This is how a superhero departs from this world.”

Emily (at the memorial service): “What is the cost of showing your vulnerability? Is it worth it or not? The thing that stalked Andy until his dying day was an incalculable terror, an interminable number of if onlys and why didn’ts as he ran over past events in his mind again and again. A beautiful aspect of mental illness is that you cannot mask your vulnerability. Sadly, in many cases, the vulnerability becomes so pervasive that it debilitates, making it at best extremely di cult and at worst utterly untenable to build and lead a life. But a beautiful life Andy certainly did build … I am so proud of Andy for exhibiting such bravery in confronting life with such a thin membrane between his art and the world he encountered. We are all so much the better for it.” Bennett (at the memorial service): “You were a sacred light to so many who shined brightly. You spread love and magic everywhere you went. You welcomed all sensory experiences, sights, sounds, tastes, smells, feelings. The only problem was that you were not given any armor, so everything came to you full, unfiltered and you took it all in, every joy and every pain. Eventually, it was too much for you. To borrow a line from Don McLean, ‘This world was never meant for someone as beautiful as you.’” Lainie (in a post on Facebook): “I have no idea how I will live the rest of my days without my son, Andy, but I know I will dedicate myself to three things: 1.) Celebrating his life by living well and out loud. 2.) Being an advocate and champion for decent mental health care in our country (including perhaps writing a book about his odyssey over the past couple of years) and 3.) Creating an Andy Neiman Memorial Fund/Foundation to support promising young performing artists who have limited resources. I absolutely know that we will be sharing thousands of Andy Neiman stories for the rest of our lives.” Louise (at the memorial service): “Nine years ago, Andy and I stood together and made a commitment to one another. It was a beautiful day full of love and potential and possibility. I find my heart filled with a desire to make another commitment to Andy: I stand before you today a better person for having known and loved you. I will honor you and your story and share it with Ellie as she grows. I will take care of her in all the ways that matter. We will grieve and we will heal. I will love her enough for both of us.” n

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CAFE

Extended Family From the owners of a popular Southampton coffee shop, Sisters Sandwich Shoppe is a necessity Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Sisters Sandwich Shoppe 5353 Devonshire Avenue, 314-405-8011. Thurs.-Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Closed MondayWednesday.)

ver since they opened their coffeehouse, Espresso Yourself Coffee & Café, Tracy Calabro and Jules Karagiannis heard the same refrain from their Southampton neighbors: This area needs a deli. For three years, guests would not only lament the lack of a neighborhood sandwich shop, but also give Calabro and Karagiannis the backstory on why they were so adamant. Just a couple of months before Espresso Yourself moved into the storefront at Macklind and Devonshire avenues in 2018, the neighborhood did have a sandwich counter, Macklind Avenue Deli, but it burned down and never reopened. It was a clear void in an otherwise vibrant commercial district, and one that got Calabro and Karagiannis wondering if they might be the right people to restore sandwich glory to the area. Initially, Calabro and Karagiannis told themselves they could not take on such a project. Espresso Yourself was already a full-time job for Karagiannis; for Calabro, it was a nearly full-time gig on top of her already 40-hour-a-week day job. However, the more they told themselves they couldn’t do it, the more they kept wondering, deep down, if they could. Eventually, those thoughts got the better of them, and when the storefront adjacent to their coffeehouse became available in early 2020, they decided it was the sign they needed that this was what they were supposed to do. Calabro and Karagiannis certainly had the food background to draw upon. Having married into a family of Greek restaurateurs, Karagiannis

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The You Don’t Eat No Meat sandwich might be the best, but is far from the only reason to visit Sisters Sandwich Shoppe. | MABEL SUEN spent years in the business as the co-owner of the Tenderloin Room at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. Though she brought significant hospitality experience with her, she and Calabro were clear that they wanted their new venture to be a low-key neighborhood spot with interesting sandwiches, soups and salads. After tossing around ideas with their children, they nailed down a menu, knocked down the wall between Espresso Yourself and the adjacent storefront, and christened their deli as Sisters Sandwich Shoppe. When Sisters Sandwich Shoppe opened in April of this year, the Southampton neighborhood came out in full force to support the deli they’d been waiting for. However, it’s not just demand for a sandwich counter that fuels the restaurant’s success. Sisters is a delight the moment you step in the door and experience its charming vibe. Calabro and Karagiannis describe the aesthetic as retro vintage, using the period from 1965 to 1985 as inspiration. Formica tables with ’ s-style oral pleather chairs, a turquoise leather sofa and cool vintage knick-knacks gathered from their childhood home (think E.T. and Smurfs lunchboxes and an Alf statue) give the place the

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Tracy Calabro and Jules Karagiannis teamed up for the perfect lunch counter. | MABEL SUEN sort of nostalgic thrill you get from going through your old things in your childhood home’s basement. However, you could be eating your sandwiches inside of a beige, windowless room and still find the Sisters experience thrilling. Calabro and Karagiannis have put their hearts and souls into making

the food they provide the sort of accessible fare you’d expect from a deli, but with special touches that make their offerings unique. You understand what they are going for when you bite into the aptly named Don’t Be Basic, an overstuffed turkey and provolone sandwich dressed up with ver-

The casual eatery features sandwiches and soups for lunch. | MABEL SUEN

A formidable pair from the start. | MABEL SUEN

The retro-themed dining room is just one more thoughtful touch as Sisters. | MABEL SUEN dant pesto and juicy tomatoes on griddled sourdough bread. Like a combination of a turkey and cheese melt with a caprese salad, this sandwich is easy and warm, but it has enough interest to stick with you. The Celine Dijon is another instance of Calabro and Karagiannis adding a little extra to a classic dish. In this case, chunky, white-

meat chicken salad is tossed with Dijon mustard and a touch of hot sauce to give it a piquant punch. Tucked into a crusty hoagie loaf, it’s the only chicken salad around that leaves your mouth tingling. The Gabagool, Sisters’ take on an Italian sub, is shocking in its heft. Roast beef, salami and capicola are piled onto a hoagie with provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato,

red onion, pepperoncini and pickles, then drizzled with Italian vinaigrette. Trying to get your mouth around this massive behemoth is a feat worth the effort. The Bacon Me Crazy is equally impressive in size. Though it does not break the mold of the classic BLT, the mix of perfectly cooked bacon, thick-sliced tomatoes, crisp lettuce, a generous heap of rich mayonnaise and sourdough bread toasted to a awless golden hue make you understand why you don’t mess with perfection.

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You might think that the Au Jus Shouldn’t Have is a quintessential French Dip — and in many ways it is with its piles of roast beef, crusty hoagie bread and au jus dipping sauce. However, there is something about the way the molten cheese mixes with a garlicky red-pepper dressing that makes it a gooey, cheesy wonder. When dipped in the mushroom-infused au jus, it becomes clear that this is no mere copy of a classic, but something extraordinary. The same can be said for the Cheez Louise. Calabro and Karagiannis take a regular grilled cheese — American and provolone cheeses, white bread — as a jumping-off point, then fill it with bacon and garlic butter to kick it up to eleven. Their Sisters Sammie, too, starts out as fried bologna and cheese, but the addition of Red Hot Riplets not only gives spice and crunch, it turns it into the most St. Louis of sandwiches you can find. As wonderful as all Sisters’ offerings are, the You Don’t Eat No Meat is the shop’s clear must-try offering. Calabro and Karagiannis begin with a glorious everything bagel from Bridge Bread (seriously, this is an actual bagel and not the airy, circular-shaped garbage that is so often passed off as such outside of NYC), then top it with tomatoes, red onions, yellow peppers, cucumber, lettuce, feta cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. The component that turns it into absolute transcendence, however, is a sundried tomato and feta cheese spread; it mixes with balsamic dressing to form this funky, earthy, tangy orange sauce that you want to order a side of and eat with a spoon. It will blow away even the most unapologetic meat-eater. That veggie sandwich alone is reason enough for Sisters Sandwich Shoppe to be in the world; had the Southampton neighbors known Calabro and Karagiannis were capable of such sandwichmaking majesty, they might have held a vigil outside their storefront when they first came to the area three years ago. Fortunately, these sisters came to that realization without such drastic measures — and we are all the better for it.

Sisters Sandwich Shoppe Sisters Sammie..................................... $9.50 Au Jus Shouldn’t Have .........................$10.50 You Don’t Eat No Meat ........................$10.95

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SHORT ORDERS

[FIRST LOOK]

Time Table Acclaimed chef Ben Grupe’s restaurant, Tempus, opens for dine-in service in the Grove Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

n 2018, chef Ben Grupe took his first steps down a long-dreamedof path toward opening his own restaurant. e left his gig as e ecutive chef at laia, turned his attention away from the prestigious culinary competition world and got to work doing a series of pop-up events, all with an eye to his highly anticipated debut restaurant, Tempus (4730 Manchester Road, 314-349-2878). empus should have welcomed its first guests in arch . owever, the pandemic forced rupe and his team to put the restaurant on hold, then eventually transition to a takeout-only model a yearlong, -degree change from the hospitality and e perience-focused vision of what rupe wanted empus to be. ow, having welcomed guests into dining room for the first time on ovember , rupe is e cited to finally show the t. Louis dining scene what the restaurant is truly capable of being. e’ve waited so long for this and just had to rip the Band-Aid off, says rupe. utting food in a to-go bag and handing it out of a window is a lot different than having a dining room open. escribed by rupe as a chefdriven American restaurant with guest-centric, thoughtful hospitality, empus features a menu of uality, inventive food and cocktails that draw upon rupe’s and his team’s vast culinary and beverage e perience. till, he emphasi es that the empus e perience is meant to be familiar, approachable and comforting with classic avors and recogni able dishes presented in a uni ue way. ogether with his sous chef, ustin Bell, rupe has created a menu of dishes ranging from sea trout with sauerkraut, turnip and but-

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The dining room at Tempus is open, giving guests a long-awaited taste of what the restaurant was meant to be. | GREG RANNELS

“We’ve waited so long for this and just had to rip the Band-aid off. Putting food in a to-go bag and handing it out of a window is a lot different than having a dining room open.” termilk vin blanc to beef rib with au gratin potatoes, pot roast carrots and cippolini onions. tarters include cro uettes with country ham, olives and sherry vinaigrette and beets with uark, vadouvan granola and salted strawberries, while desserts evoke such comfort food classics as s’mores with gianduja, burnt marshmallow and spruce, as well as apples with

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whipped cream, brown-butter cake and hyssop. eteran bartender rew Lucido leads the beverage team, and he, too, is eager to move from the togo model to the more personal style of service that he is used to providing for his guests. esigned to seamlessly connect with the food, his drink menu consists of cocktails that might be familiar in concept but different in form, such as a cocktail made with oliveoil-washed vodka with dry vermouth, fino sherry, orange bitters and white verjus that is supposed to evoke a dirty martini a drink that he notes pairs awlessly with the sea trout. Lucido is also e cited to offer a different take on a wine list, with no regular by-the-glass selections. As he e plains, glass pours will be available, but they will change depending on what he and his team feel like opening and what pairs particularly well with the food on any given day. Above all, he’s just happy to be able to take care of guests the way that he wants to. hrough all of this, we haven’t changed our core values of what we want the restaurant to be, Lucido says. e are focused on hospitality for our guests and our staff,

and that has never changed. hat’s one of the things that has helped pull us through all of this, that we had a united vision between myself, chef and others of what we wanted this to be. hat has allowed us to create what we created. hough rupe and his team hope to eventually open empus for a la carte service, the restaurant is currently offering a three-course dinner that must be reserved in advance. he e perience is per person, plus ta and gratuity for an additional , guests may add on a wine or cocktail pairing a nonalcoholic pairing is available for . rinks will also be available a la carte. verything about empus is designed to bring a sense of what is familiar, crave-able and comforting, said rupe in a statement announcing the opening. igh- uality, inventive food and cocktails, coupled with our commitment to genuine hospitality, thoughtful service, and giving back to the community, is what makes empus uni ue. e want locals to become regulars and special occasion diners to feel right at home, and we are thrilled to finally open our doors and join the growing community of diverse hospitality establishments in t. Louis. n

[HOMETOWN]

Sweet Truth St. Louis is, in fact, the best doughnut city in the country Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

f you’ve ever rounded the bend of hippewa treet near Landsdowne only to jump for joy at the sight of onut rive-In’s neon sign, wandered into lorissant’s ld own onuts at just the moment the apple fritters are being pulled from the oven, or been hurried along by former orld’s air onuts matriarch eggy, in all of her blue eye-shadowed glory, you know one thing t. Louis is the doughnut capital of the nited tates. ossibly the world. Like our dive bars, no one does classic, indie doughnut shops like the ateway to the est. It’s our thing. hat’s why it came as such a shock nay, insult when the online platform ent.com released its list of the Best ities for onut Lovers on ovember

These didn’t even crack the top 50? Seriously? | ANDY PAULISSEN and t. Louis failed to crack the top ten. It didn’t even make the top , ceding doughnut superiority to such obvious fried-dough inferiors as c inney, e as the number one spot , rovidence, hode Island, and rlando, lorida. Orlando, Florida? ow, we’re not ones to give much credence to these clickbaity articles designed to drive tra c

to websites outside of the everpresent need to create content for our own publication doctor heal thyself , but something about this slight felt viscerally offensive. ur doughnut culture runs deep, weaving through the bi-state region like a sweet, yeasty-scented thread that connects such disparate locales as Affton and t. eters, north county and outh

[GOOD DEEDS]

On a Mission Mission Taco Joint teams up with nonprofit to raise money for foster children Written by

JENNA JONES

ission Taco Joint co-owner Adam Tilford completed his family with the adoption of his son, Mateo, and he’s looking to give back once again to an organization close to his family’s heart: the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition. The Family First program at Mission Taco Joint (multiple locations including 398 North Euclid Avenue, 314-9302955) donates $1 for each kid’s meal sold. A press release details the coali-

Sales of kids meals at Mission Taco are helping foster kids this month. | COURTESY MISSION TACO tion works “to create permanency in children’s lives in foster care and works with the most vulnerable kids to get them placed in a forever home.” The program

lasts throughout the month of November, coinciding with National Adoption Month. “This is our third year working with Mission Taco Joint for National Adop-

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Broadway. In a metro area more often associated with what divides us than what connects us, doughnuts may be the closest thing we have to a unifying force. o be told that empe, Ari ona, has a superior doughnut culture to our storied tradition is simply too much to take. ent.com might argue that it’s rankings are scientific and that the data doesn’t lie. hey took the most populated cities in the . ., tallied up the number of doughnut shops in each of these cities, then calculated the proportion of doughnut shops per density and per capita. , so we are talking purely about volume here, which is likely why the ortheast, where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a unkin, is so overrepresented in the top ten. It takes the sting out to know that ent.com is simply looking at uantity and not uality. till, when you are talking about something as sacred as icing-covered fritters, to rely on a strictly data-driven analysis without regard for the intangibles that make doughnuts one of life’s purest joys is pure bunk. e know the truth, and we will celebrate it over a best-in-class old-fashioned buttermilk cake any day of the week. n

tion Month,” Natasha Leonard, director of external relations at the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition, says in a statement. “Our partnership keeps developing. This year, Mission Taco Joint is also hosting a party for a group of foster kids and parents at the Kirkwood location’s arcade. Every bit counts in ensuring that these kids and families feel a sense of normalcy and celebration in their lives.” On November 3, Mission Taco Joint also participated in the nonprofit’s virtual Foster Hope Day, with a fundraiser streamed on Facebook that included raffle prizes. The restaurant offered a catered, ten-person dinner for the raffle and had other prizes each hour that included a home-office makeover, designer handbags and a private jet trip. You can participate in the program by buying a kid’s meal at any Mission Taco Joint. Kid’s meals cost $5 and can be burritos, chicken fingers, a cheese quesadilla or fish and fries. Donations can be made to the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition on charidy.com. n

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

WEDNESDAY, 11/17/21

DREW LANCE & JD HUGHES 4:30PM SEAN CANAN'S VOODOO PLAYERS: VOODOO DAVE MATTHEWS BAND 9PM THURSDAY, 11/18/21

ANDREW DAHLE 5PM JESSE FARRAR (OF OLD SALT UNION) & FRIENDS 9PM FRIDAY, 11/19/21

BUTCH MOORE 5PM ONE WAY TRAFFIC 10PM SATURDAY ,11/20/21

ALL ROOSTERED UP 12PM CLUSTERPLUCK (PLUCKIN' TO FEED) WITH GUESTS, THE SCREECHIN HALTS 10PM

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SUNDAY, 11/21/21

ALEX RUWE 2PM ERIC LYSAGHT 9PM MONDAY, 11/22/21

STEVE REEB 5PM SOULARD BLUES BAND 9PM TUESDAY, 11/23/21

ERIC MCSPADDEN & MARGARET BIENCHETTA 5PM MR. WENDELL'S ALLSTARS 9PM

ORDER ONLINE FOR CURBSIDE PICKUP!

MONDAY-SATURDAY 11AM-9:30PM SUNDAY 11AM-8:30PM

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

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[CHANGES]

Passing the Torch Bar Les Freres, Billie Jean and I Frattelini sold; Billie Jean to close Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

n the most stunning, post-pandemic shakeup in the St. Louis restaurant scene to date, restaurateur Zoë Robinson has announced the sale of her acclaimed restaurant portfolio to her friend and local art dealer Susan Barrett. Under Barrett’s new ownership, Robinson’s restaurants Bar Les Freres and I Fratellini will reopen beginning in early 2022 while Billie Jean will close and be rebranded as a new concept. Barrett will also be naming an “accomplished restaurateur partner” to assist her with the restaurants in the coming weeks. In a release announcing the sale made public on November 10, Robinson discusses her decision to leave her decades-long career in the business and beloved restaurants as one that involved deep re ection. “Like many in the restaurant industry, I took time to re ect during the pandemic — to evaluate my own personal happiness and growth,” Robinson says. “I’ve been in the restaurant industry for over 30 years, and we were all forced to reinvent ourselves over the last two years. I knew if I ever stepped back from the restaurants, it would require a new owner who would promise to continue the same care and hospitality to our guests. I’ve found that in Susan.” Robinson began her career in the hospitality industry in the early 1980s, working at and later purchasing the Lafayette Square restaurant Empire. With her keen eye for design and knack for creating stunning spaces ands eclectic menus, she leveraged that success to open the ahead-of-its-time Cafe Zoë, Bobo Noodle House, I Fratellini, Bar Les Freres and Billie Jean, making a name for herself as a trailblazing restaurateur and icon of the city’s food and beverage scene. Robinson insists that her unique brand is in good hands under Bar-

Zoë Robinson (pictured) has sold her beloved group of restaurants to art dealer Susan Barrett. | JENNIFER SILVERBERG rett’s leadership, and she is excited to see what the next chapter holds for these special properties. “Susan is an aesthetic expert,” Robinson says. “What she has

already done to the design of I Fratellini is beautiful. I would have wanted to refresh the restaurants before we reopened myself, but I would not have been able

to do it to Susan’s level. With her acute eye and art collection, each restaurant will be so special and unique. I would be proud to open any restaurant with her vision.” As for Barrett, she explains that she is honored to carry on Robinson’s legacy and sees her role as balancing a preservation of what the restaurateur has created while pushing the restaurants forward. “We don’t want to change a lot,” Barrett insists. “We are going to preserve what makes the restaurants so special, what guests have come to love, but interject new excitement into the restaurant spaces. The DNA of the environment that Zoë has created at I Fratellini and Bar Les Freres will continue on,” says Barrett. “We’re just putting on a different lipstick.” As for the thrilling Billie Jean, which will cease operating in its current form under the new arrangement, no details were given on the concept that will replace it. Information on that, in addition to reopening details for Bar Les Freres and I Fratellini, will be released at a future date. n

[FUNDRAISING]

A Dream Realized Bakesale to help St. Louis girl receive treatment for rare condition goes online Written by

JENNA JONES

t. Louisans showed up in a big way for ten-year-old Lyla McCarty. When a call to action was put out on social media to help raise money for the girl, who suffers from a rare condition called CRPS, the bakery hosting the fundraiser on November 7 — MADE by Lia (610 Rue St Francois, Florissant; 314551-2383) — had a half-mile-long line all three hours it went on. And now, there’s another opportunity to help support Lyla. One of the organizers, influencer Charlie Rocket, announced on his social media that his organization, the Dream Machine, would be helping Lyla launch a website where you can buy her pig cookies if you missed out on the inperson bakery sale. Money raised from online sales will go toward funding her treatment. “Thank y’all for stepping up with us to help Lyla afford her treatment,” Rocket wrote in an Instagram post. “Her dreams are coming true of having a bakery busi-

Cookie lovers have another opportunity to help Lyla McCarty. | DANTE BARGER ness. Her website launches Tuesday [November 9]. Step up with us .... Let’s make this dream come true in the biggest way possible!” CRPS causes Lyla to feel more pain than childbirth or amputation. The treatment is incredibly expensive, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that insurance has declined to cover the expenses three times.

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About 5,000 people showed up to the local bakery to support the cause on earlier this month. MADE by Lia had to close through the following Tuesday, in order to restock after the fundraiser. As of this writing, the GoFundMe for Lyla is still open and is sitting at almost $148,000 of its $150,000 goal. Online orders for her now-famous pig cookies can be placed at lylasdreambakery.com. n

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

ST. LOUIS STANDARDS

[

]

ICONIC PEOPLE, PLACES & DISHES T H A T A N C H O R S T L’ S F O O D S C E N E

A Fond Farewell Balducci’s closed suddenly after nearly 50 years, but its longtime owner has no regrets Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

ick Balducci learned a lot about the restaurant business from his father. Though not a restaurateur himself, the elder Balducci owned a wine distribution company that sold to restaurants, grocery and liquor stores, and he would often take his son along with him on sales calls and deliveries. Even at the dinner table, where his father made a point to not dwell on work all that much, Balducci could not help but pick up bits and pieces about the industry here and there. However, there was one lesson from his father that Balducci failed to learn. “Numerous times, I remember him telling me, ‘Son, don’t ever go into the restaurant business.’ He told me the hours were lousy, you had to work nights and weekends, and it was disastrous for relationships,” Balducci recalls. “So, what did I do? Got into the restaurant business.” For 46 years, Balducci refused to heed his father’s words and loved just about every minute of it. As the founder of the Maryland Heights Italian restaurant Balducci’s, he dedicated the better part of his life to creating not just a place to eat, but a place to make memories. The impact he’s had over the years on the lives of his diners and employees is not lost on him as he bids farewell to the restaurant, a victim of pandemic circumstances that made operating the nearly five-decade-old eatery impossible. Balducci announced his restaurant’s closure on October 17, citing an inability to find staff as the reason for its demise. He admits the past few weeks have been bittersweet. On the one hand, saying goodbye to a significant piece of his life’s work is di cult, and he feels the pain not only of his own situation but of the numerous other

RIVERFRONT TIMES

The initial vision for Balducci’s was to create a wine festival-like environment with booths themed individually for wine regions around the globe. Inscriptions in the wood include descriptions of wines, labels and facts about the region. | ANDY PAULISSEN mom-and-pop restaurants like his that are suffering under the weight of the same challenges. However, the outpouring of thanks and support he’s received from the community — whether it’s longtime guests telling stories of how they met their significant others at the restaurant or former employees reaching out to let him know how much working for him impacted their lives — has warmed his soul and made him realize just how much Balducci’s meant to many in his community. ven after the di culties of the past year and a half — and the last few months in particular — Balducci is glad he failed to heed his father’s advice. In his defense, he could not have acted any other way; the industry was in his DNA in one way, shape or form, traced all the way back to late nineteenth century Italy. His great-grandparents carried those food and beverage traditions with them when they immigrated to the United States in 1906, working in the grocery, tavern and wine business, and they passed that knowledge to their son, Balducci’s father, who developed a passion for wine and opened Balducci Wine Company in 1946. If Balducci’s passion for wine and restaurants came from his father, it was fostered by one of his college business professors at Kansas State University. There on a football scholarship, Balducci had the re-

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Carol Balducci, Rick Balducci, chef Larry Miller, manager Joanie Balducci Shinall. | ANDY PAULISSEN alization that he wanted to go into business for himself, even if he did not yet know what that would look like. He’d start to color in that outline when he returned to St. Louis following his service as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. “Luckily, I got home safe and sound, and when I got home, I didn’t know what to do,” Balducci says. “My dad asked me, ‘Why don’t I start selling wine?’ So I did that, then took a trip to Europe and fell in love with the wine business. But I also realized that I didn’t want to do what he did and sell wholesale. I wanted to do retail and be creative with décor

and menus — basically doing exactly what he told me not to do.” Determined to learn all he could about the hospitality industry, Balducci took a job as a bartender at the then-popular nightclub and lounge the Red Onion while developing his own vision for the kind of restaurant he wanted to open. Soon, he started scouting locations and with his business partners Dave and Steve Bour settled on a small basement spot in Maryland Heights on Bennington Place. They did not have much money, so they built as much as they could themselves and opened in 1976. About a year later, he bought out

Balducci’s had a classic feel, grounded in decades of food, wine and memories. | ANDY PAULISSEN the Bour brothers, brought on his brother as a partner, and began to grow the restaurant into a Maryland Heights institution. “We had a decent-sized wine list and deli menu, but as time progressed the neighborhood filled with yuppies,” Balducci says. “There weren’t a lot of places to go around there at the time, and it turned out the neighborhood was a beer and pizza sort of crowd. We added pizza, eventually deep-dish pizza, pasta — it really took off.” Balducci and his family built upon the success of their Maryland Heights spot with a second restaurant on Manchester Road in west county. When his brother wanted to retire in 1991, they sold that restaurant, which gave them enough money to buy some property in Augusta that would become Balducci Vineyards. Thrilled to have both a successful restaurant and a thriving vineyard and winery, Balducci felt like he was on top of the world. “It was all sailing along through 2019,” Balducci says. “Then you know what happened.” Balducci says that the COVID-19 pandemic was di cult, but it also brought out the best in his guests. They rallied to support the restaurant, keeping it a oat with carryout orders, tipping generously and being generally supportive to Balducci and his staff. However, as dining rooms began to reopen and he tried to get the restaurant back to in-person service, he could not find anyone to work and had to cut hours. At first, he closed for lunch, then shortened dinner hours. Before he knew it,

he wasn’t breaking even and got to the point where he could no longer afford to stay open. “I’m sorry to say this, and I hope it doesn’t happen, but I can see more of our type of restaurant going down for the same reason,” Balducci laments. “Some are doing fine, but others are like us, wondering week to week how they can stay open.” Balducci is clear that he doesn’t begrudge anyone for making the decisions that they did to either leave the industry or find work at other establishments. However, if he’s learned one thing over the years, it’s that a good staff is vital to a restaurant’s success, and he encourages other restaurateurs to be mindful of that as they continue to navigate this challenging new reality. It’s made him realize how fortunate he was all these years to have great employees, whom he considers family. It underscores the relationship side of the business that he loves so much — one that he looks back on with no regrets. “Along the way, we have developed some great customers and friends and relationships,” Balducci says. “In all that time, it’s amazing all the people you get to know, all the employees that go through the place; it was fun to hear how they progressed in life. And the customers — when we closed, we knew it would have some sort of impact, but we were abbergasted with the response we got on Facebook. It was heartwarming, the fact that people actually cared. It’s neat that people actually thought we did a few things right, so that’s terrific. n

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NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[STRAIN REVIEW]

Tommy Chims Smokes Illicit’s SFV OG Written by

THOMAS CHIMCHARDS

ontrary to the beliefs of some of the more skeptical among us, not every person who uses cannabis is looking to get stoned out of their mind. In the medical marijuana community — the real one, where real people use weed to assist with real maladies — patients have to walk a tightrope, balancing cannabis’ health benefits against its propensity to send its users into outer space. Among this group, a high tolerance is regarded as a gift, one that enables a marijuana consumer to treat what ails them without a debilitating high coming along for the ride. And for those who use cannabis to treat pain — present company included — things can be especially tricky. That’s because the vast majority of the strains that are most effective at pain management are indica dominants, meaning you’re likely to have to deal with couchlock and a serious case of the munchies as side effects of your medication. Oftentimes, when you really have to get some shit done, you’re forced to choose between working while hurting or working while you barely have the energy to do anything. It’s a no-win situation. Or is it? Here’s where SFV OG comes in. A sativa-dominant strain that is a phenotype of the famed OG Kush, SFV (or San Fernando Valley) OG is renowned for its ability to provide pain relief without knocking its user at on their ass. An energizing strain that helps you stay focused while soothing your ailments, SFV OG is so good at what it does that, in 2012, it took home awards in both High Times’ Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam as well as the Denver Cannabis Cup. So naturally, when I saw that

RIVERFRONT TIMES

SFV OG delivers considerable pain relief without glueing you to your couch. | TOMMY CHIMS Missouri cultivator Illicit Gardens had grown some of the highly regarded strain, I knew I had to try it for myself. I picked up an eighth at Heya Wellness in St. Ann for $56.89 after taxes and was eager to get home and dig in. Rated at 24.51 percent THC, these buds range in color from a dark hunter green to a keef-frosted light green, with pale to light orange hairs throughout. Upon opening the jar I was met with a grassy, earthy smell with an intriguing sourness to it. On breakup, it was a dry crumble, easily reduced to small pieces and dust, and while it wasn’t exactly sticky, it did leave a lot of keef on my fingers, which I then mistakenly used to rub my eyes. (For the record, I do not recommend ingesting cannabis in this way.) On inhale, that sour taste is present but not unpleasant; it’s quite distinct and somewhat di cult to pin down, bordering on sweet but not quite getting there, and not fruity or citrusy in the slightest. As for effects, I’m delighted to report that this stuff delivers on its promise. The strain’s energiz-

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ing effects were the first thing I noticed, with an upper of a head high bringing on a focused state of mind before the body high kicked in and wiped out my chronic pain. I felt none of the under-eye pu ness or fatigue that I might expect from an indica-dominant strain and crucially, none of the couchlock or debilitatingly high feeling. Instead, I was chatty and awake with a bit of euphoria, though it’s hard to know for sure whether the latter was due to the strain itself or just my excitement that it did indeed work as advertised. Overall, I found SFV OG to be exactly the type of weed I need to be able to stay alert while treating my pain, and that’s certainly something to celebrate. It’s worth noting that I am a person with a fairly high tolerance to cannabis, so your mileage may vary. But for those in search of pain relief without the stoniness, SFV OG may be the one for you too. As for those stoners seeking pain relief that comes with a trip to outer space? Well, there’s always Bubba Fett. n

For those who use cannabis to treat pain things can be especially tricky. Oftentimes, when you really have to get some shit done, you’re forced to choose between working while hurting or working while you barely have the energy to do anything.

New rules allowing dispensaries to advertise sales may be coming. | COURTESY GREENLIGHT DISPENSARY

[WEED NEWS]

Medical Marijuana Promotion Rule Under Revision Written by

JENNA JONES

fter news last month that dispensaries were unable to advertise discounts on medical marijuana sales, Missouri’s cannabis regulators are kicking around the idea of updating those laws. In a draft regulation proposed this month and published on the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services’ website, the law may be updated to allow promotions with one caveat: A disclaimer must be published alongside each advertisement. The disclaimer reads: “Medical decisions should not be made based on advertising. Consult a physician on the benefits and risks of particular medical marijuana products.” Originally, the law simply stated “Dispensary facilities shall not disburse medical marijuana as part of a promotional event.” This meant advertising price discounts were banned for the dispensaries because, a letter from the DHSS obtained by Greenway Magazine noted, “that would result in disbursing medical marijuana as part of a promotional event.” Andrew Mullins, MoCannTrade’s executive director, says in a statement that he appreciated “DHSS’ willingness to listen to Missouri’s hundreds of licensed medical cannabis business operators — and most importantly, the more than 152,000 patients and caregivers who were harmed by the former rule. “Because Missouri’s medical cannabis program has so many product and

location options, it is absolutely essential that patients have accurate, timely information and education that allows them to make good health decisions,” Mullins adds, “and that’s exactly what this rule rewrite will allow them to do. Robust patient education is crucial to the program’s continued success and we are thankful DHSS recognized and acted on patients’ behalf. The program is stronger today for that responsiveness.” DHSS spokeswoman Lisa Cox says in an emailed statement the department “sent its guidance on the topic because they observed a fairly widespread misunderstanding of the existing rule.” Among the updated promotional events policy, the DHSS also released rules on selling marijuana plants at dispensaries, drive-thru sales and payment on delivery orders. Businesses will now be able to sell marijuana plants instead of the past regulation that only allowed the purchase of marijuana seeds. The draft rules say dispensaries are able to sell the plant as long as it does not exceed eight inches tall. Drive-thru rules include a stipulation that windows “either do not open or remain closed and locked and that allow clear visibility for verification of patient identity.” Shops must also utilize a surveillance system in their drive-thru at all times. Prepayment for delivery orders would also be a thing of the past, according to the draft rules. The product may be paid for at the person’s address as long as the dispensary delivers “to no more than two individuals at one address on the same day,” per draft regulations. Cox adds in her email the draft regulations are to gather feedback from the public, and once they’ve reviewed the submissions, the department will consider all points of view and “submit rules for formal rulemaking that we believe are most consistent with Article XIV.” Public comment on the draft will take place until November 18. n

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NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

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NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

CULTURE

[ARTS]

Heat Seeker New annual arts magazine Search Party makes its debut, focused on St. Louis art and culture Written by

DANIEL HILL

new annual arts magazine focused on St. Louis-based creatives of color saw its debut Friday with a launch party at Cherokee Street apparel store rofield eserve. The print and online publication, dubbed Search Party, is the brainchild of longtime journalist and St. Louis native Tara C. Mahadevan, who serves as its editor in chief. Mahadevan, a regular freelance contributor for Complex with additional bylines in a slew of publications including St. Louis’ Stereo Assault, Made Monarchs, Eleven Magazine and the Riverfront Times, conceived of the endeavor in the spring of last year and soon secured a Futures Fund grant from the Luminary. According to Mahadevan, the effort started as a simple idea — and a case of great timing. “It really just came as a thought. I tweeted about it,” Mahadevan explains. “And then I googled, you know, ‘art grant in St. Louis,’ and the Luminary’s art grant popped up, and it felt kind of like kismet. I mean, the grant had just opened like a week before I googled it, and then the week after there was an informational session. And the timing was so eerie, I was like, ‘I have to go for this.’” With the grant secured, Mahadevan assembled a team that includes yan Brown a.k.a. Big Esco) as creative director and tephon hite a.k.a. phon as designer and photographer. Each are also rappers and artists in their own right, in line with the magazine’s identity as what Mahadevan describes as an “artistled collaborative publication.” “I think it being artist led is really important,” Mahadevan says. “I just feel like a lot of major pub-

RIVERFRONT TIMES

The annual publication will focus on emerging musicians and artists in the St. Louis area. | TARA C. MAHADEVAN lications are run by people who aren’t artists themselves.” In addition to that core threeperson team, a host of St. Louis creatives contributed to the publication, including writer Ymani ince who also contributes to

the RFT) and rapper Mvstermind. All of the contributors are Black or people of color — around 30 people in total, according to Mahadevan. “That includes all the writers, the artists being spotlighted and

the visual artists,” she says. For Mahadevan, the publication is a passion project meant to spotlight up-and-coming musicians and artists in t. Louis, specifically in the Black and community, and serves as a continuation of her longtime and ongoing efforts to bring attention to the city’s considerable creative talent. “The magazine is really a culmination of the work I’ve done as a journalist and writer and really, you know, wanting to create a space for music discovery and emerging artists,” she says. “I’ve always tried to find a way to put on for St. Louis artists, and also [I’ve been] inspired by everything that’s been happening in St. Louis, in terms of the in u of people making stuff, just creating. “And personally, it’s really important for me to always champion the underdog,” she adds. “The person who is just coming up as well as the person who has 20,000 followers.” Hardcopy issues of the magazine are available for purchase for $15 apiece; PDF versions can be purchased for download for $10. For more information, visit searchpartystl.com. n

[BOOKS]

Andy Cohen Coming to Promote New Book Written by

JENNA JONES

ative St. Louisan Andy Cohen is headed back to the Lou, or more specifically, Clayton High School — his alma mater — in partnership with Left Bank Books. Fresh off a partnership with Clementine’s Creamery, Cohen heads to the high school to promote his new book, Glitter Every Day: 365 Quotes from Women I Love. The book gathers quotes from women Cohen has worked with on his talk show or that he admires in his everyday life. Cohen returns to St. Louis to promote and discuss the book on Tuesday, November 23, at 7 p.m. in Clayton High School’s auditorium (1 Mark Twain Circle). For those uunable to attend in person, Left Bank Books offers a livestream

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

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Andy Cohen will be in the Lou to promote his new book. | VIA LEFT BANK BOOKS you can purchase tickets to. Guests will get signed copies of the book mailed to them after the event. “Andy not only gathers 365 sayings and quotes from the icons, thought leaders, ‘Real Housewives’ and legendary celebs that fuel his fun,” a press release details, “he writes about the people and experiences that have

made him live one of the most joyous lives that any little boy growing up in St. Louis could dream of so that you can, too.” Tickets cost $28 and can be purchased at left-bank.com. Attendees must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask at the event, as well as bring a photo ID. n

NEW MUSIC + ARTS COLUMN!

ELEVENTH HOUR

Rumor Mill

Garden Glow is comgin back to make St. Louis evenings merry and bright. | MARY LOU OLSON/MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN

[LIGHTS]

Garden Glow Returns to Botanical Garden Written by

JENNA JONES

ne of the staple St. Louis holiday-season events made its return this week. The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Garden Glow (4344 Shaw Boulevard) is now ready to bless our eyeballs with illuminated beauty. More than 1 million lights will dazzle as you walk through the garden. The botanical garden’s website also promises “fun new experiences” along with photo opportunities, s’mores and festive drinks. Photo opportunities include posing behind holiday frames or an

in atable snow globe in designated photo areas. f course, pictures are encouraged everywhere in the garden. Santa Claus will also make several appearances at the garden in his sleigh at the Linnaean Plaza from 5 to 9 p.m. on certain days in November and December. The Garden Glow requires masks for those older than five upon entry and exit, as well as indoors. Masks are recommended outside. Tickets are available to purchase now at glow.missouribotanicalgarden.org. Non-members older than thirteen pay $18 for non-peak times and $20 during peak times, while children’s tickets cost $10. Members’ tickets begin at $14 and may cost as much as $16; prices for members’ children under thirteen begin at $3 and cost up to $8. The Garden Glow opens at 5 p.m. each night and lets its last guests in at 8:30 p.m. n some ednesday nights, however, children get in for $3 while adults get in for $18 due to “Family Nights.” The dates for Family Nights are November 17 and 24, and December 1 and 8. The Garden Glow will run until January 8, 2022. Purchase tickets online at glow.missouribotanicalgarden.org. n

elcome welcome to this occasional column, this little room I’ve set aside for us, where we get to trade rumors about the STL art and music world. As you know, this city is full of brilliant songs, gnarly instruments, lifer artists, legendary venues and all the brick-city stubbornness that keeps the city’s creative lifeblood flowing, even if and when everything suddenly shuts down for a year and more. Note: There is no journalistic distance in this column. A lot of these people are friends and all of them are colleagues — anyone who plays music and makes art in this city is a colleague. I play drums and make posters (along with my partner and probable column contributor Paige Brubeck), buy records, read books and magazines, hang out at bars and venues and theaters and galleries, have opinions and love finding out about cool shit. The good news: All this shit is cool. We’ll start with the very most important news: GET HAUNTED: Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost is the vengeful, gleeful spirit of the unstoppable Bob Reuter himself, now four years gone but still spitting out the classics thanks to his band — Brice and Kristo Baricevic, Mat Wilson, Bassamp and co. tearing through the songs that Bob made in all of his various bands. They just this week released TWELVE NEW RECORDINGS of Bob’s songs on Bandcamp, songs they perfected by touring together for months. Brice’s take on Bob’s yelping roar is uncanny, as is Ryan Koenig’s version of Bob on “Marie.” Consider this CRUCIAL INFO and get yrself to their bandcamp right now to start listenin’ to “You Belong to Me,” the eternal sacred devilish sound of south-city St. Louis. alleyghost.bandcamp.com/album/ you-belong-to-me ALIGHT IN THE DARK: You know the St. Louis International Film Fest is happening right now, with full proof of vax and a few sensible rules (no eating, etc.) that should actually help keep you safe enough to enjoy the movie? Two highlights among many are some STL ex-pats made good. Leanna Kaiser, formerly of Frances With Wolves and STL, currently post-film school

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BY EVAN SULT in LA, has an award-winning experimental short (“Babes in the Woods”) in the fest, as does STL-to-NYC actor Pete Winfrey (“All Gone Wrong”). And there’s even “Maxi,” Zia Nizami’s documentary about our city’s own fairhaired, blueskinned, tricoastal fairy demon, Maxi Glamour! Tbh, by the time you’re reading this you probably missed the SLIFF screenings, but you can still track down these shorts online, and you should. (I’ve so much gossip about ALL of those folx, but I’ll have to save it for another column — remind me to tell you, yeah?) FUCKIN HOT TEA: River Kittens just released a new video before heading out on tour supporting Samantha Fish and the Allman Betts Band on the Allman Family Revival tour. It’s been a freakin’ huge year for the Kittens, a.k.a. Allie Vogler and Mattie Schell, who’ve spent the last decade busting their musical tails while bussing tables — a day job now immortalized in the video for “Dressing on the Side,” which they re-recorded for their new album, Soaking Wet, that came out on Devon Allman’s Create Records label early this year. The song is a dead funny recounting of the shit you do at restaurants that drives the wait staff crazy, and the video, shot at the Fountain on Locust, is spot on, with some priceless cameos to boot. What up Big T! WHERE WE STAND: Have you seen the Burney Sisters’ new hair colors? You really should. We did a story on them when they were just getting started in the region, and they’ve been working hard ever since. Olivia and Emma’s youngest sister, Bella, was barely in the band back then — and now they’re a polished, road-tested-but-never-weary powerhouse vocal trio with a stage presence as honed as their harmonies. They just announced a spot at the Folk Alliance International Fest in 2022, and if I were a bettin’ person (I try not to be) I would put my chips on these three. I recommend their version of Brandi Carlisle’s “Right on Time (In Harmony),” though they’ve got plenty of their own songs to check out as well. More to come, stay tuned! And if you’ve got tips/thoughts/tea for me, find me at eleventhhour@riverfronttimes.com. Tell me what’s up with you, your band, your friend’s play, that show you saw and so on. Cheers, peers! n

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

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SAVAGE LOVE SHORT SHORTS BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: I have a fun little labeling question. I’m a nonbinary person who was assigned male at birth (AMAB). I gravitate towards femininity in life and in love. My question is about the inclusiveness of the label “lesbian.” Is this a label only for women? Or is it inclusive of everyone who is feminine and is attracted to femininity? My goal is to label myself appropriately without infringing on others. All Loves Labeled Inclusively As labels go, ALLI, “lesbian” seems pretty darn binary to me. Now, the meaning of any given word evolves and changes over time, of course, and meaning follows use. But lesbian currently means — and is currently used to mean and will most likely continue to mean — a woman who is exclusively attracted to other women romantically and sexually*. So frankly, ALLI, I’m confused about why someone who’s your brand of nonbinary (AMAB, femme and into femmes) would even want to identify as a lesbian. Since you’re neither a woman nor a man, ALLI, why would you want to use such a gendered label? (Why you might feel entitled to use it is another subject, one I’ll leave that for commenters to discuss.) That said, no one can stop you from using the term lesbian to describe yourself. You know how they say in anti-anti-cancel-culture discourse that there’s no such thing as cancel culture, only accountability? Well, ALLI, there’s no such thing as gatekeeping or gatekeepers; there are no identity cops out there with the power to make arrests or issue fines. here are only people who might find your shit annoying. In the case of your specific shit, ALLI, some lesbians are gonna find it annoying e tremely annoying — but annoyed lesbians can’t prevent you from self-identifying as a lesbian any more than annoyed Slate writers can prevent Louis C.K. from selling out stadiums. No one can cancel him, no one can gatekeep you. Hey Dan: I’ve been flirting with this guy from my class. He’s four

years older and seems very into drugs and certain subcultures, but he also maintains an active social media persona. We’re planning on going out, but I already know that he would fit into an unhealthy pattern of mine: guys who aren’t sure what they want and are reluctant to make commitments. Do I just enjoy the sex that could occur? Or do I steer clear to protect myself? Should I Fuck This Intriguing New Guy? Depends. After identifying this unhealthy pattern — your propensity for getting attached to guys who aren’t sure what they want and/ or can’t commit — have you been able to enjoy sex without allowing yourself to get attached to guys with commitment issues? If the answer is yes, SIFTING, if you can trust yourself not to catch feelings for someone, then go ahead and fuck this guy. But if the answer is no — if you can’t fuck a guy without catching feelings — then don’t fuck this guy. Zooming way out — and this is not a comment on your situation, SIFTING, or your dating history — but sometimes we tell ourselves a man has “commitment issues” when he just doesn’t want to commit to us. And sometimes we tell ourselves a woman “doesn’t know what she wants” when she just doesn’t want us. And that’s fine. We’re just protecting our own egos. But if we believe that shit without reservation — if we buy our own hype — we’ll be devastated when the ex who couldn’t commit to us because “he doesn’t know what he wants” suddenly knows what he wants. And it’s someone else. Hey Dan: I’m a 31-year-old cis woman living in the South. Dating here is a nightmare. It feels like everyone got married at 22 and is super into Jesus. I just broke up with someone and got back on the apps, and the first date I went on was amazing. Really cool liberal, ageappropriate dude with a similar sense of humor. I had so much fun, and we exchanged numbers. And then ... nothing. I bit the bullet and followed up and still haven’t heard anything. At what point do I write this guy off as a ghost? And how do I deal with the utter disappointment of being ghosted by a dude I really connected with? Ghosts Are Horrible

I took a call on the Savage Lovecast last week from a woman who was angry about being ghosted by a man — a neighbor whose front door she had to walk past every day — and then she saw the coroner wheeling the guy’s dead body out of his apartment on a gurney. Like the meme says, “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.” As for your battle, GAH, look on the bright side. he first date you went on after getting back on the apps went pretty well! There was no second date, and that’s too bad, and assuming he isn’t dead, it was rude of him to ghost on you like that. But if there was one guy in your area you could have an amazing first date with even if it went nowhere), GAH, it’s not unreasonable to assume there are other guys in your area you could have equally ama ing first dates with dates that might go somewhere). HEY DAN: I WENT DOWN ON A FRIEND THIS WEEK AND I NOTICED SHE HAD A GROWTH ON HER LABIA I AM SURE IT IS FINE BUT ANY IDEA WHAT IT WAS? WHAT WAS THAT I HAVE NO IDEA BUT IF THE GROWTH WAS IN A SPOT YOUR FRIEND MIGHT HAVE DIFFICULTY SEEING YOU SHOULD SAY SOMETHING TO HER SO SHE CAN GET IT CHECKED OUT BY A DOCTOR. Hey Dan: I dated someone recently for a few weeks and had sex. It was unprotected, and I found out immediately after that he had herpes. I was annoyed because I had condoms next to the bed. But I also felt partly responsible since we didn’t have a discussion first. He wound up having a breakout a few days later. We continued dating and used condoms after that until one night when I was high on edibles, and he didn’t use a condom. This was after he asked me earlier if I felt comfy going without condoms again and I explicitly requested condoms. We aren’t together now, but it feels really fucked up. He seemed like the nicest person. What The Fuck Was That What that was, WTFWT, was fucked up. And that guy wasn’t nice. There’s not a lot you can do about it now besides learn from the experience. First, don’t drop hints. Don’t put condoms on the nightstand

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and hope the other person takes the hint. Tell the other person the condoms are there to be used and that if there isn’t one on his dick, his dick isn’t getting anywhere near your hole/holes — and if his dick gets near your hole without a condom on it, or if the condom should magically disappear after his dick is in your hole, you’ll be filing a police report. And second, don’t make requests, explicit or otherwise. From here on out, WTFWT, make demands. Unambiguous, unequivocal demands. And go get tested. Hey Dan: Cis, married, straight man here. You’re my gay crush. Given the chance, how would you seduce me? I’ve never had man-sex before, because I really like pussy and the way women feel, but I think I could do it for you. You’ve always been my celeb “man-pass.” How can we get this started? I’m just a straight guy writing to a gay guy, asking him to fuck him. Lusting After Dan Straight guys who make passes at gay men assume we’re all going to think, “OMG, this is my one chance to sleep with a real man!” In reality, LAD, what most gay men are thinking when a straight guy hits on us is, “Jesus Christ, this dude is gonna shit all over my dick.” Now, that thought doesn’t stop some gay men from sleeping with straightidentified guys who are bi or gay and closeted, LAD, nor does it stop some gay men from sleeping with the rare straight-but-situationallyhetero e ible guy with a very specific crush on one of us. But it’s always annoying when a straight guy assumes his straightness is an aphrodisiac that drives gay men wild and asks questions like, “Given the chance, how would you seduce me?” That framing assumes I would try, or would want to try, if I had the chance. So, you could say, I’m just a gay guy responding to a straight guy, asking him to get over himself. * A shout out to all the asexual lesbians, and to all the aromantic lesbians. I see you and your pride ags, I am familiar with your anime avatars, and I a rm the validity of your lesbianism. questions@savagelove.org @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savage.love

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

riverfronttimes.com

NOVEMBER 17-23, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

Riverfront Times, November 17, 2021

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