Riverfront Times, December 8, 2021

DECEMBER 8–14, 2021 I VOLUME 45 I NUMBER 48

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Welcome to the Ranch We will be serving up farm to table style dishes from our favorite local restaurants to cure your hangover with a hearty meal. This year will be bigger and blazing saddles better by far as we’ve reimagined the whole experience!

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THE LEDE

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PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

“The landlord raised the rent. You’re in the beginning of the pandemic, and ... I mean, I get it.

Nobody was sure how long this was gonna last. So I said, ‘You’re above our budget.’ ... And she’s like, ‘Well, OK.’ So she raised the rent during the pandemic. And then this summer, I fell here in the store and broke both my shoulders. So I was in the hospital for two months. And she raised rent again. I told her we’re leaving.”

ANDREW TOLCH, PHOTOGRAPHED AT HIS STORE ANDY’S TOYS ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3.

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The Spirits of Innovation

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quick reminder that the pandemic is not over, despite what your uncle says.

The good news is we have at least figured out better ways to manage during the past two years. By necessity, restaurant owners and their ingenious employees have emerged as some of the sharpest innovators. These are the folks who finally got us cocktails to go, perfected the take-and-bake pizza and converted side streets into curbside operations that rival the multi-lane wonder of a Chick-fil-A drive-through, without the guilty conscience. And that inventiveness isn’t likely to disappear when the pandemic does end. As Madyson Dixon found in reporting this week’s cover story, the influence of ghost kitchens in particular is sure to shape St. Louis’ restaurant industry for years to come. That’s good news. We lost a lot to COVID-19; we should get something in return.

—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 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

COVER The Afterlife of Ghost Kitchens Born out of pandemic desperation, once-temporary restaurants are changing St. Louis’ dining scene Cover photo-illustration by

TOM CARLSON

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HARTMANN The COVID Exception Missouri is tough on infectious disease spread — except for COVID-19

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f it’s a major felony in Missouri to spread a virus called HIV, why is it a “right” to spread a virus called COVID-19?

Just wondering.

Perhaps you didn’t know it, but Missouri has been a national leader in the past few decades in criminalizing the spread of HIV and hepatitis. For a state seldom regarded for trendsetting in much of anything besides throwing kids off health care, that’s nothing to sneeze at.

Unless you have COVID-19, that is, in which case you can sneeze all you want, anywhere, on anyone you want. After all, as the Republican anti-mask rhetoric goes, it’s a “personal health choice” to ignore public-health rules regarding the spread of the coronavirus, even if one has it.

It’s too early to tell how many people became gravely ill or died in Missouri as victims of others having exercised their right to spread the infectious disease known as COVID-19. But it’s not too early to know what happened to people accused of spreading another one: HIV. A study was published in February 2020 by the Williams Institute at UCLA titled “The Criminalization of HIV and Hepatitis B and C in Missouri: An Analysis of Enforcement Data From 1990 to 2019.”

The study is referenced on a page of the CDC website regarding HIV and STD criminalization laws, where one can also learn that Missouri is among 35 states criminalizing the spread of certain viruses, especially of the sexually transmitted variety. (Illinois is one of just thirteen states with no criminal statutes at all on the subject.)

As the Williams Institute found, Missouri is not just any old state when it comes to cracking down on virus spread. Here’s the scorecard: “In Missouri, 209 people have

been arrested for the following three HIV crimes in 263 separate incidents. This includes 107 people who have been convicted for these crimes. Over 90% of the people who have been arrested (191/209 people) or convicted (97/107 people) for an HIV crime in Missouri have been convicted of the crime of recklessly exposing another person to HIV through sex, sharing needles, biting, or other conduct. On average, they received unsuspended sentences of confinement of 7.5 years.”

And how does that stack up against some other states?

“Of the four states that the Williams Institute has analyzed (Missouri, Georgia, Florida, and California), Missouri has the most enforcement of its HIV-specific laws. When using the most comparable data, Missouri has one arrest for an HIV crime for every 60 people living with HIV (PLWH) currently living in the state, compared to one arrest for every 370 PLWH currently living in Florida and one arrest for every 2,000 PLWH currently living in California.”

But perhaps the most telling observation in the study was that Missouri has been deadly serious about the spread of deadly disease when it comes to HIV. So much so that beginning in 1988 — at the height of the AIDS epidemic — the state created a new class of crime for it.

“There is evidence that these HIV crimes are bringing people into the criminal justice system who otherwise would not be there. One out of six people with an HIV incident (17.2%) had no other criminal records in Missouri. For over one in four (28.7%), their HIV incident was their first contact with Missouri criminal justice system.”

And to the surprise of no one, justice hasn’t been colorblind, according to the study: “Black men are the most disproportionately impacted by both HIV disease and the enforcement of HIV criminal laws in Missouri. While Black men make up 5.5% of the state’s population, they are 35% of PLWH in the state. They make up over half of those with an HIV incident (50.2%) or conviction (54.2%). Put differently, there has been one arrest of a Black man for an HIV crime in Missouri for every 43 Black men currently living with HIV in the

It’s too early to tell how many people became gravely ill or died in Missouri as victims of others having exercised their right to spread the infectious disease COVID-19. state today.”

Also, for those in the local area thinking St. Louis isn’t appreciated for its leadership in the state, the Williams Institute reported this: “HIV crimes appear to be disproportionately enforced in the Saint Louis HIV Care Region, and, in particular, in St. Louis City and St. Louis counties. This is not just because there are more people living with HIV in this area. While the St. Louis HIV Care region has 48.3% of PLWH in Missouri, it has 61.0% of all HIV criminal incidents. This is in contrast to the Kansas City HIV Care region, which has 29.6% of all PLWH in the state, but only 10.8% of HIV incidents.”

There is one comment in the study which is a little questionable: “Further research is needed to explore why enforcement rates differ so greatly by county in Missouri, and why there is disproportionate enforcement on the basis of race and gender.”

Thanks, but no further research is necessary.

OK. So now do you want the good news, such that it is? The CDC notes that since 2014, nine states “have modernized or repealed their HIV laws,” and Missouri is one of those states.

Yes, nasty old RsMO 191.677 has been repealed and the reference to HIV has been stricken from the law. It has been replaced with a kinder, gentler RsMO 191.677.

Here’s how it now reads: “For purposes of this section, the term ‘serious infectious or communicable disease’ means a nonairborne disease spread from

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person to person that is fatal or causes disabling long-term consequences in the absence of lifelong treatment and management.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Did you catch the definition?

Let me repeat the three important new words: “A NONAIRBORNE DISEASE.” Yes, the emphasis was added by me.

And there was also this new language, regarding what constitutes spreading disease: “[To] act in a reckless manner by exposing another person to such serious infectious or communicable disease through an activity that creates a substantial risk of disease transmission as determined by competent medical or epidemiological evidence.”

Allow me to add “AS DETERMINED BY COMPETENT MEDICAL OR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE” to my words of emphasis.

You know, like that “fake news” about masks reducing the risk of COVID-19 spread?

It’s nice to know that the antiscience Republicans in Jefferson City acknowledge that “competent medical ... evidence” exists. It’s too bad they don’t think it applies to actual medical and public-health experts and the pandemic.

It turns out the new bill regarding HIV was regarded as a victory by reasonable legislators (especially Democrats) who celebrated the fact that spreading HIV, while still a criminal act, is no longer regarded as murder in Missouri.

Somehow, though, everybody missed the big news: In the middle of a pandemic that has killed 15,500 Missourians and counting, the General Assembly and Governor Mike “Dang Mask” Parson went out of their way to grant a special exemption to those who might kill people by spreading COVID-19.

Because it’s their “right” to make that personal health-care choice.

Of course. What do you think COVID-19 is?

HIV? Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook on at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on the Nine Network and St. Louis In the Know With Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

DECEMBER 8-14, 2021

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NEWS

Missouri Health Department Found Mask Mandates Work, But Didn’t Make Findings Public Written by

RUDI KELLER, DEREK KRAVITZ AND SMARTH GUPTA This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.

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ask mandates saved lives and prevented COVID-19 infections in Missouri’s biggest cities during the worst part of the delta variant wave, an analysis by the state Department of Health and Senior Services shows.

But the analysis, conducted at the request of Gov. Mike Parson’s office in early November, was never made public and was only obtained by the Missouri Independent and the Documenting COVID-19 project after a Sunshine Law request to the department.

The study compared infection and death rates in St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Jackson County with the rest of the state. New state health Director Donald Kauerauf wrote in an email that the study’s findings showed the effectiveness of mask mandates and forwarded it to Parson’s office.

The analysis wasn’t included in material the department prepared for cabinet meetings, the emails show. Neither the health department nor Parson’s office responded to requests for comment asking why the data has not been shared publicly.

The comparison showed infection rates in “masked” jurisdictions were higher than the rest of the state in the six weeks prior to the emergence of the delta variant. Case rates then fell below other regions as the surge gathered force in late May and have remained lower since that time.

The statewide data shows that, from the end of April to the end of October, jurisdictions with mask mandates experienced an average of 15.8 cases per day for ev-

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ery 100,000 residents compared to 21.7 cases per day for every 100,000 residents in unmasked communities.

The four jurisdictions imposed their mask mandates in late July and early August, as the delta variant wave was peaking.

Mask requirements remain in place in St. Louis and St. Louis County. The Jackson County Legislature voted to end its requirement in early November, and the mandate in Kansas City ended November 5 except for schools and school buses.

There are a number of variables that impact infection and death rates, the health director wrote in a November 3 email. But the effectiveness of masks is clear, he wrote.

“I think we can say with great confidence reviewing the public health literature and then looking at the results in your study that communities where masks were required had a lower positivity rate per 100,000 and experienced lower death rates,” Kauerauf wrote.

Mask mandates have been one of the hottest political issues of the year, pitting the authority of local officials against political opposition to masks led by Republican state officials.

Parson has spoken out repeatedly against local mask mandates, calling them “WRONG” in a tweet and a contributor to the erosion of public trust. Attorney General Eric Schmitt has gone a step further, suing St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Jackson County to block enforcement of their mask mandates.

“Jackson County has imposed an unlawful, arbitrary, and capricious mask mandate that is not supported by the data or the sci-

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Chart: Derek Kravitz and Smarth Gupta Source: Documenting COVID-19 project analysis of Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services and St. Louis, Kansas City, Jackson County and St. Louis County public-health data. ence,” the opening sentence to Schmitt’s lawsuit against Jackson County states.

Schmitt has also sued Columbia Public Schools for instituting mask mandates.

The state’s analysis backs up St. Louis’ push to keep its mask mandate, said Nick Dunne, spokesman for St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones.

“More than anything it confirms for us what our public health experts have been saying, that masks are an effective tool for reducing community transmission,” Dunne said.

Although Schmitt has sued, Parson and the state health department have allowed local jurisdictions to decide the health measures suited to their constituents, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said in a statement issued last week.

“This data shows that the public health experts, the St. Louis Metropolitan Task Force, and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health make good decisions to protect our community,” Page said.

The records show the analysis was produced in response to a request from Alex Tuttle, Parson’s liaison to the health department.

“Can you provide examples of local mandates and how those mandates impacted the spread of COVID in those areas?” Tuttle

wrote in an email sent November 1 to Kauerauf.

The department completed the analysis about 48 hours later.

Despite opposition from Parson and lawsuits filed by Schmitt, Kauerauf backed masks to control the spread of the coronavirus in his first news conference.

“I rely [on] the experts at the CDC on that. Everything I’ve read, everything I’ve seen: Masks work,” Kauerauf said at his first news conference after starting his job in September.

The Independent and the Documenting COVID-19 project provided Schmitt’s office with Kauerauf’s emailed comments and the charts created by the health department.

The analysis will not change its stance against mask mandates, Schmitt spokesman Chris Nuelle wrote in an email.

“We dispute this premise and these charts,” Nuelle wrote.

“We’ve been clear that Missourians should have the right to make their own decisions, and that government bureaucrats shouldn’t be mandating masks or vaccines. We will continue to fiercely litigate our lawsuits against mask mandates in Missouri.”

Officials in Kansas City and Jackson County have not provided comment on the health department’s analysis.

Missouri is by no means an outlier in terms of lacking a statewide

mask policy or discouraging local governments from creating their own; Missouri is one of six states that never implemented a statewide mask mandate during the pandemic.

But Missouri’s decision not to release public health data showing a demonstrable difference in COVID-19 infection and death in masked communities is notable and reflects the deep political polarization surrounding pandemic policies, one expert said.

“It’s devastating to see what the Missouri governor did since mask

policies do reduce the spread of COVID-19 and would reduce the number of people who become sick and die in Missouri,” said Julia Raifman, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University who oversees the COVID-19 U.S. State Policies Database. “It’s devastating to see policymakers not implement policies that would reduce the number of children who are growing up without their parents.”

The delta variant was first detected in Missouri in early May by researchers at the University of

Missouri who analyze wastewater samples collected weekly. Since the arrival of the variant, the state health department has reported new infections for about 5.3 percent of all Missourians.

About 5.1 percent of the residents of the seven-county St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area tested positive in that period, and about 5.7 percent of residents in the ten-county Kansas City Metropolitan Statistical Area.

But in three of the four jurisdictions with mask mandates, case rates were below other jurisdic-

tions in the metro areas. That was especially true in St. Louis and St. Louis County, where coronavirus infections equaling less than 4 percent of the population have been reported since April 30.

Along with lower case rates, the health department analysis showed masked jurisdictions had fewer deaths per capita as well, an average of 0.2 deaths per 100,000 residents each day from May 1 to October 30, compared to 0.28 deaths per day per 100,000 residents. Stated another way, unmasked communities recorded one death per 100,000 every three and a half days compared to one death per 100,000 residents every five days where mask mandates prevailed.

Schmitt’s lawsuits against all four jurisdictions remain active, despite the actions in Kansas City and Jackson County to end the mandates.

At a hearing November 30 in St. Louis, a judge left the St. Louis County mandate in place but scheduled a hearing for December 9 for more arguments, Fox 2 reported. The St. Louis County Council declined to vote November 30 on an extension of the mask order, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

A major issue in last week’s hearing was the impact of a decision by Cole County Judge Daniel Green, who ruled in late November that health orders designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 that were issued by local health departments violated the Missouri Constitution.

St. Louis Police Sue Over Police Bill of Rights

Senate Bill 26, which was passed by the Missouri legislature and signed by Governor Mike Parson in July. The law went into effect in August.

The bill generated widespread controversy and opposition. It not only created new criminal offenses targeting protesters who block roadways, but also special protections for police officers under investigation for abuse. Under the bill, departments must give officers accused of misconduct prior notice of an investigation, while also imposing a 90-day limit on the investigation itself.

In the run-up to the bill’s passage, its sponsor, Senator Bill Eigel (R-Weldon Spring) argued that the protections were required in light of the threat posed by “Black Lives Matter and Antifa that are falsely accusing our police of being

something other than what they are: namely, the honorable protectors of our communities.”

However, St. Louis police officials came out against the bill. In a letter to Eigel and other lawmakers, St. Louis police Chief John Hayden warned that the then-proposed requirements could act as a “tip off,” allowing dirty cops to cover their tracks in advance of an investigation, unfairly giving police “rights beyond that of the average citizen accused of criminal behavior.”

The new lawsuit makes a similar argument, noting that the so-called “police officer bill of rights” amounts to a “pervasive favoritism” based solely on the status of a city employee’s role as an officer, noting, “even units of public employees who are indisputably public

safety employees — like fire fighters, emergency first responders, corrections officers — are not subject to the due process protections contained” in Senate Bill 26.

The lawsuit makes several arguments that the bill is unconstitutional, including that it contains too many provisions, thereby violating the state’s “single subject” requirement for legislation. The suit also argues that the bill imposes increased costs needed to defend the City in cases involving police officers under internal investigation — but without creating any new appropriations or funding source for the expense.

In a statement, City of St. Louis spokesman Nick Dunne said the bill “is an unfunded mandate that subverts equal protection guaranteed under the law.”

Donald Kauerauf, the director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said in an email a state analysis showed lower COVID-19 death rates. | MISSOURI GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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lawsuit from the City of St. Louis seeks to block a 2021 law that created a suite of new protections for police officers. The suit alleges the provisions created a system of “pervasive favoritism” benefiting cops while neglecting to create a constitutionally required funding source for the city’s expanded legal obligations.

Filed last Friday, the lawsuit targets

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THE BIG MAD Bringin’ the Heat Spire in the hot seat, Parson punked and the fretting of the fringe Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

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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: Pipeline PR: A December 3 ruling from federal regulators will keep natural gas flowing through Spire’s St. Louis pipeline this winter, but the company’s monthlong campaign of will-they-or-won’t-they terror — St. Louis is going to freeze! Except not! But maybe! — ended with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission doing exactly what everyone expected it to do. Also expected: Spire immediately pivoted to defending the pipeline, whose construction was retroactively deemed unlawful and whose fate is tangled in federal court. When the commission granted a temporary operating license for this winter, Spire boosted the news in an email to its customers, casually adding the claim that its pipeline saved “hundreds of millions of dollars” during winter storm Uri in February. Only ... that’s not what the Missouri Public Service Commission found in an investigation, which concluded that Spire customers would have saved more money without the pipeline during the storm. It’s another example of Spire playing a PR game while waging a calculated legal defense of its pipeline — and after winter, it appears the game is only going to heat up more.

Just Call It St. Louis: When Olivia Rodrigo announced her tour dates on Monday, the Disney Channel star turned voice of a generation singer-songwriter listed her April 20 local stop as “Chesterfield, MO.” This is technically true: She’s playing the Factory. But when the Roots played the same venue, they listed the location as “St. Louis, MO,” as did Greensky Bluegrass on their website. That’s the right call. The Cowboys play in Arlington and the Braves’ stadium is in Cumberland, but they still call it Dallas and Atlanta, respectively. Splitting municipal hairs doesn’t help the fragmented state of affairs around here. However, there is the possibility that Rodrigo is well aware of St. Louis’s 1876 “great divorce” and the long history of regional dysfunction since. Her breakout hit was a song called “Driver’s

License” about driving lovelorn through the suburbs. We haven’t really looked into it, but maybe she’s only playing venues next to the Polo outlet stores and across highways from the Olive Gardens.

Parson, Punked: One of the weirdest things about Governor Mike Parson is how eager he seems to be to get punked.

Last week was a pretty good example, so here’s a quick recap: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch followed up on Parson’s bogus claims that one of its reporters was a “hacker,” reporting even more embarrassing proof of the governor’s incompetence. Emails from Parson’s staff showed state officials were all set to thank the reporter for uncovering — and giving them time to fix — a potentially disastrous flaw in a state education website when the governor’s administration intervened to turn the praise into an attack. Parson was mocked by a national audience for equating basic internet competency with criminal intent. And last week’s story revealed that his team worked hard on a strategy that backfired, making him look even pettier. And that wasn’t even the most painful story of the week. That came courtesy some fine reporting by the Missouri Independent and Documenting COVID-19 project, which showed that the state’s own analysis found that cities and counties with mask mandates had demonstrably lower COVID-19 death rates. Parson’s admin, which has opposed mandates, tucked that inconvenient info in its pocket, the story revealed. Parson was so pissed about being called out that he spit out a twelvetweet tantrum which only elevated his target, Missouri Independent Deputy Editor Rudi Keller, and made Parson seem confused and angry. In that way, the story revealed even more truth than expected.

Pick a Lane: It’s hard to keep track of the rage from the St. Louis County Council meeting attendees these days. One day, they’re insulting the council about mask mandates. The next, they’re pissed about Health Director Faisal Khan calling them a “lunatic fringe” in an email to his weary employees. Yes, members of the so-called fringe used the November 30 meeting to call for Khan’s job because he was mean to them. It’s rich that the people who are complaining about the name-calling spend their every Tuesday night traveling to meetings to call the councilwomen and County Executive Sam Page names because they don’t like to wear a mask. Is it “fuck your feelings,” or fire anyone who calls you a name? Are the people who call out those who insult others “snowflakes” or concerned citizens? The hypocrisy is staggering. n

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afterlife

The

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olite Society owner Brian Schmitz found himself walking through an empty dining room last spring as first the pandemic safety mandates set in. Chairs sat on top of tables and the comforting low light had given way to strong overhead lights in absence of customers. On a normal night, the popular Lafayette Square restaurant would have been buzzing. Schmitz’s team had managed to achieve the elusive goal of the perfect neighborhood spot since opening three years earlier. Artful, multi-course meals from the talented kitchen staff had won over food critics since its first days, but the draw of the place was fueled just as much by the experience of being there. Exposed brick walls rose to pressed-tin ceilings, and bookshelves warmed the rooms, creating a

space that was upscale but unfussy. As the name implied, attentive, graceful service was a hallmark of an evening in the care of Schmitz’s staff.

But everything was changing fast that spring. Suddenly, the neighborhood favorite had been tipped on its axis, forced to adapt to the new dining landscape. The City of St. Louis implemented its first stay-athome order on March 23, 2020, temporarily ending in-person dining. The new health orders allowed for takeout and delivery, but a quick, impersonal handoff was the opposite of the model that had made Polite Society successful. As the chaos of the pandemics et in, Schmitz knew he had to figure out how to keep people employed in a constructive way with a dining room he couldn’t fill and a menu that was not geared towards delivery or curbside.

“We’re Polite Society... the foods are engineered to be an in-person experience,” says Schmitz.

“You’re not going to necessarily have a $40 plate of scallops delivered to your house four days a week; it’s just a natural thing.”

The same was true three blocks away at Bellwether, the even fancier sibling to Polite Society. Suddenly, Schmitz and his partner Johnathan Schoen had two restaurants with full staffs, no guests and no revenue. Unsure of when that dire equation might shift, Schmitz and Schoen turned to their employees who suggested a new strategy: a ghost kitchen.

The idea of ghost kitchens — ephemeral takeout concepts temporarily haunting the un-

Polite Society had to pivot during the early pandemic months when its dining room was closed. | MABEL SUEN

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of Ghost Kitchens

BY MADYSON DIXON

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AFTERLIFE

Continued from pg 12

derused spaces of established or bygone restaurants —predated the pandemic, but their purpose took on a new twist that spring.

Rent and bills didn’t go away with the COVID-19 pandemic, but neither did the demand for food.

Originally intended as a way for would-be restaurants to test out new ideas before committing to a full-blown brick-and-mortar, the idea now became a way to keep existing restaurants afloat. Ghost kitchens gave restaurant owners a means to adapt to a new dining environment for which no one had prepared.

For the combined staffs of Polite Society and Bellwether, a new ghost kitchen format emerged quickly from long-running, inhouse sandwich-making competitions. Pre-pandemic, the team would regularly grab hamburger buns and use ingredients from the kitchen to make their sandwiches.

“Everyone’s got a favorite sandwich, something they make themselves late at night,” says Schmitz.

The informal contests morphed naturally into a more formal operation that they called Sub Division. Chefs and line cooks who had been turning out filet mignon and halibut with miso butter just weeks before were now cranking out to-go sandwiches with moviethemed names such as There’s No Crying in Baseball and I Believe You Have My Stapler.

The idea was a quick success with stir-crazy St. Louisans, so much so that Schmitz and Schoen began to wonder if there was life for Sub Division beyond its ghostly beginnings.

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estaurant owners and their staffs in St. Louis and beyond were making similar decisions last spring and summer. The pandemic has been a time of desperation, but also innovation. Ideas for pizza shops, to-go soup deliveries and curbside cocktails emerged from “maybe someday” daydreams for a trial run. Chefs and restaurant owners found that through ghost kitchens they could keep at least some of their staff members employed while making use of product and space that would otherwise go to waste. Instead of opening a separate concept in different locations, ghost kitchens allowed restaurateurs to try out unique dining concepts while using the infrastructure of up-andrunning restaurants. An air of “now or never” flowed over the

Holy Mole revived the spirit of Milagro for three months. | MADYSON DIXON

industry. And now, more than twenty months in, we’re still figuring out the long-term effects of all those new ideas on the local dining scene.

More than a few in the surge of ghost kitchens appeared and disappeared without much notice.

Others evolved from the temporary into their own full-fledged restaurants. And some were an opportunity to reach back into old favorites for short-lived revivals of loved and missed dishes.

That was true of Mission Taco co-owner Jason Tilford. Like Schmitz and Schoen, Tilford had to find a way to operate his restaurant group within the everchanging constraints of COVID-19 restrictions. He found the perfect solution in Mission Taco’s commissary kitchen, which was tailormade for a ghost kitchen. Typically, the commissary provided a

centralized operation to produce queso, chips and salsa for the local chain’s restaurants. But it was also ideal for a ghost kitchen — and it gave Tilford an opportunity to bring back a popular creation.

The new ghost kitchen, called Holy Mole, honored Tilford’s former restaurant, Milagro Modern Eatery. The former Webster Groves eatery had closed in 2018, and guests still talked to Tilford about its beloved mole sauce. Tilford knew there was still demand for some of Milagro’s favorite dishes, so he built his new ghost kitchen around it. Aside from providing Holy Mole’s catchy name, the spirit of Milagro inspired much of the menu, which featured tuna ceviche, carne asada, squash blossoms, and, of course, dishes focused on the traditional Mexican sauce and marinade, mole.

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After a successful Valentine’s Day special, though, Holy Mole closed, three months after opening. He says the summer weather that allowed for more outdoor dining and restaurants reopening for dine-in service contributed to dwindling orders. Tilford says it had a good run, but it was always meant to be temporary.

“As much as we loved it and the people that got it loved it, it just kind of became a burden more than a fun thing to do,” Tilford says. “You get over it, everything’s changing, everything’s fluid. You just get on with the next thing.”

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or some, a ghost kitchen idea was the next thing. Chris Kelling and Adam Altnether, co-owners of Elmwood in Maplewood, faced a lot of the same challenges as Polite Society and Bellwether. An upscale modern restaurant, Elmwood was built around a model of comfortable, elegantly prepared dishes to be enjoyed under the low lights of its stylish dining room.

But when the pandemic hit, Kelling and Altnether made a quick turn to a takeout pizza joint.

Kelling says that Pizza Champ had been a concept in their back pocket for a while, and it fit the need for something more accessible for carryout service. With lockdown mandates in place, it seemed like the perfect time to try it out. Kelling calls it their “pandemic pivot,”

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AFTERLIFE

Continued from pg 15

which not only allowed them to stay busy but also offered customers a more budget-friendly menu.

The idea took off. Most nights, the side street next to the restaurant was lined with customers waiting in their cars for pizzas.

From the start, Kelling says, their ultimate hope was to eventually move Pizza Champ to its own spot as a more casual eatery.

That’s now expected to happen.

After operating solely as a takeout spot for more than a year, Elmwood has slowly begun to reopen for in-person dining — and Pizza Champ is set to become a standalone restaurant in the new year.

“We’re very fortunate to have created a long list of new regulars over the past year ordering pizza that we never saw at the restaurant,” Kelling says. “It’s really opened a whole new portal to new guests which is great.”

Going casual has been a popular move during the pandemic.

Restaurants needed dishes that were affordable, but also rugged enough to survive takeout containers and the travel from kitchen to home. Like Elmwood with Pizza Champ, Revel Kitchen found success in its pandemic plunge into carryout pizza with Motortown Pizza in Brentwood. Co-owner Angelica Lusky says they’re planning to expand Revel and their ghost kitchen concepts with another location soon in Kirkwood. But rather than opening a second Motortown, Lusky says they’ll consider other ghost kitchen ideas.

“There’s a lot of pizza here [in Kirkwood] already so we just want to fill a void,” says Lusky.

“Whatever that might be, we just want to go by whatever need is in the area.”

Sub Division found its own place in the City Foundry. | MADYSON DIXON

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here’s a spirit of perseverance in the ghost kitchens around St. Louis — a sense of local restaurateurs scrambling and succeeding against the odds. But the strategy has attracted large national players as well. The pandemic has forced even chain restaurants, not exactly known for their nimbleness, to deviate from the norm to keep up.

One of the corporate players, Virtual Dining Concepts, has found spots in the empty or underused kitchens of chain restaurants to allow celebrities, such as Tyga and famous YouTuber, MrBeast, to test out their recipes.

Brio’s Tuscan Grille in Plaza Frontenac, for instance, works with Virtual Dining Concepts and is home to four separate ghost kitchens. Inside the Tuscan-styled dining room, tables are set with white linen cloth. Entering to pick

MrBeast Burger is part of the wave of corporate ghost kitchens. | MADYSON DIXON

up an order of burger and fries can feel a bit like maybe the GPS got the directions wrong, but the mix of cultures is part of the arrangement these days. A choice of flavors for drummies at Wing Squad, burgers from MrBeast Burger, five different cookies from Mariah’s Cookies, and Guy Fieri’s Flavortown all reside in Brio’s kitchen. The dining room, which is now seating guests to dine on Brio’s menu, remains calm with classical music playing ambiently over the speakers while carryout customers pick up jalapeno poppers to go.

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t’s still too early to tell how many ghost kitchen ideas will last beyond the pandemic, and which will disappear in the swirl of time. However, the successful transition from ghost kitchen to real-life restaurant for places such as Pizza Champ and Revel Kitchen’s forthcoming Kirkwood spot hint at the long-term changes that lockdown experimentation is already making on St. Louis’ dining scene.

In Lafayette Square, Polite Society and the Bellwether are once again taking reservations and serving guests — a return to what the two restaurants do best. Even now, walking through a dining room that appears much more like it did before the pandemic, Schmitz looks forward to the possibilities that ghost kitchens bring to the restaurant industry, proving that this is one outgrowth of the crisis that he and his fellow restaurant owners are likely to continue to embrace.

And he was right about a future

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“We’re very fortunate to have created a long list of new regulars over the past year ordering pizza that we never saw at the restaurant.”

— Chris Kelling, Pizza Champ for Sub Division, the sandwich shop they cooked up in those early days of pandemic desperation.

The now-former ghost kitchen has a permanent spot in the bustling food hall of The Foundry. On a recent Thursday, people wander through the massive space, deciding which of the 13 restaurants to choose. Sub Division sits comfortably right in the heart of it. Although Sub Division is significantly more casual than Polite Society and the Bellwether, remnants of the upscale can still be found in the sleek and modern design of the new restaurant’s menu and signage.

“We have a love for the food industry and the business, and we hope that maybe this is the beginning,” Schmitz says. “We’re just really excited and curious to see where the world takes us.”

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[REVIEW]

Heart and Seoul Sides of Seoul sets the gold standard of traditional Korean food in the bi-state area Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Sides of Seoul, 10084 Page Avenue, Overland; 314-942-8940. Mon.Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 4-7:30 p.m.

(Closed Sunday.)

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erry Lee always knew his mom could cook, but he did not fully grasp the magnitude of her talents until he started noticing something peculiar happening at church.

After services, it was customary for members of the congregation to divide up in teams and cook for fellow attendees, rotating the responsibility on a weekly basis.

Normally, things would run business as usual, but on the weeks his mom’s team was on duty, services would be unusually full — so full that people who never attended started coming out of the woodwork. At first he didn’t understand why, until his sister told him what was going on: They were there because of Mom. When you dine at Sides of Seoul, the restaurant Lee and his family opened two and a half years ago as a showroom for Mimi Lee’s cooking, you understand the reason for her fervent following.

Tucked away in an unassuming Overland strip mall, Sides of Seoul is, unequivocally, the gold standard of traditional Korean food in the bi-state area. Part deli, part takeout counter and all Mimi, the restaurant draws crowds from far and wide, even as its no-frills atmosphere and unexpected location downplay what a culinary gem it is.

For Lee, his sister Youni Cho, and his brother-in-law James Cho, Sides of Seoul made sense as a way to share their mom’s talents with the wider public — something they felt compelled to do

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Bibimbop with beef bulgogi, carrot, mushroom, soybean sprout, zucchini and fried egg. | MABEL SUEN

Chef Mimi Lee (second from left) with son Terry Lee, daughter Youni Lee Cho and son-in-law Jaeyeon Cho. | MABEL SUEN after her cooking business began taking on a life of its own. As word of her talents spread through the Korean community thanks to those church cooking gigs, Mimi found herself inundated with catering requests. Whether preparing food for birthday parties, church events or other occasions, she worked hard to honor every request, turning her small apartment kitchen into a cramped pro-

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duction line.

Seeing the demand for her food got Lee thinking: What if he, Mimi, Youni and James started an actual restaurant in order to both formalize and expand upon the growing catering business? All three children had the backgrounds to draw upon. Lee, who had worked in restaurants since he was thirteen years old, had held every position from dishwasher to busser

to cook, and had even owned a restaurant in Columbia, Missouri.

His sister, too, had worked in the business since she was a teenager, focusing on the front of the house, and her husband, James, was born and raised in Korea, bringing to the table a familiarity with the country’s food culture as well as a knack for making the Korean rice rolls known as kimbop. It made sense that they should put their talents to work in support of their mom’s clear culinary genius.

At first, the four envisioned Sides of Seoul to be a banchan restaurant, focused on the vast array of Korean side dishes that accompany main courses. However, even though they opened as such, they kept getting so many requests for other dishes that they decided to add them to their repertoire.

Before they knew it, they had a full menu of Korean dishes, ranging from kimchi to tteokbokki and everything in between — and a loyal following who could not get enough of Mimi’s food.

Lee believes that what makes Sides of Seoul so special is that it adheres to the old-school way of doing things. As he describes it, Mimi’s food is “Korean old-

The market features prepared food items and drinks. | MABEL SUEN lady cooking,” the way of doing things that eschews measuring cups and teaspoons for touch, feel, sight, smell and taste. The result of her insistence on doing things the right way is explosive flavor — the type of food where you can taste the care and passion that went into it. Sides of Seoul’s kimchi pancake, for instance, is a fluffy masterpiece, studded with cabbage kimchi that infuses the crepe-like dough with spice and funk. There’s a subtle sweetness that hits the tip of your tongue, which gives way to piquant heat that warms your whole mouth.

Unadorned, it’s a delight, but when dipped in the accompanying vinegar-soy sauce, it electrifies every millimeter of the palate.

The kimchi jjigae is equally masterful. The key to the dish is the broth, a glorious nectar that is as if all the flavors typical of Korean cuisine — garlic, fermented soybean, soy, sesame, chiles — have been distilled into a delicate liquid form. Pork, tofu and a cornucopia of fermented vegetables bob in this liquid gold, nourishing both the body and spirit.

Sides of Seoul’s tteokbokki is perfection of the form: tubular rice cakes with a wonderful sticky texture, thin fish cakes that lend their gentle sea flavor to the entire dish and a chili sauce that is sweet and punctuated with warm spice. A whole hard-boiled egg accompanies the dish and adds richness to the concoction.

Lee credits his brother-in-law, James, with making the restaurant’s outstanding kimbop. Similar to sushi, the seaweed-wrapped rice roll is a canvas for a variety

of ingredients, but with a distinctly Korean flavor. Pickled radish, crab and egg give the Regular Kimbop an earthy and sharp taste, while the bulgogi version employs the quintessential Korean barbecue beef, infusing the roll with the taste of sesame, soy and just a hint of sweetness.

The bulgogi also shines on the Beef Bulgogi Bowl Bop, which places the meat atop rice and glass noodles so that they soak up every bit of the delectable marinade.

Assorted vegetables and sesame seeds adorn the dish, and a fiery mayonnaise drizzle finishes the meat and gives the bowl a gentle spice that pairs beautifully with the marinade’s sesame-forward flavor.

You can enjoy the bulgogi as the bowl, or as a plate served with rice, assorted kimchi and other banchan. Or, you can opt for a different protein presented in this fashion, like the magnificent spicy pork, which pairs the fork-tender meat with a medium-spiced chili sauce. More like a paste than a liquid, the hot and funky condiment clings to the pork, forming a delicious coating that is somewhere between a rub and a glaze. It has heat for sure, but it’s more like the warmth you get from sitting near enough to a firepit to feel its comforting effect, but not so close as to get burned. Paired with the accompanying cabbage kimchi, it makes your mouth go wild.

Lee is proud of the fact that he’s taken what he has learned from his mom, Mimi, and is able to translate that to an army of loyal customers. Every day, he hears how delicious the food is, a compliment that is aimed at him as he mans the grill most of the time. What keeps him grounded, though, is his mom’s unapologetic and relentless critiques. He laughs when he talks about how he still gets in trouble with her all the time; just when he thinks he has a recipe down pat, she’s there to tell him otherwise.

He knows that it’s the way she shows her love for both him and his family, and the customers who frequent this gem of a restaurant — and because of that, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sides of Seoul Regular Kimbop ..................................... $3.99 Kimchi Pancake ...................................$11.99 Beef Bulgolgi Bowl Bop......................... $9.99

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SHORT ORDERS [FOOD NEWS]

Whiskey for Ewe Black Sheep Whiskey & Wine brings new life to the former Three Monkeys space Written by

CHERYL BAEHR Suchin and Shayn Prapaisilp are adding spice to St. Louis-area food banks this season. | COURTESY OF GLOBAL FOODS

[FOOD NEWS]

Spice of Life Global Foods and United Provisions launch spice drive with area food banks Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

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his holiday season, the Prapaisilp family is determined to add flavor to the tables of the area’s food insecure through a different kind of food drive.

The veteran grocers and restaurateurs have partnered with the International Institute of St. Louis and the St. Louis Area Foodbank to encourage customers to think a little differently about the kinds of goods they donate.

Now through December 24, both Global Foods Market and United Provisions will serve as a collection point for spices that will be donated to the two organizations as they serve those experiencing food insecurity. As Shayn Prapaisilp explains, his family’s international markets are particularly well poised to spearhead such an effort because of their vast selection of spices and diverse selection of products.

“With Global Foods and United

Provisions, we have more than salt, pepper and oregano,” Prapaisilp says. “We carry a lot of Afghan and South Asian spices like cumin and cardamom and flavors. It’s a good opportunity for people to not just donate but to learn a little. Everyone needs salt and pepper, but we have a wide variety.”

Prapaisilp was inspired to host the drive after reading an article on the importance of including spices when donating to food pantries — something typically left out of such hunger relief efforts.

However, as the article notes, these vital ingredients are not simply about adding a little extra flavor; they are important for food-insecure people to feel connected to their culinary traditions.

“People get the most bang for their buck buying cans of green beans, and yes, you need the nutrition,” Prapaisilp says. “However, there is a human side that also needs to be nourished. People don’t often think about seasonings; they think about the basics of having a full belly, but the ability to use spices to show cultural heritage and identity is also important.”

With a number of Afghan refugees arriving in St. Louis and the broad awareness of their plight, Prapaisilp sees this moment as an opportunity to expand people’s ideas about food donations. As he explains, spices are the ways by which cultures make a particular dish their own, and provide a fa-

miliarity in new and unfamiliar circumstances.

“I was recently reading about how Afghan refugees are being put up in hotel rooms with no stoves,” Prapaisilp says. “They were grateful to have shelter and food, but what they were getting was new to them, and they were only able to cook it in a microwave. The International Institute bought out our collection of frozen Indian meals, which are similar to Afghan cuisine, and it was nice to see that, even in a notideal situation, they were able to not just get food to eat, but to feel nourished.”

To participate in the spice drive, shoppers at Global Foods and United Provisions are encouraged to add newly purchased, unopened spice jars in labeled donation receptacles near the entrances and exits to each store. The stores will then match each spice donation with one additional spice based on the needs of each organization.

For Prapaisilp, whose proud Thai heritage has been the foundation of his work as a restaurateur and grocer, it’s a small way to help that will hopefully have a large impact on the quality of life for the area’s food insecure.

“Everyone has a different spin on their cuisine or a secret family recipe,” Prapaisilp says. “Whether you are making a turkey dinner or something else, we all need spices.

Because of our platform, it’s good to step in.”

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S

ince 2018, longtime Three Monkeys employee Zach Rice and his wife, Mary, were at the helm of the Tower Grove South mainstay, honoring its legacy as the neighborhood’s gathering place and carrying on business as usual. Even when the pandemic hit, they kept the Three Monkeys brand alive, doing everything from takeout and frozen pizzas to groceries. They were successful, but the Rices could not shake the feeling that the space was in need of not simply a refresh, but a completely new concept that would be a worthy successor to the beloved restaurant.

That successor, Black Sheep Whiskey & Wine, and its sister concept, Mama 2’s Biscuits by Black Sheep (3153 Morganford Road, 314-772-9800), opened quietly a few weeks ago, bringing biscuits, brunch, cocktails and elevated bar fare to the Morganford business district.

As Mary explains, the idea for the two brands has been brewing for a while — fifteen years, to be exact.

“Zach and I have been together for fifteen years, and since the beginning, we’ve wanted to own our own place,” Mary says. “Whiskey and wine was always where we wanted to go, but when we had the chance to buy Three Monkeys, we knew it was our opportunity to start the ownership part of our career.

However, when the pandemic

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WHISKEY FOR EWE Continued from pg 21

grandmotherly figure in his life whose signature dish was biscuits brushed in bacon fat. Using those experiences as inspiration, Zach’s menu consists of around ten biscuit sandwiches, like fried chicken thighs with gravy or cheddar and bacon, as well as a handful of salads and sandwiches to round out the offerings.

“This is a typical Southern-style brunch,” Zach says. “We cook like Grandma would cook. Everything is made from scratch, and it is a labor of love.”

In addition to Black Sheep and Mama 2’s, the Rices are planning yet another new(ish) concept for the neighborhood. Honoring the Three Monkeys legacy, the pair

hit, we looked at things and felt that this version of Three Monkeys had run its course. We thought, ‘Let’s take this bad situation and turn it into a new beginning.’”

According to the Rices, the decision to completely overhaul Three Monkeys into Black Sheep Whiskey & Wine came from what they saw as a need for a good datenight spot in the neighborhood. As both Tower Grove South residents and business owners, the pair felt that the area lacked an elevated meeting place where guests could pop in for a bottle of wine, speciality cocktail and snacks.

As such, Black Sheep features a selection of shareable items, with some entrees sprinkled in, including dishes like flatbread pizzas and cheese boards.

They hope to expand their offerings as they get their feet underneath them (and find staffing), with dishes like specialty burgers made from either bison or lamb and additional entrees.

However, Black Sheep is only part of the story. The Rices Black Sheep and its sister concept, Mama 2’s Biscuits, are now open in are also operatTower Grove South. | MARY MANGAN ing their brunch concept, Mama 2’s Biscuits by Black Sheep, out plan to open a small, carry-out of the same space as its own, in- version of the brand called Three dependent concept. As the Rices Little Monkeys, which will feature explain, they made the decision some of the shuttered restaurant’s to separate the two ideas because greatest hits, like pizza, wings and they hope to launch Mama 2’s nachos. The space, which is curone day as its own brand, and rently under construction, will did not want to tie it to the Black open sometime next year, though Sheep concept. For now, they are the Rices are hesitant to give a running it out of the Black Sheep firm date because of anticipated space Thursday through Sunday delays.

“Three Monkeys had such an from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. On Mondays, Mama 2’s has expanded identity, and the brand had such hours, dubbed “Industry Brunch,” an identity, that if we were gothat caters to those who either ing to change things, we had to work in the hospitality business change them majorly,” Zach says. or work unconventional hours “Otherwise, people would feel like that prevent them from enjoying we just slapped some new paint on the walls. We really asked ourbrunch on the weekends.

If Black Sheep is a passion proj- selves, ‘What does this neighborect for Mary, Mama 2’s is Zach’s hood need, and what would we labor of love. Growing up in Ten- like to see?’ That was the key facnessee, he learned to cook from a tor driving our decisions.”

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[FIRST LOOK]

Guac & Roll Rock Star Tacos brings music, mayhem and margaritas to the Hill Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

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few years ago, chef and guitarist Wil Pelly was hanging out with his bandmate, Matt Arana, one night after a gig; a couple of hours and several shots of brown liquor later, the two hatched a plan to open a music-inspired taco counter out of a concession stand in New Town. To their surprise, it was a roaring success — so much of one that Pelly, together with his partner Rebecca Schaaf, now boast a second, larger location on the Hill.

The new Rock Star Tacos (4916 Shaw Avenue) opened on November 19 inside Gaslight Studio, the recording studio and gathering space on Shaw Avenue, just west of Kingshighway Boulevard.

Replacing J. Smug’s Gastropit, which operated out of Gaslight for roughly two years, Rock Star Tacos builds upon the recipes and rock & roll attitude that gained it such a loyal following at its original St. Charles County location for an audience on the east side of the Missouri River.

“We’re building community,” Pelly says. “It’s fast and friendly; every person who came up to our window [at the New Town location] was greeted with ‘Hi, welcome to Rock Star. Can I get your name?’ People would come from far away once or twice a week because they felt welcome at this little shack. The food is great, but the biggest success we’ve had is that we’ve made our community feel important. This location is a little different and will take time, but if people come in and have a great experience, they will want to keep coming back.”

Pelly’s menu, which is heavily influenced by Tex-Mex as well as his mother’s Cuban culinary heritage, draws upon his decades in the St. Louis food scene. Having worked in several of the area’s prominent kitchens, including the Libertine, Nudo House and Boundary at the Cheshire, Pelly brings his higher-end dining background to casual fare with outstanding results. Though the food

Above: Taco options include Livin’ on the Veg, Amy Swinehouse, and Shrimp Bizkit. Left: Rock Star Tacos is adorned with music memorabilia from Pelly’s personal collection. | CHERYL BAEHR

at Rock Star Tacos appears simple, it is anything but. Pelly makes nearly everything from scratch, putting the same care into what gets tucked inside a flour tortilla as he did constructing elaborate plates at his former gigs.

And he does this while having fun. Though the food is certainly a major draw, the irreverent, playful vibe at Rock Star Tacos is part of its charm, including the hilarious, music-inspired names he and Schaaf have come up with for their dishes. These include items like the Skinny Puppies, which are hush puppies made from his signature Street Korn. Shrimp tacos, comically named Shrimp Bizkit, feature plump, pan-seared shrimp dressed with sweet peppers and onions. Another favorite, the Number of the Beef, is Pelly’s nod not merely to Iron Maiden, but to the classic gringo taco. Here, seasoned ground beef is adorned

with lettuce, cheese and a sour-creambased condiment called Fancy Sauce.

In addition to the food offerings, Rock Star Tacos has a full bar and plans to offer some form of entertainment — whether that be a trivia night or live music — every evening it is is open. This commitment is what makes the partnership with Gaslight Studio so natural; patrons of Rock Star Tacos can even watch musicians and podcasters record in Gaslight’s glass-enclosed studio, which sits just off the main dining area.

The new Hill location is the latest effort Pelly and Schaaf have taken to grow the Rock Star brand. In addition to the New Town shack (which is temporarily closed for the season), the pair have found success in selling their seasoning blend, Rock Star Dust, online and in Schnucks stores. They also just inked an arrangement to provide food for the Factory music venue in Chesterfield and hope to continue catering for the musicians who come through the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater when its new season begins next year. As

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Schaaf explains, the reason for the success is not simply the approachability and fun branding, but that they have been able to create something that is resonating with people beyond the plate.

“The food is really good and not pretentious,” Schaaf says. “It’s nofrills, just Wil doing his thing as he always has.”

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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

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[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]

Pleased to Meat You After 73 years in business, Kreis’ Steakhouse is still in its prime Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

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enee Tompras Bogdanos vividly remembers the first thought that went through her mind when her dad called to tell her he bought Kreis’ Steakhouse & Bar. “I said, ‘What do you mean you bought Kreis’? What’s Kreis?’”

Tompras Bogdanos recalls. “It was a well-known restaurant, but to be honest, I’d never been there before he bought it. I hadn’t even heard of it.”

Now, as owner of the beloved Frontenac steakhouse, Tompras Bogdanos knows more about the place than she ever bargained for.

Since 1983, she and her family have been at the helm of the Kreis’ ship, serving as both stewards of the iconic brand and innovators looking to push the restaurant forward without fundamentally altering it. She’s successfully struck that balance for the past 38 years, shepherding the restaurant through changes in customer preferences, a fire that nearly destroyed the building, financial downturns and now a pandemic, all the while dutifully embracing the role of restaurateur that was thrust upon her when her dad purchased the place on a whim.

When she looks back on his decision, Tompras Bogdanos realizes she shouldn’t have been surprised.

Well before he purchased Kreis’, her father was a restaurant heavyweight thanks to his role as the owner and operator of the famed St. Louis eatery Garavelli’s. It was a job that kept him quite busy — so busy that he never had time to go out to eat himself. However, as Tompras Bogdanos explains, fate would put him at Kreis’ one evening back in the early 1980s, at a table within earshot of some im-

Prime rib has been a signature of Kreis’ restaurant since the 1960s. | PHUONG BUI

When they founded the place in 1948, it was little more than a roadside tavern for people traveling up and down Highway 67, better known for shuffleboard and cold Falstaff than the food. portant business going down.

“My dad was eating dinner there one night, which he never did, because he was always working 24/7,” Tompras Bogdanos recalls.

“Someone came in to look at some water problem, because the Kreis family was looking to sell. My dad

Kreis’ wood paneled dining room and classic feel make it a perennial favorite. | PHUONG BUI asked around, and it turned out, the people who were trying to make the deal were hemming and hawing about it, so my dad got on a plane the next day to Florida to meet the Kreis family and sealed

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the deal right there.”

For the Kreis family, the decision to let go of their restaurant to a seasoned restaurateur was an

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Renee Tampras Bogdanos (left) is committed to keeping Kreis’ legacy alive for the next generation. | PHUONG BUI

PLEASED TO MEAT YOU Continued from pg 27

easy one. When they founded the place in 1948, it was little more than a roadside tavern for people traveling up and down Highway 67, better known for shuffleboard and cold Falstaff than the food. In the 1960s, they turned over operations to a man named Jack Kane, who had formerly managed Sunset Hills Country Club; though the Kreis family retained ownership of the restaurant, they allowed Kane to take over the place for nothing more than the monthly rent.

Kane’s impact was significant.

Not only did he transform the space from a low-key spot into a bona fide restaurant, he introduced its legendary prime rib, a dish that, from its inception, became synonymous with the place.

He was so successful that he briefly changed the name to Jack

Kane’s, but decided that was one change too many. Under his watch the restaurant grew, but when he passed away, his wife was simply unable to keep up with it. The Kreis family knew that they were not interested in returning to the business, so they eagerly sold to Tompras Bogdanos’ father, confident that their legacy would be in good hands.

They were correct. With the Tompras family steering the ship, the restaurant thrived, even after a fire ripped through the building just a year after they bought it. Rather than letting the incident discourage him, Tompras Bogdanos’ father saw it as an opportunity to build the restaurant back bigger and better than ever, expanding the dining room past the bar and moving the kitchen upstairs from the basement.

“It never stopped, and just grew and grew from there,” Tompras Bogdanos says. “People loved it,

The bar at Kreis’ has been a local gathering place for over 70 years. | PHUONG BUI

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Kreis’ started out as a tavern for travelers along Highway 67. | PHUONG BUI and they didn’t mind waiting for their prime rib, because they would run into people they knew. It was a well-known restaurant like that.”

In 1989, Tompras Bogdanos’ father passed away, leaving Kreis’ in the hands of her uncle, who had been there with him every step of the way since he purchased the place six years prior. He ran the restaurant for two years, then passed the torch to Tompras Bogdanos and her brother, George Tompras, who proved to be worthy successors of the restaurant’s rich tradition, introducing specials, smaller cuts of prime rib and seafood dishes that have become some of Kreis’ most popular offerings.

Tompras Bogdanos does not mince words when she talks about the ups and downs of the business. Though she and her brother have enjoyed success with Kreis’, they have also had their share of setbacks.

“We did a booming business, but when the casinos came, they took a big chunk of it. Also, St. Louis has lost a lot of major companies, and when they left, their expense accounts left. We used to have businessmen here all week long when this was a TWA hub, but when that left and the casinos came, it really put a damper on business. Also, in the 1990s, people stopped wanting to eat out late; then 2008 came and it hurt us because of the crash. 9/11 happened and then COVID came and tried to destroy everybody. It’s been a lot of change.”

Still, Tompras Bogdanos and her brother found a way to weather the storms side by side, until his passing about five months ago.

She admits there was a moment around that time when she won-

dered about the future of the place. Not wanting to wish such a difficult restaurant lifestyle onto her son who worked outside of the industry, she gave him the option of getting into or staying out of the business. To her delight, he chose to go all-in and has been thriving at the restaurant, ensuring Kreis’ future for another generation.

Tompras Bogdanos knows that is reassuring to her longtime guests, who have come to see the restaurant’s prime rib as one of life’s few constants. She understands why they love it so; the restaurant buys the best quality of meat she can source and cooks it in Alto-Shaams, which allows the meat to cook slow and low overnight, breaking down the membranes so that it becomes impossibly tender and juicy.

However, she also knows there is more to their feelings about the restaurant than the delicious food. Having been in the business now for nearly four decades, she’s had a front-row seat to some of the most memorable moments in her guests’ lives, and has watched as diners bring in the next generation, and the next, to enjoy something that is so near and dear to their hearts. And no matter what changes and challenges the business throws at her, that’s enough to keep Tompras Bogdanos going.

“Sometimes, I think young people are going to walk in here and wonder what is so great about it, because they can go to all of these multimillion-dollar new restaurants,” Tompras Bogdanos says.

“I can’t beat that, so I go with consistency, great food, great service and great people working here, and they seem to keep coming.” n

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30

REEFERFRONT TIMES

[ W E E D L AW S ]

A New Leaf Missouri’s long wait for adult use cannabis could end in 2022 Written by

DANNY WICENTOWSKI

F

or the fourth time since 2016, Missouri voters are gearing up to consider the future of legalized marijuana. While previous attempts at “adult use” legalization have faltered, 2022 is shaping up to be the best chance for activists and consumers hoping to finally see the measure cross the finish line.

One of those activists is John Payne. The campaign manager for Legal Missouri 2022, Payne served a similar role for New Approach Missouri during its failed 2016 campaign, which barely missed the required number of signatures to make the ballot. In 2018, Payne and the group came to successfully place the “Amendment 2” medical marijuana initiative on the ballot, which ultimately was approved by voters in a landslide.

However, the group’s follow-up effort — to place a recreational cannabis measure on the 2020 ballot — was grounded by the pandemic.

That winding path has now led Payne and the Legal Missouri campaign to their latest endeavor, which includes new provisions for “automatic” expungement and a lottery system for awarding licenses.

“It is finally time for Missouri to legalize and regulate the adult use of marijuana,” Payne said during a December 2 event that marked the official launch of the signature-collection campaign.

Even with Missouri’s medical marijuana industry booming — retail sales have generated more than $186 million since October 2020 — Payne said that the status quo continues to “feed illicit markets and distracts law enforcement from more serious property and violent crimes.”

It’s an argument that Payne and other legalization proponents have made for years; during the press conference, Payne cited the 2018 success of the “Amendment 2” initiative as evidence that Missourians are ready to join nineteen other states in expanding legalization beyond medical needs.

But 2022 is not 2018. For one thing, Payne and other members of the 2018 campaign have spent the past three years or so raising their statuses as consultants in the medical cannabis field, becoming the face of the industry’s establishment. Meanwhile, the state’s cannabis licensing and regulation system has itself has been the subject of lawsuits and controversy over its application scoring sys-

John Payne and Legal Missouri 2022 believe it’s high time for adult use cannabis in the Show Me State. | DANNY WICENTOWSKI tem.

There’s also been steady criticism over the lack of minority participation and the apparent glut of wealthy license holders representing “vertically integrated” companies with out-of-state ownership.

In an interview after the press conference, Payne conceded that critics of Missouri’s cannabis licensing system have legitimate grounds, noting, “I’m not going to stand here and say everything has gone absolutely perfectly.” Still, he pointed to the fact that more than 160,000 Missourians have obtained their cannabis prescriptions as evidence the system is working — and, crucially for the upcoming campaign, that its popu-

larity only seems to be increasing.

“The proof,” Payne added, “is in the pudding.”

There are several components of Missouri’s existing medical cannabis system that would change under the Legal Missouri proposal. Medical dispensaries will be allowed to convert to adult use facilities, and a new category of licenses would no longer be judged solely on a “points” system.

Among other items, Legal Missouri’s adult use cannabis initiative would establish: -A sales tax of six percent on recreational/adult use marijuana, with localities allowed to add their own sales tax of three percent.

(Medical patients would continue to be taxed at four percent.)

[WEED NEWS]

C3 Opens Manufacturing Facility on the Hill Written by

DANIEL HILL

C

3 Industries, a Michigan-based cannabis company that operates in multiple states, announced last week the launch of a new 15,000-squarefoot manufacturing facility in the Hill neighborhood.

According to a press release, the new facility is expected to begin operations this month. Initially, the operation will produce cannabis concentrates and car-

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The new manufacturing facility is set to begin operations this month. | VIA C3 INDUSTRIES tridges under the brand name Galactic Meds, which are set to be available to the public in early 2022.

Beyond that, the company has announced an exclusive licensing partnership with the Oakland, California-based

-An “automatic” expungement system covering people convicted of nonviolent marijuana crimes, with exceptions for those convicted of distribution to minor, using marijuana while driving or any crime involving violence. The proposed system would also vacate the sentences of all eligible defendants currently incarcerated in jails and prisons.

-A ban on employment discrimination based on a person’s status as a marijuana patient or a positive drug test, with exceptions for instances of work impairment or if marijuana use “affects in any manner a person’s ability to perform job-related responsibilities.”

-A new category for “microbusiness” licenses only available to applicants with at least one qualifying condition, including: having a net worth below $250,000; having a military-connected disability; residing in a zip code with 30 percent population below the poverty level; having been arrested or prosecuted for a non-violent marijuana offense; and graduating from an unaccredited school district.

-An appointed “chief equity officer” who would be responsible for assisting the rollout of the micro business license program and providing “targeted technical assistance” to applicants from communities impacted by historic marijuana criminalization.

There’s still a long way to go before the measure can come before Missouri voters. As with the previous cannabis legalization

initiatives, Legal Missouri 2022 is counting on more than 170,000 residents to sign the initiative petition, and those voters will then need to come out on election day in November 2022.

There’s also the matter of a second adult use cannabis initiative, called Fair Access Missouri, which is now collecting signatures for its own version of full cannabis legalization. If Fair Access succeeds in making it on the ballot, the result would be a similar setup to 2018, which featured a confusing array of competing cannabis proposals on the ballot.

On its website, Fair Access describes itself as “a grassroots coalition of activists, patient advocates and entrepreneurs” who are committed to an open market, low taxes and low barriers for entry.

The group’s mission statement asserts: “Missouri can’t afford to expand the entrenched monopoly and reward the bureaucrats who mismanaged implementation of the medical market by letting them continue to regulate a new adult-use market.”

However, Fair Access has a difficult path ahead, as it will likely take hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions, to collect enough signatures for the ballot. So far, according to the most recent filings with the Missouri Ethics Commission, Fair Access has spent less than $100,000 on its cannabis campaign.

Legal Missouri has already spent around $280,000.

Kiva Confections, whose edibles are currently available in nine states from coast to coast. Kiva products are expected to be available in Missouri dispensaries by the middle of 2022.

C3’s footprint in the state of Missouri has so far primarily involved its High Profile line of dispensaries, with locations in St. Charles, Columbia, St. Robert, Cape Girardeau and Sunset Hills. The opening of the manufacturing facility represents a dramatic expansion of the vertically integrated company’s presence in the state.

“C3 is proud of our track record of working closely with the communities in which we operate facilities, supporting local organizations and employing local residents, and St. Louis will be no exception,” C3 Industries CEO Ankur Rungta says in a press release. “Our partnership with Kiva, one of the country’s most

popular cannabis brands, is a testament to our expert manufacturing capabilities and is an exciting milestone for C3. We look forward to producing best-in-class cannabis products in the new facility and supplying Missouri dispensaries with a portfolio of best-selling products across all categories.”

Those products will eventually include C3’s own line of concentrates, cartridges and pre-rolls, under the brand name Cloud Cover Cannabis. That line is expected to hit Missouri dispensaries, including the High Profile locations, by the end of 2022.

C3 Industries launched its first production operation in 2018, with a 36,000-square-foot indoor cultivation and manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon. The company has since opened additional operations in Michigan and Massachusetts.

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DECEMBER 8-14, 2021

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32

CULTURE

The St. Louis Six — from left to right, Houdini, Roo, Chico, Johnny Cash and Eddie — are now available for hugs. | COURTESY OF GENTLE BARN

[MOO]

Have a Cow The Gentle Barn now offers cowhugging therapy sessions Written by

JENNA JONES

J

ohnny Cash, Chico, Roo, Houdini and Eddie — a group of cows deemed the St. Louis Six after escaping a slaughterhouse — are now available for hugs.

The Gentle Barn (9171 State

[ H O L I D AY S P I R I T S ]

Tower Grove Park to Host Holiday Pop-Up Written by

JENNA JONES

I

t’s beginning to look a lot like the holiday season, and as it ramps up, more pop-up bars are coming to the Lou. Frosted, a holiday cocktail experience, comes to Tower Grove Park on Thursday, December 16, and aims to turn Piper Palm House (4271 Northeast Drive, 314771-4454) into a winter wonderland.

A curated menu by Pat Gioia and the team at STL Barkeep takes center stage at the pop-up, with the group promising a variety of holiday-themed cocktails. Eat, Drink and be Rosemary, Mull it Over and What’s in Santa’s Mug? are some of the

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Road Y, Dittmer, 636-285-7686) now offers cow-hugging therapy.

Guests who are feeling stressed — whether from COVID-19, the holiday season or just life in general — can book an appointment to hug the cows.

A press release from the Gentle Barn details that animal therapy can improve cardiovascular health, reduce blood pressure and release endorphins to “produce a calming effect.”

“We will meditate with the cows, spend time hugging them, and cuddle with them,” the Gentle titles of the drinks. The bar will also sell bottles of a single-barrel, special-label Frosted Knob Creek for $55. The Knob Creek Single Barrel Bourbon was selected by distillers and is a nine-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon.

Food trucks and live entertainment will also be available. The event is limited to those who are 21 years old or older, but for those with little ones who still want to enjoy the experience, Frosted is offering family friendly hours on Saturday, December 18, and Sunday, December 19, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Piper Palm House has seating available indoors, but will also have a heated tent outdoors on its plaza.

Prior to the bar’s opening, a Frosted 5k takes place on Sunday, December 12, at 10 a.m. Registration is $35. Participants in the 5k receive a Schlafly beer, stocking cap and a taste of Knob Creek Single Barrel Bourbon. Register at towergrove.org.

Frosted will remain open until Thursday, December 23. Hours Monday

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Barn’s website reads. “By the end of our time together you will feel more hopeful, inspired, and deeply connected to yourself and the world around you.”

The St. Louis Six are what drove the Gentle Barn founders to open the Missouri farm. After escaping a slaughterhouse, the cows ran around St. Louis and eventually were recaptured. But, through efforts from St. Louisans, the cows were able to be saved. Founders Ellie Laks and Jay Weiner described some of the cows to RFT in a 2017 cover story: Johnny Cash

is quiet; Chico is still the leader; Houdini is “the most zen”; and Roo is a “cookie monster.” You can’t go wrong no matter what cow you’ll be hugging.

Sessions are one hour long; attendees can bring a guest with them but there are no more than two people allowed in. Donations are $200, due before the appointment. In order to book a session, the Gentle Barn asks those interested to email infomo@gentlebarn.org. Visit gentlebarn.org for more information and to view photos of the cows.

“Mull it Over” looks delightful, even if the weather is frightful. | VIA STL BARKEEP / ED ALLER through Friday are from 4 to 11 p.m., and on the weekend from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Entry is free, and proof of vaccination or

a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours is required. For more information, see towergrove.org/frosted.

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DECEMBER 8-14, 2021

RIVERFRONT TIMES

33

[VISUALS]

[READING]

One to Love

Kal Penn Coming to Left Bank Books

St. Louis’ Lydia Caesar finds nationwide success with music video premiere on BET

Written by

JENNA JONES

F

Written by

JENNA JONES

L

ydia Caesar is in a field at the Cahokia Mounds historic site in the middle of July, dressed in a poofy, purple dress, sweating. She’s surrounded by a videographer, her seventeen year old daughter and her stylist.

Caesar is pulling double duty — she’s both performing her song “The Ones We Love” and helping direct at the same time.

Months later, the video she’s recording in the Missouri summer heat debuts on music channel BET Soul and now plays four times a day as part of a playlist on the channel. It’s not her first time having a music video on BET — she’s had three songs hit the channel before — but they only would play once before going off the air.

Caesar has been in the music business for fifteen years, moving from New York to St. Louis for her husband. She has three kids: two daughters and a stepson. She was sitting in the living room with her year-and-a-half-old when the music video premiered.

“The funny thing is I don’t even have cable,” Caesar says. “I just stream on the different streaming networks, but I had a few friends that have cable and I was like ‘Make sure that you film it.’

So I’m getting FaceTimes, I’m getting Instagrams. One of my closest friends sent me the whole video.

It was just great to see. The coolest thing about this opportunity is the network actually picked up the video.”

The music video that’s now played for audiences nationwide first came to Caesar in a dream — she says it’s not unusual for songs, pieces of lyrics or entire verses to come to her in this way. She had no idea what she was going to do for visuals and originally had a different plan; the current version centers around a romance, but the concept started as an exploration of unkindness toward the people you see on the streets or to your loved ones. Inspiration comes from every corner of her life, Caesar says, whether it’s walking

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Singer-songwriter Lydia Caesar’s video for “The Ones We Love” has made its way into regular rotation on BET. | TITUS HOUSTON down the street or through her relationship with her husband.

Caesar’s support system plays a huge role in how she’s able to work on her craft. For a day each week, Caesar’s mother-in-law takes her youngest daughter so she can work on her music; her husband is also in the music industry, and his company Wavy Wayne Audio is one of the sponsors for her upcoming concert; and her seventeen year old daughter helped her on the music video set with both style and ideas.

“It came out better than how I dreamed it did,” Caesar says.

As far as getting the music video to BET, the singer-songwriter credits her relationships in the music industry. She had a longtime friend who had connections within MTV and BET, but it depended on if the network’s people liked the video. When they did, it set the wheels in motion for the premiere.

Others chasing their dreams should be advised that everything they need is already in their heart, Caesar says. The music industry can be hard, according to the singer-songwriter, because you can see what other artists are

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doing and it “can make you feel less than.” She would tell others to turn off your phone, leave social media and put your blinders on to tap into what makes you unique.

“Once you really tap into that thing, that’s what’s going to open the doors,” Caesar says. “Because there’s already a Lydia Caesar, there’s already a Beyonce and Rihanna. We don’t need any more of those people. We need you.”

Three words stick out to her for advice: Shoot your shot. And then keep shooting. Caesar explains it’s a combination of perseverance and knowing and tapping into your own magic — that’s the master key to opening up doors.

Caesar trades the open field for the stage at House of Soul (1204 Washington Avenue, 314-5047405) on December 9 to perform music from her third project, an EP titled “Legendary Love.” Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased at everythinglydia.com.

resh off a visit from native St. Louisan Andy Cohen, Left Bank Books (399 North Euclid Avenue, 314-367-6731) will host an event with actor Kal Penn for the release of his book You Can’t Be Serious.

The actor will be at Brennan’s Work & Leisure (3015 Locust Street, 314-620-3969) at 7 p.m. on Monday, December 13. Penn has acted in movies such as Harold and Kumar and TV shows like House and How I Met Your Mother. In his book, Penn recounts how he confronted racism in Hollywood, “pulling back the curtain on the nuances of opportunity and racism in the entertainment industry,” how he found encouragement, built allies, and “dealt with early reminders that he might never fit in,” a press release for the event says.

Details about his work with the Obama administration — he had left his full-time acting career to be an aide in the White House’s Office of Public Engagement — are also part of the book, including a time he accepted an invitation to take the entire office to a strip club.

Penn dives into his personal life in You Can’t Be Serious as well, telling the story of his first date with his fiance, Josh, how he resisted the path his family members encouraged him to take (“something practical” like a doctor, a press release says), and how he handled being the son of immigrants and grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters.

Reviews call the book an enVIA LEFT BANK BOOKS joyable, insightful read that sprinkles in humor.

The event will have signed copies of the book available for pickup or mail-out. Books are included in the price of the ticket. If you can’t attend in person, the show will be livestreamed as a virtual event.

Masks and proof of vaccination are required to get into the event. Admitone and virtual tickets cost $34, while admit-two tickets cost $39. Find more information at left-bank.com.

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

The mighty Gwar blast into town this week on a bill that also includes Napalm Death and Eyehategod. | VIA FREEMAN PROMOTIONS

THURSDAY 9

ACOUSTIK ELEMENT HOLIDAY CONCERT: 5:30 p.m., free. Missouri History Museum, 5700 Lindell Blvd., St. Louis, 314-746-4599.

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

BOONDOGGLE EPISODE 16: DEAD MEN DIE NO DEATHS: 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

CHRISTMAS WITH BLUE OCTOBER: 8 p.m., $35$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

JD MCPHERSON: 8 p.m., $25-$35. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NANÉ: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314727-4444.

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

SITTIN’ ON THE PORCH OPEN JAM SESSION: 6 p.m., free. National Blues Museum, 615 Washington Ave., St. Louis.

FRIDAY 10

CARRIE NEWCOMER AND OVER THE RHINE: 8 p.m., $35-$40. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900.

THE INTRUSION: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

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

RHYTHM ROCKERS AND JEFF NATIONS: 6 p.m., free. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

SNAIL MAIL: 8 p.m., $25-$40. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

STRAIGHT NO CHASER: 8 p.m., $40-$70. The Fox Theatre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-5341111.

TINSEL: A ‘70S HOLIDAY PARTY: 7 p.m., $20-$35.

The Luminary, 2701 Cherokee St, St. Louis, 314-773-1533.

SATURDAY 11

ANDERSON EAST: 8 p.m., $28. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BOXCAR: 4 p.m., free. Urban Chestnut Midtown Brewery & Biergarten, 3229 Washington Ave., St. Louis, 314-222-0143.

CURTIS SALGADO AND THE NICK MOSS BAND: 7:30 p.m., $40–$160. BB’s Jazz, Blues & Soups, 700 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-436-5222.

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

THE GATLIN BROTHERS: 8 p.m., $19.50-$49.50.

River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

GWAR: w/ Napalm Death, Eyehategod 8 p.m., $26.50-$29. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

THE HOLIDAY SHOW: w/ Cara Louise, Holy Posers, Samuel P, Golden Curls 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-4986989.

HUSH LITE: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S.

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

JOHN CRIST: 7 p.m., $26.75-$46.75. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600.

JOHN MAXFIELD BAND: 6 p.m., free. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd floor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

JORDAN DAVIS: w/ Seaforth, MacKenzie Porter 7:30 p.m., $27.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

KATIE PRUITT: 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

PUNK ROCK ART SHOW EXHIBIT: 11 a.m., free.

31art gallery, 3520 Hampton Avenue, Saint Louis, N/A. STEEL PANTHER: 8 p.m., $25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TOM HUCK’S EVIL PRINTS ANNUAL HOLIDAY SALE: 10 a.m., free. 2929 @ The Witt, 2929 South Jefferson, Saint Louis, 3142103259.

WINTERFEST’S ONE NATION DAY: noon, free.

Kiener Plaza, 500 Chestnut St, St. Louis.

SUNDAY 12

THE BARFLIES: 2 p.m., free. Cheers Bar and Grill, 61 National Way Shopping Center, Manchester, (636) 220-8030.

BIT BRIGADE: 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

BROTHER JEFFERSON BAND: 3 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-7735565.

OTSL ANNUAL HOLIDAY CELEBRATION: 6 p.m., $300. St. Louis Club, 7701 Forsyth, Clayton, 314-726-1964.

TIM DILLON: 7 p.m., $39.50-$59.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MONDAY 13

ANTIDOTE: w/ Pucker Up, Acid Kids, Pinkville 8 p.m., $12. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

KAL PENN: 7 p.m., $34-$39. Left Bank Books, 399 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-6731.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW WITH TIM, DAN AND RANDY: 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

TOMÁSEEN FOLEY’S A CELTIC CHRISTMAS: 7:30 p.m., $20-40. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

TUESDAY 14

KHRUANGBIN: 8 p.m., $42.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

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

A SALUTE TO CLARK TERRY ON HIS 101ST BIRTHDAY: 7 p.m., free. The Harold & Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz, 3536 Washington Ave, St Louis, 314-571-6000.

WEDNESDAY 15

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

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

VOODOO PHISH: 9 p.m., $10. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

WHITE CHRISTMAS SING-A-LONG: 6 p.m., $10. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

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DECEMBER 8-14, 2021

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35

SAVAGE LOVE Postscript

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey Dan: I’m a fan from Italy, so please excuse my English. I’ve been in a hetero relationship with my boyfriend for seven years, we’re both around 30, and we love each other and blah blah blah. Sex is very good but quite standard since we have no particular kinks or fetishes. I always reach orgasm before penetration, but only with fingering. It turns me on when he goes down on me, but it doesn’t “do the trick.” After I come, I feel something is missing if we don’t have penetrative sex that ends with him coming inside me. But because that part isn’t a lot of fun for me, I usually urge him to come quickly, which is a bit frustrating for him. Is it weird that I need this kind of “closure” to sex? Is it weird that I want him coming inside me under these conditions? Where does this need come from? I’m sure you’ll have a great answer!

Weird Orgasmic Needs Defy Easy Rationales You’re in a better position to judge where this need of yours comes from — and you’re most likely in the missionary position (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

— but if I were to hazard a guess...

Sex meets our physical need for touch, for pleasure, and for release, WONDER, but it also meets emotional needs. And sometimes what a sex act and/or an eroticized act symbolizes is just as or more important than how it feels. It means something to you — something important — when your boyfriend comes inside you during PIV intercourse. And since your boyfriend comes inside you after you’ve already come — usually after you’ve asked him to hurry — it’s not about your pleasure in that moment. It’s not about how it feels, WONDER, it’s about what it means. Your physical needs have already been satisfied.

But sex doesn’t feel real and complete for you until your boyfriend comes inside you. In the moment — in those moments — it’s more about what’s going on between your ears, i.e., more of what sex means than how it feels.

Seeing as you read my column, WONDER, you must know (I hope you know) that two or more people can have a satisfying and meaningful sexual encounter that leaves them feeling connected and satisfied without anyone being penetrated during PIV or PIT or PIB and without anyone coming inside anyone else. Indeed, a person can have a meaningful sexual encounter that leaves them feeling satisfied without coming at all.

But if you want to shake things up with the boyfriend — if you occasionally wanna give your boyfriend a chance to enjoy fucking you without being hurried along — you could always wait to come until after he does. Now, you’re a grownass, sexually active, thirtyyear-old-or-thereabouts citizen of the European Union, WONDER, and I’m guessing this may have already occurred to you. But I’m going to toss it out there just in case: Let your boyfriend go down on you until you’re completely turned on, then let him take his time fucking you until he comes, and then — and only then — let him finger you until you come.

Hey Dan: I’m a 60-yearold gay man with a 35-year-old straight male friend — and no, this letter is not going where you think it’s going. We have become best friends without benefits. We have a lot of common interests, and we enjoy doing things together on the weekend. I’ve never gotten any indication that he has any sexual interest in me and I’m not going to ruin our friendship by making sexual advances to him. Last year I went through a very difficult time personally, involving an illness and multiple deaths in my family. He was there for me completely — really, above and beyond anything I could have expected. I would like to get him a gift to express my gratitude for his support and I can afford to be extravagant. The problem is, I don’t want to get him something extravagant if there’s a risk my generosity might be interpreted as a come-on. Our friendship works because we respect each other’s boundaries, and I don’t want him

thinking I’ve suddenly tried to cross one. So, here is my question: What does a 60-year-old gay man give a straight man half his age that will convey appreciation for his support during a difficult time in my life but will not convey a desire for sex? Or is there such a gift?

Fully Recovered And Thankful It’s easier for me to rule things out

than it is for me to rule things in, FRAT, seeing as that, save for his age and straightness, I know next to nothing about your friend. I mean, you already know not to get your straight friend a pricey leather sling or a shiny latex gimpsuit, right? You don’t need me to tell you that, do you?

So, besides pussy, what does your straight friend like? Does he like football? Get him a pair of tickets to see the team he crushes on hardest and encourage him to take a friend (or a date) that shares his passion for that kind of straight bullshit. Does he like video games? Get him one of those giant TVs straight gamer boys like to play games on. Does he like going places and is he fully vaccinated?

Get him airline vouchers and give him enough cash to cover a nice hotel and food and tell him to go have a great fully vaccinated vacation on you. Or maybe there’s something he needs rather than

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wants — kind of like you needed emotional and logistical support during your illness and family tragedies? If he needs his credit cards paid down, pay ’em down.

If he needs his car paid off, pay it off.

And if you’re worried that he might misinterpret your generosity as a come-on or as a precedent (that lavish gifts will keep coming) or as a burden (that you expect lavish gifts in return), address all those possible misinterpretations in the card : “You were such a generous and giving friend during an extremely difficult time in my life and I wanted to do something special for you — just this once — to thank you. I hope we will always be friends.”

Finally, FRAT, there’s also the option of giving him something reasonable — maybe tickets to a football game counts — and then writing that straight boy into your will. He definitely won’t think you’re trying to get into his pants after you’re dead.

Hey, Everybody: Fuck Alito and fuck Thomas and fuck Roberts and fuck Kavanaugh and fuck Gorsuch and fuck Barrett. Fuck anyone who would force a woman to give birth against her will.

But while SCOTUS may be able to reverse Roe v. Wade and allow Republican-controlled state legislatures to ban abortion in most of the United States, we don’t have to return to the days when women who needed abortions — and trans and non-binary folks who needed abortions — couldn’t get them safely. Abortion pills (Mifepristone and Misoprostol) are safe and effective, they can be safely self-administered, and they can be purchased online for around $100. For more information, go to shareabortionpill.info. Stock up so you have them on hand if you or your friends or your family members or your coworkers or your neighbors ever need them. questions@savagelove.net. @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savage.love

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