RFT 📰

This year, we're bringing you a guide to restaurants we love throughout the region's many neighborhoods. These favorite spots have cemented their legacies and are joined by many new spots that are destined to become classics.

This year, we're bringing you a guide to restaurants we love throughout St. Louis’ many neighborhoods. These favorite spots have cemented their legacies and are joined by many new spots that are destined to become classics.

When you think of a neighborhood restaurant, what words come to mind? Consistent, perhaps.

Drinks are on the house tonight at Steve's Hot Dogs on on South Grand. Well, the first 40 are anyway. Tonight the iconic bar and eatery is hosting another one of its "Belly up to the Bar" events which features celebrity bartenders slinging drinks, with half the sales going to Feed the People.

Following a near three-year hiatus, Dressel’s is back, almost. The beloved Central West End gastropub held a soft opening over the weekend and teased a full reopening on its Instagram a week ago. 

Pat Skiersch was fortunate enough to grow up in a household that knew how to cook. His dad, mom and uncle were excellent in the kitchen, so epic weekend meals were a regular occurrence.

If you wrestle a bear in Missouri, the consequences could be even worse than getting mauled half-to-death a la Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant. That's right, scuffle with a bear in the Show-Me State and you could be grappling with a misdemeanor. The Salem Police Department on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest reminded everyone of that actual state law on the books yesterday when a Salem resident spotted a black bear near Rolla Road on the northern edge of town.

Fried chicken and beer. The two are inseparable in Korean culinary culture, explains Erica Park from behind the long wooden bar at her Carondelet neighborhood restaurant, Chicken Seven.

Mike Milton is the founder and head of Freedom Community Center, a criminal justice reform organization that, among other things, maintains a strong presence in St. Louis courts, documenting how people accused of crimes are treated by prosecutors and judges. We caught up with him on the day that the governor announced Gabriel Gore, with the Dowd Bennett law firm, would be the city's next circuit attorney, replacing Kim Gardner who served in the role for six years.

After stealing successfully six times from the Target at Hampton Avenue and Chippewa Street in May alone, Nicholas Pannell pressed his luck with a seventh trip that proved to be one too many. The 39-year-old was arrested on Friday and charged with 12 counts of stealing from the store. That day he'd allegedly walked into the store with two duffle bags, which he loaded up with items and then left without paying, according to a police probable cause statement.

Location: near Macklind and Lindenwood avenues This is: a giant box of wires, supposedly owned by AT&T

For over a year and a half, the Moorlands neighborhood in Clayton has been dealing with a peeping Tom who, despite being spotted at least a dozen times, has thus far eluded arrest. Corporal Jenny Schwartz with the Clayton Police Department says that police first received a call about the prowler in August 2021. Since then, the department has gotten 12 more calls, with all the incidents occurring in the Moorlands neighborhood.

I had my eye on the Swade Select strain releases for some time, and this week, since the RFT was paying, I decided to splurge on the top-shelf release. The Hoo-Doo strain caught my attention not just because it has a cool name but more so because of its unique lineage (more on that in a moment).

County Executive Sam Page vetoed a bill this morning that would have restricted pedestrians from traveling on county roadways. The bill was widely criticized after St. Louis County Council passed it two weeks ago.

Last week, police released body cam footage of a 2021 south city police chase that turned into an exchange of gunfire, leaving one officer with minor injuries and the shooter with a 21-year prison sentence. Police attempted to pull over Darne Ricks, 32, on Pennsylvania Avenue near Cherokee Street on May 28, 2021, in relation to an armed robbery investigation. Ricks took off.

St. Louis CITY SC’s 3-1 victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps proved to be an intense contest. Neither team established control over the match as goalkeeping proved to be the difference.

Here's What You Missed Last Week in St. Louis MONDAY, MAY 22.

There is a moment at the end of the first act of the new production of Tosca that opened Saturday at Opera Theatre of St. Louis (Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves; 314-961-0644; experienceopera.org) that manages to be genuinely shocking — no small feat in an age when nothing shocks.  Our villain, the louche police chief Scarpia, sings about his plans to execute the heroic painter Cavaradossi and force himself upon the painter’s mistress, Tosca.

A beloved St. Louis icon has gone to the great carpet store in the Sky. Becky "Queen of Carpet" Rothman died yesterday at age 67. Her legendary commercials for Becky's Carpet & Tile Superstore imprinted on generations of St. Louisans, who saw her as a local legend as famous as John Goodman or Jon Hamm.

Tennessee Williams may not have loved St. Louis, but this city definitely loves him. For definitive proof of the Lou's unrequited feelings for the playwright, look no further than the excited crowds at The Brass Menagerie, a show running this week at the Fox Theater's Curtain Call Lounge (521 North Grand Boulevard, 314-657-5070).