RFT 📰

Many were heartbroken when, earlier this year, Epiphany Lanes (3164 Ivanhoe Avenue, 314-781-8684) quietly announced that it was closing. The small bowling alley is attached to Epiphany of Our Lord Church and is a south city mainstay. For some, the news was especially hard hitting.

Fun isn't only for kids anymore. Adults deserve to have a blast, too, and they're demanding more options than just drinking these days.

Growth, renewal, Renaissance. Whatever you want to call the upward phase of the cycle of birth and death, St. Louis is in it after a few years of deterioration due to COVID-19.

An hour after midnight on a recent Saturday, my options were limited. By this hour, most restaurants had closed.

The list of St. Louis shops you need to visit has gained a few new offerings in recent years. Here are five that recently opened that highlight what the area has to offer.

Teri Clemens never thought she would go from coach to player — but that's just what she did. At 67, Clemens isn't coaching like other people her age.

For decades, the "international" in St. Louis Lambert International Airport had about as much meaning as the "I" in IHOP. While technically true, you wouldn't get the sense that St. Louis was a globally connected city based on its airport's daily departures and arrivals.

The cracker is everything you'd want it to be: buttery, intensely cheesy, shatteringly crisp and just the right amount of salty. It is something like a gourmet, way-more-delicious Cheez-It.

Michael Browning has beaten Tina Pihl to become the alderman for St. Louis' 9th ward, an area the includes a portion of the Central West End and Forest Park Southeast, as well as the Cortex Innovation District. Preliminary results show Browning leading with 63 percent of the vote, with 100 percent of the city reporting.

After a bitter election, Rasheen Aldridge toppled Ebony Washington in the run to represent a redistricted 14th Ward on the St. Louis Board of Aldermen. Aldridge  received 51.57 percent of the unofficial vote tally — a month after the candidate narrowly lost to Washington in the primary election.

Unofficial results show Bret Narayan, the first Asian-American serving on the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, beat out longtime alderman Joe Vaccaro in the newly redistricted 4th Ward. Narayan leads 54 percent to 45 percent with 100 percent of precincts reporting. "Today we won in a big way and the city of St. Louis won in a big way," Narayan said during his speech.

St. Louis city residents have decided they’re OK with paying a bit more for their pot. With more than 62 percent of the vote, St. Louis residents have passed a proposition that will allow the city to levy an additional sales tax of 3 percent on the sale of recreational-use marijuana.

First things first: Last night at Delmar Hall, Lucius’ Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig sported dirty-blonde bobs. With bangs, of course.

Today the St. Louis County Police Department released video of a February incident when a police chase ended with a suspect opening fire on officers before being struck by an unmarked law enforcement vehicle. The video concerns the events surrounding the arrest of Taiwansley Jackson, 42, who is currently detained in the St. Louis County jail on charges of assault, armed criminal action, resisting arrest by fleeing and unlawful possession of a firearm. Police say the February 22 incident began when officers saw Jackson driving a 2016 Ford Explorer recklessly in Jennings near Jennings Station Road and Halls Ferry.

Kid Rock had a little fit yesterday when he learned that Anheuser-Busch was standing by its recent partnership with trans activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light recently enlisted Mulvaney to help the brand connect with consumers (and sent her a can with her face on it to celebrate her first “365 Days of Girlhood") and some snowflakes like Kid Rock are big mad about it. The beer giant isn’t caving to pressure from a mounting Bud Light boycott, though.

It's that time of year again. April. When everything is beautiful and then you look up and the sky is green and sirens are wailing and you ... step outside because you're from the Midwest and want to see what's going on.

The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived: Donald Trump is currently being arraigned in New York for attempting to sneak hush money to our lord and savior Stormy Daniels. While the disgraced former president didn't kick, scream or get dragged away by cops, he did provide a moment that felt all too familiar — a raised fist. Suddenly, we were all transported back to January 6, 2021, when Missouri's then-junior senator Josh Hawley raised his fist to a crowd of insurrectionists.

In the past year and a half, the company that operates Boardwalk Waffles & Ice Cream has been sued by four different landlords throughout St. Louis for not paying rent. Two of the suits — over properties in Midtown and Maplewood — have been settled to the satisfaction of all parties.

Normally, we don't let friends go out to St. Charles, but we'll make an exception for STL Cannafest, an event celebrating all things Cannabis on Saturday, April 22, from 2 to 7 p.m. at 2025 Golfway Drive in St. Charles. The event will be free for medical card holders and $10 for everyone else.

Everyone's favorite festival, the Festival of Nations, is returning to Tower Grove Park Saturday, August 26, and Sunday, August 27. Hosted each year by the International Institute of Saint Louis, the festival is a huge multicultural showcase, with vendors representing more than 75 countries. In addition to selling food, clothing and other retail items, groups also organize to showcase traditional music and dances from around the world.