RFT 📰

Though St. Louis christened CITYPARK stadium in November with an exhibition match, our new Major League Soccer team, St. Louis City SC, has yet to play there. But the schedule for the inaugural season was released today, and soccer fans now have a date to countdown to the soccer team's home opener: Saturday, March 4, when the City SC will take on Charlotte FC. That won't be the team's first game.

This holiday season, pick up some packages of international desserts from Welcome Neighbor STL, an organization that helps immigrant and refugee families in St. Louis. The dessert packages are prepared by refugee chefs and proceeds go to benefit the chefs' families. The packages each contain six Syrian baklava with pistachios and walnuts, six Moroccan coconut macaroons, and six Afghan semolina sugar cookies.

It's official, it's going to get way too cold in St. Louis this holiday weekend. This morning, the City of St. Louis issued an alert stating that winter storm and wind chill watches will be in effect starting Thursday at 6 p.m. The alert warns that we could see between 1 and 3 inches of snow (or maybe even more) and starting Friday have wind gusts as high as 50 mph.

After he made a documentary about St. Louis' little Italy, Joseph Puleo kept hearing the same question. Would he make one about the Bosnian community?

On a Monday afternoon, a woman stood on the corner of Grand Avenue and Lindell Boulevard twisting locs. It was 40 degrees outside, and the sun was starting to set. But there was the woman, bundled in a puffy coat, styling the hair of a man who sat in a plastic chair.

The start of the season may have been delayed for Eureka's Hidden Valley Ski Resort,  but skiers may soon be in for good news: Hidden Valley was able to begin making snow Friday night, and efforts continued all day Saturday. Weather permitting, General Manager Anthony Santora anticipates opening at least some slopes in the next week. That said, they're not there yet.

A new garden store will open in the Bayer’s Garden Shop’s former location off of Hampton Avenue in the spring. The Garden Shop, headed by couple Lila and Dylan Waier, has no set opening date yet, but will take over Bayer’s former space in April, Lila Waier tells the RFT. Bayer’s closed its south city and Imperial locations in June after more than 80 years of operation.

Catching Lucas Henson was no walk in the woods. Law enforcement's pursuit of the 36-year-old Missouri man was only just beginning when Henson, chased by Butler County Sheriff's Deputies, crashed a stolen 2007 Dodge pickup into woods near Mark Twain National Forest. The ensuing hours-long chase saw Henson set multiple forest fires in an attempt to throw federal and local authorities off his scent.

A Christmas-themed drag show planned for a Chesterfield venue this week has come under fire for its all-ages policy.  The age requirement for A Drag Queen Christmas — scheduled for Wednesday, December 21, at the Factory — quickly changed online Monday after a GOP Missouri senator and a group that purports to fight government overreach criticized the event's lack of age restrictions. 

Today in federal court in St. Louis a 37-year-old man from Texas pleaded guilty to duping a Missouri woman out of more than half a million a dollars. As part of scheme, Rotimi Oladimeji and other fraudsters used the identity of a man identified only in court docs as "GJ" to set up a LinkedIn profile claiming to be a Belgian ex-pat veterinarian and animal behaviorist living in the St. Louis area. In October 2019, under the identity GJ, Oladimeji began chatting with a Missouri woman, identified in court documents as RW, on the dating website Elite Singles.

When St. Louis CITY SC takes the pitch this spring, the players will be accompanied by local kids for the pregame ceremonies. That's thanks to a new program, "Player Pals," which will be sponsored by local supermarket staple Schnucks. The two organizations announced Schnucks as the soccer team’s “Proud Grocery Partner” on Monday.

The air around Holly Hills smells a little less sweet after the departure of a beloved, if short-lived, bakery: Star Café & Bakery (5547 South Grand Boulevard). It opened this past July and is now closed. The shop served its last customers last week. Star's owner Nikki Ahmadi broke the news on her pastry business' Facebook page, Bake.with.nikki, on December 16, citing "personal affairs" as the reason for her decision — and by "affairs," she means a baby, who she looks forward to welcoming in the coming year.

Last week, we gleefully reported that St. Louis could get pounded by 8 inches (the unsexy kind) this week. Weather services predicted a high chance of snow at the time, and our hopes for a white Christmas soared high. Today, we have less exciting news.

For seven years, St. Louis resident Mary Ann Shelton has been with her service dog, Annie. Until this weekend. Fox 2 News first reported that around 8 a.m.

St. Louis city and at least five municipalities in St. Louis County are considering additional sales taxes on recreational marijuana sales. Missouri’s constitutional amendment for recreational weed allows municipalities to levy a 3 percent retail tax on recreational marijuana purchases in addition to a 6 percent state tax. So far, all the Missouri cities proposing such a tax are leaning toward the 3 percent maximum.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is proving that he has been paying close attention to the hustle of the greatest con artist of all time. That, of course, would be Donald Trump, the worst president in the nation’s history — but also its most accomplished fraudster. History will remember Trump’s diabolical genius in faux championing the cause of millions of working-class Americans he was bred to disdain as a New York City real estate scion.

The much-anticipated Armory STL (3660 Market Street, 314-282-2720, armorystl.com) held its grand opening Friday evening. Located in the former home of the 138th Infantry Missouri National Guard Armory, it is a massive indoor adult playground and bar just a stone's throw away from the popular City Foundry. As we entered, country music was blaring, and the huge screen behind the 62-foot stage — the focal point of the space — was playing what looked like cell phone videos of people falling over, getting their heads stuck in coolers, trying to put beanies on bears, doing parkour, etc.

It’s the holiday season in St. Louis, which means a month filled with musical Brasstravaganzas, Phillipaloozas and Hanukkah Hullabaloos. But no year-end tradition quite compares to El Monstero’s December residency at the Pageant. A supergroup of veteran St. Louis musicians, the band has been staging its popular Pink Floyd tribute concerts since 1999.

On Saturday, December 17, St. Louis hardcore punk act Bastard Squad will host the Holiday Bizarre, a festive showcase of local artists and vendors. This is the third time the band has helmed the annual celebration, and the first time it is being held at Off Broadway. 

Looking to save money? Head to Circle K this afternoon. In honor of Circle K Fuel Day, participating gas stations will take 40 cents per gallon off any gas purchases from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. today.