RFT 📰

Both Schnucks and Dierbergs will be closed this weekend in order to give their employees more time with their loved ones this year, the two grocers announced.

Schnucks and Dierbergs both will close tomorrow for Christmas Eve at 5:30 p.m. and won’t return until Monday, December 27. For last minute grocery shoppers, that means today is your best bet to get the last ingredients for your dinners – fancy or casual.…

As part of a “Love Thy Neighbor” initiative started by Soulcial Kitchen, the organization is headed to East St. Louis to serve 100 hot meals to those in need. A Soulcial Kitchen-branded food truck will head to East St. Louis City Hall (301 Riverpark Drive) in order to pass out the meals.…

Pizza Champ (forthcoming location at 2657 Lyle Avenue, Maplewood) may have been born of pandemic-related necessity, but soon it will become a full-fledged part of the St. Louis food and beverage scene. The popular pizza pop-up, courtesy of Elmwood's (2704 Sutton Boulevard, Maplewood; 314-261-4708) Adam Altnether and Chris Kelling, is set to become a standalone, brick and mortar restaurant in Maplewood early next year, featuring the pizzas, salads and sandwiches that have gained it a loyal following over the past year and a half.…

This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.

A company denied licenses to grow medical marijuana in Missouri urged the state Supreme Court last week to compel regulators to provide application info that the health department has argued it’s constitutionally obligated to protect.

At issue is the Department of Health and Senior Services’ refusal to turn over applications of successful license holders, despite being ordered by lower courts to disclose them.…

On a recent Friday afternoon, with a drizzle falling and temperatures a few degrees above freezing, a familiar ritual of St. Louis was underway — the annual scramble to accommodate the surge of people seeking shelter from cold, dangerous weather.

"I love summer, hate the winter," says Kevin Ricks, 56, as he sits by a window in Il Monastero, an events center at Saint Louis University temporarily repurposed to accommodate cots and dinner service for people coming in from the streets.

Thirty-four people had already claimed the pop-up safe haven's 40 cots by mid-afternoon, and organizers were working to secure more beds for what was expected to be an overflow crowd by nightfall. Every year, a network — formal and informal — rallies to plug gaps in the city's shelter system.…

An application portal for the direct cash assistance program has been put on pause after the city received over 10,000 applications in four days.

United Way of Greater St. Louis, one of the city’s partners for the program, paused the portal this afternoon to take time to process and review the submitted applications. Opened on December 18, the program aims to assist St. Louisans in need who have lost income due to COVID-19.…

Copper Pig (4611 Macklind Avenue; 314-499-7166), a beloved Southampton gathering place, has served its last guests. The restaurant, which opened six years ago, announced the closure on Facebook Monday evening after service, citing simply "Thank you.…

Are you ready for some political football? The kickoff is moments away.…

Inside the salt room, Scott Mickey flew above the bright expanse of his own consciousness. His eyes were closed.…

Welcome back to the Big Mad, the RFT's weekly roundup of righteous rage!…

The Saint Louis Science Center (5050 Oakland Avenue, St. Louis; 314-289-4400) has two new additions to their popular laser light displays: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Michael Jackson. The artists' music will run with the December laser shows, taking place from December 27 to December 31.

This isn’t the first time the King of Pop has been included in the light shows, with his songs being played for a “Fright Light” Halloween session, but he will now have a full show dedicated to his music.…

This winter was supposed to be better.

As a cancer doctor trying to navigate immunocompromised patients through a respiratory pandemic, I have seen the devastating impact of COVID-19 from the outset. And as a lifelong resident of a blood-red county, I have also witnessed the battles of The Great Mask War in grocery stores, businesses and schools in this divided community.

The introduction of mRNA vaccines last December offered hope for a truce in The Great Mask War.…

A love of toasted ravioli arguably runs in the blood of every St. Louisan and now, t-ravs will be honored with an eatery at City Foundry (3730 Foundry Way) dedicated to nothing but the unofficial official food of The Lou.

STL Toasted is the latest addition to the City Foundry’s bustling lineup, and it will feature a range of “artisan toasted ravioli with creative fillings,” according to a press release. Boasting flavors like a Lemon Blackberry Gooey Buttercake dessert filling and a savory buffalo chicken bite, the restaurant will make its debut some time in 2022.

“We chose to open our concept at City Foundry STL because we believe it represents everything we love about St. Louis,” founder Matthew Fuller says in a press release.…

When Jennifer Clemons-Abdullah became the new commissioner of the city Division of Corrections in September, she took control of an organization that in just the past year had experienced national news-making uprisings, accusations of a culture of detainee abuse, and potential lawsuits from the federal government for civil rights violations.

In an interview with the RFT, Clemons-Abdullah says she isn't interested in "Monday morning quarterbacking" the mistakes of past administrators.…

Prominent St. Louis gay bars, like Attitudes Nightclub, have closed over the past year, but four people are hoping to create a new space for the LGBTQ community when Prism STL opens in early 2022.

The newest LGBTQ bar in St. Louis will take residence in the Monocle’s former building at 4510 Manchester Avenue. Divided up into three sections, Prism will have a cocktail lounge, outdoor patio and a cabaret stage that will feature regular drag shows.

Sean and Jack Abernathy, Michael Klataske and Matthew Connell announced their plans in a press release Monday morning, saying they hope Prism will become “another anchor in the Grove for the queer community to call home.” Sean and Jack Abernathy, a husband-and-husband duo, will become the bar managers, with the former acting as the bar’s compliance officer.…

In 2018, attorney Bret Narayan stood before the St. Louis City's Board of Aldermen and urged the members to "strike at the heart of the two-tiered justice system that we have now" — and to approve a bill that would effectively legalize marijuana in St. Louis.

That bill would fail. But three years later, on December 13, Narayan watched as St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signed into law the most sweeping cannabis decriminalization bill in the city's history.…

Over 1,000 people have applied for the city of St. Louis’ direct cash assistance program since it opened on December 18, a press release from the mayor’s office says. St. Louis residents who are approved will receive a payment of $500.

In a press release, the mayor’s office announced more application clinics will be held to help those without internet access, as well as a partnership with Congresswoman Cori Bush’s “Congress in Your Neighborhood” program.…

Christina Robles knows how ridiculously large the burritos are at Padrino's.…

At a certain age, our testosterone levels start to decline and our bodies slow down production of this important hormone. Don’t worry, it’s not just you – it’s all men.…

Let’s face it! When looking for the best male enhancement pills over the counter, you must have encountered several products under the brand name Rhino.…