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Cheryl Baehr's Best New Restaurants of the Past Two Years

2 years 10 months ago
This time last December, instead of publishing our annual list of the year's best new restaurants, we were drowning our tears in pouches of takeout cocktails and writing an obituary for the hospitality industry as we knew it. Twenty-two months into the After Times, we don't need to rehash how or why we got here — we all know what 2020 did to the restaurant business and why the idea of celebrating new spots in a traditional way just was not in the cards during a time of acute crisis.…
Cheryl Baehr

Resolution: How to Start a Podcast

2 years 10 months ago

Welcome to the
Riverfront Times’ Five Days of Resolutions. Start living right.

For all its many (many, many, many, so many) downsides, one nice thing (the only one?)…
Jenna Jones

Resolution: How to Become a Master Home Bartender

2 years 10 months ago

Welcome to the
Riverfront Times’ Five Days of Resolutions. Start living right.

When Eric Guenther thinks back on what ignited his passion for cocktails, he recalls it all starting with one drink.

“I remember going to Público and having this really good daiquiri,” Guenther says.…
Cheryl Baehr

Resolution: How to Go Vegan (or Vegetarian)

2 years 10 months ago

Welcome to the
Riverfront Times’ Five Days of Resolutions. Start living right.


Whether you want to actually address climate change on a personal level, or you recently learned that turkeys can purr and even recognize human faces — whatever it is, you’re ready to stop eating animals.…
Evan Sult

For David Thackwell, St. Louis City Hall is a Christmas Canvas

2 years 10 months ago

Bringing a festive feel to St. Louis City Hall is no easy task. The building's exterior looks like a Victorian fortress dipped in bark, so a few giant wreaths over the front will do; but the interior, with its vast rotunda and soaring marble staircase, is the holiday domain of David Thackwell.…
Danny Wicentowski

Schnucks and Dierbergs Will Close for the Weekend

2 years 10 months ago

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.…
Jenna Jones

Pizza Champ Will Open Alongside a New Side Project Brewery Location Early Next Year

2 years 10 months ago


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.…
Cheryl Baehr

Missouri Supreme Court Weighs Whether Medical Marijuana Applications Can Be Disclosed

2 years 10 months ago

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.…

Tessa Weinberg

Will St. Louis' Pile of Federal Money Reach Unhoused in Time?

2 years 10 months ago

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.…
Doyle Murphy