As was famously said in Elf: "Tomorrow, 10 a.m., Santa's coming to town!” Well, make that 5:45 p.m. on Thursday, December 21 — and Santa is bringing Buddy. That's when the Moonrise Hotel and Eclipse Restaurant (6177 Delmar) invites Elf fans to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the beloved Christmas film with dinner and a movie in the Gemini Room.
There were no Palestinian restaurants in St. Louis when Amjed Abdeljabbar returned to the area at age 11. The Hazelwood native, who’d moved overseas as a child, is not talking about Middle Eastern food in general but about the specific spices and variations that are unique to Palestinian fare — and he missed it.
Maternal mortality rates in impoverished areas of Missouri have historically rivaled that of third-world countries. The state's now directing money to do something about it. Governor Mike Parson's office announced yesterday that the Department of Health and Senior Services, DHSS, has a new plan to improve the health of pregnant women and their care after childbirth, fueled by the $4.3 million the governor previously asked the general assembly to allocate. Missouri’s "maternal mortality prevention plan" has five main focuses: Maternal Quality Care Protocols, Maternal Care Workforce, Optimize Postpartum Care, Maternal Health Access Project, and Improved Maternal Health Data.
The St. Louis Walk of Fame is stepping out of the Delmar Loop and into the pages of its new book. St. Louis Walk of Fame: 250 Years of Great St. Louisans highlights of 173 inductees including 27 of the newest to get a star including actor Jon Hamm, boxers Michael and Leon Spinks, TV host and producer Andy Cohen, football star Kurt Warner, Temptations vocalist Dennis Edwards, writer Jonathan Franzen, actor Jenifer Lewis, NASA mission controller Gene Kranz, musicians the Isley Brothers and bowler Pete Weber.
A candidate who wants to be the next sheriff of St. Louis says that he’s filed an ethics complaint against the current sheriff, accusing him of engaging in "illegal practices" to raise money for his reelection campaign. Former deputy and current candidate Alfred Montgomery says in his complaint against Sheriff Vernon Betts that Betts has forced deputies in his office to contribute money or in-kind donations to the campaign.
The first thing everyone asks Rick Giordano is what style of pizza his heavy metal eatery Headless Bat (3128 Morgan Ford Road) will serve. He’ll answer, “I just consider it good pizza,” but he admits that he questions the entire premise. “It's always strange to me that that's the first question,” Giordano says.
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Gabe Gore says he will run for a full term for the office next year. The announcement came this morning from Gore himself, who gave a press conference outside the Carnahan Courthouse downtown.
The Fabulous Fox Theatre takes visitors on a whimsical holiday journey as it welcomes the touring production of ‘Twas the Night Before… by Cirque du Soleil. The thoroughly entertaining holiday show uses Clement C. Moore’s beloved poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” as its jumping-off point, figuratively and literally, for an evening filled with acrobatic moves and circus tricks.
Panera Bread's highly caffeinated lemonade has been accused of causing a second death. The family of Dennis Brown, a man who lived in Fleming Island, Florida, filed a wrongful death suit against the St. Louis-based fast-casual chain after Brown drank three servings of its "charged" lemonade and died of a heart attack. Brown, 46, had chromosomal deficiency disorder and ADHD but lived independently from his family. He was "very habitual," according to the suit, and often went to Panera after his job at a Publix grocery store.
Nine Black sanitation workers say that the City of St. Louis didn't pay them properly for overtime and that they were paid less than their white colleagues. A lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this week accuses the city's Refuse Division of violating state and federal wage laws by not properly compensating the employees at one and a half times their regular pay when they worked more than 40 hours in a given week.
As a former wrestler and a current assistant coach for the varsity wrestling team at St. John Vianney High School, Jim Walsh, founder of SportsSnax, felt something was missing in the lives of wrestlers: healthy and accessible snacks for games and tournaments. Walsh, a St. Louis local who has spent the majority of his life in the area, took the matter into his own hands.
Holiday revelers and partiers looking to take their celebrations to new highs should plan to pop into the Grandel Theatre for New Line Theatre’s original holiday musical spoof Jesus and Johnny Appleweed’s Holy Rollin’ Family Christmas. Penned by company artistic director Scott Miller, the story taps into a cross-section of weed culture and nostalgia to create a hilarious and upbeat musical for mature audiences.
A Democratic state representative running for Missouri Attorney General got a lot of attention on social media yesterday — but that attention seems unlikely to help her longshot campaign. State Representative Sarah Unsicker (D-Shrewsbury) tweeted a photo of herself sharing a "basil lemonade" with Charles Johnson, an alt-right political activist so radioactive, even Congressman Matt Gaetz has disavowed his beliefs. Among (many) other things, Johnson has denied the Holocaust and admitted to repeatedly using the n-word on Twitter (although he claimed it was to "study the site's algorithms," according to Politico).
A St. Louis woman is facing a felony murder charge after working to rob the person who’d repossessed her Jeep — a robbery that went badly awry. On September 7, 44-year-old tow truck company owner Jesse Jones attempted to repossess the Jeep Grand Cherokee belonging to Cortrina Donaby in St. Louis’ Hamilton Heights neighborhood.
“The expansion of this experiment needs to stop,” Gloria Nolan demanded at a press conference Monday morning in front of the Delmar Divine. The press event protested the recent efforts by local nonprofit Opportunity Trust to establish 16 additional charter schools in St. Louis over the next five years, part of a larger effort recently awarded a $35.5 million federal grant.
A man attempted suicide while in St. Louis police custody on Wednesday, November 29 — and he is still in critical condition at an area hospital, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Public Safety tells the RFT. The suicide attempt occurred at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department’s Central Patrol Division, a station at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Martin Luther King Drive near the Downtown West neighborhood.
The New York Times has published its annual "Best Albums" list, and a few of the featured artists were definitely raised on a steady diet of toasted ravioli and pork steaks. Three artists from St. Louis — 100 gecs, SZA and Sexyy Red —received accolades from Times critics for producing work that "made an impact this year." 100 gecs, a hyperpop duo consisting of Dylan Brady and Laura Les, were the subject of a RFT cover story in April that detailed Brady and Les' success ascent from St. Louis County.
Two employees have purchased beloved neighborhood restaurant Retreat Gastropub (6 North Sarah Street, retreatgastropub.com) from founder Travis Howard, who is also co-owner of Yellow Belly and Lazy Tiger. Jennifer Anderson and Sydney Caldwell are the new owners of the Central West End spot.
If the delights of 1954's White Christmas put you in the mood for a cozy lodge with a roaring fireplace and beautiful people singing tunes like "Sisters," "Snow" and of course the title track, you'd best head to Das Bevo (4749 Gravois Avenue, 314-832-2251) this Wednesday, December 6. During the White Christmas Sing-A-Long, the Busch family's old windmill ought to beautifully evoke the Vermont ski lodge commandeered by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye — and here, Vera-Ellen's legs will again get the big screen they deserve.
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