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RFT 📰

The Marvels Succeeds for All the Same Reasons Fanboys Will Hate It

1 year ago
The minute I saw the three superheroines who are front and center in the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster The Marvels getting to know each other by playing double-dutch aboard a spaceship, I just knew the geeks were gonna tear this one to shreds. As far as recent MCU offerings go, The Marvels certainly isn’t the most offensive one to come along.
Craig D. Lindsey

Change Is Coming to the Troubled Coronado Place & Towers

1 year ago
Three troubled apartment buildings in Grand Center will soon be under new management.  Residents of the Coronado Place & Towers say they have lived without consistent heat, hot water, air conditioning and working elevators while under the care of Cardinal Group Management.
Monica Obradovic

Brew Tulum Co-Owner Says Lead Contamination Led to Closure

1 year ago
A relatively new but already celebrated St. Louis restaurant has temporarily closed its doors, citing an environmental hazard.  Brew Tulum (5090 Delmar Boulevard), a coffee roastery and restaurant serving Yucatán cuisine, has been closed since early September because of what its co-owner says is lead contamination in its space in the Delmar Maker District.
Jessica Rogen

Boardwalk Waffles Owner Sued Again, This Time by His Ex-Girlfriend

1 year ago
Eric Moore, whose St. Louis-based Boardwalk Waffles and Ice Creams empire seems to at least for now have folded, is being sued by a former girlfriend and business partner who says Moore owes her $250,000. Michelle Hastings, 48, filed the lawsuit against Moore, 52, last month.
Ryan Krull

Parlor Closes 3 Years After Sexual Assault Allegations Rocked the Grove

1 year ago
A St. Louis arcade bar that was previously plunged into a reckoning over allegations of sketchy behavior, Parlor (4170 Manchester Avenue, 314-833-3063), appears to have quietly closed its doors. A Google search has the Manchester Avenue bar marked as "temporarily closed." Meanwhile, listings for the first floor space as well as the office space on the second floor have been posted for lease through Tower Real Estate Group.
Daniel Hill

Takashima Record Bar Has Quietly Closed — Temporarily?

1 year ago
On Saturday, November 4, Soo Kim and her fiance, Michael Rey, excitedly approached the front doors of Takashima Record Bar, eager to work out the final details of their wedding reception, which was scheduled to be held at the Grove bar and vinyl listening lounge four weeks later. They had an appointment with the general manager for 3 p.m., but when they arrived just before that and found the doors locked and the place dark, they became suspicious.
Cheryl Baehr

Man Faces Charges for Digging Up Grandmother’s Corpse in Berkeley

1 year ago
A Houston man with roots in Missouri is facing a criminal charge related to his attempt to dig up his grandmother’s grave at a long-neglected cemetery in Berkeley.  That charge, filed by county prosecutors yesterday, stems from this past August when a police officer responded to the Washington Park Cemetery to find 73-year-old Zebulun Nash “covered in dirt” and talking on a cell phone, police say.
Ryan Krull

VIBE Cannabis' Liquid Sunshine Showcases Tree1Four Genetics's Strength

1 year ago
Genetics play a massive role in the cannabis industry, with each plant coming from a long line of previous iterations. I've seen some fun genetics in Missouri's legal marijuana industry, such as selections from Bloom Seeds and Exotic Genetix, but I wasn't expecting to see a local legacy seed breeder get its genetics into a large legal grow operation.
Graham Toker

My Morning Jacket Was in Top Form at Stifel Tuesday

1 year ago
“The goal is to get lost,” My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James said in a recent interview. “The goal is to be gone.” James was not talking about disappearing from public view or walking away from performing or breaking up My Morning Jacket, which looked like a strong possibility not long ago.
Steve Leftridge

Levels Nigerian Cuisine Serves Some of St. Louis Most Thrilling Fare

1 year ago
Ono Ikanone had a choice when working out the recipe for pepper soup with goat meat at his restaurant, Levels Nigerian Cuisine: temper the heat to appeal to an American dining public less used to the spice level that defines the dish in West Africa or boldly showcase the flavors you'd get at a restaurant in the heart of Lagos. You understand which way he chose to go the moment the spoon touches your lips and they immediately begin to tingle.
Cheryl Baehr

Honey Bee's Midtown in Beffa's Began With a Friendship — And a Tragedy

1 year ago
Walking into Beffa's, you can't immediately discern how much has changed in a relatively short time. The colorful glow of the bar's LED lights mingles with the sunlight streaming in from the street. The bartenders extend warm greetings and show customers how to order food through a QR code posted at each table.
Alexia McCullison

Fontbonne Contemplates $5.2M Deficit, Major Cuts

1 year ago
Fontbonne University in Clayton is facing a significant budget shortfall heading into next year and its leadership has proposed cutting more than 20 degree programs and 18 faculty positions to make up for the projected red ink, according to internal documents obtained by the Riverfront Times. Those documents say that the school's operating budget has a $5.2 million deficit for fiscal year 2024.
Ryan Krull

Tesseract Theatre's The Mad Ones Gives Beautiful Life to a Coming-of-Age Tale

1 year ago
Whether a novel, play or musical, coming-of-age stories succeed best when they create a sense of immediacy and empathy with the audience. Tesseract Theatre Company’s emotionally connected and realistically raw production of The Mad Ones, by Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk, gives the story the heart and resonance it needs to thoroughly entertain. 
Tina Farmer

The St. Louis Area's 5 Biggest Evictors, 2021 to 2023

1 year ago
As part of his deep dive into Missouri's State Assistance for Housing Relief program, reporter Mike Fitzgerald filed Sunshine Law requests to determine how much the program granted to some of St. Louis' biggest evictors. Here's what he learned from comparing data from Princeton University's Eviction Lab with records obtained via the Missouri Sunshine Law showing how much each entity was granted through the federally funded SAFHR program designed to keep tenants housed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1.
Mike Fitzgerald