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RFT πŸ“°

Navin's BBQ on South Grand to Close

1 year 1 month ago
South Grand barbecue restaurants Navin's BBQ (3559 Arsenal Street, navinsbbq.com) announced today that it would close at the end of service tomorrow. The restaurant, which opened in the Guerilla Street Food spot just steps away from South Grand in 2021, provided scant details on social media about the imminent closure, saying only that it was considering its plans for the future and that it would continue its relationship with Brother's Beer & Bourbon Lounge in Creve Coeur. "We appreciate the love and support we have received in the over two and a half years," it wrote in its post.
Jessica Rogen

St. Louis Aldermen Get Ready to Get Tough on Short-Term Rentals

1 year 1 month ago
Guests would have to pay for a minimum of two nights if they book a short-term rental in St. Louis under the most recent legislation under discussion at the Board of Aldermen. Members of the aldermanic Transportation and Commerce Committee on Tuesday detailed several changes to bills written to curb what’s been called the β€œwild west” of short-term rentals in St. Louis.
Monica Obradovic

Best Fairy Garden

1 year 1 month ago
Sure, you've seen fairy gardens along the sidewalks of city streets β€” a little cottage here, a kitschy fairy queen there, some shiny stones creating a path for a unicorn between them. But the outcropping of fairy homes on the piney edge of Francis Park is an actual fairy village.

Best Tribute

1 year 1 month ago
When Tina Turner died in May, there was an outpouring of emotion across the world as fans mourned. We felt the loss most acutely here in St. Louis because we considered Turner one of our own.

Best Wedding We Weren't Invited To

1 year 1 month ago
That final episode of Mad Men is iconic for good reason, as it perfectly captures 1950s ad man Don Draper moving into the groovy late-1960s by both achieving hippie spiritual enlightenment and also learning how to use said enlightenment to sell soda. However, even more importantly for Jon Hamm, St. Louis' favorite son and one of the city's most ardent boosters, it was on the set of the Mad Men finale that he met his future wife, Anna Osceola.

Best Zoo Animal

1 year 1 month ago
We've had many favorite animals at the Saint Louis Zoo, but we were still not prepared for the joy that would enter our hearts when we encountered Rhubarb the ginger monkey. A Francois' langur (pronounced frahn-SWAH LANG-err), her beautiful hair was the color of the setting sun when she was just a newborn babe.

Best Old Building

1 year 1 month ago
3610 Grandel Square, kranzberg-artsfoundation.org/the-grandel Today the Grandel Theatre is a multi-use space holding a theater, room for private events and the Dark Room, a nonprofit performance space, photography gallery, restaurant and bar.

Best Place (Not Your House) to Avoid Meeting Anyone

1 year 1 month ago
601 South Holmes Avenue, Kirkwood; bikegrantstrail.com Grant's Trail is 10 miles of walking and biking bliss, where the only human interaction you're expected to participate in is maybe nodding when someone flies past you in the opposite direction.

Best Place to Meet Women

1 year 1 month ago
Multiple locations including 13343 Manchester Road, Des Peres; traderjoes.com Now that "girl dinner" has become a pop culture phenomenon, everybody has finally figured out that women just want to eat a series of snacks for dinner and call it done.

Best Place to Meet Men

1 year 1 month ago
3503 Roger Place, friendlyssportsbar.com If you're looking to meet a cishet man who is into cishet man things like sports and fried food, head on down to Friendly's, because that's pretty much all they serve here.

Best Great New Hope

1 year 1 month ago
If we're being honest, the Circuit Attorney's Office has been a heck of a lot less fun to cover since Kim Gardner resigned in May. No, the office hasn't been perfect since former federal prosecutor and Dowd Bennett partner Gabriel Gore took over on May 30, but things have been way less chaotic. While that may be a bummer for the city's journos, it's a godsend for everyone else.

Best Local Boy Gone Bad

1 year 1 month ago
Former alderman Brandon Bosley got a head start on the 2023 competition when, a few days before last Christmas, he pulled a gun on a woman lying in the snow and threatened to shoot her β€” all while streaming the proceedings on Facebook. The scion of a local political dynasty claimed that the woman had tried to carjack him, though the story never really added up.

Best Local Girl Gone Bad

1 year 1 month ago
We defended Kim Gardner a long time β€” longer than we should have. We knew the justice system needed reform, and we were hopeful that, for all her flaws, she could be a change agent.

Best Lawyer

1 year 1 month ago
Mary Anne Sedey is well under five feet tall, with the kind of high-energy warmth that leads people to deploy metaphors like "firecracker" and "pistol." It's impossible not to enjoy her company β€” unless, perhaps, you're facing off in court.

Best Activist

1 year 1 month ago
Missouri has been on a "killing spree." That's the way Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty co-director Michelle Smith describes the state's use of capital punishment.

Best Neighborhood to Live in

1 year 1 month ago
For the modern urbanist, Shaw seemingly has it all: street after street of attractive homes, storefront businesses, great park access, young families and even a corner ice cream shop. But more than that, it has a spirit of resilience well-honed by decades of commitment to city life.

Best Busker

1 year 1 month ago
instagram.com/poopyknife He stands in the heat wielding a keytar β€” a whirlwind of synth notes, jean shorts and cheetah-print boxers.

Best Local Follow on X

1 year 1 month ago
The McPherson blog has been quiet as of late, but maybe that's because the man behind it, Jack Grone, has moved his commentary over to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. @McPherSTL's posts often highlight what isn't being said in the political conversation du jour: the silence of city officials as Kim Gardner's office crashed and burned, their generally quiet acceptance of Mayoral Dad Virvus Jones' trolling tweets.

Best Social Media Influencer

1 year 1 month ago
St. Louis isn't the easiest city from which to launch yourself to social media stardom. The most-Instagrammable of backdrops β€” white sand beaches, picturesque mountains, McLaren dealerships β€” are hard to come by in these parts. But Tony Bame hasn't let that get in his way.