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Family Business Profile: Kloss Furniture grows again after surviving 45 years of ups and downs

2 years 10 months ago
Kloss Furniture has endured nearly every challenge that can hit a family business since the retailer was founded in 1976 in Highland, Illinois. After a fire and a recession, the Kloss family has rebuilt the company from the ground up twice. Today the company, led by CEO Steve Kloss and his son, President Josh Kloss, is entering a new era that the family believes could be one of its strongest. The retailer is expanding back into Missouri later this summer after figuring out innovative ways to adapt…
Gloria Lloyd

St. Louis Standards: Almonds Thrives by Being Nuts About Its Customers

2 years 10 months ago
Tony Almond can't help but chuckle while recalling a conversation he had with his son one night after dinner service at his longtime Clayton restaurant, Almonds (8127 Maryland Avenue, Clayton; 314-725-1019). The younger Almond was decompressing after a busy night and was particularly vexed about a customer who came in insisting that he be seated, even though he had no reservation and the dining room was packed. To his son, the behavior seemed entitled, but in Almond's mind, it was a sign he was doing something right.
Cheryl Baehr

Film Review: Cha Cha Real Smooth Is a Shallow Attempt at Depth

2 years 10 months ago
Like recent Oscar Best Picture winner CODA, also produced by Apple TV+, Cooper Raiff’s Cha Cha Real Smooth bodes to net a lot of fans — and for almost exactly the same reasons. Both follow an artsy white person’s coming of age (one about to enter college, one just graduated); both explore the joys and woes of quirky nuclear families (one composed primarily of deaf people, one with a bipolar mom or an autistic teenage daughter); both refreshingly normalize people with disabilities, mental or physical, as invaluable parts of their communities. None of these reasons (especially the third) are invalid, and both movies might be considered mainstays for a new wave of inclusivity in American pop culture.
Eileen G'Sell

Quote of the day: On second thought . . .

2 years 10 months ago
John Eastman, the lawyer who insisted that Mike Pence had the power to unilaterally reject the Electoral College results before they were certified, suggested days after the Capitol riot that he should be on the list for a presidential pardon. https://t.co/bcXI68HxGP pic.twitter.com/AEjVkRjgBx — The New York Times (@nytimes) June 16, 2022
Kevin Drum