The Scoop: New in Old North
The Urban Studio Café has opened at 2815 N. 14th St., near Crown Candy Kitchen. Look for sandwiches on pretzel rolls, baked goods including Angel Baked Cookies, and coffee from Kaldi’s. The nonprofit café, which supports neighborhood art programs, is expected later this week to boast a bicycle-powered blender for its smoothies.
Our new favorite gadget
Washing your hands. An essential, though not usually a memorable, part of dining out. But some local eateries are making the hygiene experience a little greener and a lot faster by installing Dyson Airblade hand dryers. The company estimates that 22 people can dry their hands with one of these suckers for the price of…
New old attractions in Hermann
The 19th century was pretty rough. Medicine was primitive, farming was more of a challenge and there was no American Idol, so people just died young from abject boredom. The biscuits were pretty good, though, and a blue ribbon for your apple butter meant you could look down on the other gals with a haughty…
The Scoop: Shaking it up in the Square
Soda Fountain Square, the family-friendly Lafayette Square restaurant, has become a private event space. “It will now be open exclusively for parties for ‘children of all ages,'” said co-owner Bethany Budde in an e-mail. Budde cited the demands of her other restaurant, SqWires, and its SqWires Annex event space as the reason for the change. For…
He Said/She Said: Sundae best
Dennis: In the midst of my transformation from a guy who scraped the onions off of a Mickey D’s hamburger to someone who can semiclaim to have a palate, I lost my sweet tooth. Emily: For years I’ve recommended counseling. Think of the kids, I say. D: But the one thing that can generally drag…
Really healthy food
Washington University Medical Center is making it almost impossible for students, staff and visitors to its CWE campus to not eat healthy by sponsoring an on-site farmers’ market. Local purveyors like Biver Farms, Double Star Farms and Baalman’s Produce offer up a veritable cornucopia on Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the plaza…
The Scoop: One closes, another opens
Sad news today from Midtown: Eddie Neill has shuttered his Wm. Shakespeare’s Gastropub. But good news from downtown: Jim Fiala’s The Terrace View, housed in the popular new Citygarden, opened for lunch today; dinner hours begin on Wednesday.
All peaches, all night
“Movin’ to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches,” a band called the Presidents of the United States of America famously promised in 1995. Well, Lauren Pusczek and Amanda Jerauld, aka Roaming Revelry catering, are up to the task. The newly formed dinner-party specialists will introduce fresh, organic ideas at their Peachy Keen Dinner…
Let’s discuss this over lunch
If there’s a rush to get down and kiss Michael Pollan’s environmentally friendly loafers, let me join the herd and pucker up. Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and most recently, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, is an investigative journalist, essayist and deep thinker whose works have…
Big cheeses
A Saucy congrats to a trio of Missouri cheesemakers for placing at several big cheese competitions recently. Bloomsdale’s Baetje Farms won two third-place ribbons – one for its fresh Cranberry and Orange Coeur de la Crème and the other for its aged Bloomsdale – at the American Cheese Society’s annual conference and competition, held last…
The Scoop: New at Neruda
Neruda Restaurant in Edwardsville, which marks 12 years in business today, named Gary McNelly as its new head chef. This is McNelly’s second stint running the restaurant’s kitchen; he left in 2007 “on a personal culinary pilgrimage and is returning with a cornucopia of ideas,” according to Neruda’s latest newsletter. McNelly replaces Rick Counts, who…
Stay cool, St. Louis
St. Louis is all over the September issue of Bon Appétit magazine. The Loop’s own Fitz’s Root Beer makes a short list of root beers to try. (“Old-fashioned root beer is the newest restaurant drink trend,” the article says. See this story in the current issue of Sauce to make your own.) Also, the talents…
Homebrew Your Own: Root beer, that is
A frothy, cold mug of root beer in the summer is something we take for granted. The beverage’s history is simple yet complex, much like the soda itself. The first root beers were homebrews made with burdock, sassafras and dandelion roots. Barks and spices from field, forest or grocer were also tossed into the same…
The Scoop: Market madness
The long-awaited Culinaria: A Schnucks Market will begin welcoming customers immediately after tomorrow’s 9 a.m. ribbon cutting. The 27,000-square-foot store — the grocery chain’s ninth store within the city limits — will offer standard grocery departments, plus a full-service pharmacy and a large prepared foods section. Stop by the corner of Ninth and Olive streets…
Anything Goes With Relish: Start with a little history and add a hodgepodge of fresh produce
Have you heard the latest food writer complaint? The keyboard isn’t working because they type with relish. Ba-dum-bum. One more for flexitarians: “I ordered a hamburger with nothing on it, but I still ate it with relish.” No, you don’t usually find corny jokes in a food magazine, but when you’re talking relishes, the rules…
Six chefs, six courses
A half-dozen of the area’s most prominent chefs will come together to make a six-course dinner to benefit the art therapy program at Friends of Wings, an organization that supports BJC pediatric hospice. The black-tie event, called Artistry, will take place Oct. 18 at the Chase Park Plaza and feature the culinary talents of Araka’s…
Tapas in the park
No worries if you’re a few snacks short of a picnic when it’s time to head to the Whitaker Music Festival tonight — you can still make a night of it. Just down the street from the Missouri Botanical Garden, at 5257 Shaw Ave., Spanish eatery Modesto assembles to-go boxes with charcuterie, cheese, grapes, walnuts,…
Green Tomato Pissaladière
1 pizza
Get your healthy on
Fresh produce, no heat — raw food is so summertime. But if you don’t know Bragg Liquid Aminos from blue-green algae, fear not: VegaDeli in Chesterfield is hosting raw food classes on Aug. 9 and 16. The vegan deli will serve up raw pâté, dips and desserts, including Key lime pie with a nut crust.…
Review: Five Bistro on the Hill
Joe Devoti is on a customer’s cell phone, calmly giving driving directions to the rest of the party that’s yet to show. His wife Bonnie stops by the women’s bathroom to tidy up things: “I hate a messy bathroom.” Nothing like having your parents around to keep order among chaos. Their son Anthony is in…
Review: The Rooftop Terrace at the Moonrise Hotel
I’m leaning on a steel rail eight stories above Delmar Boulevard, on the Rooftop Terrace at the new Moonrise Hotel in heart of the East Loop, a gin and tonic clutched in one hand, a cold bottle of domestic and a half-finished cigarette in the other. A blast of cool air cuts through the hot…
Ways to Use Local Beans This Summer
Royal Burgundy, black Asian, red Asian, Isar, Chinese long, asparagus bean – fresh new beans wait at farmers’ markets this August for discerning shoppers. These beans don’t stop at green; they grow in purples, yellows, striped burgundy and cream, too. Greens range from light lime to deepest blue-green. Some grow slim as drinking straws, others…
Recipe: Big Sky Café’s Chocolate Enchilada
Maybe it’s the chocolate crêpe. Perhaps it’s the liqueur-soaked whipped cream. Or the generous drizzle of caramel sauce. Whatever the reason, Blue Water Grill’s chocolate enchilada, which debuted over 20 years ago at the original Hampton Avenue location, is so popular that it survived the closing of the restaurant that created it. These days, you’ll…
Pineapple Relish
8 cups
Fried Green Tomatoes
12 slices
A locavore bistro offers a worldly wine list
The Hill is famous for its Italian restaurants, but Five Bistro, which recently relocated to the neighborhood, is shaking things up. This eclectic, creative bistro offers a non-Italian menu – and almost a completely non-Italian wine list that pairs well with its fresh, locally driven cuisine. On a recent visit, I went with $45 prix-fixe…
Fried Green Fantastic: Perfecting the slices of summer
I am very much a city girl. I love everything about a big city: the smells, the sounds, the movement, the swanky bistros where I can linger over a bottle of wine. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is very much a country boy; he is an avid hunter who earned a shooting scholarship to…
Fashionably Late: Where to eat well past 11 p.m.
The time is – wait, it’s a starry summer night. Who cares? While St. Louis may be a city that sometimes sleeps, it’s still possible to get a hot meal long after sunset. Our suggestion: Taco-block and pass on pancakes in favor of something finer. Alternatives await – even if it’s almost 4 a.m. TILL…
Fresh, flavorful and cell phone-friendly
If you’ve visited OR Smoothie and Café’s location in Richmond Heights, you are well aware of its, um, its … quirks. Vitamins, supplements and detox remedies line the walls. A large glass-doored fridge is stuffed with wheat grass and raw teas. And “No cell phone seat” signs are on nearly every chair in the tiny…
The Scoop: Sommers to shake up CWE
Chris Sommers, owner of Pi in the East Loop, has announced plans to open a LEED-certified bar in November at 408 N. Euclid Ave., most recently home to Posh. Sommers has placed the cocktail menu in the hands of mixology powerhouse H. Joseph Ehrmann, owner of Elixir in San Francisco. “We’ll be doing a lot of…
Much to know beyond Nouveau
When you think of wines from France’s Beaujolais region, you probably think of Beaujolais Nouveau, the juicy, young, fruity wine that pops up on grocery store and wine shop shelves around town every November. But I can assure you: A great big world of Beaujolais wines exists beyond Nouveau, which accounts for less than 30…
A labor of love
Love brought Aboud Alhamid to St. Louis. A native of Syria, Alhamid moved to St. Louis from London, where he managed Kaslik, a Lebanese restaurant. When his now-wife Ranya decided to attend Saint Louis University School of Law, he made the move with her. In fact, he named his restaurant after her. “Ranoush is my…
Putting up with putting up
I think I heard environmentalists cheering when Michelle Obama uprooted part of the White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden. One commented that the rest of us should be doing the same thing. Though stopping short of declaring lawns a public enemy, he did say that we should be “eating our view.” Doubtless the…
