Ann Lemons Pollack

  • Cod Squad: Week 4

    Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Town and Country doesn’t do a Lenten Fish Fry. At Assumption, it’s Friday lunch almost every week of the year. (They’re skipping April 14 this year because it’s the Orthodox Holy Friday, for instance.) But there seems always to be a baked fish on the menu, which changes slightly from

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  • Just One Bite: Sardella

    Herewith, a few words on scrambled eggs. I never saw the sense in them until I bought my first MFK Fisher book, a compendium of her work called The Art of Eating. I was bedazzled. And eventually I got around to making the scrambled eggs the way she described them, slowly and gently. I couldn’t

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  • Flashback: Port St. Louis

    I only ate here once, with a long-ago swain who was trying to impress me. The main thing I recall from that night at Port St. Louis was the decor. But lots of other folks have a clearer recall. I wrote about it for St. Louis Magazine.

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  • Motown the Musical

    It may not be the Summer of Love, but this certainly has become the Spring of Nostalgia for St. Louisans of a certain age. The latest chapter is Motown the Musical, which opened at the Fox Theatre Tuesday night. It’s the story of Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, as presented by and written

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  • Never the Sinner

    Murder most foul, indeed. Two rich kids from Chicago decide to kill someone to exhibit their immense intelligence and overall superiority. Not a story from a novel, although it’s been novelized. It’s the Leopold and Loeb case from 1924. Never the Sinner, which opened this past weekend at the New Jewish Theatre, focuses as much

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  • Million Dollar Quartet

    There’s not much of a plot to Million Dollar Quartet, now at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. That’s about the worst thing anyone could accuse the show of. Having gotten that out of the way, let us just say straightaway, this is the feel-good show of the year so far. It’s about the music

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  • Just One Bite: Taqueria Durango

      Am I the only one that remembers open-faced sandwiches? Thin slices of inevitably well-done roast beef or pork were laid on top of Wonder-type bread, the whole thing, usually with nearby mashed potatoes, was topped with brown gravy. It was comfort food from the Fifties and early Sixties, found at what we’d now call

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  • The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron

    Big theaters are fine things. Lots of people get to enjoy spectacles, the dancing, the costumes, the sets, the orchestras. But if you’ve ever missed, consciously or not, intimacy, consider this. The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron has opened at the Playhouse at Westport Plaza. Robert Dubac, the guy who brought us The Book of Moron a

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  • Cod Squad 2017, Week 2: Our Lady of Providence and a Coda

    Let me offer a few words in defense of the jack salmon. In many ways, it’s surprising it’s still around for the casual eater. This is a town in which more than once I’ve heard people praising fish that “tastes like chicken”. It’s too much trouble to remove bones from fish – and probably that

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  • New York City: Union Square Cafe 2.0

    Sometimes life is just too rough. I made a fast run to Manhattan to see the new location of Danny Meyer's first-born restaurant, Union Square Cafe. It's bigger, it's brighter, and the food is just as good. One reviewer hints that the food is note quite au courant enough. That just talks about how far restaurant

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