Ann Lemons Pollack

  • Mediterranean Chicken Salad

    Quickly – before tomato season is over, make this salad. It’s gorgeous, much of it is make-ahead, and it’s way not the mayonnaise-type chicken salad that so often induces stultifying boredom. I found it in the old, classic Silver Palate Cookbook and did a little adjusting. While I’m buying the tomatoes, I usually can pick

    read more

  • Kindertransport

    Kindertransport is a disquieting piece of theatre. On one level, that’s not surprising. Much of what’s been written about Nazi Germany is, and rightfully so. But this, talking about the evacuation of Jewish children to Great Britain, just as the war is about to start, would seem like it could be warm, perhaps even charming.

    read more

  • Brunch: Bixby’s

    Bixby's, on the second floor of the Missouri History Museum has rather a different formula for brunch, part buffet and part sit-down. And, for those who are gourmands (or merely curious) as well as gourmets, one may order as much and as often as desired from the sit-down portion of the menu. One price covers

    read more

  • Inherit the Wind

    There’s a reason why Inherit the Wind has become a classic. The best-known work from the prolific duo of Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, it’s been done countless times since its 1955 opening, with Broadway revivals, London runs, community theaters and three, count ‘em, three television versions. The play, of course, is based on

    read more

  • Tell Me on a Sunday

    Tell Me on a Sunday, one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s lesser-known works, is something rather different for New Line Theatre. It’s a song cycle, or, to put it slightly differently, a one-woman one-act musical. It’s the story of Emma, a young British woman whose search for romance takes her from London to the United States.

    read more

  • Garden Tour and Dinner at Eleven Eleven Mississippi

    Paul and Wendy Hamilton put in a garden a few years ago to help provide good stuff for their restaurants, Eleven Eleven Mississippi, Vin de Set and PW Pizza. It has flourished, and this year, for three consecutive Fridays, they're offering tours and a prix fixe dinner afterwards.  I had a test run of the

    read more

  • Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida

    Somehow, I suspect Giuseppe Verdi is not rolling over in his grave at Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida. Verdi was interested in financial success, and considering popular culture, this version of the Aida story is far better than what might have appeared. Faint praise? Only technically. It’s great fun at the Muny for its

    read more

  • Parigi

    This time of year, the sunlight in Parigi is a wonder. That’s not the only reason to eat there, but it’s the first thing that might strike diners, especially if they enter through the garage parking on the east side of the building. Overlooking Clayton’s Shaw Park, the tall windows make it feel almost like

    read more

  • Bat Boy: The Musical

    Bat Boy: The Musical, it is acknowledged, began with a cover story in the Weekly World News, one of those publications cooing seductively at supermarket checkout lines. One never is quite sure of how that original story came to be, but presented on stage, it’s reminiscent of a funny take on a nightmare. Stray Dog

    read more

  • Ginger-Molasses Cookies

    Cookie time again. I brought a batch of these with me when I worked at the polls Tuesday. I suppose there are folks who don’t like this sort of dark, chewy, spicy cookie, but there aren’t many. The original recipe, which I got out of the Back in the Day Cookbook from a few years

    read more