Ann Lemons Pollack

  • A Happy Anniversary To a St. Louis Stalwart

    As St. Louis welcomes a new food writer at the Post-Dispatch, Daniel Neman (tell us how you pronounce that, Dan), the brave guy wades right into the whole provel question. Maybe you have to grow up with it, as I write about it in St. Louis Magazine. Folks are right about the meatloaf at Riverbend, of

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  • Solemn Mockeries

    Joe Hanrahan has run another of his one-man shows up the flagpole. Should we salute again? He's offering "Solemn Mockeries" at Tower Grove Abbey, a new play about an 18th Century forger. Not too promising a subject? Oh, please. Con men are almost inevitably fascinating, and given Hanrahan's ability to inhabit his characters, the audience

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  • The IRS and Your Dinner Check

    Surely you've come across, at the bottom of your check after a meal, those pre-figured percentages for suggested tips. The first time I saw it, I figured it was a nudge at foreign tourists who often don't know how the American system works. But then it began popping up at places I wouldn't have expected

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  • A Frozen Cocktail? In December?

    I mostly managed to miss the first cocktail era, when the Don Drapers were in full swing. As a teenager, I learned that Jacqueline Kennedy's cocktail request from the White House butler was a daquiri, and that stuck in my mind and (as it was easier in those years of permed hair and armor-like undergarments

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  • Element

    It's an adventure just finding the restaurant named Element. Between Lafayette Square and Soulard, it sounds easy enough. But itt's off a sidestreet, not possessed of much signage, and in one of several sort-of-similar buildings. Whether you've been around these parts long enough to say it's behind the old City Hospital #1 or if you're

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  • On Mince Pies (Keep Reading!)

    Last year at St. Louis Magazine, one of my colleagues a piece on Christmas food, with his thumbs up/down on several things. I took deep exception to his dislike of mince pie, and parried back with a discussion of my own. During that Christmastime, I was on the road for family functions in all directions. This year, I'm

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  • New Orleans: Deanie’s and The Old Coffee Pot

    Two more restaurants in the French Quarter to discuss briefly. One is Deanie's, new to the Quarter but not new to the city. They've been on the Lakefront, a neighborhood known as Bucktown, but now officially part of Metarie, and now are in the Quarter as well, just up the street from the Acme-Felix's faceoff.

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  • A Brief Note on New Orleans

    A short vignette from a New Orleans breakfast earlier this month: http://blog.thetriptribe.com/tiny-travel-essay-breakfast-in-new-orleans/

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  • Elf

    The latest Christmas fluff to open is "Elf", playing at the Fox. A full contingent of kiddos was on hand for opening night, including at least one babe in arms, and one can never complain about them being introduced to live theater. They surely were familiar with the movie on which the musical is based.

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  • Brunch: Muriel’s Jackson Square, New Orleans

    It's an adage among restaurant aficionados that the better the view, the worse the food. Now, that's certainly not always the case, viz the much-mourned Windows On the World and others. But for many, there's a lingering question about eateries in places like Times Square or Piccadilly Circus or, uh, Jackson Square in New Orleans:

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