Ann Lemons Pollack

  • Spice-n-Grill

    Small. Very casual. Almost bare-bones. Elegant aromas. That's Spice-n-Grill, located in a small strip of shops on the south side of Olive in University City, much closer to Skinker than the multitude of Asian restaurants that make the street a food-lover's target. Run by the Khan family, who formerly owned Indian Food, closer to I-170,

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  • The Mud House

    Do you remember when Cherokee Street had a Woolworth's and lots of small clothing shops? Globe Drug? When east of Jefferson was quiet and mostly residential? Once upon a time, it was like that, but no more. It's becoming, more and more, an adventurous eater's mecca, and not just for authentic Mexican. In that east-of-Jefferson-Avenue

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  • Gobblestop Smokehouse

    Finding barbecue in unexpected places seems to be getting easier these days. I dropped by Gobblestop Smokehouse in Creve Coeur the other day, and wrote it for St. Louis Mag's blog Relish. You can read it here: http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/Relish/August-2012/Something-New-in-Barbeque-Gobble-Stop-Smokehouse/

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  • Candy Is Dandy

    Plenty of press releases cross the desk. Most of them get read and deleted. Some get filed, a few get responses. But once in a while, there's a giggler. Such was the case a few days ago when a release for Mentos candy mints arrived. Specifically, it regarded Mentos Singapore and its new advertising campaign.

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  • Crown Candy Kitchen

    How many of us take our out-of-town guests for a visit to Crown Candy Kitchen when we do the downtown tour or before or after a game? For many, it's almost a ritual when we have the right potential audience. Crown Candy is simple, we explain, and it's not perfect. But the setting and the

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  • The Donuts on the March

    News for the Donut Division: Ray's Donuts' home base is moving from their original location in Olivette to the Westgate Center in Creve Coeur. Still on Olive, but beyond I-270, and close enough to Barnes-Jewish West's facilities that we're sure they'll do a booming business. They have big shoes to fill, though. The original Barnes'

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  • Pizzeria Tivoli

    I admit to having a real soft spot for neighborhood-y restaurants. And the lower end of Kingshighway has begun to sprout them, almost astonishing on quiet residential blocks that hardly seem related to their brethren holding Barnes-Jewish Hospital or the Royale saloon, for instance. But popping up on corners here and there are little spots

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  • Southwest Diner

    Southwest Diner is, to a minor degree, amazing. Tucked into an old building a couple of blocks east of McCausland, in a neighborhood off St. Louis eaters' radar, it draws the eye with a large blue cactus-shaped sign. Inside showcases a wall of marble tile that was there when they moved in. The fact that

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  • Lily-Gilding at Carl’s Drive-Inn

    As if it wasn't enough that Frank Cunetto turns out fabulous flat-grilled hamburgers and maybe the best shakes in town, there's now lily-gilding going on at Carl's Drive-Inn Ronnie Ryan, the emperor of Quezel Sorbet, is supplying him with peach sorbet made from Calhoun County peaches. Run, do not walk for a cup of this

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  • Brunch: Harrah’s Eat Up! Buffet

    Most critics I know, and by now I know quite a few, approach a job with optimism, or at the least hope. That's what it felt like sailing through the front portico at Harrah's. Vegas-style feeding operations have been going on at casinos since the Eisenhower Administration, and one never knows what one can learn

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