Two Cents’ Worth
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Bowood Gardens
"Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme," was one of the popular folk-song lyrics a half-century ago when guitar music floated above the Olive-and-Boyle intersection that was the heart of Gaslight Square. Obviously, something stuck in the clouds above the corner, because today, just a couple of blocks to the west, these herbs-and many more-add to the
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A New Picnic In The Park
Planning a trip to the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park? We hope so. The admission is free, although there’s a fee if you want to sit in the chairs that are already set up. But there are lots of folks with lawn chairs and blankets every year, everything is very casual and the theater itself,
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KWMU 86es…
We are sorry to announce that KWMU has terminated our services, effective today, Friday, May 8, 2009. We will continue to blog, and plan on adding theater and film reviews here, as well as continuing our food and wine coverage.
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Another St. Louis James Beard Award
We're happy to congratulate Kristin Hinman of the Riverfront Times on her James Beard Award for her story "The Pope of Pork" which ran in November. You can read the story here if you missed it the first time around.
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On Oysters
The Chinese calendar may proclaim what’s just ahead as the Year of the Ox, but for me, it’s beginning to be the Year of the Oyster. I’ve been a fan of succulent bivalves – both oysters and clams — since I was a small boy, barely able to reach the raw bar counter at Lundy’s
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Who’s Minding The Stove?
Chefs and restaurant critics have a curious, often-symbiotic relationship, like actors and drama critics. They know one another, may or may not like one another, often need one another. With more than 35 years of writing about chefs and restaurants, when we run into one, either in his/her restaurant or somewhere else, we’ll nod and
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Customers Care
1972 was a seminal year in St. Louis restaurant history. Among the palate-changing establishments opened then was The Jefferson Avenue Boarding House, the creation of Richard Perry. Perry, an Illinois native, offered classic, yet updated, American food, with an emphasis on fresh, even local, provisions. This was very early, indeed, in that movement that’s become
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Soulard’s Crystal Cajun Cook-Off 2008
The Soulard Mardi Gras, a regular event on the winter dining-and-drinking calendar, kicks off its celebration with a Cajun Cook-Off a week or so before most of the events begin, and we’ve been judges (one score for the two of us) for enough years to have worn a T-shirt from the 1998 contest during the
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Gingerbread Real Estate
"The fine arts are five in number," wrote Careme, the great French chef, "painting, sculpture, poetry, music and architecture – whose main branch is pastry." Recently we were reminded of that when we were invited to help judge a gingerbread house competition. Lydia’s House, a group that helps women and their families make the transition
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Dinner with Marc Felix
When dining is both vocation and avocation, life can be very good. When your spouse would rather – well, most of the time — visit a farmers’ market than a shoe store, it’s a start on an excellent relationship. There are many kindred spirits out there, and they tend to congregate. It can be an