chesterfield
The brand-new ‘garage condos’ coming to an open area near you are more like Meramec Caverns than your typical man cave. Without the expensive vehicle(s) they’re designed to protect from fender-benders in the family garage, a garage condo is about big enough to play full-court basketball. And gearheads can now reserve one at The Place: Chesterfield, due to open in the spring near Spirit of St. Louis Airport. If you have a zillion-dollar home and an expensive Italian ride built to spec, you might be interested in one of these spaces—going for about $180,000 for 1,400 square feet. That would give you plenty of room for leather couches to talk shop or nurse hangovers, flat screens and maybe even a dedicated spot for cigar lovers. Not big enough to house your beloved Mustang collection? You can get a space of up to 4,200 square feet for just more than half a mill. Thirty-five units are under development, which is only Phase I. If all goes well and the concept takes off like it has in Florida and Arizona—where the self-proclaimed industry leader, GarageMahals, is based—a $9 million second phase of 72 additional units is planned. Unless you met your better half at a speedway, you probably won’t have to worry about her spending too much time out there, either. (And she won’t have to spend much time with your Mustangs!)
st. louis
You might think of an entrepreneur as someone intent on creating the late
st dot.com or renewable fuel source—maybe developing a social media app that’s even better than Facebook. But some entrepreneurs are foodies, and SLU is helping them make 80 caramel apples a week, or share their knowledge and depth of experience with Millennials. Our foodie entrepreneurs occupy a refurbished industrial kitchen in a university building basement that’s grown into an incubator for a batch of new food businesses. The Salus Center kitchen at SLU has been used as a food lab to teach university nutrition and dietetics students the culinary skills to operate restaurants, bakeries and catering businesses and work as personal chefs and nutrition and cooking consultants. In addition, SLU uses the kitchen to prepare breakfast and lunch for six elementary and middle schools in and around St. Louis. And now, thanks in part to a $196,000 Missouri Department of Agriculture grant that funded new equipment and expanded preparation facilities, there are more cooks in the kitchen. As Martha would say, ‘It’s a good thing!’
maplewood
With a name like Gus’s, some of us thought the new fried chicken joint in Maplewood had to be pure St. Louis, from the Gus behind the pretzels whose aroma mixes with those emanating from the A-B brewery off Pestalozzi Street in south St. Louis. But this stuff, according to the logo with a chicken standing on top of the globe, is world famous. And these sizzled bird parts are from a special recipe developed in ‘Minfiss’ (that’s Memphis, as in Tennessee). Well, move over, KFC, Lee’s and maybe even Sweetie Pie’s: Gus’s Fried Chicken has opened in Maplewood. And word of greasy mouth travels fast. Plan to wait in line. Soon after the restaurant opened, folks were waiting outside all day and into the evening. They ran out of chicken at one point, and we’re sure they’ll get a handle on supply when demand levels off, if it ever does. (It’s still pretty much nutty all the time at Strange Donuts, isn’t it?) An aficionado of our fine, unfeathered, hot and crispy friends says her son proclaimed it the best fried chicken he’d ever had. The restaurant is at 7434 Manchester Road, and hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. So, let’s hear it for another St. Louis tradition-to-be that’s not from The Lou, like Tim Horton’s (Canada) and Ikea (Sweden)! Hey, even a few of Ted Drewes’ distant ancestors didn’t go to high school here.
sunset hills
When the score is tied in many sporting events, the contest is decided in overtime. But sometimes, when the outcome of a soccer or hockey match is a tie, that’s the end result. And fans will say that outcome is just about as satisfying a conclusion as ‘kissing your sister.’ For many observers, especially avid cyclists, that’s what it felt like when a mistrial was declared last month in the case of Mark Furrer, the sitting Sunset Hills mayor accused of intentionally running a cyclist off the road in the summer of 2014. The mayor allegedly swerved his red Mercedes convertible into cyclist Randy Murdick when Murdick was near the end of a long training ride; Furrer claimed Murdick blew through a stop sign and grabbed onto the vehicle when he slowed down to scold the rider. Ahem. Although this is a family magazine, we must point out that ‘F-bombs’ were dropped on both sides. (Imagine a cartoon with balloons over both heads filled to bursting with @#$%&*!!!s.) A new trial will be rescheduled. During this one, the judge’s gavel dropped when Robert McCulloch, county prosecutor, asked whether Furrer’s lawyers already had offered Murdick a $10,000 settlement. Thwack! Although McCulloch holds that the question was legit, we too think it’s a question that could prejudice a jury. The proceedings were ripe with compelling, if not outright amusing, moments. Mayor Furrer testified that he did not sample margaritas at a restaurant opening a short time before the road rage accusations. He also stated that he wouldn’t have tried to hit the bike for fear of scratching his prized possession, inherited from his dad. But two witnesses testified to seeing the driver jerk the wheel and swerve into the bike. (The two-wheeled contraption, also worth thousands, was damaged when Murdick lost control and fell; photos taken shortly afterward show shin injury.) This was a criminal trial in which the proceedings were muddied with the taint of a separate civil action; testimony revealed that Murdick is suing Furrer for $150,000, so 10 grand probably seemed like a comparative pittance to the cyclist. Merely revealing that offer was the kicker, though—illegal. Epic fail.
webster groves
A few weeks before the holiday, high school-age boys went door to door in Webster Groves and Glendale claiming they were collecting money for various projects related to the WGHS basketball team. But the boys had no fliers or printed explanations about their fundraising goal—a big red flag. Indeed, the kids weren’t ’ballers raising money for the home team, but little felons who pocketed the illicit proceeds themselves. Webster district officials remind that anytime students raise money for a project, they will have documentation to show residents. The district expressed gratitude to savvy residents who cried ‘Foul!’ and to WG cops, who promptly investigated. Hope these scammers got lumps of coal in their stockings.
