frontenac
Oh, snap! Cardwell’s at Plaza Frontenac is closing at the end of the year. And Coffee Cartel in the heart of the CWE just closed last Tuesday (Oct. 16) at 10 p.m. But all day, they gave a free scoop of ice cream to saddened long-time patrons and clueless walk-ins alike. We can’t blame the Internet for either of these occurrences. Obama may not even be at fault. But they’re both bummers. First, now there’s one less place for high-schoolers to have the first great date of their lives. Cardwell’s probably used to do a whopping prom business. My wife Cate and I had our first dress-up date there, and we’re only several dozen years out of high school ourselves. Anyhow, legendary chef and owner Bill Cardwell is hanging up his apron. We wish him well, but sure wish he wouldn’t. We’re selfish. Second, where could you get a really good cup of coffee at 3 a.m. without going to Waffle House? (In the wee hours, though, any coffee is awesome.) Coffee Cartel, smack in the middle of the CWE at 2 Maryland Plaza, opened in 1996 and was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The shop’s Facebook page says sales dropped 11 percent in 2017 … and 24 percent this year. (Is the nearby Starbucks that much of a juggernaut? Well, it is unusually large. And they deliver.) Don’t you think Cardwell’s should take a page out of Coffee Cartel’s playbook and prepare a free steak dinner for saddened long-time patrons? Clueless walk-ins, of course, probably wouldn’t get a table. The rest of us should make our final reservations immediately, if not sooner.

u.city
U City in Bloom’s latest project has nothing to do with flowers and gardens, although the goal is beautification,  indeed. Six artists painted six benches for installation at Metro stops along Olive Boulevard that don’t have bus shelters. The sturdy wooden benches are protected from the elements (and, hopefully, hooligans) with a clear, impervious coating developed for the automotive industry. The ‘people’s choice’ award went to resident Sophie Binder, whose bench cleverly incorporates names of the city’s four districts vibrantly in a pop art style: Parkway, International, Industrial and Interchange. (It’s in the foreground of our photo, which doesn’t do it justice.) Stephanie Gobby and Gayathri Seetharaman each painted a bench, Yuko Suga and Nicole Cooper collaborated on one, and Genevieve Esson painted two. The benches are languishing in storage while the city awaits a green light from MoDOT. Gobby was chosen for a previous project: painting the utility boxes at intersections with traffic signals, from Sutter west to McKnight/Woodson. The box she painted at Kingsland and Olive belongs to St. Louis County, not MoDOT. Of course, one day a county crew painted over it in the nondescript, drab color of steel bridge girders. Could have been that the crew was humorless. Some workers for government entities are like that. Anyhow, we hope Gobby has had the last laugh—as she did on the utility box, she painted her bench with outlines of diverse, happy faces on a background of warm colors. Perfect for the metro’s ‘Neighborhood to the World.’

bridgeton
You can’t get there from here without first going to Chicago, Dallas or Atlanta. As one air traveler told his seatmate, “When I die, my luggage will circle a baggage carousel at Hartsfield for eternity.” OK, maybe I made that up. Point is, out of Lambert’s 270 daily departures, only 70 are nonstop flights. None to San Juan, London’s Heathrow or Hawai—either Honolulu or Maui. (Excuse me a moment while I wipe drool off the keyboard.) In March, unless there are unforeseen changes, there still will be only 70. In January, WOW Airlines will pull away from the gate permanently, so there will be no more cheap nonstops to Reykjavik. But next spring, United adds a sixth to Newark. Hey, it ain’t La Guardia in NYC, the airport right across Newark Bay from Bayonne, New Jersey—the getaway spot if your only other choice is purgatory. Anyhow, wherever you have to stop first really isn’t impotant if your final destination is a city like Anchorage, Tucson, Charleston or Palm Beach. Yes, it’s a colossal waste of time going hither, thither and yon at 550 mph, with long waits in places you’d rather not be. And I’m not ‘science-y,’ but all of this mostly seems like an egregious waste of fossil fuel when you have to take such a roundabout way from Point A to Point B. Do oil companies get to suck the last drop of oil out of the earth before global warming makes us all stroke out from the heat, or drown? That would be silly. But so is trying to get to Calgary, Alberta, Canada from here. My map says that once you’re in the air, you should turn right; that is, go north. But the pilot turned left … for Dallas. That’s, like, way south. I mean, really. Why not land in Denver first, then head north? OK, I get it. It’s a contest to see which gluttonous exec gets to sell the last barrel of oil before water, wind and solar energy take over completely. Still, it just doesn’t add up. You must need to know calculus and stuff.

crestwood
With concepts like ‘alternative facts’ emerging, some argue we live in a post-truth society. Our society’s also post-retail, we say. Nobody needs to lug home a 30-pound bag of dog food. The website chewy.com drops it right at your doorstep in 48 hours or less. Now to the plight of a former shopper’s paradise in the metro: Crestwood Plaza. Built in 1957 and enclosed as a mall in 1984, it was one of Missouri’s first shopping centers with multiple department stores. It closed in 2013, and the site was razed two years ago. Malls are not a growth industry: Chesterfield Mall, the metro’s largest, one day will undergo a metamorphosis—but into what is unclear. No one’s picked up on an idea floated in this column: The world’s largest roller rink with three multilevel discos to replace the former Dillard’s and two other major chain retailers. Meanwhile, in Crestwood, it looks like a mixed-use development similar to The Boulevard in Richmond Heights or The Streets of St. Charles is in store. We repeat: looks like. We’ll see.

notable neighbor: st. peters
Iris Apfel was smitten by big, bold jewelry. So Yolanda Newson of Yoro Creations sized up the tiny fashion icon and created a piece unique to her. “Iris’ face is her brand,” Newson says while recounting the observation Apfel made as she took off the bracelet she was wearing to replace it with Newson’s: “Your mind is free—you are not confined by an institutional way of thinking.” Although many of her creations look suited for fashion royalty, Newson doesn’t take for granted the opportunities she’s had to accessorize a queen of cinema or television … or two. She made a necklace for Vanessa Williams, who was in Atlanta shooting a movie at the time. Newson was wearing its twin, bright, silvery spheres in layers, when we visited her at home in St. Peters for our interview. The necklace is so striking, it must have a title. So, what does she call it? “My fave,” the artisan says. Newson sort of fell into crafting jewelry when she couldn’t find many things that suited her. Sometimes inspiration strikes out of the corner of her eye. As she strolled a big-box store, she noticed something sparkling, catching the light: Lucite napkin rings at a couple of bucks apiece. She bought a passel, not quite sure what she would fashion with them. They didn’t go around the dinner table, but around the necks and draped from the shoulders as ‘bib’ necklaces of the three women who have purchased them so far. Yoro Creations is not for the faint of heart. Newson’s runway models don’t wear rings; they’re adorned with ‘handpieces.’ And there’s an unmistakable allure to her glittery chains suspended from shoulders and hips, wrapping around waists. Mariska Hargitay, Olivia Benson in Law & Order: SVU, is to wear one of Newson’s bracelets at a November benefit in New York for The Angel Band Project, a locally based nonprofit that supports survivors of sexual violence through the healing power of music. Newson was readying 50 ‘angel’ bracelets for the event: a wristlet of silver flying creatures connected head to tail with a metal tassel and fob that can be personalized. They could just be birds, but at the hands of Newson, they have become angels indeed. Yes, Newson is competitive … with Newson. “I push my own envelope,” she says, then chuckles. “I like to scare myself.” Visit yorocreations.wix.com/yoro.