chesterfield
Ready to climb the walls? Well, now you can, in Chesterfield, at the third area Upper Limits Rock Gym (pictured above). These ain’t El Capitan or those other imposing rock faces in Yosemite, folks, and rocks can be, like, dull. They also can reach hundreds or thousands of feet toward the sky, as in scary. But not here. Upper Limits features colorful Wacky Walls, a 30-foot continuous climbing wall, a sunken ‘bouldering’ pit (no snakes), climbing training areas … all in all, about 10,000 square feet of climbing space with footholds and handholds of various shapes and colors. Themed walls include a beanstalk, brick- faced building and spider web. Black lights and disco lights are installed throughout for after-hours, glow-in-the-dark public and private events. There’s a party room and a pro shop. Upper Limits offers a range of climbing classes for beginners, advanced climbers and families, as well as private lessons, outdoor climbing opportunities and a portable climbing wall for off-site events. And if rock climbing isn’t enough of a workout itself, there’s also a dedicated workout area. This novel attraction has three locales: Chesterfield, Maryland Heights and downtown. The Chesterfield climbing center celebrated its grand opening over Veterans Day weekend. Climbing is gaining in popularity. Says who? The International Olympic Committee (IOC), that’s who. The sport is slated for the 2020 games. If you’re curious about what competitive climbing looks like, Upper Limits in Maryland Heights will host more than 150 climbers for the USA Climbing Midwest Region competition Dec. 10!
st. louis city
What’s all the brouhaha about this new brew, Griesedieck Brothers? It’s been back for a while, and had been brewed here for a long time before and after Prohibition. Whenever St. Louisans watched the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, many drank the beer they served up there: Griesedieck Bros. The brewery sponsored the Redbirds until some other German brewing dynasty took over in 1953. Harry Caray had touted it on the radio. And then it went away again in the 1950s. But the foamy concoction is here again. One has only to spy the sign painted on the east brick wall of Pat’s Tavern at Tamm and Oakland avenues in Dogtown: ‘Griesedieck Bros.: No Finer Beer in All the World.’ The venerable corner watering hole has it ‘on draught,’ as the sign advertises. (There’s still a neon sign out front that advertises a former king of beers that’s now an InBev product.) Griesedieck Bros.—once produced on the south side of town near a couple of other breweries, one still producing robustly (A-B) and the other (Lemp) long gone—was probably on the shelves at 905 Stores, which opened in St. Louis right after Prohibition was repealed. But the beer was bought by Falstaff in the 1950s. The current iteration has been produced since 1992 by Ray Griesedieck, joined later by his twin sons Bob and John, and while it may not enjoy the name recognition of Schlafly, it’s been doing just fine, thank you. After years of being produced out of town, plans are to make it right here in the StL in 2017. Again. For the time being, shoppers can find the current version in area supermarkets, and beer aficionados can enjoy it at Pat’s and elsewhere. The Griesedieck Bros. sign looks as though it could have been painted yesterday. In contrast, a Falstaff sign painted on a brick wall at Arsenal and Macklind on The Hill is faded and peeling. Beers come and go, but some do make it back eventually. (Full disclosure: I haven’t had a beer in quite some time, so I just hadn’t been paying attention.)
clayton
One in six. That’s how many kids in this country are hungry. Globally, one in nine people don’t get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life, and here in the States, seniors are the fastest growing segment of the population. One in 11 seniors are at risk of hunger, often finding themselves choosing between food and other basic needs. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation aims to help change that through a $60 million donation to mark the rental car company’s 60th anniversary. Over the next six years, $10 million will be distributed annually as follows:
• $5 million to local food banks and pantries in communities served by Enterprise
• $2.5 million to Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief and food rescue charity, earmarked to fight hunger among seniors and children
• $1.5 million to Food Banks Canada to support operations and infrastructure in food banks across Canada
• $1 million to The Global Food Banking Network to expand the work of food banks around the world, especially in the U.K., Ireland, France, Germany and Spain on behalf of company-owned operations in those countries
Checks began arriving at more than 365 local food banks and food pantries across North America in the last few weeks. Apparently, Enterprise goes big on anniversaries. In 2006, the foundation marked the company’s 50th anniversary with the 50 Million Tree Pledge—a commitment to plant a million trees each year on public lands. Wonder what might be in store when Enterprise becomes a centenarian?
town & country
It’s been seven years since some old coot offered you a shopping cart at the Walmart in Town & Country, because that’s how long it’s been vacant. And there won’t be shopping carts racing around in the 50,000-square- foot space come next spring, but rather go-karts. Yeppers, a cool $3 million will be invested to transform this white elephant into the Amp Up Action Park, which will include laser tag and an aerial ropes course. As we speak, city officials are reviewing construction plans for the park that’s slated to open in Manchester Meadows shopping center at 13901 Manchester Road. Where else would teens and millennials go for this type of entertainment? Crestwood for the karting? St. Charles for the laser tag? Illinois for ‘adult’ entertainment? (OK, that may be one too many.) Amp Up already has a neighbor: Last month, At Home—a housewares, garden and furniture ‘superstore’—opened in another part of the former Walmart building. Interesting juxtaposition. At least it’s not a china shop. To be fair, go-karts aren’t bulls, either. And there are walls.
frontenac
Riley Bettman, 12, of Frontenac, was too young to vote last week. His citizenship also was in question— he was found wandering a country road in Arkansas when he was very young, but no one could tell you with certainty where he was born. Our painstaking research determined that he is not even a member of the right species for our political process at all. Regardless of what Fox or MSNBC might tell you, this is incontrovertible. Whenever you talk to him about what he intends to do next, he just tilts his head to one side and starts yapping and cannot be silenced until you give him a treat. Some might say he’s a doppelganger for the man who became president, what with the combover and solid red tie, as pictured. Nagging questions remain about his temperament and age. In dog years, he’s 84. And no one knows where he’s going to go whenever he’s off the leash, even though his chief handler, Maureen Bettman, is more than twice his size. Now, back to the real world: All of us here at T&S wish for the best in this, the aftermath of the most troubling election cycle in recent memory. But through the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air …our flag, God willing, will still be there. May the Great Spirit always bless America.
