olivette
What’s high on the hog at Sugarfire Smoke House in Olivette? Bacon. Say what? Why, we always thought that savory slice of meat was from underneath; pork bellies, which are always on the commodities exchange. Well then, what’s the cut of meat you can find at the top of a porker’s hind leg? Ham, you probably thought, and rightly so. But if you were going by the diagram on the brightly painted pink metal pig in front of this barbecue joint at 9200 Olive Blvd., all cuts of pork are bacon, bacon and more bacon. Yeah, even the loin, which is right above the spare ribs on the side … bacon, too. If you want the truth about cuts of pork, you’ll have to go around to the other side of the pink pig, where a hock is called a hock. Our first sight of the two-sided piggy’s all-bacon side just about made us snort out of our snouts. That part of the pig, of course, would have been marked ‘bacon’ too where the Sugarfire hog faces the parking lot. Snouts, ears, feet and other parts that might make some diners (well, me) go ‘Ewww!’ are not in the diagram. Suffice it to say everything labeled on the other side of this pink pig is anatomically correct, from a butcher’s perspective. Oink!
ellisville
For the last few years, charities as a whole have gotten a bit of a black eye based on what percentage of each dollar raised actually goes toward the mission. In too many cases, too much has been spent on ‘administrative costs’ and CEO salaries, according to some complaints. Well, some are better than others. Based in Ellisville, Assistance League of St. Louis is one of the better ones: ALSL recently achieved the Platinum Level from GuideStar, the world’s largest source of information about nonprofits and a leader in advancing transparency and accountability in the sector. Fewer than 1 percent of the nonprofit members of GuideStar reach platinum status. One factor in this designation is a financial ratio; the percentage of funds returned to the community. Of the funds raised by the StL’s chapter of Assistance League, 81 percent goes toward identifying, developing, implementing and funding continuing programs to serve the specific needs of kids and adults right here. Another yardstick that shows the lion’s share of the money donated to ALSL goes toward the needy? Assistance League of St. Louis is BBB-accredited.
central west end
For anyone who grumbles, knee- jerk, about road c o n s t r u c t i o n , here’s another reason for aggravation: It’s happening on two of the westernmost sections of roadway in Forest Park. OK, now, quit your whining. The $5.7 million project to improve Government and Wells drives is slated to be substantially complete by next June, the busiest time of year for our town’s urban jewel. (Did we detect a grin? There, that’s better.) Government and Wells take visitors to the zoo, Art Museum and other sweet spots in the park. In recent years, visitors trying to navigate these streets by car, bicycle or on foot have been challenged by crumbling roads with potholes, a lack of designated crossings, partial or no sidewalks, and no amenities. Better roads aren’t the half of it. Expect 27 new, free, on-street parking spaces that, darn, you can miss getting into by a split second! Plus:
• New, safe pedestrian crossings
• Improved sidewalks, plus 2.2 miles of new sidewalks
• Gathering places for visitor orientation and enjoyment
• 29 on-street rain gardens
• New, efficient LED lighting
• 153 newly planted trees
Managed by the City of St. Louis, the project is funded by private donations to Forest Park Forever’s ongoing Forever capital campaign.
clayton
In the golden age of advertising, (the late 1950s and early 1960s) portrayed in the TV drama Mad Men, there was a memorable commercial from Avis, the No. 2 rental car company at the time (Hertz was No. 1). Its tongue-in-cheek tagline was, ‘We try harder.’ That was a long time ago. Enterprise Holdings is the Big Wheel nowadays, with more than 1 million rental vehicles to Hertz’s and Avis’ approximately 600,000 and nearly 300,000, respectively. Enterprise, based in Clayton, also has two subsidiaries you may have heard of: Alamo and National. Now operating in more than 85 countries, the privately held company would be in the Fortune 500 were it publicly traded. With those notable facts and figures as a backdrop, consider this: In 2017 alone, Enterprise Holdings plans to hire nearly 10,000 college graduates into its management training program and more than 2,000 interns into its management internship program. The company will be hiring here and across five other countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Ireland and the U.K. (The company recently started operations in Jamaica, too.) Enterprise Holdings’ promote- from-within culture is a driving force behind the openings. In fact, more than 16,000 employees were promoted or took on new challenges in various positions throughout the company in 2016. How high in the company can a management trainee go? How about the corner suite—president and CEO Pam Nicholson started her Enterprise career in the management training program.
st. albans
Take Manchester Road farther west than you may be accustomed to, and it narrows to a two-lane winding road in the foothills of the Ozarks. There is St. Albans, a community that is nothing if not magical, what with a golf course right out of Scotland and majestic mansions nestled into hillsides. Right by the lake ‘downtown’ is Head’s Store, a slice of rural nostalgia. Head’s, the general store in St. Albans, has just changed hands—for only the fourth time in nearly 125 years. On the National Register of Historic Places, this quaint, two-story building has operated as a general store since 1892, when it was one of the not-so-many businesses for miles around. Sometime after the turn of the last century, gasoline pumps were added for the horseless carriages that pulled up. Datra Herzog, owner of The Inns at St. Albans, recently bought the property from Thom Sehnert, proprietor of Annie Gunn’s, the storied eatery in Chesterfield Valley. The store closed Dec. 5, and Herzog claims it will return better than ever come February, with details about other new amenities to be released beforehand. Meanwhile, we’re told that by spring, a side room will open as an ice cream parlor and private event space for family parties and other smaller gatherings. The reconfigured store will be designed to complement The Old Barn Inn across the street, a space that has become a popular wedding venue in the metro. This is not to take anything away from The Studio Inn, another spot for I do’s in St. Albans. Fine, indeed: The Studio was built by Theodore Link, architect who designed St. Louis Union Station. The Studio marks its 100th anniversary next year.
