[chesterfield]
Bummed that you missed the first Food Truck Feast at Chesterfield City Hall (pictured above) last month? Wait, there’s more! You also missed the first day of the city’s inaugural art exhibit at city hall. Double bummer? Not to worry. Food Truck Feast is slated for the last Friday of every month from April through October, in the circle drive. (The art exhibition is not limited to Fridays, though). Drop by 690 Chesterfield Parkway West between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays to take in paintings and photographs by established regional artists Tim Layton, Jane Sehnert, Stuart Morse and Julie Wiegand. The exhibit will be up through June 26. The first Food Truck Feast featured Curbside Cookery, Global Quesadilla, Chop Shop and Sarah’s Cake Shop. The works of art are available for purchase.
Who needs to bake when you can have the goodies delivered straight to your door? For years, it’s worked for pizza just like a charm. Now, it seems to be doing fine for cookies fresh from the oven. The dough for Hot Box Cookies started to rise in Columbia, Mo., with a target of college tummies all a-flutter during cram sessions. Now, the bake-and-go (or bake and get delivered) sweet shop has come to 3 N. Euclid Ave. Opened in late February, it’s already causing quite a stir, I mean sugar high, among area students and others. The brainstorm was hatched about seven years ago by three juniors at Mizzou, fast friends from high school at Parkway Central: Corey Rimmel, Adam Hendin and David Melnick. Later, the young men got a foothold in Lawrence, Kan., serving to K.U. Jayhawks … the nerve. But it all makes sense: You can eat only so many consumables from Taco Bell and Jack In The Box. Or, cookies from the supermarket aisle … even Oreos have their limit, right? Maybe the best part is they deliver … late. Just how far in the StL from the CWE can you have your good ’n’ gooeys delivered? East, almost to downtown; west, to Clayton; south, to Dogtown; and north to Page Boulevard.
[clayton]
If you’ve gone down Hunter Avenue lately, on the once-lovely Centennial Greenway path that borders Clayton’s Shaw Park, you may think you’ve stumbled into a deforestation project. Well you have, kind of. The trees and shrubs along the path have been chopped down, en masse, to make room for better plantings down the road—coming in fall of this year. Why will they be better? Because they will be native species that won’t invade and dominate nearby plants— or Clayton backyards. That is according to a spokesperson from Great Rivers Greenway, which is responsible for the project, along with the city of Clayton, Coinco (whose property borders the walking/running/biking path), The Open Space Council and Ameren (whose massive power lines back there have been threatened by the overgrowth). Apparently the plants that have been upended were mostly bush honeysuckle and tree-of-heaven, two invasive species that grow helter skelter in unmanaged areas. Soon to come: green lovelies like low-growing native shrubs and prairie grasses. For the time being, forget about enjoying the natural beauty all around as you walk the path; there won’t be any until the fall plantings sprout about a year from now.
[eureka]
The subdivision that McBride & Sons is planning for Eureka is more like a small city. Well, maybe a village. OK, 527 homes constitutes at least a sizeable neighborhood. Nearly 300 acres will be dedicated to single-family homes and villas for young families and seniors. (Villas are for seniors, I reckon.) With that many homes, where will all the new kids go to school? Reportedly, an additional plat of just over 13 acres will be reserved for a new elementary school. The planned subdivision, The Arbors of Eureka, will spread out across the hilly territory behind Six Flags, in the vicinity of Greensfelder Park and Camp Wyman. Prices will range from $200K for villas to $500K for high-end, single-family homes. Eureka Mayor Kevin Coffey, in introducing the project to aldermen last month, said a focus of the builder will be to preserve trees wherever possible. To begin with, McBride says half of the trees will stay, and two new ones will be planted at each homesite. A trail also will be installed to connect with Greensfelder and other areas for walking.
[o’fallon]
Universal Components Group, an aftermarket auto-parts distributor based in the U.K., has chosen O’Fallon as the site of its first U.S. distribution center. The expansion project includes a $765,000 capital investment and will create more than 30 new jobs, state officials say. UCG, which supplies parts for commercial vehicles, trucks and semi-trailers, has more than 1,000 such centers worldwide. This one will operate from a 10,000-square-foot warehouse. The state has offered an economic-incentive package to the company if it meets strict criteria for investment and job creation here. Wainwright Industries, an affiliated automotive company with locations in Fenton and Wentzville, was part of UCG’s enticement to locate here.
[st. charles]
A man who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary in the former Yugoslavia in 1981 was to have given a talk last month at Lindenwood University about the experience. But it was not to be. The Archdiocese of St. Louis cancelled the event, which was being sponsored by a Catholic nonprofit in Grover (near Wildwood). The interdict came from the Vatican itself. A group within the Holy See, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, has been investigating the claims of visionaries like the above since 2010 and has forbidden clergy to participate in any event that promotes them. Although the investigation concluded early last year, the findings have not yet been published. The would-be speaker, Ivan Dragicevic, allegedly has had frequent visions of Mary since his first experience as a child in June 1981 in Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. Millions of pilgrims have flocked since then to the tiny village.
This headline from awhile back might have caused many a hippie or wannabe to do a double-take: ‘Young Biotech Firm Bets on Weed as Future Cash Crop.’ Well, uh, yeah, if you’re using a slang term for marijuana and you consider all the successful and pending efforts to decriminalize it in the States. But, no. Pennycress is the weed that Creve Coeur-based Arvegenix is working so hard to domesticate. It grows in the winter, which potentially could add another growing season to the crop cycle. Its seeds produce oil … not a lot, at this juncture, but few people believed in the soybean until about the middle of the 20th century. In some states, it’s all in the name: ‘Weed’ is the only way pennycress is classified in some states. But the small local startup, with 11 employees—about half of whom are working for equity instead of salary—is hoping to turn the lowly weed into ‘dollar’ cress. As a member of the mustard family, pennycress might get Arvegenix where it wants to be: Breaking Even by the end of the decade.
[lafayette square]
Lafayette Square is known for being, well, Lafayette Square. It’s unique— close to downtown, but more genteel than urban. A jewel among jewels, as far as city residential neighborhoods go, it’s also a draw for its restaurants. Ever heard of a ‘gastro tour’? It’s waaay more appetizing than visiting the metro’s top gastroenterologists of an afternoon. It’s a culinary tour, a concept that’s become all the rage. Hurry, and you may still be able to book a spot on an upcoming one of Lafayette Square restaurants. It’s on Saturday (April 4). Foodies will be treated to a four-hour progressive meal with tempting tastes from Vin de Set, 1111, Planter’s House and 33 Wine Bar. What, no chocolate? Hold your knife and fork, there, mister. Bailey’s Chocolate Bar is featured on the next yummy Lafayette Square junket, slated for May 2, and we won’t divulge the destination eateries because you can just find ’em out yonder on the Internet. (Hint: Use your computer.) And, there are no repeat engagements, unless you return on your own in the interim. Meanwhile, tours are scheduled for the CWE, Botanical Heights, U. City, Kirkwood, Webster Groves and over on the right side of the Mississippi, in Edwardsville, Ill. Live a little, people—there’s more to dining in Southwestern Illinois than Fast Eddie’s!