[brentwood]
Bagels and bonefish are coming to Brentwood. In the bagels development, an Einstein’s Bagels franchise is taking over Applegate’s at 1912 Brentwood Blvd. It’s a stone’s throwacross the boulevard from one of the metro’s busiest Panera/St. Louis Bread Co. locations. This provides a quick breakfast (or lunch) for any and all Clayton or Galleria-bound noshers, but devotees of the true bagel will tell you Einstein’s are chewier. The late Applegate’s had been there for a quarter century and offered up more varieties of soup than Baskin-Robbins has ice cream flavors. In the other, more involved development, a Bonefish Grill will open this fall in front of the in-progress Drury hotel, also set for completion in 2014. (Bonefish will be about four times as expensive a project as Einstein’s, which is reportedly in the $400,000 range.) Bonefish, which anglers will tell you are hard fighters, is an apt name for the eatery: The Florida-based restaurant has nearly 200 stores nationwide, with about three dozen completed from the start of 2013 to the end of this year alone. Many a fish-ionado will tell you that this is a ‘nicer’ chain, where Bang Bang Shrimp rules and you can customize fish with your choice of sauce.
[chesterfield]
Marilyn Monroe was larger than life. She still is way larger, as anyone lucky enough to witness all 18 tons of her on a recent stop in Chesterfield could tell you. The aluminum-and-stainless replica, ‘Forever Marilyn,’ was en route from California to sculptor Seward Johnson’s hometown of Hamilton, N.J., for a retrospective next month. Chesterfield Arts arranged for the flatbed truck carrying Norma Jean’s vivid likeness to stop here along the way. She was not in the altogether; i.e., she was not all together: the work has to travel disassembled to make the trip. The sculpture is of the actress in her iconic pose above a subway grate, holding her dress down against the upward breeze (which reportedly drove then-husband Joe DiMaggio bonkers from embarrassment). Those who missed a photo op with the lovely torso should not feel cheated, however; there was only a two-hour window at Chesterfield Arts HQ (across the parking lot from the mall) before she was on her way again.
[ellisville]
As early as its meeting tonight (April 16), the Ellisville City Council could vote to join neighboring Ballwin as a municipality formally saying ‘uhuh’ to a much-ballyhooed merger of St. Louis city and county. Ellisville would become the second town in the county to officially oppose the concept. An organization advocating for the merger, Better Together St. Louis, includes Mayor Francis Slay and County Exec. Charlie Dooley on its board. Better Together states that 1.3 million metro residents “are served by 115 local governments, which include St. Louis city and county, as well as 90 municipalities and 23 fire districts … To date, there has been no comprehensive single study that has looked across the city and county to determine whether the region could improve both service and cost by streamlining and eliminating redundancies…” Leaders in Ellisville and Ballwin, at least, decry Better Together as a PR ploy.
[kirkwood]
If wishes were horses, they say, beggars would ride. Residents of Kirkwood, in a recent survey, let city officials know what they’d like to have in their recreation center, from an indoor track and indoor pool to exercise and training facilities. The center, last renovated in 1992, was built in 1966, and the survey was presented without dollar signs … as in, dream for it. City officials took all the ideas with a grain of salt, and have sensibly recommended that the next step be a feasibility study. (So, that velodrome, 18-story hang-gliding tower and dressage stables? Not gonna happen—yet anyway.) The center’s footprint is one thing to consider: The outdoor swimming pool/water-park complex is adjacent, and city park land would likely be sacrificed were a larger center to be built. Of course, at this point, only possibilities are being discussed, and even the drawing-board stage is somewhere in the vapors of the future.
[maplewood]
The public works department in Maplewood has started its annual spring cleanup of potholes, filling them up and tamping them down. This year they’re testing environmentally safe chemicals to mask the odor of tar that makes so many drivers turn up their noses. Several lovely scents have been mixed with the asphalt: orange, lilac, evergreen and roasted coffee. (What—no maple syrup?) April Fool! We shall not be punk’d, although this is the second year that the city’s marketing director, Rachelle L’Ecuyer, has tried (her tongue firmly in cheek). Two other, more elaborate April 1 schemes were cooked up by Schlafly Brewery and the City of Chesterfield. With a nod and wink toward the litigation he’s mired in with his aunt Phyllis, Tom Schlafly released an amusing video alleging he’s trademarking the word ‘beer,’ the ‘R’ in beer a registered trademark symbol: BEE®. (He’s not, of course.) Chesterfield, meanwhile, tried some leg pulling with a very long, fake news release about scoring a second Ikea store for the region. (They didn’t really, of course; the only store the company plans to build here, to date, is near downtown.) But Chesterfield is in dire need of more retail. Gotcha!
[city of st. louis]
With apologies to Mark Twain, reports of the demise of the Casa Loma Ballroom have been greatly exaggerated. In a case of mistaken identity, some partygoers who heard about the ‘Castle Ballroom’s’ impending demolition and were up for a night of dancing to a live big-band orchestra have gone elsewhere, or nowhere at all. Confused callers have asked if and where dances will be moved, and whether reception deposits will be refunded. Not to worry. “The Casa Loma is alive, well, and open for business,” says owner Pat Brannon. The Castle Ballroom, however, “closed before Eisenhower became president!” What people are responding to are reports that high winds in November collapsed a wall of the long-neglected Midtown Castle Ballroom venue, where once the likes of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong could be heard. It changed hands several times in the past few years, and there were hopes for restoration, but years without maintenance took their toll, and bad weather was the coup de grace. Yes, your grandparents may have danced at the Castle as well as the Casa Loma, but you and your posse have only the latter left. The iconic space at Cherokee and Iowa in south St. Louis, ca. 1927, is now a pivotal presence in the resurgence of the Cherokee business district.
[university city]
When a hot air mass collides with a cold air mass, the weather really sucks. Violently. A tornado touched down in U. City a couple of Thursday nights ago, snapping the tops of mature trees like twigs, uprooting others, and damaging houses here and there. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt. The only thing that travels faster than a tornado, of course, is a rumor. Text messages, tweets and fervid Facebook posts reported that a twister touched down in Glendale, another hit the grounds of Hixson Middle School in Webster Groves, and yet another in (Insert Your Locality Here). Although none of that probably happened, it did scare the living daylights out of friends and relatives, near and far. (And yes, golfball-sized hail did strike Olivette … but that was not during the same bout of heavy weather.) When the sirens go off, citizens, go directly to the basement or secure location in a public building. Then, mind your own business. Don’t tell all of us what you don’t know. Warning: Anyone who spreads ‘news’ of a faux disaster will be forced to endure ridicule, on air, from a battery of local TV meteorologists.
[webster groves]
Joe Schwab, record collector and longtime record buyer and seller, has put his Euclid Records into a two-story space where art dealer and gallery McCaughen & Burr once was located, on Gore Avenue in Old Webster. Vinyl snobs have discovered there a bigger, better space to browse … and it eels and smells like an old bookstore (which is a good thing, dagnabbit). Euclid moved from its Old Orchard digs in the venerable DeSoto Building at Big Bend Boulevard and Summit Avenue (sharing a wall with Cyrano’s). Its former space has been divided, the portion closest to the dessertery (601) is now a real-estate business. The side along Summit (601A) is now occupied by Benjamin Guffee Studio. But, whatever happened to McCaughen & Burr, you may ask? It moved just around the block and west a ways on Lockwood to the former home of late, lamented Webster Records, once site of a decades-old neon sign that advertised record players. (They didn’t have USB ports back then, as do today’s record ‘converters.’ How else could an on-the-go music aficionado listen, via smart phone, to a favorite record?)
By Bill Beggs Jr.