Are You Ready For Some Football? Sample your way around the NFL on Monday nights
Although your boss might not be impressed with the idea of your hosting a Monday Night Football party every week this season, your friends, neighbors and co-workers would be – especially when they hear the proposed menu is food from the competing cities. The idea didn’t originate with Sauce, but when a long-distance reader contacted…
Jalapeño Salsa
1 pint
Thai Chicken with Peanut Sauce Pizza
1 10-inch pizza
Judges Hunker Down for Serious Swirling, Sniffing, Sipping – and Arguing
For most of my 30-plus years in the wine business, one of my greatest frustrations has been how flippantly the wine ratings of numerous “experts” are used by wine retailers. The 100-point system, so strongly promoted by wine writers to indicate the perceived quality of a wine, does little to show the true value. While…
Artisan Bread’s a Hot Commodity at this New Edwardsville Bakery
The fact that bakers Debbie Sultan and Matt Herren were opening a bakery was welcome news to the Edwardsville, Ill., community. Residents were already familiar with the breads and coffees the couple sold every Saturday morning at the Land of Goshen Farmers’ Market for the last two years. “We weren’t quite prepared for such an…
The Days are Cooling Off, But the Heat Is On in the Garden
Just as the weather cools down in September, pepper production heats up. Multicultural St. Louis is a pepper-head’s dream where East meets West. Peppers reign in Mexican, Thai, Chinese, Szechwan, Korean, Vietnamese and Indian restaurants. But this worldwide use of chiles didn’t begin until Christopher Columbus brought the piquant plants to Europe from the New…
Sunday in the Park with Madeleine
Ah – Sundays in the park. They are a precious gift, and one most of us probably don’t indulge in often enough. Café Madeleine may change that. With Tower Grove Park as its beautiful backdrop, Café Madeleine is an idyllic spot for Sunday brunch. It’s set in the Piper Palm House, a historic greenhouse constructed…
Aging Gracefully: Keep your wines sippingly delicious with proper storage
Centuries ago, all well-to-do wine connoisseurs had their own built-in wine cellars. The cool, dank cellars of northern and western European castles provided the ideal environment for long-term wine storage. Lucky for them, since they also had to cope with little annoyances like feudal wars, religious persecution and bubonic plague. Fortunately, 21st-century life isn’t nasty,…
Review: Gallagher’s in Waterloo
Over the river and through the woods … to Gallagher’s house we go. And, wow, we’re not the only ones. This enormous Waterloo restaurant was packed to the gills, stuffed like mushrooms and poppin’ like Champagne. After I tasted the food, the crowd didn’t surprise me one bit, but its makeup did. According to the…
Review: Tin Can Tavern in St Louis
I don’t know why I thought I could handle Camo Super Premium High Gravity Lager. I’d seen Camo on the shelf at city convenience stores for years. The fact that it always sat next to the MD 20/20 rainbow – let alone came in a camouflaged can – should have been a sign. But, after…
Sixteen Exhibitions Bound by a Common Thread
This month, a consortium of 16 local galleries and arts institutions will present its sixth installment of “Innovations in Textiles,” a biennial event centered on contemporary fiber art. This year’s program boasts the largest number of participants in its 10-year history. Exhibiting the work of 125 artists from across the United States and Canada (though…
‘The Constant Gardener’ is a Far Cry From James Bond
For those of us who are connoisseurs of the spy/thriller genre, few authors are appreciated as much as John le Carré. For over 40 years, he’s been weaving intricate tales of subterfuge and stealth, with shadowy characters creeping toward an invariable betrayal somewhere in the last chapter. Much like another exceptional writer in the genre,…
Squeezing Up the Freshest Drinks in South City
Everything about The Royale Food and Spirits is fresh. Located within the South City purlieus, The Royale injects a fresh blast of retro hipness to the strip just south of Arsenal Street on Kingshighway Boulevard. Evidence of its creativity is a snazzy drink menu featuring no less than 28 specialty drinks – one representing each…
Art Outside’s Music is Just as Diverse as the Rest of the Show
When Art Outside was hatched in 2004, there was a pretty clear rivalry brewing between the upstart event at the Schalfly Bottleworks and the long-running Saint Louis Art Fair, taking place just a couple of miles away. The new fair in Maplewood was championed early by many in the local media and art circles, but…
