More wineries turn to screw caps to solve a smelly problem
As a lifelong collector of the wine opening tool known as the corkscrew, I have mixed emotions about the possibility of it going the way of my eight-track player. Just as the martini glass is the universal symbol for the cocktail, nearly everyone would instantly recognize the cork as synonymous with fine wine, although it’s…
Singularly St. Louis: Local peculiarities will perk up your palate
Every city has local food favorites that keep natives and tourists alike coming back for more. Many of these menu items are far from five-star cuisine, and a lot of them aren’t as well-known as, say, Chicago’s signature-style hot dog. Take, for example, the salt potatoes of Syracuse, N.Y., and the San Francisco area’s Hangtown…
Canoe supplements its brunch entrées with gusto
Canoe Regional American Fare is one of the most recent additions to the dining scene on South Main Street in St. Charles – and a welcome one, at that. Housed in a historic brick building that once served as a hotel, Canoe takes its name from the surveyors who stayed there during the Louisiana Purchase…
Contemporary twists on classic dishes earned this local chef a national award
Old Warson Country Club’s executive chef, Aidan Murphy, has had a busy, busy year. In April, he became one of 62 certified master chefs in the United States – and the only chef in the area to hold this title, which is granted by the American Culinary Federation after 10 days of rigorous testing on…
Everyone’s looking to taste these ducks
Good news, duck fans: Freshly dressed, never frozen, Pekin ducks from Farrar Out Farm will be at The Harvest Market in Kirkwood Saturdays in October. Even the farmer is anticipating the new experience: “I’m excited to taste the difference between conventional frozen duck and our pastured duck,” said Bryan Truemper. Based on the superior taste…
An American classic beefs up the trendy appletini
I’ve never been a big fan of hard cider. I’ll drink it ‘ but I usually don’t order it on my own. However, once I give it a sip, I’m in for the night. Hard cider is pretty darn tasty: subtle, a little sweet, substantial. Yet I forget to order it. So with a little…
Apple bites Netflix in its Achilles’ heel
So, just how lazy are you? Lazy enough that you’ve long since given up schlepping yourself to the multiplex to catch a movie? Lazy enough that you took the penalty for not rewinding your videos as a fair price to pay? Lazy enough that you haven’t gotten past the third movie in your Netflix queue…
A longtime rocker checks back in with Finn’s Motel
The late 1980s were a time of plenty for St. Louis rock fans, with a host of styles represented onstage here. Among the groups to basically transcend the one-time “Loop versus Landing” debate, The Finns could share stages with just about everyone, in part because of the band’s pop-rock sound and also because it seemed…
Small Sellers, Big Deals: Step out of the mainstream to find wine steals
Friends know that I love wine. And that I like to give them wine recommendations, like the Hungarian Cabernet Sauvignon that my friend Jan Rouff now loves to drink. Recently, Rouff was running late to a party and stopped at West County Liquors in Manchester to pick up a bottle of wine for the hostess.…
Salty, Spicy, Sometimes Sweet: Pickling is the perfect process for summer’s bounty
No pickled garlic in my car” is one of those rules I thought I’d never have to make, but a few years ago, my husband broke this then-unspoken rule during a drive home from Eckert’s Farm in Grafton. A lover of all things pickled, he was in pickled heaven with his pungent quart, but from…
No Weak Links: Becoming a chain takes more than a clever concept
Tucked away in the back of the mind of many a restaurateur is the notion that one day he or she will clone the business – perhaps more than once – and achieve fame and fortune with multiple locations. If the dream really runs rampant, the F-word – franchise – may also enter the fantasy.…
Seasonal Fruits: Summer and fall come together in jams and jellies
September is a peculiar month in St. Louis, finding most of us engaged in both forward thinking and retrospective reflection. It rushes in with temperatures hot enough for poolside picnics and Labor Day barbecues, reminding us that summer is in fact still in full swing. But then it goes out far more mildly, the equinox…
Review: Pomme Café & Wine Bar
You may be surprised to learn that when I first started the 8-to-5 professional grind, lunch was my favorite meal of the day. Back then I worked in Clayton – and later Chicago – and my midday fare had variety and value. I could go to many of the best restaurants and sample their menu…
Review: The Hide Away in St. Louis
Guy’s Perspective It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that a “The Arch Sucks” T-shirt would prompt conversation at a south St. Louis tavern. (A wiseass friend with very passionate views on the urban planning of 1960s St. Louis got the T-shirt made as a kind of lark – a somewhat ironic, somewhat ruffle-the-STL-establishment’s-feathers, damn…
Battered, Pan-Fried Sunchokes
6 servings
Sunchokes shine straight from the garden
Imagine a field of multibranching sunflowers, bright as butterscotch, drowsing in the September sun. In the ground below, Helianthus tuberosus, the sunchoke, also known as the Jerusalem artichoke, grows sweet as the days shorten. It is neither an artichoke, nor from Jerusalem, but is a root vegetable, similar in texture to jícama or water chestnuts.…
Pink is pretty but does not necessarily mean sweet
If you happened to be a baby boomer who discovered the joy of wine in the ’60s, you probably had a candleholder made from either a Mateus or Lancers bottle. (Their distinctive shapes showed all of our friends how cool we were.) Mateus rosé began in Portugal in 1942, followed by Lancers rosé in 1944;…
Seek Professional Help: With the assistance of a debonair Frenchman and some bubbly, you, too, can c
Just talking with Ann Repetto, you’d probably never believe that she won Sauce Magazine’s recent St. Louis’ Worst Cook contest. She purports at one time to have been able to pull off a vegetarian shepherd’s pie and knows enough about wine to know that Sauvignon Blanc can sometimes taste grassy. Then she starts with the…
Square One Brewery serves up eggs, pancakes – and, yes, beer – for breakfast
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin If you’re a beer-lover like good ol’ Ben and the idea of beer with breakfast gets you buzzed, then you’ll want to head to Square One Brewery. Located in Lafayette Square, Square One Brewery sits at the northeast corner…
This gin comes out smelling like a rose
For the perfect Gin and Tonic, you can debate the brand of tonic and the proportion of ingredients, but you can no longer debate the gin. When even dedicated vodka drinkers say they’ve found a gin they adore, you know it’s something different. And that perfect gin is Hendrick’s. “We go through a lot of…
Kevin Nashan combines practice and passion at Sidney Street
Almost three years ago, Kevin Nashan decided to take the plunge and take over as chef and owner of Sidney Street Café in Benton Park. It was a gutsy move, considering the restaurant was a beloved fixture on the local dining scene for many years. He’s made some changes, kept other things the same and…
