Riverfront Times, January 5, 2022

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

MARCH 6-12, 2019

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Point of the Story

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n the surface, Cheryl Baehr’s job is writing about food and restaurants. What she is really doing much of the time is writing about people. St. Louis’ eating-and-drinking industry is full of interesting characters involved in their own ways in turning out the meals, beers, coffee and cocktails that keep an ecosystem of businesses going. On this week’s cover, she tells the story of Nate Bonner, a former chef who had nearly overnight success when he switched to making knives. But Bonner was struggling behind the scenes of celebrity endorsements and write ups in the national food press. Cheryl traces his journey through the dark places and the turning point of a brutal injury. There’s a lot of humanity in the story, and Cheryl was the one to tell it. She’s pretty good at writing about people.

—Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Managing Editor Daniel Hill Digital Content Editors Jaime Lees, Jenna Jones Food Editor Cheryl Baehr Staff Writer Danny Wicentowski, Ryan Krull Contributors Eric Berger, Phuong Bui, Jeannette Cooperman, Mike Fitzgerald, Eileen G’Sell, Kathy Gilsinan, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Jack Probst, Richard Weiss, Theo Welling, Ymani Wince Columnists Thomas Chimchards, Ray Hartmann, Evan Sult Editorial Interns Madyson Dixon A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Associate Publisher Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Director of Business Development Brittany Forrest, Rachel Hoppman, Chelsea Nazaruk Director of Marketing and Events Olia Friedrichs

COVER The Knife’s Edge Success came faster than celebrated knife maker Nate Bonner ever dreamed — and so did the pressure Cover photo by

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INSIDE

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E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com

PHUONG BUI

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The Riverfront Times is published weekly

by Euclid Media Group | Verified Audit Member Riverfront Times PO Box 179456, St. Louis, MO, 63117 www.riverfronttimes.com General information: 314-754-5966 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

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HARTMANN Missouri’s Magical Thinking Mike Parson cancels COVID-19

BY RAY HARTMANN

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overnor Mike Parson apparently stumbled upon a genie to end the year 2021.

After two years of trying next to nothing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 16,000 Missourians, the governor pivoted to a new strategy: wishing it away.

Parson rang out the old and rang in the new — on New Year’s Eve, to be precise — by declaring that the pandemic was no longer an emergency in the state of Missouri. Even the skeletal measures enacted by state government to resist COVID-19 would no longer be necessary.

Poof.

Admittedly, the timing was a bit clunky. In a perfect world, one might not select a week in which one’s state was approaching record levels of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations as the moment to call off the emergency.

Would one?

But Mike Parson is the man who coined the phrase “dang masks” as in the public-health advisory, “You don’t need government to tell you to wear a dang mask. If you want to wear a dang mask, wear a mask.”

So, let’s not call it shocking that Parson chose the worst possible moment to make such as an unforced error in judgment. Still, there was one line in the governor’s news release that positively popped out: “Thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccine, widespread efforts to mitigate the virus, and our committed health care professionals, past needs to continue the state of emergency are no longer present.”

Yes, Parson went there: He used the V-word in a complimentary context.

His previous references to the V-word had not been quite as glowing. Perhaps you remember

some of these headlines: “Parson Announces Missouri National Guard to Scale Back COVID-19 Vaccine Support.” (May 11).

“Parson signs bill banning vaccine passports.” (June 15).

“Parson Against Federal Doorto-Door COVID-19 Vaccine Push” (July 8) “Missouri Governor Clashes With Hospital Execs Over Vaccines Mandates” (July 14) “Parson: Biden’s Vaccine Mandate is Unwelcome in Missouri” (September 9).

“Governor’s Executive Order and Missouri Lawsuit Challenge Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate.” (October 28).

Now, it must be noted that Parson has maintained a tepidly provaccine posture. He announced he was vaccinated and has repeatedly “urged” Missourians to get vaccinated as the “responsible thing to do.” He even rolled out a state vaccine lottery — a lukewarm effort, to be charitable — that at least gave modest lip service to the jab.

But “scoreboard don’t lie,” as the saying goes. During the very week Parson employed the phrase “thanks to the effectiveness of the vaccine,” the numbers weren’t pretty.

As of December 30, Missouri continues to rank near the bottom of the barrel among the states in vaccination rates. That’s in a nation scandalously below where it should be in the first place with just 61.5 percent of Americans fully vaccinated, according to CDC statistics delivered daily by the Becker Hospital Review.

Missouri’s vaccination rate of 52.7 percent by CDC metrics ranks 40th of the 50 states (and behind D.C.). That’s a full 15 percent below the paltry national average.

It’s not a news flash that all of the top twenty states in vaccination rates are ones carried by President Joe Biden and all but two of the bottom twenty (Nevada and Georgia) voted for the last guy.

The political context perhaps can be rationalized to explain some of Parson’s irrationality on the subject. But with everyone — Parson included — at least acknowledging that vaccines are the best hope of slowing the spread of the omicron variant and COVID-19, it’s not a question of whose team is right.

It’s a matter of life and death.

It’s pretty stupid to scale back any part of any effort to help combat the spread of a pandemic at the very moment it is spiking and threatening to kill more people.

Missouri has generally fallen near the national median in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths throughout the pandemic — with notable exceptions such as last June 2021 when it was the worst hot spot in the nation — but more than 16,000 of its souls died from the virus (conservatively) in the past two years.

And a state of roughly 6 million people recently eclipsed the 1 million mark for COVID-19 infections during the pandemic. And things have never looked worse.

On the very day (last Thursday) that Parson announced COVID-19 would no longer qualify as an emergency in Missouri, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported that new hospital admissions increased to 169, up from 136 on Wednesday, representing a new record for COVID-19 admissions in one day,” according to Stltoday.com.

And there was this: “Over the past week, hospital admissions have increased to 113 Thursday from 105 on Wednesday. Across the region’s hospitals, bed capacity is at 89%, with intensive care units at 80% of their total staffed bed capacity, the task force reported.”

A fine occasion for declaring there’s no emergency to see here any longer, don’t you think?

Now, one counterargument might be that these emergency declarations are mostly symbolic and don’t impact outcomes all that much, as Missouri’s pathetic record suggests.

But don’t tell that to the people on the front lines. Missouri Hospital

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Association spokesman Dave Dillon suggests it matters plenty, according to reporting Thursday in the Missouri Independent: “The most immediate impact will be on hospitals and other providers who are trying to cope with increasing patient numbers at the same time the omicron variant is spreading rapidly. The staffing relief that will end is coming as staff shortages are aggravated by infections among staff,” Dillon told the news site.

“That gets to the nut of the issue, which is the public health emergency allows for waivers for a significant amount of the activities that have allowed us to be flexible throughout the pandemic,” Dillon said. “They are in essence, many of them, are just going to completely disappear overnight. That part is going to be very difficult to deal with at the hospital level.”

One need not reside on those front lines, nor have a medical degree, to understand this: It’s pretty stupid to scale back any part of any effort to help combat the spread of a pandemic at the very moment it is spiking and threatening to kill more people.

That’s not a liberal point, nor Democratic Party messaging. It’s indeed a matter of good old common sense, the very trait Parson likes to pride himself as possessing in abundance as a down-home fellow from the country.

But the world has become turned upside down by wingnut irrationality. We’re told that refusal of lifesaving vaccinations amidst a deadly pandemic must be respected as a “personal health-care choice.”

You know, just like it ought to be fine if parents choose to send their kids to school without vaccination for smallpox or polio because they’ve made the choice to take chances with their kids’ health — and those of others — in the name of personal liberty.

Sound unbelievable? Not in a world where the governor can still get help from a genie. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhar tmann1952@gmail.com or catch him on Donnybrook at 7 p.m. on Thursdays on Nine PBS and St. Louis In the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

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NEWS

Will St. Louis’ Pile of Fed Cash Reach Unhoused in Time?

Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

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n a Friday afternoon in late December, with a drizzle falling and temperatures a few degrees above freezing, a familiar ritual of St. Louis is underway — the annual scramble to accommodate the surge of people seeking shelter from cold, dangerous weather.

“I love summer, hate the winter,” says Kevin Ricks, 56, as he sits by a window in Il Monastero, an events center at Saint Louis University temporarily repurposed to accommodate cots and dinner service for people coming in from the streets.

Thirty-four people had already claimed the pop-up safe haven’s 40 cots by mid-afternoon, and organizers were working to secure more beds for what was expected to be an overflow crowd by nightfall. Every year, a network — formal and informal — rallies to plug gaps in the city’s shelter system.

The pandemic has made finding enough spots even more difficult given that a number of churches that opened their halls in past years now consider it too much of a risk for elder parishioners, says Tim Huffman, an associate professor at SLU and the faculty contact for the Il Monastero safe haven.

Huffman and others who work to help unhoused people in the St. Louis metro had hoped this year would actually be easier. Many who had been frustrated by the response of former Mayor Lyda Krewson (and Francis Slay before her) were optimistic that Mayor Tishaura Jones would solve some past problems. That optimism only grew when she appointed the well-respected Yusef Scoggin as the new director of the city Depart-

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Kevin Ricks found a spot at a safe haven in Il Monastero as cold weather hit. | DOYLE MURPHY ment of Human Services. Maybe the greatest reason for hope was that the city now had real money to put toward a variety of projects thanks to nearly $500 million in pandemic-recovery funding coming to St. Louis through the American Rescue Plan Act. In September, the city put out a request for proposals, or RFPs, promising to disburse $21.4 million of that money for emergency housing projects. Dozens of organizations hustled to hit the October 22 deadline, and then they waited. And waited. By the time a December cold snap hit, organizations that had hoped to have at least the promise of funding were still unsure if they’d have the money to operate this winter.

Sixth Ward Alderwoman Christine Ingrassia, who has helped out at Il Monastero, says the Board of Aldermen approved the pool of money this past summer in hopes of heading off the yearly scramble.

“Winter usually happens, same time every year,” she deadpans.

“And with as much money as the federal government gave us, money is not the issue this year. ... There’s just no sense of urgency in terms of making decisions on those applications and getting funding out the door.”

Huffman says that delay has created havoc for those trying to

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plan for the upcoming months.

“I have respect for Mayor Jones, and I have respect for Yusef Scoggin, but if that funding can’t get ironed out really quickly, we’re going to be in the situation of trying to open shelters while other organizations are shutting down,” Huffman says.

Mayoral spokesman Nick Dunne points out that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment the city’s chief financial body — approved nearly $6 million in December for unhoused services.

The city has processed about half of the RFPs it received, prioritizing emergency shelter, he says. ayor ones has confidence in the Human Services team who will be overseeing operations this winter,” Dunne says in an email, noting the appointment of Scoggin, who built a stellar reputation while working for St. Louis County. “He and the Mayor’s office have made regular communication with organizations and advocates a priority to ensure that everyone can be as prepared and coordinated as possible.”

The Board of E&A is expected to work through the remaining proposals for its meeting this month, and Dunne says even without the federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, the city has more shelter beds than it did be-

fore the pandemic.

But all beds aren’t the same. Audra Youmans, a twenty-year-old SLU junior helping coordinate operations at Il Monastero, explains that the safe haven differs from many shelters in town, because it had been set up as what is known as a low-barrier facility. At many shelters, strict rules, such as prohibitions against reentry at night, keep a lot of people out. Often, referrals are required as well. Beds for walk-ins are in short supply.

But Il Monastero opened for 24hour service, allowing people to come and go as they please with relatively few rules.

“We don’t need to be super over-bearing,” Youmans says, adding, “Everyone that’s chipped in has followed that same mindset of, ‘If you’re a person, you deserve shelter.’”

Il Monastero was originally opened to run for six days as a stopgap, but organizers chose to extend that where possible as the cold hung around. Along with volunteers, a collection of organizations, such as Tent Mission STL, linked up to gather supplies, which grew in part thanks to nightly donations by area restaurants. Faultless Linens washes the bedding for free, and Americorps volunteers run back and forth to pick up and drop off sheets and blankets. Youmans says they were eventually able to find another do en beds and allowed a few people to sleep on the floors because it was so cold over the weekend, but they still had to turn people away.

Ricks says he found the safe haven after calling United Way’s 211 helpline. He had been in Illinois, but says shelters there were overcrowded. In need of two hip replacements, he uses a wheelchair and needed a bed.

I can’t get down on the floor he says. Eventually, Ricks is hoping to find a more permanent solution, but Il Monastero was a great option in the short term. Behind him in a large hall, people stretch out on cots and watch The Matrix on a pair of projection screens. As he sits near Youmans next to the admission table, he sifts through ac ets left as donations and finds one he likes.

“Kevin, my mama brought that from my home,” Youmans tells him.

“She did?” Ricks says. “Thank your mama for me.” n

THE BIG MAD Sick Mad World Dumpling dummies, broken COVID records and Missouri’s January Six Compiled by

DANIEL HILL

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elcome back to the Big Mad, the RFT’s weekly roundup of righteous rage! Because we know your time is short and your anger is hot: Of Dumplings and Diversity: For KSDK journalist Michelle Li, it was a fluffy story about traditional New Year’s Day meals that ran for just under 30 seconds on January 1. But for one brain-poisoned viewer, only the last few seconds of the story were worth complaining about: the moment when, just after Li mentioned the New Year’s staples of black-eyed peas, greens, cornbread and pork, the reporter added, “I ate dumpling soup.

That’s what a lot of Korean people do.”

As a racist does, the viewer left a voicemail complaining that the “very Asian” reporter should “keep her Korean to herself” and argued, of course, that a hypothetical “white anchor” would be fired for doing the same thing. Li turned the harassment into a positive movement, and her tweet about the call helped transform the attempted insult into a hashtag, #VeryAsian, that continues to trend as a statement of pride.

But beyond the rank bigotry, it’s easy to miss the familiar pivot of racists claiming victimhood because other cultures and ethnicities have the gall to coexist in “their” America; it’s a view that goes much deeper than food, of course, from the Proud Boys defending their view of “Western Civilization” to the deluded public school parents insisting that teaching students about America’s history of race and slavery is itself racist. Li, faced with that hate, responded with grace and restraint. But it’s sure a crummy way to start a new year.

Like a Broken Record: There’s no way to soften this blow so we’ll just come out and say it: This state fucking sucks when it comes to handling a pandemic.

First, Governor Hee-Haw decides to let a COVID-19 state of emergency order expire because you know, got to leave the bad vibes in the past year (or you just want to pretend that you have accomplished a mission as a new variant threatens to spike COVID-19 cases to a higher level). Then, three days later,

that exact threat comes to bear and breaks records. Fifty-four kids are in the hospital according to a January 3 report, because Missouri just absolutely refuses to get its shit together. School districts are dropping mask mandates — partially because of our dimwitted attorney general and his wasteful lawsuits, partially because they risk being bullied by parent after parent at the local school board meetings, and yeah, maybe because some school board members simply don’t believe in masks — and that just leads to more kids getting sick as they come back from winter break. And it doesn’t even stop there: the record for adult hospitalizations was broken, too. There were 964 adult hospitalized, and as the holiday season comes to an end, we don’t know how many more will join those numbers. It’s unfathomable that we’re almost two years into this pandemic and still breaking records, especially heartbreaking ones like these. Missouri, get your shit together and wake up. The only way out of this is to pull your head out of your ass, wear a mask and get vaccinated.

If not for anyone else, do it for yourself.

Missouri’s January Six: A year ago, we watched the first videos of Trump superfans smashing windows, crawling up walls and abandoning all their “back the blue” rhetoric to bludgeon, mace and stomp police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol. At least eighteen Missourians were part of the mob, according to the tally of those later charged by federal prosecutors. But there were other Missouri accomplices there that day.

For one, there was Sen. Josh Hawley saluting crowds of soon-to-be wall crashers, who rightly saw him as an ally after he’d spent weeks propping up the Big Lie. He and five Missouri Republican members of Congress — representatives Jason Smith, Vicky Hartzler, Sam Graves, Billy Long and Blaine Luetkemeyer — emerged from safe rooms after the rioters had cleared out and did just what the mob wanted: They voted against certifying the presidential election results. It seemed crazy and mindbogglingly political at the time, but it was a crazy day. Heat of the moment and everything, right? Watch this January 6 and see if any of the six offer regrets for their roles. See if they take any responsibility for the two-thirds of the recently polled Republicans who believe to this day that Trump lost through fraud. It’s been a year. Maybe they’ll say something, or maybe they’ll add it to the list of things they pretend never happened — even though they damn well know it did. n

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THE KNIFE’S Success came faster than celebrated knife maker Nate Bonner ever dreamed — and so did the pressure

BY CHERYL BAEHR 8

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EDGE

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he steel blade that Nate Bonner was forging at his Maplewood knife workshop sliced into his hand with such force and speed he had no time to register what had happened.

He wasn’t even in pain. An injury this severe fails to register the usual “Ouch, that hurts” you get when you slice your finger with a bread nife. is was the sort of trauma so intense that the body shuts down as a form of protection. His only knowledge that something so awful had happened was the way the blood spread across the work glove covering his wounded hand after he pulled out the blade. Bonner remembers thinking how dark it was; the red wasn’t the hue you’d normally expect from a cut, but a dark, almost black color that made him understand he’d severed something too deep to bleed like a regular wound.

Disconnected from his body and feeling like he was having a heart attack, Bonner somehow managed to call 911 before staggering to the front part of his studio and collapsing in slow motion against the window, his head resting on the sill as he waited for help to arrive.

Nate Bonner has found success, tragedy and redemption in the eye of his forge. | PHUONG BUI

Bonner doesn’t know exactly how long it took for the ambulance to arrive at the Maplewood storefront of his business, NHB Knife Works, but it seemed like they were there within seconds. In and out of consciousness as they put him on a stretcher and then loaded him in the ambulance, he came to enough to struggle against the two EMTs who were trying to remove his glove because he was Continued on pg 15

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THE KNIFE’S EDGE Continued from pg 13

terrified of what was underneath the mangled cloth. inally relenting onner loo ed up at one of the emergency responders and begged him to tell him how bad it was. o man it’s actually not that bad the T said. elieved onner briefly shut his eyes only to open them in time to see the T mouth the words h shit to his partner. That’s when onner began to scream.

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onner believes A carries memory. Though he cannot totally explain the phenomenon the experiences he’s had beginning with his earliest recollections tell him that something deep within him points to a visceral connection to blades that goes far beyond a fascination. hether using a stic as a sword to wage war against the large sea cliffs near his childhood home in anta arbara alifornia or always gravitating toward the nife section of his local department store when he was very young onner has not nown a moment when there wasn’t some indescribable force pulling him in the direction of sharp steel. ver since I was a little id I’ve been fascinated with blades swords and nives onner says. very time I saw a nife it was a magnet. omething about them about finding the largest stic I could find and going to war on these cliffs the sand and roc s flying everywhere as I attac ed them everything bleached and sandy colored it ust spo e to my soul. or the past nine years onner has harnessed this passion through his artisan nife ma ing business producing custom itchen nives and utility tools for some of the biggest names in the t. ouis culinary scene as well as home coo s and nife enthusiasts around the country. riginally founded as an online shop that sold nives he and his small team assembled from parts sourced throughout the nited tates and apan onner grew the company to include the aplewood storefront. e ran that for three years before closing the shop and recalibrating his business after the hand in ury in the summer of threatened all he had built. orty years old and tattooed as you’d expect a former chef to be onner is not shy about the ups downs self doubt fits and starts

Knives and dog tags from Bonner’s space-themed collection, forged from one-inch round bar Damasteel. | SPENCER PERNIKOFF

The more he kept trying to figure out a way to stay in the culinary field, the worse his compulsive tendencies became. He found himself polishing knives like he was scratching an itch and drinking too much until, finally, he had a revelation.

that characteri e his path to nives orginally called nifewor s one that is clear in retrospect but not perfectly straight.

As a id his fascination grew with each nife he was able to buy or trade for and he eventually began dabbling in craftsmanship ma ing nin a throwing stars in the woodshop of a friend’s dad. e new he had a nac for craftsmanship but he shifted his focus to art and photography and eventually discovered a passion for food and coo ing that led him to the ew ngland ulinary Institute. onner excelled in his studies and was invited to stay on as an instructor where he relished the opportunity to learn from great chefs and share his nowledge with his students. owever as much as he loved the food component of his craft onner was e ually thrilled his wor involved nives. uring that time I really started collecting nives and reali ed that part of the reason I loved coo ing so much was because I got to play with all these cool nives onner says. y collection started growing but also this really weird side came out of me that I’d never seen before.

I’ve always been this of the earth’ sort of person but I found myself

polishing my nives religiously with a ewelry cloth and when a scratch wouldn’t come out it wasn’t cool. onner moved bac to t. ouis after a few years at the ew ngland ulinary Institute and found wor as a chef. owever something inside of him ept telling him the profession wasn’t the right fit. The more he ept trying to figure out a way to stay in the culinary field the worse his compulsive tendencies became. e found himself polishing nives li e he was scratching an itch and drin ing too much until finally he had a revelation.

I reali ed that I wanted to be my own boss and be an entrepreneur onner says. o one day I bought a nife blan and put a

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handle on it. y dad said I could use his woodshop out bac whenever I wanted and I started buying blan s anywhere I could get them and started putting nives together and figuring it out. onner hoped he could transition to nife ma ing full time. n a whim one day he went into ertarelli utlery the highly regarded nife shop on the ill and had a lengthy chat with owner an ertarelli about his craft. e’d brought with him two of the pieces he was wor ing on. onner now says they weren’t the best made but they were cool loo ing. ertarelli ordered ten. It was unexpectedly great news but the tas of producing for one of the city’s foremost nife experts was overwhelming. onner felt that things had escalated too uic ly.

I went to my car and started bawling my eyes out onner says.

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he unexpected affirmation ertarelli gave to onner should have been cause for celebration but these were not tears of oy. Instead feelings of imposter syndrome flooded into his mind ma ing him feel both undeserving of the success he imagined and unprepared to meet the moment. e new that if he was going to push through these negative thoughts he would

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THE KNIFE’S EDGE Continued from pg 15

need the support of those who knew him best.

Bonner found that help in his family, particularly his stepmom, Melody Noel. After seeing the knives he was making, Noel recognized her stepson’s talent, and she wanted to help turn his longtime passion into a legitimate business. It helped that she, too, was looking for a new direction. A longtime lawyer, Noel was ready to leave that field behind to pursue something else, even if she was not quite sure what that was.

When Bonner came to her with the idea for a knife business, she wanted to help.

“I knew that he was not happy and not fulfilled with being in the culinary arena,” Noel says. “He just really was not liking it, and when he came to me with these knives he’d made, I had never seen anything like them. He’s such a creative person, and I felt that he could really make a go of this, so I gave him some help and ended up taking a sabbatical that turned into retirement.”

Armed with that raw talent and a mutual desire to change course, Bonner and Noel cofounded NHB Knifeworks out of a dingy warehouse in south St. Louis in 2012.

Bonner knew he would one day like to forge his own knives, but he wanted to start slowly and focused strictly on assembling pieces, adding handles he’d sourced from Japan to knife blanks that he would shape and polish. Through word of mouth and an online store Noel set up, they gained enough momentum right out of the gate to realize they were onto something.

What they were onto was bigger than Bonner could have ever expected. After receiving an unexpectedly large amount of traction from a press release Noel sent out to different media outlets around the country, NHB Knifeworks gained buzz as an artisan knife company through features in the influential site picurious which labeled him amongst the country’s top knife makers, and Vogue, which described Bonner’s knives as pleasurable to use. Suddenly, foodies around the country looking to buy from a small domestic artisan flooded his website for his signature chef nives outfitted with ornate handles. The interest only escalated after celebrity chef Tom Colicchio selected one of Bonner’s knives as part of his “Artisan to Table” series. Suddenly, Bonner was experiencing success beyond

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Bonner hammer-forges a knife in his Maplewood workshop. | PHUONG BUI his wildest expectations.

Inundated with orders, Bonner and Noel parlayed the exposure into a shiny new retail shop in Maplewood. With a small staff who helped him meet demand and a growing reputation in the knife world, Bonner looked around at all he’d achieved and was less excited by the success than he was filled with dread that he was in over his head. Unsure of how to deal with that, he kept working, but also began to panic.

“Things started to take off way faster than I was ready for them to, and it really freaked me out and put me back in a bad place,” onner says. ou start fighting these demons that you created, and they are the worst to go up against because they are you. It’s some scary shit.”

Bonner felt compelled to teach himself knife making so he could move beyond just assembling his products and feel good about the quality of the knives he was putting his name on. However, he was too busy to step away from the business and kept operating through sheer momentum. Overwhelmed and unsure how to take a step back, he’d have that decision made for him that night in 2017 when he almost lost the use of his hand.

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Bonner has returned to the workshop but now makes the knives he wants to make. | PHUONG BUI “There’s this quote from the famous knife maker Bob Loveless that says you should never go into the shop after a fight with your wife,” Bonner says. “I never understood that until it happened to me.

I’d gotten into a huge fight with my girlfriend and was pissed. I was working so aggressively that I [accidentally] slammed the knife into my hand. It was bad, but what’s sad though is my first thought

wasn’t ‘ouch’ or ‘this hurts,’ but that I’d get a vacation.”

B

onner’s injury, which completely severed a tendon and cut into the bone, was so severe he needed surgery and therapy, and there were serious questions as to whether he would be able to use his dominant right hand again. It was a dark time; the opioid medication

Bonner’s current works in progress. | PHUONG BUI

Bonner has made several of his knife-making tools himself. | PHUONG BUI

The forge is one of the main tools for Bonner’s knife-making operation. | PHUONG BUI

Bonner inspects a blade for trueness. | PHUONG BUI he was prescribed for the intense pain became more of a comfort than he wanted, and it also caused terrible mood swings and put him

in a bad place to the point where he had to stop taking it. Though he had the support of his family and friends, there were times when it

was almost too much to bear.

“He was in 24/7 pain,” recalls Noel. “Just the therapy he had to go through to even move his hand again at all was extensive and incredibly painful. He didn’t know if he would ever make knives again because he had to get back on the horse that threw him, but there was a huge amount of fear involved in that. That period of time was very complicated for him.”

Spencer Pernikoff, Bonner’s friend, talked with him about that fear. Having had a front-row seat to the rise of his knife business after meeting Bonner in 2015, he knew what his friend was capable of doing; whether he wanted to do it again was another story.

I would percent define what he was going through as PTSD,” Pernikoff says. “When he

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would talk about the injury after it happened, he would get upset and have an emotional reaction.

Going into the shop was really hard for him, and even sharpening knives — not making them was difficult to get bac into because he was scared to use the machine. He was very open about how scary it was, and that mix of PTSD and being overwhelmed with the business side of it became too much.”

During his recovery, Bonner’s staff stepped up to keep the shop running, and from the outside, things were carrying on business as usual. However, Bonner knew differently. Seven months away from the shop gave Bonner an opportunity to clear his head and figure out what he really wanted to do, and the longer he was away,

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Bonner’s workshop contains many reminders of the injury that almost cost him use of his hand. | PHUONG BUI

THE KNIFE’S EDGE Continued from pg 17

the more he realized that meant not returning to NHB Knifeworks in its current form. e confided in Pernikoff that he was thinking about quitting, not because he wasn’t into making knives, but because he didn’t want to continue doing things the way he had been. He no longer wanted to run an assembly company but a place of true craftsmanship where he forged his own blades. It was the reset he needed.

“He told me that he felt like he was making knives he wasn’t that into and that he had to pump them out and was completely overwhelmed,” Pernikoff says.

“My advice to him was why not go solo, to look at the other knife makers he loved. He’d see that they are just one person in a shop making knives that they want to make. That resonates with people.

I think that’s true about any art; if you don’t want to do it and you aren’t passionate about it, people know. I told him to just make Nate knives.”

The advice resonated with Bonner, almost giving him permis-

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sion to make what he knew deep down was the best decision. Bonner closed down his Maplewood shop three years ago so he could remake the company as the operation he always wanted it to be.

Now, out of a small space in the basement of a True Value Hardware store not far from his former storefront, Bonner has focused singularly on developing his skills as a knife maker. No longer buried in the slog of endless production, he’s taking things at a slower pace and learning from the top professionals in his trade, traveling the country to take intensive classes and workshops that are giving him the knowledge and skills he needs to get to the level he’s always wanted to reach.

“I think of this as having three different levels,” Noel says. “For the original version, all he was doing was handles. The second was stock removal, which is getting a blank and grinding it so it has the shape and functionality of what you want. Now, he’s at the level of making his own metal. Everything he did up to this point was a lesson learned and was all part of his journey to where he is now and where he wants to be. He’s still refining and learning but all

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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of those lessons brought him to where he is.”

In the three years since closing his shop and resetting as NHB nives onner is finally becoming the knifemaker he imagined, as evidenced by his recent award-winning piece at the Damasteel Chef Invitational this past November.

The semiannual exhibition brings together the world’s premier knife makers to showcase their use of Damasteel’s proprietary Damascus stainless steel (considered one of the, if not the, best knife metals in the world), and invitations are reserved for the best of the best.

Bonner not only got to participate; he walked away with the award for Best Integral Knife.

“I cried, then was elated, and then thought, ‘OK, what do I have to do to stay here?’” Bonner says.

“Right away, I was already thinking about the next Damasteel because I don’t want this to be a flash in the pan or a coincidence. I have to get better.”

Bonner knows he would not have won the Damasteel award, nor would he likely have been invited to attend the event at all, had his violent injury never happened. Had he continued on the path he was on, he believes it’s

possible he would no longer be making knives at all. Chances are, he’d been in a bad place searching for an answer that felt so close to being within his grasp. Having that forced reset may have been traumatic, painful and terrifying, but it ultimately gave him the out he needed. That’s why he was able to push past the fear — because he knew it gave him the space to train and grow and admit with humility that he has much to learn. This time around, he is less afraid of the doubt and uncertainty and more comfortable with what he doesn’t know; using that to propel himself to the next level of his craft is what will ultimately make him a great knife maker.

“I’m glad I went through it, because I came out so much better and smarter,” Bonner says. “I’ve tightened the shoelaces on all of life because of what happened. I could have been a mess, or I could have been good, but the best thing is that it gave me the chance to go completely underground and not do anything but figure out if I want to do this and what it looks like. Mentally, I am in such a better place. The faster you get out of thinking you are good, that’s when the learning starts.” n

CAFE

15

[REVIEW]

Snack of All Trades From healthy food to vegan fare to decadent delights, UKraft does it all Written by

CHERYL BAEHR UKraft multiple locations including 701 Market Street, 314-376-4352. Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sat. 7 a.m.-2 p.m. (Closed Sundays).

M

att Ratz will never forget the feeling he got from watching the moving trucks roll into the lot of the Clayton egions entre office building in early March of 2020. Like everyone else he’d been growing increasingly concerned about a new coronavirus that was emerging as a global health threat but he wasn’t all that sure what to make of it. owever if he and his brother i e had learned anything since opening raft inside the building a year and a half prior it was that the won s who wor ed at its financial firms had an inside scoop into what was happening in the world.

That they were not simply locking up but pac ing their things for the long haul was an ominous sign.

Nearly two years after those early days of the pandemic the at brothers cannot help but feel luc y. ot only has their brand raft been able to survive inside the sparsely populated egions office building while their food truc found even bigger success than it had prior to the crisis they have been able to propel that momentum into a growing fastcasual force. The current crown jewel of the emerging UKraft chain is their flagship location a bric and mortar near downtown’s ity arden that opened early last year.

That they have been able to grow amidst such challenging times for the hospitality industry is a testament to the brothers’ vision which has been percolating throughout their decade plus in the restaurant

UKraft improved on the fast-casual model with fresh ingredients and attention to detail. | MABEL SUEN

Matt and Mike Ratz have managed to build UKraft through tough times. | MABEL SUEN business. Though the pair always dreamed of doing something on their own they honed their chops working for others, with Matt focused on front of house and operations while i e developed his skills in the kitchen. ver time att and i e both homed in on the fast casual sector including the healthful dining focused ic ed reen which opened its first location in layton in . The brothers fell in

love with the idea of a chef driven uic service spot and after two years felt that they were ready to ta e what they learned as a umping off point for their own business. At first the idea centered around a build your own healthy meal concept (hence the name raft that would roll out as a food truc . As they wor ed out their plans though the idea transitioned into already composed wraps salads sandwiches and

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soups still centered around more fresh wholesome ingredients. raft may have branded itself as a healthier alternative to traditional fast food but the at es found success in positioning themselves as a restaurant that could cater to a wide variety of dietary needs particularly focused on those wor ing in offices. They gained significant steam in partnering with Ameren while the energy company was wor ing on a new food service setup and that arrangement gave them the idea to loo for a permanent post inside an office building.

In they in ed a deal with egions entre and uic ly became the go-to lunch spot for hungry office wor ers both in and around the building.

Their model should’ve gone down in flames considering that two years later, the overwhelming ma ority of office wor ers are still remote. Instead raft is experiencing growth month after month something the brothers credit to their ability to adapt as well as the fact that being a fast casual setup allowed them to meet the pandemic moment.

This is particularly true of their

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UKRAFT

Continued from pg 15

downtown City Garden location, which, by all perceptions, should be a ghost town. Instead, the restaurant has ingrained itself in the minds of those in the area by making itself convenient, fast, wholesome and, ultimately, quite tasty.

The best way to think of UKraft is a boutique, and much more soulful, version of Panera. Though the restaurant prides itself in getting its food from the line into a bag with rapid speed, the Ratz brothers do not take any shortcuts to get there. This means that they make all of their prepared ingredients (sauces, condiments, dressings) from scratch; roast, sauté or bake their own meats; and slice and dice every single day. This gives their food a freshness, zest and texture that take you aback for what seems like simple café fare.

A shrimp BLT, for instance, pairs grilled shrimp that has been marinated in pesto with crispy bacon, arugula, tomatoes and herbed aioli onto crispy, pressed ciabatta bread. The flavors are simple but what is most impressive is that the shrimp is incredibly firm and snappy, even after traveling about twenty minutes before being consumed. The same is true for the shrimp on the Spicy Thai wrap; here the shellfish is wrapped into a soft flour tortilla with ingredients like edamame, bell peppers and sunflower seeds for crunch as well as a surprisingly spicy soy chili sauce that has the lightness of a vinaigrette.

The “Hill” wrap is another success, mostly because it is like having a gigantic antipasta salad from the city’s Italian neighborhood served in rolled-up form. Crispy romaine, tender salami and ham, banana peppers, tomatoes and kalamata olives — all tossed in mouthwatering white balsamic dressing — is like holding the Mediterranean in your hands, or at least St. Louis’ version of it.

Even something as simple as a Buffalo chicken wrap is done well here, thanks to UKraft’s light touch.

Hot sauce-tossed chicken is accented with crunchy celery and carrots, funky blue cheese crumbles and tomatoes; the key to its success, however, is the yogurt ranch sauce, which is lighter, tarter and much brighter than traditional ranch dressing. Subbing in the yogurt makes you feel less guilty for wanting to douse two ramekins of it all over your sandwich.

Matt says that the restaurant has a significant vegan following

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thanks to its jerk jackfruit sandwich. One bite into this stunning, cinnamon and clove scented delight and it’s clear why this is the case. The meaty fruit has a pleasant firm texture a in to pulled pork but creamier. The sweet, ba ing spice flavors hit the front of the palate, but as they subside they leave in their place warm, savory heat that is balanced with cool cabbage and mango slaw. It’s a satisfying treat for both plantbased eaters and omnivores alike.

The chipotle chicken is the restaurant’s biggest sandwich surprise.

Though the name evokes the sort of basic, bland boxed lunch fare you’d find at a grab and go ios this dish is outrageously flavorful. un s of warm, white meat chicken are tossed in a gently spiced chipotle aioli, giving the sandwich the feel of chicken salad. Creamy avocados, tomatoes, onions and molten pepper jack cheese are piled on top of the dressed chicken, then pressed so that the meat’s juices, the dressing and the avocado form a delightful sauce that oozes out the sides.

It’s shockingly dazzling.

Any of UKraft’s wraps can also be served as a salad or a grain bowl. The latter, which starts with a wild rice and quinoa base, is the perfect canvas for the honey apple version. Apples, strawberries, grapes and blueberries are tossed with chicken and granola for a grain bowl version of a Waldorf salad. The “Santorini” is another worthy offering, consisting of chickpeas, assorted Mediterranean vegetables and chicken; it’s the sort of meal where you can hear your body thanking you for eating it, having gorged yourself with brisket and au gratin potatoes over the holidays (just me?), though if you want to keep that decadence going, UKraft’s loaded baked potato soup or shockingly rich, beefy chili will do the trick.

Dishes like the chili, the soup, a steak and cheese sandwich or even traditional breakfast fare offered during morning hours show that UKraft isn’t necessarily trying to be a health food restaurant.

As Matt notes, the word “healthy” can mean different things to different people, and is very circumstantial. Instead, he, Mike and the entire UKraft team simply want to meet people where they are and give them options. Considering how much success they’ve had in the midst of such upheaval, that seems to be the winning formula.

UKraft Honey apple grain bowl ............................ $11 Chipotle chicken sandwich ................... $8.75 Buffalo wrap .......................................... $9.50

SHORT ORDERS

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[FOOD NEWS]

Pie Oh My Pizza Champ will open alongside a new Side Project Brewery location in early 2022 Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

P

izza Champ (forthcoming location at 2657 Lyle Avenue, Maplewood) may have been born of pandemic-related necessity, but soon it will become a full fledged part of the t. ouis food and beverage scene.

The popular pizza pop-up, courtesy of Elmwood’s (2704 Sutton Boulevard, Maplewood; 314-2614708) Adam Altnether and Chris elling is set to become a standalone, brick-and-mortar restaurant in Maplewood early next year featuring the pi as salads and sandwiches that have gained it a loyal following over the past year and a half. et to open in early i a Champ will be located just down the street and around the corner from Elmwood, the restaurant where the pizza pop-up was born in response to ’s pandemic induced closures. The s uare foot space will be set up for counter service additionally an ad oining seat patio that can be enclosed and heated in the chillier months will provide seating for guests who wish to stay and enjoy their pies on site. The restaurant will split the building with a new concept from ide ro ect rewing.

Though Altnether and elling have noted that a pizza concept in some form had been in their back pocket for a while, the pair felt compelled to make it a reality sooner than expected when pandemic related closures and changes to the nature of dining forced their hand in uly of . As elling explains the launch of i a hamp during that time had less to do with their desire to pursue their vision for a pizza spot and more to do with simply eeping lmwood’s doors open. ur first intention was survival elling says. In uly of

The forthcoming standalone Pizza Champ will share its space with a new Side Project Brewing location. | RENDERING COURTESY OF PIZZA CHAMP we reali ed that percent dining room capacity wasn’t going to happen and to go plated dinners had fallen out of fashion. e’d always thought about pi a but this was born out of our need to survive.

Altnether and elling launched i a hamp out of lmwood in uly of and found immediate success. nown for its eighteen inch pizzas cooked in a bricklined oven i a hamp too Altnether’s immense culinary talent and applied it to a more casual form resulting in everything from a best-in-class traditional pepperoni pie to more creative offerings li e a grilled ale and ricotta version. As word of their pi a excellence spread through the community Altnether and elling found themselves able to serve guests who might not have otherwise sat for one of lmwood’s dinner experiences.

Now, the pair are excited to have a permanent spot to build upon that momentum, and they are confident that the synergy with the ad acent ide ro ect rewing that the new location provides will help them in those efforts. Though i a hamp and the new ide ro ect spot will be two separate businesses, they will operate in conjunction with one another guests can order ide ro ect beers as well as wine and

cocktails, out of a dedicated window and order i a hamp from its own food counter. The idea is for guests to draw a little bit from each business and either take the food and beverage to go or en oy it on the patio. ventually Altnether and elling plan to wor out an arrangement to have i a hamp delivered to ide ro ect’s brewery down the road.

I’ve nown ory and aren ing for years but we’ve gotten to know their team, and every single person at the cellar and the brewery wants you to enjoy their beers elling says. bviously the product stands by itself and is terrific but the team and culture there is really unmatched. It’s a positive environment like the one we try to create every day, and that synergy made it seem li e we could share this very small space together. lus Adam and ory remind me of each other with their commitment to using the best products nowing all the steps and their recognition of what is good. They are two of the hardest wor ing smartest people I have been around.

Until the new location opens, Altnether and elling will continue to offer i a hamp out of Elmwood as they have been for the last year and a half. As for Elmwood, they have temporarily suspended operations to focus on

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getting i a hamp up and running though elling insists the closure will be short lived. rior to the suspension, the pair were wor ing on twea ing the lmwood concept turning the restaurant into a more formal, pre-paid, coursed experience a slight break from their initial idea of lmwood as a neighborhood gathering place e ually suitable for special occasion dinners as it was for wee night burgers and beers at the bar.

Though elling says he and Altnether are not completely set on their idea about what the path forward looks like for Elmwood, he believes that the success they had in offering an more upscale experience over the past couple of months will likely dictate the restaurant’s future. e ind of leaned into being a fancy place, and the momentum was there elling says. ur last wee end offering the coursed dinners was our busiest wee end since arch of . e’re going to lean into that with the return of lmwood. e will come bac in spring and see what summer holds and what happens with public health and sentiment, and will figure out the evolution from there. e’re happy to thin of i a hamp as a neighborhood place and Elmwood as a special occasion restaurant. n

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[FOOD NEWS]

That’ll Do, Pig Southampton’s Copper Pig has closed Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

C

opper Pig (4611 Macklind Avenue; 314-499-7166), a beloved Southampton gathering place, has served its last guests. The restaurant, which opened six years ago, announced the closure on Facebook after service the evening of December 20, citing simply “Thank you. Copper Pig served its last drink and meal tonight.”

Opened by veteran bartender Nhat Nguyen in 2015, Copper Pig was known for its fusion of Asian and Latin dishes and Americanstyle comfort food, a unique marriage based on Nguyen’s experiences growing up as a first generation American with immigrant parents. Drawing upon the food that he ate as a kid in a Southeast Asian household in the Midwest, as well as the Latin American food he fell in love with while living in Miami, Copper Pig gained fans for its

[FOOD NEWS]

Toast of the Town City Foundry to open toasted ravioli eatery Written by

JENNA JONES

A

love of toasted ravioli arguably runs in the blood of every St. Louisan and now, t-ravs will be honored with an eatery at City Foundry (3730 Foundry Way) dedicated to nothing but the unofficial official food of the Lou. STL Toasted is the latest addition to the City Foundry’s bustling lineup, and it will feature a range of “artisan toasted ravioli with creative fillings,” according to a press release announcing the forthcoming concept. Boasting flavors like a Lemon Blackberry Gooey Butter Cake dessert filling and a savory buffalo chicken bite, the restaurant will make its

Copper Pig, a popular Southampton gathering place, has closed. | MABEL SUEN eclectic dishes, good cocktails and warm atmosphere.

Though he is happy with what he created and the restaurant continued to be profitable guyen simply felt that it was time to step away.

“It’s kind of been swirling in my mind for a while,” Nguyen says.

“I’m not dead and I wasn’t forced out. I’m just tired of something.

Like any relationship, sometimes you just grow tired and want something new. Call it an amicable divorce. I have no ill will todebut some time this year.

“We chose to open our concept at City Foundry STL because we believe it represents everything we love about St. Louis,” founder Matthew Fuller says in the press release. “A collaborative space that celebrates diversity and small businesses is exactly the type of place we want to be.”

STL Toasted came to fruition after Fuller got into a life-altering car accident.

Unable to work for a year, Fuller and his wife Brittany Abernathy remembered an idea they kicked around in 2014 about artisan toasted ravioli and began the eatery. The two started hosting pop-ups at St. Louis spots like Bella’s Frozen Yogurt and have another slated for this month at the Drawing Board.

Director of operations Susie Bonwich says in the press release that the City Foundry is “delighted to welcome a kitchen that pays homage to a well-known St. Louis dish that approaches it in a new and different way.”

STL Toasted joins three other concepts in the Food Hall slated for 2022, Will Smith of New + Found adds in a press release. The most recent addi-

ward anyone, even the detractors.

Sometimes, you just want to walk away with a good taste in your mouth rather than a bad one.”

As Nguyen explains, his decision to close Copper Pig is based on his desire to leave the hospitality industry indefinitely rather than any issues with the restaurant. Having worked in the business for many years, he explains he grew tired of the long hours and six to seven day work weeks — something he readily accepted as part of the gig but now feels a

need to step back from.

I definitely will not resurface in the hospitality industry for a while,” Nguyen says. “I don’t hate it. It’s served me well, but I just want to get away from it for a while.”

Nguyen notes he is fortunate to own the building where Copper Pig was located, and he is open to having a tenant take over the space, even as he states he is in no rush to find one. If that prospective person wanted to reopen as Copper Pig, he would entertain the idea, though he thinks a new and unique concept would better serve everyone involved.

“I don’t see why they would want to keep the name Copper Pig, because I think that would ruin their thing,” Nguyen says.

“The identity of Copper Pig is what I did, so I’d think they would want to do their own thing.”

As for the loyal guests he’s gained over the years and the Southampton neighborhood that has supported him, Nguyen is thankful, and sees the area as a prime spot for a prospective business owner.

“Six years isn’t forever, but it’s a decent enough time, especially in that neighborhood,” Nguyen says.

“The local residents there really supported me. I didn’t know that the food would go over when I turned on the lights six years ago.

I didn’t tell anyone I was open; I just turned on the lights and they came out. That’s just how the neighborhood is.” n

Artisan toasted ravioli lands at City Foundry early this year. | COURTESY ABIGAIL NICOLE PHOTOGRAPHY tion to the Food Hall was Intergalactic, a smashburger and fries spot. Eager diners looking to see what else the Foundry

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has in store are encouraged to check cityfoundrystl.com regularly for updates about what is coming. n

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[ S T. L O U I S S TA N D A R D S ]

All the Accolades Mai Lee’s importance to St. Louis’ food scene cannot be overstated Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

B

ack when Lee Tran opened ai ee in the early s there was no social media, Yelp or laughably large number of food publications to get the word out about her new restaurant. It was just little Qui Tran on his bike, riding up and down Delmar like Paul Revere, cold-calling people to give his mom’s new place a try.

“Back then, people ate differently, and their philosophy of dining was different,” Qui says. “People would go where they would go, and they wouldn’t steer from that, so their question was how to get your new restaurant into their rotation. So, what you do is you buy your son a bike for his twelfth birthday that he thinks is a gift but instead you put menus in it that weigh what feels li e pounds and have him ride up and down Delmar leaving them at homes and retirement homes. That’s why I have no shame now; it helped me in life, because I’m not afraid to speak with anyone. I was always put in those uncomfortable situations when I was growing up.”

Now at the helm of the ship of both Mai Lee and Nudo House, Qui looks back with nothing but awe at what his mother was able to achieve with her restaurant.

The second oldest in a family of eight children, mama Tran grew up cooking alongside her grandmother and parlayed those skills into jobs in area Chinese restaurants when she, her husband and children immigrated to St. Louis from ietnam in . Though she knew how to cook — and was quite good at it — no one would give her a kitchen job. Instead, she worked as a waitress and took

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Founder Lee Tran turned a disastrous start in business into a pioneering restaurant, introducing generations to Vietnamese food. | ANDY PAULISSEN every opportunity she had to soak up as much knowledge about the business as she could, carrying two and sometimes three jobs at a time to help support her family.

Qui’s father, too, worked tirelessly to help the Tran family make ends meet, working as an auto mechanic at a shop on the Hill by day and a janitor at night.

Because their busy schedules meant little time at home, Qui would often find himself either helping out his dad or in a booth at the back of one of his mom’s restaurant jobs, doing homework after he got off school.

In ee Tran partnered with a woman named Mai to open Mai Lee in a small storefront on elmar oulevard near I .

Originally conceived of as a Chinese restaurant, Lee shifted her thinking after her business partner abruptly departed and left the Tran family not only scammed but in debt, never to be seen again.

The hardship turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

“My mom realized that she needed to do something different ui says. he figured she didn’t have anything anyway — and even more so, we had nothing

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When the Tran family arrived in St. Louis, the whole family worked to make it. | ANDY PAULISSEN and debt. It was one thing to not have anything, but it was another to not have anything and be in the hole. So, she decided to do Vietnamese food with whatever ingredients she could find. It was very difficult but that was the start of

Vietnamese food in St. Louis.”

Mai Lee was not a hit right out of the gate, not because of the quality or taste of the food, but because St. Louis diners were simply unfamiliar with Vietnamese cuisine and, at the time, not all that likely to

Linda Tran. | ANDY PAULISSEN

Hand-formed pork dumplings. | ANDY PAULISSEN

Muc Xao Gion: crispy calamari stir fried with green peppers, scallions and red chili peppers. Served with a special pepper lemon sauce atop lettuce, tomatoes and onions. | ANDY PAULISSEN branch out of their comfort zones.

For three years, Lee and her family toiled away to make ends meet until their luck changed thanks to then-St. Louis Post-Dispatch food critic Joe Pollack.

“It wasn’t until late September of ’87 that Joe Pollack made his review, saying that he had never had Vietnamese food before, but

that this was some of the greatest food he’d ever eaten,” Qui recalls.

“My mom couldn’t speak English and didn’t know who Joe Pollack was, but after that article came out, business started to pick up. It was eight years of struggling and having nothing and trying to learn a language but finally in things started to turn around.”

After Pollack’s review, business not only turned around; it exploded. Mai Lee became wildly popular, spawning an interest in Vietnamese food in particular, as well as serving as one of the catalysts for opening St. Louis diners’ minds to cuisines from around the world. It was all hands on deck for the Tran family, and Qui

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found himself balancing his parents’ seemingly conflicting wishes of having him help with the family business but go to college and get a job outside of the industry.

As the success poured in, he knew Mai Lee was his destiny, even if he did not yet know exactly how that would play out.

In seeing how overwor ed and tired his mom was, Qui took on more responsibility in the restaurant, and a couple of years later, he decided to leave school to throw himself fully into the business. Livid, his parents refused to talk to him for a long time after that because they were so disappointed.

“I told them, ‘What do you expect?’ I lived at this place 24 hours a day, and I didn’t have time to go to college because I was working all the time,” Qui says. “If I did get a degree, I was just going to come back and work, so it was pointless.

But coming from Vietnam, my parents were uneducated, didn’t go to school and couldn’t speak the language, so for them it was a huge blow, because I would’ve been the first in my entire family to finish college and I decided not to and to roll spring rolls.”

Qui may have rolled many a spring roll, but he also was instrumental in taking Mai Lee to a level that few restaurants achieve.

Thanks to his gregarious demeanor and knack for relationships, he became close friends with some of the biggest names in the city’s

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MAI LEE

Continued from pg 21

culinary scene. From working alongside each other at events to mutually supporting one another’s businesses, these relationships helped not only their own restaurants grow, but they created a supportive hospitality community that set the stage for the growth of the St. Louis restaurant scene into what it is today.

That support would be crucial when Qui made the decision in 2010 to move Mai Lee from its original home in University City to a brand-new commercial development in Brentwood. Though he admits 99 percent of his restaurant friends and regulars told him it was a terrible location, he felt deep down that it was the right move. Thankfully, his gamble paid off.

“It was a scary move taking out loans and knowing I could be the one to tank the family business,” Qui says. “I’m a little bit fearless, but not completely, because if this thing fell through, I would be the biggest failure on the planet — not only did I not finish college but I’d be the one to bankrupt the entire family. The pressure and anxiety

Lee Tran still works in the kitchen at Mai Lee every day. | ANDY PAULISSEN were there.”

Eleven years after that decision Mai Lee is as successful as ever, and has cemented itself in the pantheon of St. Louis’ most beloved restaurants. And it’s not only St. Louisans that recognize Mai Lee’s greatness; in 2020, the restaurant was nominated for

the James Beard Foundation’s Outstanding Restaurant award, a national honor that recognizes the best of the best in the country.

Qui still has a hard time believing that Mai Lee received such an accolade, never taking its success for granted or losing sight of the hard work and dedication his

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family poured into the restaurant to make it what it is today.

Qui believes that is the thing about Mai Lee that resonates with people: the personal touch that every last guest who comes in the restaurant receives. One of the reasons he feels it is so important to uplift other restaurants is because he knows there are other mom-and-pop places in town that may not get the same accolades but should be equally celebrated for bringing joy into people’s lives, year after year. That he has been able to do that for his guests all these years is the biggest award he could receive.

“I think a restaurant can put out great food, but it has to have a soul,” Qui says. “Even though we are in an era of high-tech, the restaurant business is still hightouch. It’s still about how you treat people and how they feel when they come to your place.

I’m very appreciative all the time, because money is a sacred thing, and when they spend it with me and my family, I am very humbled because they don’t have to do it.

I always try to say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ to them for coming in, and I am genuinely appreciative of every single person who walks through those doors.” n

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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[OPINION]

A Better Approach Missouri’s marijuana legalization efforts should learn from the legal hemp industry Written by

MICHAEL DESMOND This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.

M

arijuana reform in Missouri has been a hotly contested topic since at least 2016, as thousands of entrepreneurs and commercial entities have competed for access to commercial licensing.

In 2018, the New Approach Missouri campaign won the support of 66 percent of Missouri voters to put a medical marijuana program into the state’s Constitution. In 2020, controversy erupted as roughly 85 percent of 2,200 medical marijuana commercial licenses applications were denied.

Some applicants lost tens of thousands of dollars in application fees to the state and hundreds of thousands of dollars to consulting firms promising top tier application writing services.

To me this whole system seems irredeemably inefficient and corrupt. Worse, the New Approach Missouri campaign — now calling itself Legal Missouri 2022 — is proposing a similar approach to recreational marijuana licensing.

While others have discussed the licensing issues at length, I have an unique perspective on why these approaches are nonsensical — I’m licensed to legally grow cannabis in Missouri under the agricultural hemp law passed in 2018.

Under federal law, hemp is cannabis with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (aka delta-9 THC), and marijuana is cannabis with more than 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol. In 2018, President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, which

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The 2018 Farm bill, signed into law by Trump, paved the way for delta-8 by legalizing industrial hemp. | TOMMY CHIMS removed hemp from the federal Controlled Substances Act and created a regulatory architecture that allowed states to run their own hemp programs under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In 2019, Missouri opened their hemp program and currently there are more than 300 licensed hemp producers and manufacturers in the state of Missouri. Most farmers currently are producing hemp flower for cannabidiol (CBD) or other exotic cannabinoid products, although I believe the long term potential for this crop to be in industrial seed and fiber products.

Because the federal Controlled Substances Act does not prohibit isomers (identically composed compounds differentiated by molecular structure) of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, a federally legal market has sprung up for delta-8 and delta-10 tetrahydrocannabinol as the 2018 Farm Bill legalized products derived from hemp (both delta-8 and delta-10 THC can be created by a chemical conversion from CBD).

Hence Missouri already has legal THC, albeit delta-8 or delta-10 THC products, pervasively available at headshops, convenience stores and other retail venues. In Kansas City, a retailer in the Westport district openly markets “Le-

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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gal THC – No medical card needed – Ask us how.”

Delta-8 and delta-10 THC products exhibit extremely similar effects to the currently prohibited delta-9 THC, including intoxication for those who haven’t built up a significant tolerance. et there are no significant concerns with impaired driving, licensing or any other issues associated with the controversy over legalizing marijuana and delta-9 THC. Opponents of free market marijuana licensing cite Oregon and Oklahoma’s saturated marijuana markets as cautionary tales against unfettered marijuana commerce. However, this situation is solely a function of federal prohibition, and once Congress passes federal marijuana legalization these issues will vanish.

Currently, Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina has proposed such reforms with the States Reform Act. In the Senate, Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has proposed similar policies. Hopefully, there will be a bipartisan compromise that emerges so that the federal government will finally get out of the way on these issues.

In Missouri, the experience of our hemp farmers has shown us that it’s possible to produce and retail intoxicating delta-8 and delta-10 THC products without

controversy or public safety issues. However, special interest groups claiming to represent the marijuana industry are currently spending millions of dollars over competing visions of marijuana licensing through the ballot initiative process.

From an equity standpoint, both current marijuana legalization ballot initiative campaigns want to create new possession limits and possession charges, including felonies. One campaign even wants to create a constitutional mandate that marijuana felons serving time in prison can’t be released or have their offenses expunged until their sentences have been fully served, while a small group of commercial marijuana licensees make tens of millions of dollars a year in a market where new entrants can’t enter in any meaningful way.

These are all weighty issues and deserve consideration, but the special interests running ballot initiative campaigns have no interest in hearing perspectives from stakeholders with differing opinions like mine. However there is an alternative — the elected representatives of the people of Missouri can consider these issues and act in the best interests of Missouri ahead of any of these flawed proposals ma ing the ovember 2022 ballot. n

CULTURE

banned the Outlaw — volume two, number two, page four. “The minutes of the April 5th Board meeting describe the Outlaw as ‘a radical and obscene newspaper,’” it notes. “Alderman Harloe is down on record as opposing ‘the sale of pornography and filth.’

But many found value in an alternative press. The stranglehold on U.S. media made no room for reporting on union busting, the disabled welfare recipients march, women’s liberation, abortion rights or the imperative to let one’s frea flag fly.

“Nobody could sell out, because no one was buying,” Lipsitz says.

The Outlaw held open editorial meetings, he recalls — many held in Wash U’s Holmes Lounge. In the middle of a discussion during one meeting, a long-haired newcomer’s pockets started to squawk — the undercover cop forgot to turn his radio off. “There was obvious surveillance,” Lipsitz says.

[HISTORY]

Left to Their Own Devices Remembering the St. Louis Outlaw, the Gateway City’s premiere 1970s counterculture publication Written by

DEVIN THOMAS O’SHEA

T

rolling through newspaper archives for the good stuff can take months or years. The quirky, the weird, the offbeat is always buried in the backlog, in the rubble of a thousand columns on cat parades and debutante balls. That’s not the case for the St. Louis Outlaw, a homegrown counterculture magazine running from 1970 to late 1972.

Physical issues of the magazine are hard to come by these days, but local historian Mark Loehrer has gone out of his way to digitize and host 27 issues in a public, free-to-download Dropbox (head to this link to check it out for yourself: bit.ly/3qpemMH).

As an affiliate of the iberation News Service, the Outlaw was a New Left, anti-war underground magazine written and produced

by St. Louisans. Liberation News was a press distribution network providing local publications like the Outlaw with national bulletins, photographs and illustrations — especially cool are the drawings from the underground comix movement. R. Crumb cartoons punctuate the Outlaw’s columns.

Many contributors were civil rights activists, women’s liberationists and members of the Washington University chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. Most of the writing comes from young people trying to find their way through political chaos, war and entrenched bigotry on a local scale. ou can find the still relevant question “Who Controls The Loop” in volume two, number eight, page fourteen.

To get an idea of the political moment that birthed the Outlaw, one month after the first edition

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For a few short years, the St. Louis Outlaw chronicled the city from a radical leftist viewpoint. | SCREENSHOT ran in April 1970, the National Guard shot four college students at Kent State. They were guilty of protesting the Vietnam War. One day later, on May 5, 1970, St. Louis protestors torched the ROTC building on the Wash U campus.

One of the Outlaw editors, Devereux Kennedy, served as Wash U’s student assembly president, and was questioned in the aftermath of the T building fire.

Kennedy was a member of the W.E.B. DuBois Society and SDS while the FBI conducted illegal monitoring through COINTELPRO. In the first volume of the Outlaw, page seven, Kennedy’s “Chicago Comes to St. Louis” discusses the legal aftermath of the T fire.

Professor George Lipsitz, previously an editor and writer at the Outlaw and now a professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, describes the readership as “long-haired kids hanging out in front of the Magic Market.” It was young people who were angry with the dominance of plain white suburban culture, the war in Viet-

nam and a world teetering on the edge of nuclear annihilation.

With all the buttoned-up sanctimony of the mainstream media — which constantly lied about Vietnam — the Outlaw searched for alternatives. Nothing was permanent, there was a broad range of subject matter, and would it kill you to crack a joke now and then? One page advocated pissing on Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell; another features a record review by Marvel Wand; on the next, a female reader calls out a male reviewer of Klute (1971) from the last Outlaw edition: “Why is it so hard for men to admit that the situation of prostitutes are merely the more emphasized side of the lives of many women in this society?”

Some parents of subscribers to the Outlaw found the publication in their mailbox and complained that the post office was delivering degenerate filth. In T you can read the editorial response when Manchester, Missouri’s oard of Aldermen unofficially

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M

any considered Fred Faust the lead editor for the Outlaw; he was a homegrown south-city boy, an Eagle Scout and a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War who sat during the pledge of allegiance at Busch Stadium. Norman Pressman, who was a fellow editor of Washington University’s Student Life alongside Faust, tells RFT that Faust once got arrested while selling the Outlaw at the South County Center, but it was on purpose.

Faust was trying to produce antiwar documentation. His father was a candy salesman, his mother a secretary for the board of education, and Faust had a draft number — he was not a senator’s son.

To get himself in a better draft position, Faust left St. Louis in late 1972 bound for Oakland, California. There, he received an induction notice, but the U.S. attorney in San Francisco wasn’t prosecuting every case, and Faust escaped the war.

Naturally, the war in Vietnam occupies many of the Outlaw’s pages. Toward the end, “St. Charles GI Says No” runs in volume two, number eleven, page two. The article covers Sgt. Bruce Porter, who became a conscientious objector after working on aircraft like the F-4C Phantom that dropped heavy bombs and napalm on Vietnam.

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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OUTLAW

Continued from pg 25

Pressman says that Faust’s leaving St. Louis ultimately ended the Outlaw, but many stories are still relevant. Take, for example, the article “Peabody Coal Crosses the Great Spirit — Navajos Burn Shit in LA” from volume two, number twelve, page seven: Peabody Coal is still headquartered in downtown St. Louis, and polluted huge tracts of Native American holy lands with cancerous strip-mining runoff.

Need some sports commentary from a left perspective? Check out “Get High On SPORTS Not Drugs” from the last page of volume two, number nine.

Wondering how long the cops have wielded a free license for violence against everyday citizens?

“Cops Protect Wife Beater” by Sterling and Lucifer is in volume one, number four. “ACTION Report Assails Police” is on page thirteen of volume one, number six. “Workhouse Lets Loose” documents prisoner uprisings in August 1971.

“Women’s Bodies: Contraception and Conception” in volume two, number nine, page nine reviews the basics of a woman’s reproductive system, The Pill and Margaret Sanger’s birth-control movement as a means for achieving a “vigorous, constructive, liberated morality which would prevent the submergence of womanhood into motherhood.”

The ads, too, are worth a look: Readers seem to have been obsessed with pants. There’s the Lower Half, Foxmoor, Pant Pit, R’ Pants. There are bell-bottom jeans, button fly slac s flair dress slac s all kinds of trousers, and plenty of belts, vests and hippie garb from Gypsy Cowboy on North Euclid.

KSHE, “Frantic Free Radio,” was especially keen to advertise Gary Bennett, seven to midnight.

Akashic Record Shop, Streetside Records, the Melody Mart, the lew use. et a ava fix at leur De Lis or Archduke Coffee House.

The Spec Shop sold “unusual eyeglasses” on Laclede, and of course you could pick up the Outlaw at Left Bank Books, which always ran an ad alongside O’Connell’s Pub. Plenty of head shops marketed their goods. Postbellum and the General Store sold Head Foam for unbelievably low prices. The “Dope Scope” column attempted to print information on the available pot in town “as accurately as possible,” but some of the most vibrant art in the Outlaw are the ads for the Spectrum head shop.

Each is a postcard from a strange

psychedelic zone inside a building at 8153 Big Bend.

T

he Outlaw was, and remains, a valuable lens by which to view the sociopolitical issues of its time from a left perspective. No matter what high school you went to, history class didn’t teach the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 or the burning of the ROTC building — but if you were an Outlaw reader, you knew about such events. A lot of radical history in St. Louis is invisible, but Walter Johnson’s Broken Heart of America is very close to a people’s history of the city. The book is a pathbreaking account of class struggle, racism and emancipatory movements in the Gateway City, from Benton Barracks (now Fairground Park) as the symbolic center of Black freedom during the Civil War, to the unemployment marches of the 1930s, to Percy Green and the ACTION protesters pulling off the Veiled Prophet’s hood.

Where the Arch now stands, Johnson notes, there were “places where the poets and the radicals had met and conspired during the years of the Depression.” There were clusters of riverfront bars, coffeehouses and squats once known as the Greenwich Village of the West, but Mayor Bernard Dickmann couldn’t stand that Black-communist-bohemian alliance which had demonstrated outside (sometimes inside) his office throughout the s. The Outlaw, and the writers and editors who published it, could be seen as spiritual descendents of that alliance. Lipsitz says the Outlaw was a valuable tool for responding to chaos. No matter how much doom, lies and war came along, there were people trying to articulate some alternative in the pages of the Outlaw.

Because of a photocopying quirk, the first issue’s guiding statement is a little hard to read. But here’s a few quotes from it, written for the

Outlaw by the poet Jerry Martien: “We are all Outlaws in the eyes of Amerika — so says a song by the Jefferson Airplane. It seems true.

“Amerika was once an outlaw, but then called Thomas Paine an outlaw for saying so. John Brown was an outlaw because he acted against the slavery of men’s bodies and minds. Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce was an outlaw when he acted on the belief that free people are not to be subjects of the laws of exploitation.

“The outlaws. All the quiet people at the end of their rope, the whimsical old men, the crazy kids, the smashers of tv sets in the night, the refusers of taxes or pills or social workers or school, the underground priest, the makers of pure acid and mind-expanding dope, those who make and live change, you and me, and all such freaks and saints and tragic and comic heroes, the insane or the very sane, us — we may all be outlaws, and Amerika may again be ours.” n

[OPENINGS]

Make the Grove Gay Again New St. Louis LGBTQ bar finds home in the Grove, opens in early 2022 Written by

JENNA JONES

P

rominent St. Louis gay bars, like Attitudes Nightclub, have closed over the past year, but four people are hoping to create a new space for the LGBTQ community when Prism STL opens in early 2022.

The newest LGBTQ bar in St. Louis will take residence in the Monocle’s former building at 4510 Manchester Avenue.

Divided up into three sections, Prism will have a cocktail lounge, outdoor patio and a cabaret stage that will feature regular drag shows.

Sean and Jack Abernathy, Michael Klataske and Matthew Connell announced their plans in a press release, saying they hope Prism will become “another anchor in the Grove for the queer community to call home.” The Abernathys, a husbandand-husband duo, will become the bar managers, with the Sean acting as the bar’s compliance officer. Klataske — who performed in the local drag scene for 25 years by the name of Jade Sinclair — will take the role of cabaret manager and organize events for the cabaret stage in the back of the building, and Connell is the bar’s accountant.

Matthew Connell, Michael Klataske, Jack Abernathy and Sean Abernathy are opening a new LGBTQ bar in the Grove. | COURTESY PRISM STL Sean Abernathy says in a press release that a bar concept like Prism will keep the Grove a welcoming, diverse neighborhood and gives people “a place to step away from their problems, even for a night.”

“My husband and I have worked in the St. Louis bar industry for years, and we’ve seen how the closings of places like Attitudes, JJ’s Clubhouse, and Novak’s impacted the people in our community,” Abernathy adds in the press release. “Each time, we lose another safe space for us to gather and freely express ourselves — an occurrence that isn’t just happening in St. Louis but across the country.”

Prism is also revamping its building’s look with a decision to ditch the Monocle’s dark color palette for a brighter, yet still comfortable, appearance, interior designer Nathan Bleidt says. Bleidt also adds the cabaret room, named the Jade Room, will have an “old school glamour”

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feel. A floor-to-ceiling mural dedicated to a burlesque performer will remain, however, as well as the overall layout of the bar. An expansion to the downstairs prep room for entertainers and drag queens is also in the works.

Klataske says after 25 successful years in drag, opening the bar and cabaret room is “an opportunity to serve the community that has embraced me by helping to mentor the next generation of drag queens and show directors.”

Expected hours for Prism are 3 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. daily. Drag shows will take place on Friday and Saturday nights beginning at 10 p.m., featuring a variety of performers and show directors, and the owners “fully expect” to be able to expand the schedule and include weekday drag shows, eventually aiming for daily drag events. Signature cocktails named after bar staff and entertainers, as well as daily drink specials, will also be available. n

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OUT EVERY NIGHT

W

hile it seems like the omicron variant is getting all the gigs this year, there are still ways to enjoy live events in a safe and socially distanced manner.

Local music standouts for the next week include an acoustic set with Bruiser Queen at the Venice Cafe on Thursday, a birthday bash for Mo Egeston at the Blue Strawberry on Friday and a special in-store performance by LePonds at the Music Record Shop on Saturday. Maybe you’ve heard the verse “wear a mask” or the resounding chorus of “get the vaccine” — many of these spots require proof of vaccination and/or a recent negative COVID test, so be prepared. Also, a disclaimer: Due to the record number of new infections not only locally, but nationwide, that cool concert that you were looking forward to might get canceled at the last minute. We recommend calling or double-checking the venue’s website before you make the trip.

THURSDAY 6

BRUISER QUEEN: w/ Suzie Cue, Ellen Hilton Cook 8 p.m., $5. Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi St., St. Louis, 314-772-5994.

JOSIAH JOYCE: w/ Drew Weiss 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

MAJESTIC LABS: w/ Sleach, YJ, Sneff, Zerek Doolvnder 9 p.m., $10. Broadway Boat Bar, 1424 North Broadway, St. Louis, (314) 703-0616.

THE OWEN RAGLAND TRIO: w/ Mars Sinclair 7:30 p.m., $15-$20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

UNWED SAILOR: w/ Overnighter 8 p.m., $10-$12.

The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

FRIDAY 7

ALLIGATOR WINE: 9 p.m., free. Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi St., St. Louis, 314-772-5994.

AUSTIN JONES: 9 p.m., free. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 . ingshighway nd floor t. ouis .

DAVE KALZ: w/ Tony Campanella 7 p.m., $15-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

FRESH PRODUCE BEAT BATTLE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND: w/ DJ VThom, Matthew Sawicki 9:30 p.m., free. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

FRY PROJECT: 7 p.m., free. Great Grizzly Bear, 1027 Geyer Ave., St. Louis, 314-231-0444.

THE GROOVELINER: w/ Ryan Torpea and the Shaky Hands 10 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

JAKE AND THE TRUCKERS: 8:30 p.m., free. Game 6 Honky Tonk Joint, 756 S. 4th Street, St. Louis, (314) 925-8868.

JIM MANLEY BIRTHDAY BASH: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

THE KASIMU-TET: 9 p.m., $5-$20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

LOBBY BOXER: w/ Inches From Glory, Dialogue 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

MISTER BLACKCAT: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

MO EGESTON ALL STARS BIRTHDAY GROOVE: w/ Robert Nelson 7 p.m., $20-$25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

SCHOOL OF ROCK KIRKWOOD: 6 p.m., $9. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SATURDAY 8

DOGS OF SOCIETY - THE ULTIMATE ELTON ROCK TRIBUTE: 8 p.m., $20-$25. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

KOFFIN KATS: w/ Modern Angst, Nopoint 8 p.m., $15.

Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

LE PONDS: 7 p.m., free. Music Record Shop, 3116 Locust St, St. Louis, MO 63103, St. Louis, 6364976953.

LONESOME DAN KASE: 7 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

MARINER 5: 4:30 p.m., free. Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi St., St. Louis, 314-772-5994.

MARSHA EVANS: 8 p.m., $10-$20. The Dark Room, 3610 Grandel Square inside Grandel Theatre, St. Louis, 314-776-9550.

MOLLY LOVETTE: 8:30 p.m., free. Game 6 Honky Tonk Joint, 756 S. 4th Street, St. Louis, (314) 925-8868.

OASIS TRIBUTE: 7 p.m., $12. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

THE SO SO’S: 8 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

SOCIAL LATIN SATURDAY: w/ DJ Sliq 11 p.m., $20. Oz

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Samantha Fish. | COURTESY THE ARTIS Nightclub, 300 Monsanto Ave., Sauget, 618-274-1464.

ST. LOUIS BANJO CLUB BRUNCH: noon, free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

THROW THE HORNS: w/ the Midnight Devils 8 p.m., $5-$40. Diamond Music Hall, 4105 N Cloverleaf Dr, St. Peters, 636-477-6825.

VELVET GOLDMINE: 8 p.m., $10. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SUNDAY 9

MISS JUBILEE AND THE YAS YAS BOYS: 11:30 a.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

MOONBUZZ: noon, free. Great Grizzly Bear, 1027 Geyer Ave., St. Louis, 314-231-0444.

SCHOOL OF ROCK KIRKWOOD: 3 p.m., $9. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SUDDEN DEATH V RAP BATTLES: w/ KD, MVP, Award, Loso, F Mag, OOOPS, Danni Boi, Chef Trez, XLV, Mr Mill$, Boatshoe Holly, Drop, MERLO 100, HALF BAKED, BISHOP, ANT LOC 5 p.m., $30-$125.

African Palace Bar & Grill, 4005 Seven Hills Drive, Florissant, 314-921-4600.

THAT GIRL BAND: 7:30 p.m., free. 1860 Saloon, Game Room & Hardshell Cafe, 1860 S. Ninth St., St. Louis, 314-231-1860.

MONDAY 10

A$AP BRANDON: 8 p.m., $25. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

SOULARD BLUES BAND: 9 p.m., $5. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

WEDNESDAY 12

JEFF NATIONS: 7:30 p.m., free. Steve’s Hot Dogs, 3145 South Grand, St. Louis.

JOE METZKA: 8 p.m., free. 1860 Saloon, Game Room & Hardshell Cafe, 1860 S. Ninth St., St. Louis, 314-231-1860.

JOEL VANDERHEYDEN: w/ Kara Baldus Mehrmann, Ben Wheeler, Desiree Jones 7:30 p.m., $10-$21. The Harold & Dorothy Steward Center for Jazz, 3536 Washington Ave, St Louis, 314-571-6000.

NATE LOWERY: 8 p.m., free. Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi St., St. Louis, 314-772-5994.

PAT JOYCE: 6:30 p.m., free. Evangeline’s, 512 N. Euclid Ave, St. Louis, 314-367-3644.

POISON RUIN: w/ Cyanides, Freon 8 p.m., $7. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SAMANTHA FISH: w/ Django Knight 8 p.m., $25-$30. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

VOODOO GRATEFUL DEAD ‘87: 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811. n

SAVAGE LOVE VAXXED AND CONFUSED

BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: My boyfriend is male, I am female, and we’ve been together almost three years. We live alone in separate homes, but spend about three or four nights a week together. We’re both fully vaxxed and boosted, and we mask in public, etc. On the Monday before Christmas, I started feeling mild symptoms but tested negative. My boyfriend felt fine, and we spent a few nights together that week. On the morning of Christmas Eve, I take a second at-home test and it’s positive. So, I cancelled plans to see a friend that afternoon and spoke to my boyfriend. Our Christmas Eve plans involved dinner with some of his family members. An hour later he calls and says he tested negative and that he thinks the best thing would be for me to isolate alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He was still planning to go see his family. I burst into tears. He’d already been exposed and if his foremost concern was protecting his family, the logical thing to do would be to minimize contact with them, not me. I couldn’t believe he was going to leave me at home alone over Christmas when we’d already had so much close contact that week.

And he knows that spending holidays together as a couple is important to me! He called me back, we argued, and then he offered to have me come over to his house to sleep in the guest room. Once I’m there, he changes his mind, and we wind up sharing his bed. The next morning, I want to clear the air and he tells me that he was angry about my behavior. He thinks I was being selfish and risked further exposing him. I am really confused and hurt by the way everything has unfolded. Which one of us is being an asshole here?

Flamingly Upset Couple Knows Conflict Over Virus Is Dumb “I’m not going to assign the title of ‘asshole’ to either the letter writer or her boyfriend,” said Dr. Stacy e in a board certified physician who shares sound science about COVID-19 on her invaluable Instagram account. “But there is a clear

public health answer to this uestion: The writer should have isolated away from her boyfriend as soon as she new she was positive and her boyfriend, having known he had a significant exposure should not have attended any family gatherings.”

While Dr. De-Lin doesn’t feel comfortable assigning the title of “asshole” to either of you, FUCKCOVID, I’m gonna go ahead and cut the asshole in half here — in a display of olomonic wisdom and award the title of “asshole” to both of you. But you shouldn’t feel too bad about that, FUCKCOVID, seeing as this never ending pandemic is bringing out the asshole in all of us.

In addition to addressing public health, we also need to address the incredible mental-health toll that nearly two years of a pandemic has taken on all of us,” said Dr. De-Lin. “Many of us longed to see our families and friends and were devastated when those plans were once again upended this year.

Furthermore, the guidance on rapid testing as well as the guidance on what vaccinated folks can and can’t do, has been constantly changing. So, it’s no wonder that her boyfriend still wanted to find a way to see his family and thought he could do so safely, and that the writer didn’t want to be alone on Christmas when I’m sure she was already feeling so isolated.”

And to put things in perspective, FUCKCOVID, it’s not like you punched a flight attendant or said “Let’s go, Brandon!” to Joe and Jill Biden on Christmas Eve. All you did was get upset. And you were right about one thing: If your boyfriend was gonna see anyone on Christmas Eve, it should’ve been you. Considering how much time you’d spent together after you became symptomatic but before testing positive you could reasonably argue that if you were going to expose him you’d already exposed him. o in the spirit of harm reduction, he could’ve and should’ve cancelled his plans with his family and spent the holiday with you instead. And that’s what he did, right? So, as much as the suggestion that you spend hristmas alone may have upset you you didn’t spend hristmas alone right?

So, maybe give your asshole boyfriend some credit for that?

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“It’s important to remember that this wave, and the pandemic itself, will get much better, and we will be able to gather with our families and friends again in the ways that we used to, without fear.”

it’s also coming at the worst possible time: the holiday season. So, it’s running rampant through the country and the world, and hospitals are already at the brea ing point ma ing it more important than ever to avoid catching and spreading the virus.

And as difficult as it might seem right now — and it seems mighty difficult ta ing the long view will help us get through this.

It’s important to remember that this wave and the pandemic itself, will get much better, and we will be able to gather with our families and friends again in the ways that we used to, without fear,” said Dr. De-Lin. “In the meantime I hope that the letter writer and her boyfriend, and all of us can be patient and forgiving with each other in these challenging times.”

Follow Dr. Stacy De-Lin on Instagram @stacydelin_md.

All that said, your boyfriend could reasonably argue that you could’ve and should’ve isolated yourself at the onset of your symptoms and not spent multiple nights with him before you predictably tested positive. ut if you were to let go of your anger about him suggesting you spend hristmas alone maybe that would inspire him to let go of his anger about not seeing his family. Because at the end of the day, FUCKCOVID, it was the same desire for human contact that prompted you to put your boyfriend at ris by hanging out with him after the onset of symptoms and prompted your boyfriend to contemplate putting his family at ris by hanging out with them after a significant exposure . o recogni ing your mutual assholery maybe in the spirit of the holiday — you two can forgive each other and move the fuck on.

While I had Dr. De-Lin on the line, I asked her for some advice for all of us assholes on getting through the next wave of this seemingly never ending pandemic. e have ways that we can prevent the spread of the omicron variant: Get vaccinated and boosted isolate when positive or after a high ris exposure wear mas s in indoor settings and eep gatherings outdoors,” she said. “The COVID omicron variant is not only significantly more infectious than any variant we’ve seen so far, but

Hey, Dan: I’m just writing to say thanks. When I was a teenager back in the late 2000s, my head was filled with fantasies of sadism and domination, and I was convinced I was a monster. But I found your column, and every once in a while, you answered a question from someone about hardcore BDSM. No matter how (consensually) cruel and unusual someone’s fantasies were, you always spoke nonjudgmentally about best practices in BDSM safety and wished them well. Yours was the first voice to ever tell me, even indirectly, that my sexual fantasies weren’t the mark of a broken and irredeemably evil mind. It was the first step on the road to learning to love myself. You probably hear that sort of thing from a lot of readers, but even so. I wanted to tell you that your column basically saved my life. I can’t thank you enough.

Savage’s Advice, Dude, It Saved Me

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Thank you for the very sweet note A I and here’s hoping my column didn’t just make you feel better about your fantasies, but also inspired you to go find consenting adult partners who wanted to reali e them with and for you! questions@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savage.love

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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RIVERFRONT TIMES

JANUARY 5-11, 2022

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JANUARY 5-11, 2022

RIVERFRONT TIMES

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