Aimee Levitt

The Cover of the March 21 Print Edition

Presenting St. Lou Fringe's Breakthrough Festival

In this week's feature story, Em Piro Builder, Aimee Levitt presents a collective oral history of Fringe Festivals on the eve of St. Louis' inaugural one. The four-day festival of more than 80 performances from 27 theater, music, performance art and dance acts, St. Lou Fringe's breakthrough season i ... More >>

Another Look at the Central Library's Makeover-in-Progress

One hundred years ago last Friday, the Central Library downtown opened its doors for the first time. They closed them again a year and a half ago for a massive $70 million renovation project that would bring the library into the twenty-first century. The project is still only two-thirds done, but s ... More >>

Sleep-deprived readers discuss Paul Shaw, Groupon

Eat the Cardinals' Rally Squirrel!

Screenshot via​During Game 4 of the division series between the Cardinals and the Phillies, what is quite possibly the greatest instant replay of all time was filmed on local soil. That's right -- the priceless footage of our hometown Rally Squirrel bopping across home plate and fleeing into t ... More >>

RFT Wins Big in Journalism Contests

Tom Carlson was honored for his work on "Gay Divorcees," along with two other RFT covers.​Art Director Tom Carlson and staff writer Aimee Levitt are big winners in two recent journalism contests.Carlson won first place for cover design in the large newspaper category at the contest sponsored by th ... More >>

The Cinnamon Roll at Square One Brewery

Aimee Levitt​The idea of going to a microbrewery for Sunday brunch brings to mind the Replacements song "Beer for Breakfast." It begins, "All I wanna do is drink beer for breakfast/All I wanna eat is them barbecue chips" and ends, "Halle-fucking-lujah, I'm a bum!" It really is a wonderful song ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Jeff Smith Is No Gandhi

Today's comment of the day comes in response to Aimee Levitt's post about disgraced former pol Jeff Smith writing a book about what he learned in jail. Since Smith wasn't exactly innocent in the scandal that sent him packing, reader "Never Know" had this question:Hey Kids! Which of the following doe ... More >>

First Prairie Chickens, Now Elk: A Look at the Dept. of Conservation's Latest Project

courtesy the Missouri Department of ConservationThe majestic elk...sort of like the ones that will be arriving in MIssouri next week.​Elk have not lived in Missouri since Abraham Lincoln was president. (Since 1865, for those of you keeping score at home.) For mere humans, that's a really, re ... More >>

This Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

Aimee Levitt​This week was that of the Great Gut Check Matzo Tasting. Aimee Levitt ran a series of tests on various matzot to determine a champion based on criterion such as flavor, texture and swallowability. What else did we do this week? We prepared for Easter with a Battle Gourmet Jell ... More >>

Readers fight back against Amazon and question whether liberalism reigns at Left Bank Books

Preview: The New Taste

Aimee Levitt​The official opening for the new Taste at 4584 Laclede Avenue is next Monday, February 28, but the recently relocated-from-Benton-Park spot staged an impromptu soft opening this past Thursday, February 17, in order to accommodate a visiting editor from Food & Wine who was coming i ... More >>

This Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

Askinosie Chocolate Sean Askinosie with a farmer in Tanzania.​This week, Missouri's two bean-to-bar chocolate makers each made news with some fantastic recognition: Patric Chocolate won a Good Food Award from Slow Food Nation, while Askinosie Chocolate traveled to Tanzania and put itself o ... More >>

Kosher Soul Food: The Recipes

Aimee Levitt​On a recent morning, Andria Simckes and her mother Evelyn Lard invited Gut Check to Simckes' Creve Coeur kitchen to give us a crash course in their specialty: kosher soul food. The results were delicious. They were kind enough to provide recipes, but Gut Check declines to take res ... More >>

Kosher Soul Food: Uncommonly Delicious!

Aimee LevittAndria Simckes (right) and her mother, Evelyn Lard, might be the only two kosher soul-food cooks in St. Louis.​Few cuisines would appear to be as incompatible -- nay, irreconcilable -- as kosher food and soul food. It's not that Jews don't have soul -- it's just that they're strong ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Marriage Is Stupid

Today's comment comes in response to a months-old blog post by Aimee Levitt: "Never-Married Women in Their 30s Are Total Losers, Mizzou Study Finds."Surprisingly, our commenter is not defending those shriveled-up spinsters that our headline seems to be insulting (but really isn't, if you actually re ... More >>

Meatless Mondays Boost Restaurant Sales

Meatless Mondays have become a boon to restaurants. New York Magazine looks at how the slowest night of the restaurant week is becoming one of the hottest, thanks to the increasing trendiness of veggies and high-end restaurants doing interesting things with them for Monday dinner.Grocery stores are ... More >>

Mills Apple Farm vs. Blue Springs Cafe: The Great Illinois Pie Fight

​You'd think this fight would be a slam-dunk KO, given that Riverfront Times just declared that Mills Apple Farm produces the Best Pie in St. Louis. But, well, we at Gut Check really love to eat pie. Plus we were inspired by this article in the New York Times Magazine about PieLab, a community ... More >>

Top Ten 90s Fashion WTFs

What in the name of Ian Ziering's mullet were we smoking?​When a wise man concluded that there's nothing new under the sun, he had to have been mulling American fashion. We've been recycling the same trends, give or take an accessory or two, for nearly 70 years. Hence the all-too-predictable 1980s ... More >>

Readers clang on about the Loop's new trolley and new bike laws

SLU Challenges Wash. U. Rabbit With Topiary Billiken

Aimee LevittThe topiary billiken stands proud before the Busch Student Center.​Impressive, yes. But probably requires far more maintenance (except in cases of bunny vandalism).

Something stinks: Cops take aim at dogs (again) and complaints persist over E. coli in waterways

The Morning Brew: 6.18

CNN reports that 15 million pounds of Spaghetti-O's with Meatballs have been recalled. Campbell's Soup Co. issued the recall because the product might have been "under-processed". Thanks to Aimee Levitt for picking this story. Slashfood reports/warns that The Ice Cream Store in Rehoboth Beach, De ... More >>

RFT readers debate Teabonics and speculate on splinters at the City Museum

Radioactive Waste: Some readers think Larry Burgan's lawsuit is frivolous

RFT readers have nostalgia for Northwest Plaza, hope for Larry Burgan and Doug Lindsay

Animated Characters: Con-goers insist that yaoi ain't yucky

Who's Up for a Game of "Spin the Gun"?

This image was shot during Bishie Con, the subject of this week's RFT feature story by Aimee Levitt, who informs us that the gun was a prop from someone's costume.Consider this your open-caption contest:Photo: Jennifer SilverbergSee more photos from Bishie Con here.​

For some readers, stuffed dead squirrels were a little too real, and a tea-party protester was a little too fake

Gold digging, meat Match-ing and Obama's pants

Match Points: Readers chew on Match meat and tea parties

Readers turn a critical eye toward the city and its ass clowns, then praise Citygarden

This Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

Don't forget: You have until the end of the day Monday to vote in our first Fight Club Sandwich contest, the Battle of the Burgers. As I write this, the match-up of O'Connell's Pub and Seamus McDaniel's is winning rather handily. Also: The documentary Food, Inc. opens at the Tivoli today. Aimee Levi ... More >>

Viva la Vida: Readers question our ethics and our stance on El Borracho

This Week in RFT, April 8 - April 14

Our feature story this week, "Death Watch," is a must-read for anyone who has wondered about assisted suicide, the changing ways in which it is practiced, and the ethical and moral questions it raises. This engrossing story by RFT writer Aimee Levitt focuses on the Final Exit Network, a ra ... More >>

The Week in Gut Check

We can't wait for movies in the courtyard this summer, either!Well, a few hours have passed, and the Map Room Fan Club has yet to take issue with my post teasing their excitement about the new Benton Park spot. Stay tuned, though: I don't think we've heard the last of them!What else found its way in ... More >>

Video: A Night at Culver's with Balloon Performer Thad James

St. Louis balloon artist Thad James is one of the balloonatics profiled by the RFT's Aimee Levitt in this week's issue (which hit many news boxes this afternoon.) To accompany the feature story, James, who goes by "Sammy J" during his balloon-twisting gigs around the Metro area, allowed us to d ... More >>

Bad Dog: A reader sends the RFT to obedience school over our story on puppy mills

Bear Market Sandwich Extravaganza: Stouffer's Corner Bistro Southwest-Style Chicken Panini

This week the Bear Market embarks on a great adventure: the sandwich. Last weekend we bought a stack of frozen grocery store panini and flatbread and stockpiled them in the RFT freezer. Barring theft, we will try out a new one every day this week.Our earliest memory of the workplace lunch was the s ... More >>

Cooking for Your Cat: Thanksgiving Feast

RFT staff writer Aimee Levitt and her cat, Bess, continue their culinary adventure. Were there cats on the Mayflower? There must have been, if only to chase mice, but I can't ever recall hearing about them, even back in elementary school when my teachers did their best to sweeten up the Thanksgivi ... More >>

The Bear Market: Costco Take-N-Bake Pizza

We could pretend that going to the supermarket is a new kind of adventure now that times are tight. Shopping trips become infinitely more exciting when you add the element of mental calculation. It's almost like going on The Price is Right, except without Bob Barker. How much food can you get for 2 ... More >>

Cooking for Your Cat: Batter Blaster

Cooking for Your Cat: Starbucks Perfect Oatmeal

The RFT gets some sage advice from a Los Angeles-based pickup artist coach

A Recipe for Trout Cooked in Horse Manure

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