Clayton

Seven Great Summer Cocktails Available at St. Louis Bars, Restaurants

There's a certain kind of understated pleasure that can come from cracking open a twelve-pack in your own back yard as the Cardinals game buzzes in the background. But as we dive headlong into summer, lots of local restaurants and bars are celebrating the warmer temps with carefully curated cocktail ... More >>

A New Bromance: Bar Les Frères is a welcome addition to the Zoë restaurant family

Slideshow: Inside Bar Les Frères in Clayton

St. Louis Restaurant Openings & Closings: March 2013

Relocation was the theme in March, with four St. Louis restaurants announcing their closures to move to new digs. Among them was Adam and Jason Tilford's Clayton excellent Clayton pub and soccer-watching hotspot Barrister's, which is moving to another Clayton location, the former home of Mazara at 7 ... More >>

Wydown Middle School Students Launch Campaign to Ban Plastic Bags in Clayton

There are approximately 16,000 residents of Clayton. If each of them throws away eighteen plastic bags a year, they would collectively generate enough oil to drive a car around the equator 17.8 times. Why anybody would want to do that is a complete mystery, but this factoid, generated by a group of ... More >>

Clayton Butt Groper: Creepiest Composite Sketch Ever?

Lookout Des Peres serial hugger. You've got competition. Clayton police  are on the lookout for a serial butt groper. The suspect has struck on at least three occasions -- August 25, September 14 and October 6 -- by walking up to women from behind and, uh, squeezing the same. Each time the man ... More >>

Fake Cop Assault Story a Fake

So the story that unidentified woman told about being pulled over in Clayton by a man who looked like a police officer, and was then punched in the face and dragged out her car by the guy? Yeah, the woman now says she made it up.Personally, I'm disappointed. I really liked the part of her tale where ... More >>

Woman Pulled Over and Punched By Man in Uniform in Clayton

A woman told police she was driving through Clayton at 8 a.m. this morning when what she thought was a police car pulled her over near the intersection of Hanley Road and Polo Drive. The car had flashing lights and a spotlight, and the man who got out was wearing a gray shirt with an oval badge and ... More >>

Ten Best Food Events This Weekend: June 1-3

Friday (June 1): Friday Night Patio Dinner @ Bevo Mill Warm up to summer weather with seasonal entrees prepared weekly using Soulard Farmers' Market goods by owner and executive chef Milan Manjencich every Friday night from now through the fall. Expect plenty of German dishes such as beef schnitzel ... More >>

A new fast-casual concept — the "Urban Bake & Chop Shop" — draws crowds in Clayton

Crushed Red Opens in Clayton

After a soft opening this weekend, Crushed Red officially debuted today at 8007 Maryland Avenue in Clayton. (The space was formerly home to Blick Art Materials; as you might guess, the renovation has been thorough.) Crushed Red is the latest venture from restaurateur Chris LaRocca (perhaps best kno ... More >>

Ten Best Food Events This Weekend: January 27-January 29

Friday (Jan. 27): Oyster and Crab Leg Festival @ Broadway Oyster Bar Enjoy Gulf oysters at the peak of their sweet goodness in addition to crab legs from Alaska in special dishes such as barbecue adobo oysters, thai sesame oysters, fried crab stuffed oysters and dungeness crab. Friday, January 27 ... More >>

The Five Best Places in St. Louis to Have a Cup of Coffee

​Today is National Coffee Day. Of course, at Gut Check International Headquarters, every day is coffee day, but if we must dedicate this one gorgeous September Thursday to the beverage that fuels our work, then so be it.Already this week, we honored Kaldi's Coffee Roasting Company in the Riverfron ... More >>

Food Trucks Organize to Gain Access to Clayton

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Half & Half Opens for Breakfast and Lunch in Clayton

​Half & Half, a new breakfast and lunch spot from The Good Pie owner Mike Randolph, opened this morning at 8135 Maryland Avenue in Clayton. The restaurant held a friends-and-family soft opening this weekend, and a Gut Check operative passed along a copy of the menu.The menu is difficult to enc ... More >>

Clayton Gets Vito Rancanelli's Mad Tomato

Robin WheelerMad Tomato in Clayton​ If there's any doubt that Vito Rancanelli, Jr. is using fresh, local food at Mad Tomato, his new venture in Clayton, just spend a few minutes in the dining room at lunchtime. First, a farmer with a young daughter arrives, carrying a case of fresh asparagus. ... More >>

Mad Tomato Opens in Clayton Tomorrow, May 10

Ian FroebMad Tomato, a new restaurant in Clayton​Mad Tomato, the new Italian restaurant from chef Vito Racanelli Jr. (Onesto Pizza and Trattoria, the late Big V's Burger Joint), will open its doors at 8000 Carondelet Avenue in Clayton at 11 a.m. tomorrow, May 10.The lunch menu offers pizzas, panin ... More >>

Byrd Style Lounge Relaunch Tonight

Mr. Dior himself will not be there, but his work will.​Sometimes, only a $3,000 vintage Christian Dior frock will do. Other times, plunking down a couple sawbucks on a sundress from the '60s will scratch your sartorial itch just fine. And after tonight's super-swank relaunch party at Byrd Style Lo ... More >>

Lawsuit Challenging Clayton Smoking Ban in Public Parks Cites Groucho Marx, Peace Pipes

Outdoor smoking bans? Groucho would not approve, or would he?​Civil liberties attorney Bevis Schock yesterday followed through with his plan first reported last month by Daily RFT. Schock has filed a federal lawsuit against Clayton, challenging the St. Louis suburb's smoking ban in public parks. T ... More >>

Lawsuit In Works Challenging Clayton Smoking Ban in Public Parks

Live in Clayton and hate the smoking ban in parks? Call this guy at 314-726-2322.​The 25-page complaint against the city of Clayton is already written and ready to be filed in federal court. All attorney Bevis Schock needs now is a couple more plaintiffs. "I have one person confirmed, but would li ... More >>

St. Louis Ritz-Carlton Offers Most Creative Interpretation Yet of Smoking Ban Rules

The Ritz-Carlton Lyin Lion​The Post-Dispatch reports this morning that the St. Louis Ritz-Carlton has become Clayton's first business ticketed for violating the city's smoking ban that went into effect last July. The pricey hotel received the citation Saturday while hosting its annual Cigar Club p ... More >>

St. Louis Happy Hours: Clayton

More on Tom and Beth Boggs -- Attorneys Targeted in South City Bombing

​Investigators don't know if a bombing Friday of a home near Carondelet Park could be tied to a 2006 murder, though they're not ruling it out. Two pipe bombs blew up shortly after 1 a.m. October 1 outside the home of Tom and Beth Boggs, the husband and wife law partners that operate the Clayton-ba ... More >>

Il Vicino, Sansai in Clayton Shuttered by Fire -- Temporarily

Il Vicino's Clayton location has been closed since a small fire led to water damage Monday.​ A small fire Monday -- which neighbors say involved a flue in Il Vicino's kitchen -- has temporarily shuttered two Clayton eateries.Sansai and Il Vicino, both located at Central Avenue and Maryland in down ... More >>

Love A Fair

UPDATE: Serial Mugger/Pervert Could Be on Loose in U. City, Clayton

Sketches from University City (left) and Clayton.​Update 9:39 a.m. Clayton police have reportedly arrested the man they believe responsible for the mugging and sexual assault Monday morning. They're now working with Wash. U. and University City police to see if the suspect might also be involved i ... More >>

Clayton Approves Draconian Smoking Ban: No Cigarettes in Parks

Mickey will have to stub out that cig if he wants to play softball at Shaw Park.​We here at Daily RFT have (for the most part) championed the many smoking bans voted in last year by various city councils and voters in St. Louis, Kirkwood, St. Louis County and other municipalities. But the enhanced ... More >>

Smoke Up, Clayton. Today's Your Last Day

Tomorrow's your funeral, cig.​A Clayton smoking ban, passed a year ago, goes into effect tomorrow -- July 1. The law prohibits smoking indoors in all the city's restaurants and bars and 80 percent of its hotel rooms. Less restrictive bans in St. Louis County and St. Louis go into effect in January ... More >>

This Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

The wine collection at Araka in Clayton​This week was a busy one for local food and restaurant news. Among the week's events: We reported that the Kirkwood Pi's kitchen manager, Ali Aziz, was hospitalized after an incident at a drive-thru, while Araka's former executive chef, Mark Curren, wa ... More >>

Plush Pig Barbeque resurfaces in Rock Hill, but can this porker fly?

Keep Watching the Sky

Five Restaurants Where You Get Great Free Food Along with the Food You Pay For

Bread and butter go together like chips and salsa. But some local restaurants send out better snacks for free. Unlike the white-tablecloth amuse-bouche, the items below are constants: You get 'em every time you go. We mention them because they are good and they are gratis, ya'll. Enjoy this quick l ... More >>

FoodWire: Lampert's Plush Pig Barbeque Moving to Rock Hill?

I reported last month that Lampert's Plush Pig Barbeque had closed its Clayton location at least temporarily so that asbestos could be removed from its building. Following up today as I put together the list of January openings and closings -- to be posted in a few hours -- I learned from the Plush ... More >>

FoodWire: Gourmet to Go Opening Downtown September 21

www.gourmettogo.com​Caterer Gourmet to Go, which operates retail locations in Clayton and Ladue, will add a third location downtown on Monday, September 21. The new location in the St. Louis Place building (200 North Broadway) will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. This Gourmet ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 7.15

Clayton makes it official, banning smoking in restaurants as of next summer. (Post-Dispatch)Perhaps not surprisingly, the Las Vegas restaurant boom has come to a screeching halt. (New York Times)This story, if true -- and that's a big if, as these things go -- is probably the grossest thing you'll r ... More >>

Star Bright

Clayton's "Heartbreak Hotel" To Close This August

claytononthepark.comThe 23-story high-rise in downtown Clayton has been many things in its brief nine-year existence. Clayton on the Park at the corners of Brentwood Boulevard and Bonhomme Avenue, began as a boutique hotel and apartment building catering to the city's well-heeled visitors and ... More >>

Review Preview: Miso on Meramec

This week I check out the new menu at Clayton's Miso on Meramec: The grated wasabi root was stronger than its paste cousin -- no surprise there -- but it didn't overwhelm the fish. Instead, the wasabi and salmon worked in concert: a burst of heat chased by the fish's gentle sweetness -- like the sma ... More >>

FoodWire: Taste of Clayton Sunday

Sunday, June 7, is the annual Taste of Clayton event in Shaw Park. The main event runs from 1:30-7:30 p.m. "Taste, Too" begins at 6:30 p.m. and ends with fireworks at 9 p.m. Each "Taste Ticket" costs $1.25. These tickets are then exchanged for food and drink from the participating restaurants. Those ... More >>

FoodWire: Clayton Smoking Ban Nears Approval

User "Opa," Wikimedia CommonsThis is usually Daily RFT's beat, but now that it looks definite, I'll post the news here: The Post-Dispatch reports that Clayton is all but certain to pass a ban on smoking in restaurants and most other public places, effective July of 2010. In a nice touch, the only Cl ... More >>

With Clayton Smoking Ban All But Guaranteed, Where is U. City, Creve Coeur and Overland?

Last night the Clayton board of aldermen gave initial approval to a smoking ban for businesses and restaurants that would go into effect in July 2010. The bill needs one more reading before becoming law, though it looks to be virtual done deal at this point. Just one alderman voted against the ban y ... More >>

Business Owners to Speak Tonight on Clayton Smoking Ban

flickr.com/photos/benedyktPeople who own businesses or work in Clayton will get a chance to address the city council tonight in a meeting to discuss a proposed smoking-ban for the St. Louis suburb. Last month the council held a similar meeting to get reaction from Clayton residents -- many of whom s ... More >>

New Web Guide Offers List of Smoke-Free Dining Choices in St. Louis

flickr.com/photos/karen_cbSmoke-free St. Louis City is out with a dining guide of city bars and restaurants that prohibit smoking. The online guide categorizes businesses by geographic location (Downtown, North City, Central West End, etc.) in addition to providing a laundry list of all the dozens o ... More >>

FoodWire: Bistro Alexander Closed?

My Post-Dispatch counterpart, Joe Bonwich, broke the possible news on his Off the Menu blog yesterday: Clayton's Bistro Alexander (7927 Forsyth Boulevard) seems to have closed. I swung by this morning for a look, and while the tables remain set, artwork and a flat-screen TV have been removed from th ... More >>

Race Baiters Target Clayton Schools

Couple of hair-raising incidents in the Clayton School District this month of March, as school officials found racist graffiti scrawled on several school properties. The most recent incident occurred last week, when staff at the Ralph M. Captain Elementary School in the Demun neighborhood found "a t ... More >>

FoodWire: Wine Merchant Closing Creve Coeur Location

The Wine Merchant is closing its Creve Coeur location at 12669 Olive Boulevard. The Clayton location (20 South Hanley Road) will remain open. The details, from the retailer's newsletter: The world is coming to grips with the most serious economic downturn since the second World War and many economis ... More >>

FoodWire: Parker's Table Closing

Both Joe Bonwich and Sauce report that Clayton wine and food shop Parker's Table (8137 Maryland Avenue) is closing. Stop by for discounted wine and, on Saturday, a "farewell toast."

FoodWire: Zuzu's Reopens in Clayton

Zuzu's Handmade Mexican Food (Web site) has reopened its Clayton location. The restaurant is now located at 16 North Central Avenue, across the street from its previous location.

Look by Light

It's a candlelight Christmas

Clayton Rustic: Mazara succeeds by getting the little things right

LOL at St. Louis Gas Prices