St. Louis Business Journal

Report: Tucci & Fresta's to Convert into Pasta House Co.

Kim Tucci and Joe Fresta will convert Tucci & Fresta's Trattoria & Bar (15 North Central Avenue, Clayton; 314-725-6588) into a location of their Pasta House Co., according to a report in the St. Louis Business Journal.

Victor's (a.k.a. Vic's) Opening in Roberts Tower After All?

Last week, I stopped by the former Shula's 347 Grill (411 North Eighth Street) in the Roberts Tower downtown to see what had become of its sucessor, Vic's on the Plaza. A brief recap, if you're late to the story: Shula's 347 Grill opened in May of last year, but then closed in December after the co ... More >>

Shula's 347 Grill Eighty-Sixes St. Louis Franchise

Jennifer SilverbergShula's 347 Grill as it appeared this summer.​Shula's 347 Grill (411 North Eighth Street; 314-241-7267) closed unexpectedly on Thursday, December 15. The restaurant, part of the chain of steak houses and higher-end, sports-themed restaurants owned by NFL Hall of Fame head coach ... More >>

Tidbits from Duff's, Diablitos Cantina

​- Central West End institution Duff's (392 North Euclid Avenue; 314-361-0522) is for sale, according to an item (subscription required) in the current issue of the St. Louis Business Journal. Duff's opened in 1972, part of the fabled "Class of '72" of St. Louis restaurants. This weekend, Post-Dis ... More >>

New Restaurant in Old Mama Pho Space?

Jennifer SilverbergInside Mama Pho, now closed​Mama Pho Vietnamese Restaurant closed its doors at 3737 South Grand Boulevard last fall after only a year in business. The building at the intersection of South Grand and Chippewa -- a former McDonald's -- has been empty since thenNow, however, the "N ... More >>

Rename the Food Truck Formerly Known as Mangia Mobile

Robin WheelerThe Arancini from Mangia Mobile.​As reported this morning in the St. Louis Business Journal (and Tweeted by you), Mangia Mobile must change its name. A hearing today will determine exactly how and when the family-owned food truck must go about doing so. This decision comes follo ... More >>

Tidbits from Dooley's, Kirkwood Station Brewing Co.

Google MapsThe new home of Dooley's​- Downtown institution Dooley's Ltd. closed in 2008. Now, the St. Louis Business Journal reports that Sean Dooley, son of founder Alex Dooley, plans to open Dooley's Pub and Brew Haus at 601 North Grand Boulevard. (The address was previously home to the short-li ... More >>

Flight Grounded at Lambert Due to Backgammon

Image viaBackgammon? Yeah. More like al-Qaeda-gammon.​Early Tuesday morning, when U.S. Airways flight 457 took off from New York heading toward Phoenix, things were quiet. Perhaps a little too quiet. And too board-game-y. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, three Israelis of Russian desce ... More >>

81,000 Households in Metro St. Louis Don't Have a Car

Who knew so many St. Louis households depended on one of these?​The Brookings Institution is out with a study looking at the public transportation access within America's biggest cities, and St. Louis is near the bottom of the list. According to Brookings, 82 percent of area residents without a ca ... More >>

Biz Journal's "30 Under 30" Features St. Louis Food Folk [UPDATED]

The St. Louis Business Journal released its annual "30 Under 30" list of local business up-and-comers. Five honorees are from the food-business sector, ranging from small-business entrepreneurs to rising bigwigs at huge local corporations. Anthony Bommarito Jr. is poised to operate A. Bommarito Wi ... More >>

St. Louis Voltron Connection: Who Knew?

"Form feet and legs; form arms and body; and I'll form the head!" ​Don't know what your favorite cartoon of the mid-1980s was, but we here at Daily RFT we're definitely partial to Voltron. From 1984 to 1985, the animated series about crime fighters in robotic cats that could come together as a gia ... More >>

Makena Controversy Didn't Hurt KV -- Pharma Co.'s Stock Soared

Do investors want to see pregnant ladies get gouged? Apparently.via www.mommytopics.com​There is no such thing as bad publicity.That's the only conclusion we can reach upon hearing that even after getting pilloried in the national press for its attempt to charge pregnant women as much as $1,500 fo ... More >>

Borders Liquidation Sales Start This Weekend

image viaBorders wants your help to make its St. Peters, Chesterfield and Ballwin stores look this...clean and well-lighted.​It was only two days ago that the Borders Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and published a list of the 200 stores doomed to extinction, but the chain mea ... More >>

Point & Clique: The 2011 RFT St. Louis Web Awards

Busch Stadium to Get Wrigley Field Experience: Nearby Rooftop Bar

Google Earth​Okay, so it's not exactly a four-story brownstone. And it's not located right across the street from the action, but hey, it's as close as we've got to Wrigleyville rooftops in St. Louis. The downtown hotel St. Louis Hilton at the Ballpark announced this week its plans to add a roofto ... More >>

RFT Web Awards: Meet the Judges

​The finalists have been chosen, the party planners are toiling away and the suspense is mounting: Who will be winning one of RFT's first-ever Web Awards?We're not answering that just yet. (You'll have to stay tuned for the complete list of winners!) But we are ready to introduce our esteemed pane ... More >>

RFT Web Awards: Meet the Judges

​The finalists have been chosen, the party planners are toiling away and the suspense is mounting: Who will be winning one of RFT's first-ever Web Awards?We're not answering that just yet. (You'll have to stay tuned for the complete list of winners!) But we are ready to introduce our esteemed pan ... More >>

RFT Web Awards: Meet the Judges

​The finalists have been chosen, the party planners are toiling away and the suspense is mounting: Who will be winning one of RFT's first-ever Web Awards?We're not answering that just yet. (You'll have to stay tuned for the complete list of winners!) But we are ready to introduce our esteemed pan ... More >>

Mayor Weighs in on Tucson Shootings, Dumb Questions

​Mayor Slay didn't directly call out the St. Louis Business Journal for asking an idiotic question last week, but he hinted as much. In the wake of the Tucson tragedy, the Biz Journal polled its readers by asking: "Given the Arizona shootings, will you stop attending political rallies?" In h ... More >>

Restaurant Tidbits from Brasserie by Niche, Franco, Pi

Jennifer SilverbergNow you can enjoy the onion soup at Brasserie by Niche seven days a week.​A few notes from the last week:- Brasserie by Niche announced via Twitter this weekend that it will now be open seven days a week.Smart move: By all accounts, Gerard Craft's French restaurant, which landed ... More >>

Local Firm Seeks Answer to Question We've All Pondered -- How the Hell is Ozzy Osbourne Still Alive?

Roadrunner RecordsOzzy Osbourne's, still going strong after decades of drug abuse​After decades of guzzling booze by the case, abusing countless drugs, urinating on public monuments and biting the heads off bats and doves, the prince of darkness has not only survived, but is healthy. He's ju ... More >>

Classical Music Returns to the St. Louis Airwaves -- Kind Of...

Beethoven may smile again, thanks to KWMU​Fans of Classic 99.1 (KFUO-FM) officially lost their beloved classical-music outpost in early May, when the FCC approved the sale of the station to Joy FM. The latter is "a listener-supported station that plays Christian music and broadcasts simultaneo ... More >>

Homeless People Displaced from Hopeville Camp $1 Rooms At Hyatt Hotel = Solution?

Image viaView is better up here.​So the city is booting out the homeless from "Hopeville," a makeshift encampment underneath Tucker Boulevard. What to do? Well, consider this: The St. Louis Business Journal just reported that the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch is running a promotion this summ ... More >>

Construction to Resume on Shriners Children's Hospital in CWE

Construction will finally resume later this year for the new Shriners Hospital for Children in the Central West End a year after the recession put the project on hold, the hospital's board announced on Tuesday. Image sourceAn artist rendering of the new Shriner's Hospital for Children, if it ever g ... More >>

AB-InBev to Employees: This Job Cut Is For You

Image Via An armadillo after losing his job to corporate "restructuring"​If something happens every month is it still considered news? We only ask because Anheuser-Busch InBev announced its plans to lay off another 400-plus employees from its North American workforce. That's the third time ... More >>

Your Next Trip to the Airport May Be Fueled By Algae

Image ViaThe imaginary algae Ferrari of the future ​St. Louis-based conglomerate Enterprise Rent-A-Car is going green. Algae green, to be specific. The company is converting its entire fleet of airport shuttle buses -- more than 600 vehicles -- to biofuel. For now soybeans will provide the power b ... More >>

Riverfront Times Founder Ray Hartmann Elected to "Print Hall of Fame"

Ray Hartmann, circa early 1990s?​The St. Louis chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has elected Ray Hartmann, founder of the Riverfront Times, as one of seven people it will induct into the St. Louis Print Hall of Fame next month. Hartmann will join six other nominees, including Carl ... More >>

Anheuser-Busch Sends 350,000 Cans of Water To Haiti.

Image via Flickr​No, it's not actually Bud Light.As the brewer has done in the past when there's been a natural disaster and clean water is hard to come by, they ship in drinking water in what looks like plain white beer cans. As memory serves, last time they did this was after Hurricane Katrina.T ... More >>

The Axe Continues to Fall at Anheuser-Busch InBev

And this time more St. Louis jobs were on the chopping block. The once-local company announced last Friday afternoon -- prime time for issuing bad news press releases -- that a "small number" of domestic brewery workers were being laid off.Image Via​Via the St. Louis Business Journal:Jim Brickey, ... More >>

FoodWire: New Chef at Mangia, New Ozzie's Downtown

A couple of restaurant tidbits for this short week: First, Mangia Italiano (3145 South Grand Boulevard; website) has brought David Tmney on board as executive chef. Timney was both executive chef and a partner at the original Balaban's in the Central West End. Second, the St. Louis Business Journal ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Friday, 11.13

​ Missouri's Share the Harvest gets boost from the state to provide donated deer meat to the needy. (St. Louis Business Journal)Burger King owners sue corporation for money-losing promotion. (MSNBC)New Orleans prepares to celebrate the po' boy. (The New York Times)How to act right around cel ... More >>

Finally, A Survey that Says St. Louis is Tip-Top

economicsociologist.files.wordpress.com​Or at least we're the top tippers.The food/travel guide Zagat published its annual "America's Top Restaurants" edition last week and the book includes a survey of which cities leave the biggest tips by percentage. St. Louisans beat out the highfalutin cheaps ... More >>

Latest Plan for St. Louis Centre: Parking

At least that's what I inferred today from a story in the St. Louis Business Journal. The article about a $5-million loan to developer SCR Investments for the rehabbing of the office building One City Centre also states (almost in passing) that the mostly vacant shopping mall St. Louis Centre will b ... More >>

Local News Outlets Reporting Brown Surrendered His Law License...That Ain't So, Says the Supreme Court

Both the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Business Journal reported today that former state rep Steve Brown, an attorney, surrendered his law license earlier this week.  Not so, says an e-update from a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court of Missouri. She says neither the court clerk, nor ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Monday, 8.31

​ Teabaggers to converge on Town and Country Whole Foods Tuesday night for "buycott" in support of CEO John Mackey's stance on health care reform. Plan accordingly. (St. Louis Business Journal)Some nasty candy's causing an uproar in the U.K. (The Daily Mail)Unilever experiments with freezer- ... More >>

Looking to Catch All-Star Players Leaving St. Louis? Head to Cahokia, Not Lambert.

connectlimos.comThe St. Louis Business Journal had an interesting story Monday about traffic at the St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia, Illinois.The paper reported that business doubled at the airport Monday as corporate jets from around the country descended on St. Louis for the All-Star Game. T ... More >>

FoodWire: Various Restaurant Tidbits

News from a few of our friends around town:- The St. Louis Business Journal reports that a new operator has been chosen for Bevo Mill (4749 Gravois Avenue). L&M Catering will use the historic space as a restaurant, catering and special-events facility.- At Off the Menu, Joe Bonwich passes along ... More >>

All-Star Game May Only Be the Beginning; St. Louis In Running For World Cup

You'd think St. Louis would be happy -- or overwhelmed -- enough with hosting this year's MLB All-Star Game to look forward to a return to global obscurity. Or, at the very least, we should pay closer attention to how Chicago is making a fool of itself in its 2016 Olympic bid.But no. Our fair city, ... More >>

St. Louis Business Journal Cuts Pay For Some, Freezes Salaries For Others

stlouis.bizjournals.comMore bad news for the local media biz. Staffers earning more than $35,000 at the St. Louis Business Journal were informed last week that they'd earn five percent less this year. Meanwhile, employees making less than $35K will not be eligible for raises.The cost cuts are part o ... More >>

St. Louis Galleria Owners File For Bankruptcy

Photo: Jennifer SilverbergSt. Louis GalleriaThe company that owns St. Louis Galleria filed for bankruptcy protection today. This per the St. Louis Business Journal:General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the Saint Louis Galleria, has filed for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection to reorganize. ... More >>

Want to Buy a Hotel Cheap?

The St. Louis Business Journal is reporting that the Renaissance Grand Hotel & Suites will be auctioned February 2 at the St. Louis Civil Court.  The downtown convention-center hotel opened in 2003 and has never made any money. For some reason, the tourists expected to fill the b ... More >>

FoodWire: Mosaic Expanding

The St. Louis Business Journal reports that Claus Schmitz's Loft District tapas restaurant Mosaic (1001 Washington Avenue) will expand, nearly doubling its current size.- Ian Froeb

The Morning Brew: Tuesday, 7.15

A Little More on Balaban's Closing

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 9/27

Today's Restaurant Tidbits

Bonus Restaurant Tidbit

If Billboards Could Talk

We’ve got the inaugural edition of If Billboards Could Talk, advice for brides-to-be and some insight about what the future holds for the SLPD's forensics lab. Plus, our blogger of the week has a sweet side.

Best Repository of Printed Memories

Paragon Typographers

Nothing a Few Thousand Sit-ups Wouldn't Cure

A candidate for St. Louis sheriff wants things shaped up on his watch; plus, other St. Louis follies and foibles