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Team Kerouac: Kristen Stewart and Garrett Hedlund chat about the film version of On the Road

Noodle House on South Grand Already Closed

Looks like a very short life for Noodle House (3924 South Grand Boulevard; 314-771-5197). The Vietnamese restaurant opened in late June of last year in a former Arby's restaurant along South Grand in Dutchtown. Driving past it this week, I spotted a For Lease sign posted outside the restaurant. Peer ... More >>

Small and unassuming, Fork & Stix is unlike any other Thai restaurant in St. Louis

Slideshow: Photo tour of Fork & Stix

Review Preview: Fork & Stix

This week I visit Fork & Stix (549 Rosedale Avenue; 314-863-5572), a tiny Thai restaurant unlike any other in town.

Missouri Native Who Jumps to his Death in San Francisco Becomes Social Media Sensation

Our sister paper SF Weekly has a terrific feature story this week called "Public Influence," on the suicide of Dylan Yount, a Harrisburg native and Mizzou graduate who plummeted to a very public death from his apartment building. Our own former RFT fellow Albert Samaha tells the sad tale through th ... More >>

Report: Capitalist Pig to Close Until Spring

If you've been waiting to visit Capitalist Pig (2727 South 12th Street; 314-771-8230), the new barbecue joint inside Mad Art Gallery, you'll have to wait a while longer. According to a report yesterday from Evan Benn of the Post-Dispatch, owner Ron Buechele has decided to close Capitalist Pig until ... More >>

Capitalist Pig, Soulard BBQ Joint, Defends Name and Sign Against Complaint to City

Just like the sign that hangs from Capitalist Pig restaurant suggests, owner Ron Buechele started a minor revolution on his Facebook page this week when he announced that someone at the city has a big pig problem with his sign. "Apparently Joe McCarthy has risen from the grave," he wrote. "I had a ... More >>

Trouble at Hooked Seafood Bar?

While stopping for lunch at another restaurant in Jeffrey Plaza this afternoon, I noticed that Hooked Seafood Bar (8613 Olive Boulevard, University City; 314-997-8886), which debuted late last year, wasn't open during its posted hours. While the restaurant hadn't been cleaned out, it didn't look rea ... More >>

Video: Professional Actors Reading Actual Yelp Reviews

Last week, an amazing video appeared on YouTube: Actor Chris Kipiniak (The Good Wife) performing a dramatic reading of an actual one-star Yelp restaurant review. A second episode, featuring Therese Plummer (also of The Good Wife), went up today. Both are glorious. And lest you think this is all abou ... More >>

Jilted Growlers Pub Fan Takes His Fight to Facebook

Matt Bowler thought he had the perfect birthday present for himself. The St. Louis native, who turns 28 this week, only needed to try twelve more beers to complete his "beer card" of the 133 beers available at Growlers Pub (3811 South Lindbergh Boulevard, Sunset Hills; 314-984-9009). "I've been go ... More >>

Ten Best Food Events This Weekend: June 29-July 1

Friday (June 29): Yelp Drinks Friday Happy Hour @ Ernesto's Wine Bar Yelp often? Meet other Yelpers for a special happy hour complete with half price drinks like razzberry lemon punch and screaming bloody marias. Snack on special food prices for pulled pork sliders, flatbreads and more. 5 to 7 p.m ... More >>

Chris Sommers' Sqwid Wraps Its Arms Around Businesses and Patrons

Everyone with a fork and an Internet connection fancies himself a restaurant critic these days, Yelping about an overcooked steak or Twittering on about a beautifully plated dessert. Which is fine, except that the conversation tends to be one-sided and leaves little opportunity for restaurant owners ... More >>

Fire Strikes Abandoned University City Restaurant

According to multiple reports, a fire overnight struck the abandoned Kramer's Olive Bistro restaurant at 8141 Olive Boulevard in University City. Though at least one headline states that the restaurant was "destroyed" by the fire, the building remains intact, with much of the damage at the back. KT ... More >>

Al Waha Restaurant & Hookah Lounge Closed

Al Waha Restaurant & Hookah Lounge (3191 South Grand Boulevard; 314-664-3940), one of the very, very few restaurants nationwide to feature Bedouin cuisine, has closed. The signage has been removed from its storefront, and while tables and chairs remain inside restaurant, most everything else appears ... More >>

iTunes Store, Wired Praise "Best Of" App

​Allow us to pat ourselves on the back for just a sec' after iTunes just named our "Best of" iPhone app as one of its five best travel apps of the year in its "Rewind" list. Wired also gave the app praise, writing that it's "what Yelp would be if only the cool kids could post reviews" and "provide ... More >>

Village Voice Media Responds to Clergy

Today 36 clergy affixed their names to a paid ad and open letter to Riverfront Times' parent company Village Voice Media and the classified ad site Backpage.com. The full-page ad was published in the New York Times. The religious coalition demanded that we close down our legal, adult classifieds. ... More >>

Groupon Fail: St. Louis business owners are souring on the once-mighty coupon startup

Yelp: "We Don't Take Sides on Factual Disputes"

​I had to pass along a story from SFoodie, the food blog of SF Weekly, our sister paper in San Francisco. Seems a Yelp user posted a review in which "she" claimed to be a writer for the SF Weekly. She isn't. Never was.Now, SF Weekly's W. Blake Gray had enough trouble just getting in touch with Yel ... More >>

Google Acquires Zagat

​Well, now, this is interesting: Google announced today that it has acquired reader-generated-review pioneer Zagat. Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, made the announcement on the search engine's official blog:Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering--delighting p ... More >>

Everyone Makes Mistakes; How Your Customers Wish You'd Handle Them

Chrissy WilmesThe infamous rock (left) next to the coupon we were given for our troubles. Too little, too late.​This weekend when crunching into a bite of salad, Gut Check's vigorous chewing came to an abrupt halt as our molars painfully snapped against something hard as a rock. After messily ... More >>

The Worst Restaurant Story You'll Read Today, Possibly All Year [Updated]

Image via​Everyone has a favorite "terrible restaurant experience" story to share. Thanks to social media, there are more forums in which to share that story than ever before.However, the next time that you're preparing to sharpen your knives and post about crappy food or slow service on Yelp, Twi ... More >>

El Burrito Loco Closed

Ian Froeb​El Burrito Loco (3611 Bates Avenue; 314-457-8600) has closed. I haven't seen this reported anywhere else -- my apologies if I missed something -- but based on a comment on its Yelp profile, the restaurant has been closed since at least early April. At any rate, the interior is mostly cle ... More >>

New Name for "Yelp Elite" Tumblr

Well, that didn't take long. We told you on Friday about The Yelp Elite, a new Tumblr account poking fun at some of the comments made by Yelp's "elite" reviewers. If you visit the site now, you'll see it has been taken offline. The new name for the Tumblr account is The Blank Elite:We hope you find ... More >>

New Tumblr Site Teases Yelp "Elite"

The Yelp "Elite" are supposedly the best of the best users of the user-review website. As a new Tumblr site called, simply, The Yelp Elite points out, it is sometimes difficult to tell what makes the "Elite" elite.Here is one of the example comments from actual Yelp reviews posted on the site:​To ... More >>

Yelp Decides Which St. Louis Venues Have a "Hipster" Ambience

www.latfh.comYep. This dude definitely has lots of ambience.​Hipsters, when they aren't busy attacking you for not knowing who the Arcade Fire is, like to eat and drink. Where can you find them doing these things in the wild?Yelp has the answer.Yes, the popular consumer review website has added "h ... More >>

Gut Check's Week in Tweets

​Don't you know? Gut Check has a Twitter account. You can follow us @gutcheckstl.Here's some of what you missed on the Twitter feed this week:RT @EvanBenn: 7 Best Beer Cities in America? Here are my picks at @ESQfood @Esquiremag: http://bit.ly/gptieDHow to Handle a Negative Yelp Review - http: ... More >>

This Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

Jennifer Silverberg The cooked mana-ish at Central Café and Bakery ​This week was full of food-news -- from hoodlums smuggling marijuana amongst a tomato shipment to management changes at a favorite local eatery to good 'ol restaurant and dish reviews -- Gut Check's been busy. What else ... More >>

How to Handle a Negative Yelp Review

The rise of "amateur" review sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon has led to numerous tales of chefs and other business owners reacting to criticisms with outrage and even lawsuits.The well-mannered restaurateur knows that the best way to handle unwarranted criticism is with a generous spirit and, ideally ... More >>

Nubia Cafe Closed for "Remodeling"

Ian FroebNubia Cafe on Delmar Boulevard​Nubia Cafe, the West African restaurant located at 5860 Delmar Boulevard, has closed for "remodeling," according to the sign taped to the front window. There certainly appears to be some work being done inside, though it's difficult to tell whether things ar ... More >>

The RFT 2011 St. Louis Web Awards: Best Use of Facebook to Promote a Personal Brand

Repackaged Industrial Ground Beef Recalled

The USDA has ordered a ground beef recall. Ozarks First reports that 226,000 pounds of hamburgers have been recalled by One Great Burger in New Jersey. The company, which mainly sells to institutional customers, allegedly repackaged meat that had been returned to them, changing the date on the packa ... More >>

Ginger Bistro takes "Asian fusion" to the next level: Down

How Not to Ask for a Restaurant Recommendation

Meet Yelp user Chun "Tennis Guru" L, who decided to turn to the wisdom of the Yelp crowds for a restaurant recommendation. This recommendation had to meet a few criteria, though:​Did something in his post strike you as, well, questionable, if not downright douchetastic? No? Read it again, with a v ... More >>

Michelin Reveals First Chicago Restaurant Star Rankings

​St. Louis gastronauts take note: For the foreseeable future -- and likely beyond -- this is as close as we're going to get to Michelin-starred dining.Michelin today released its first-ever star rankings for the restaurants of Chicago. Alinea, the avant-garde palace of chef Grant Achatz, and L20, ... More >>

At Addie's Thai House in Chesterfield, the serious eater finds true love

13 Signs You Might Be a Foochebag

Foochebags in the wild.​Earlier this week, Gut Check learned a new word. It's now our favorite word...ever.FoochebagFoochebag is a portmanteau (which we think means it was smuggled into the English language inside someone's luggage) of the words foodie and douchebag and accurately summarizes the b ... More >>

Eating in New Orleans, Five Years After Katrina

Five years later, the New Orleans Times-Picayune looks at thirteen ways Hurricane Katrina changed New Orleans' food culture - what's gone, what's new, and why the tea got sweeter. Forget Yelp! and foursquare. Foodspotting just got some big financial backing to make it a player in the food social m ... More >>

Gut Check's Week in Tweets

​Don't you know? Gut Check has a Twitter account. You can follow us @gutcheckstl.Here's some of what you missed on the Twitter feed this week: How Not to Respond to Criticism on Yelp: A Case Study - http://bit.ly/9vQawn BP Honcho Says He'd Gladly Eat Gulf Coast Seafood http://bit.ly/dCj21e

How Not to Respond to Criticism on Yelp: A Case Study

​Michele Laudig, the restaurant critic for our sister paper Phoenix New Times, files a fascinating case study on how not to respond to a negative review of a restaurant on Yelp. Seems someone had a negative experience at a restaurant called Amy's Baking Company and, as is the wont of Yelp users, m ... More >>

Jack Abramoff: Now Flipping Pizzas Instead of Votes

​Shamed and prosecuted former uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff is working with a new kind of dough these days. That's right, instead of rolling out questionable gifts and incentives to lawmakers, Abramoff is now involved in business scheme even more yeasty than his congressional dealings: a kosher pizz ... More >>

Give A Little, Get A Little

St. Louis Meet UrbHub

What do you do when you find yourself living in a new town where you don't know many people and you don't know what to do or where to go? If your name is Brad Hogan you start a new social tool that lets you and others share local places and happenings around town and you call it UrbHub. ​Urbhub is ... More >>

Twitter Food Fight! Customers and Restaurateurs Hash It Out!

It always seems to take the Midwest a bit to catch up with the coasts. In San Francisco they had their first Yelp-related smackdown with criminal charges in November. Last week the New York Times published a story about chefs taking to Twitter to air grievances about suppliers, customers, employees, ... More >>

The Week in Gut Check, Regurgitated

Robin Wheeler​This week, we all gathered around the garbage can (actually, the kitchen sink) and said goodbye to the last foul creation from Throwback of the House. Robin saved the best worst for last: jellied bouillon with frankfurters and hard-boiled eggs.What else did we do this week?The heart- ... More >>

Photos: Yelpers Yelp About Yelp at Molly's in Soulard

This week at Molly's in Soulard, some local "elite" users of Yelp -- the mega consumer review website that ranks restaurants, bars, clubs and myriad other establishments -- got together to talk food and, of course, drink. Photographer Crystal Rolfe brings back these photos from the event, where some ... More >>

Bono Finally Became Frustrated By Not Finding What He Was Looking For. So What Did He Do?

Why, invest in Yelp. Elevation Partners -- in which the U2 frontman is a partner -- just invested $25 million in the San Francisco-based review website. Says the San Francisco Business Times: ...Yelp said Wednesday that Elevation Partners will buy $25 million worth of preferred stock in Yelp, and w ... More >>

Yelp St. Louis Gets a New Community Manager

Abby Schwarz posing with Clownvis​​This week the Internet social review site Yelp formally announced that they've hired Abby Schwarz as their new community manager for St. Louis. Abby has been an active Yelp user since 2008 and applied for the job on a whim. If you've never used Yelp b ... More >>

FoodWire: KoBa Closed, but When?

I try my best to stay on top of restaurant openings and closings, but more often than I'd like, a specific event slips past me. Case in point: Chesterfield Korean restaurant KoBa has closed. According to George Mahe's recent openings and closings post on Feast, the location at 138 Chesterfield Town ... More >>

Oh iPhone! Is there Anything You CAN'T Do?

It takes photos, plays music and video, you can browse the web, it even catches criminals. What can't the iPhone do? Not much, apparently. Apple's iPhone store has been an incredible success -- 2.4 billion worth of success. Proving that the iPhone is way more than just a phone. It's the worlds first ... More >>

Joe Bush's Pizza & Pub Now Open -- Plus Bonus Local Restaurant News