Sophistication in the City

Looking for a way to unwind in style? Sasha's new location in South City is just the thing...

Earlier this week, Y?, LC, Rosh and I (along with an ever-expanding group of others looking for urban excitement) headed literally down the street to the new Sasha's Wine Bar, at Thurman and Shaw, right near South Grand and Tower Grove Park. Now, let me say right off the bat, I am not your typical wine bar patron (I admittedly came close to ordering a beer, but that was more due to the good beer selection in addition to an unbelievable wine list). How do I describe it?

Like an oasis in the middle of an area otherwise starved for places to go out. Exposed brick and pipe, walls covered in their wine inventory, a beautiful outdoor garden with heat lamps that you can bet will be hopping come summer... Sasha's is perfect whether you are looking to impress on a date or just escape the grind for a bit. Check out their website here and be sure to give them a chance.

Also, the opening of Sasha's is another encouraging step in development of the Shaw neighborhood. First Thurman, now Sasha's, corner businesses in Shaw are really taking off. Now the question is... what's next?
Read More......

Mid-week update

I never understood why people were so obsessed with hump day until I started working. Or happy hours, or TV dinners, or maids. . . wait, I get the maid thing, but seriously, the whole perspective shifts as you move from the magical world of college into the 'real' world. It is my personal mission to stem the flow of this transition as much as possible by trying to make something out of every night.

Ok, so I had received a hot tip from G, souteneur of good music, to check out the Funky Butt Brass band at the Broadway Oyster bar. Now the Oyster bar is one of my favorite places to go during the summer because the music is funky, the place reminds me of New Orleans, and people dance. The food I can't eat so much, but who needs to eat when you've got dope music?

We Rosh and I headed down to check it out with Wizzo and met up with a friend of hers down there. I didn't even have to walk into the bar to know that we had made the right decision. As navigated from the parking lot in the rear, up to the entrance, I could hear the sousaphone bumping out bass lines. I'll admit it, I started second lining in the middle of the street. Funky Butt is clearly a band I'm going to see at every opportunity. Check the Oyster bar's calender and get your funky butt down there.

Last night was going to be a chill one, cuz even I need to sleep every once in a while. I was going to grab a drink with Em at 33, this fantastic wine tasting bar which doubles as a retail spot down in Lafayette square on Park. Its pretty well hidden, right next to the Chocolate Bar and doesn't have any kind of sign noting the name. In fact, if not for the small open sign on the door, you wouldn't know it was a place of business at all.

Long story short, Em gets sick, Rosh and lady S decide they are in, we have Aim join us, and while we are siting there, enjoying a Moscato D'asti and a triple stout, we catch the menacing outline of T&R walking by. I do my best Jesse Owens to catch up with them and then convince them to join us.

This was not an early night, but at least it didn't end with a half hour discussion on the pros and cons of Walmart. . . which may make its way into the blog as a point counterpoint/battle royal between Rosh aka The Man and Y? aka the Romanticized Revolutionary.

Whatever...Karl Marx was a Heeb too after all. Read More......

The Sanctuary

So Y? already teased this in talking about the weekend, but Friday's Shabbat dinner and "after-party" deserve more than just a passing mention. Luckily, I am here to pick up the pieces for you all who missed out. So Y?'s parents were in town, which meant Shabbat dinner at the sanctuary. Granted, I had to bring my own chair, beer, and candles, but I scored an invite. (Sidenote: Schnucks's in the CWE only sells Shabbat candles in packs of 72, so the candles are on me for the next 35 Shabbats!) Anyway, dinner had all the amazing interactions you would expect when two parents (one of whom is a rabbi deeply learned in Torah) enter the world of the young professional on a Friday night. Save for the candles, challah and wine, nothing and no one was sacred as the chicken marsala and potato chips flowed like honey from the kitchen.

So, around 11:30 (four hours after the dinner began) we decided that it's probably time to conquer the world beyond the sanctuary. As we are determined to find new things to do in the city, we headed out to check out some SLU bars, figuring that its a major urban university (albeit Jesuit) there's gotta be something good going on. And was there ever...

So we get down to SLU and park by a place called Magnolia's. Everyone's pumped up and ready to go, fat and happy from dinner, when the bouncer tells us it's a $3 dollar cover plus a one drink minimum. A ONE DRINK MINIMUM? Sounds kiiiinda like an East Side joint you're thinking? Us too. So we move on, only to be greeted at the window of the next bar by stereotypical white shirtless dude. So now we're stuck. I mean, this is St. Louis so of course there are only those two bars within walking distance. So, being the resourceful smart Jewish folk that we are, we ask some passerbys what exactly is Magnolia's? "A gay club dude."..."No, really, man, what is it?"... "It's a GAY CLUB."

So we start looking around, really paying attention to our surroundings, and the tight pants give it away, that Magnolia's really is a gay club! Not that there is anything wrong with that, and it certainly was the most popular place around SLU that night, but not quite what we were looking for when we set out for some Shabbat night exploring.

I guess the lesson here is that when you commit to finding new things in St. Louis, you gotta be ready for anything. So when you come out with us, consider yourself warned, you never quite know where you might end up. But in a place like St. Louis, where so much is too often the same, isn't that a good thing? Read More......