Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
This summer, when SLM celebrates its annual A-List feature (p. 59) in Maryland Plaza, the event will mark 10 years of dishing out awards to the area’s finest. The location is apt: Inside Bar Italia is a plaque that reads “Editors’ Choice Awards 2002”—the first year the magazine handed out plaques to the region’s most exceptional people and places. Yet the concept stretches back much further—through multiple owners, editors, and angles.
Fifteen years after the magazine was founded, in March 1978, SLM’s cover depicted a Goldie Hawn look-alike with the words “The Best of the River City” beside her. The categories ranged from gas-station attendant to “Biblical quote on a building.” Then–senior editor John Heidenry was quick to note, “Of course, [contributor Pam Rosenberg] takes responsibility for all judgments.”
The next year, those judgments fell to some more recognizable names. Fredbird, actor Kevin Kline, writer A.E. Hotchner, and others answered the question “What’s so great about St. Louis?” Readers also weighed in, giving honors to the Esquire Theatre as the place to watch the latest blockbuster, and crowning Julius Hunter the city’s top TV newsperson.
It was only fitting, then, that Hunter made the cover several years later. Besides picking Mike Talayna’s Disco and Laclede’s Landing, the feature included “An Alphabestiary: An A to Z checklist of new people, places and things.” Two particular notables: “D is for the best new Diet Drink. Bud Light” and “W is for (fill in the blank) We Wish the ___ Will Win the World Series.” (The Redbirds won the Fall Classic three months later.)
In those years, the magazine often singled out not only the area’s finest, but also its worst. In 1983, SLM blasted the Post-Dispatch for its copy-editing (“The Post misspelling ‘Pulitzer’ twice in a story reviewed before publication by, among others, Joseph Pulitzer IV.”). But among the finest was “newcomer Bill McClellan of the Post-Dispatch.” All these years later, some past favorites remain so (Crown Candy Kitchen, Tony’s), while others have experienced an overhaul (Balaban’s, Fox & Hounds Tavern). Still others, sadly, have closed for good (Busch’s Grove, Riddles).
Regardless of the categories and winners, though, the feature has always reflected the times. In 1999, the “Worst 270-Million-Dollar Idea of the Year” was a new baseball stadium. The next year, former Rams linebacker Mike Jones, who’d made “The Tackle” in Super Bowl XXXIV, hugged the Vince Lombardi Trophy on the cover. And while the magazine has offered an annual overview of the finest this town has to offer for years, everyone has a favorite contender.
It’s our hope that this year’s A-List will help you discover more for your own list.
