Table of Contents (July 2011)

  WEB EXCLUSIVES THIS MONTH

• See more A-List Readers' Picks from each category
• Submit your pet for our pet contest
• Read more about Ted Drewes, including his take on customers, cars, and concretes
• Enter to win our Where is St. Louis Magazine? contest
• See the winners from the stlmag.com Cardinals Poll
• Watch a video of jazz legend Hamiet Bluiett performing
• Peruse more excerpts from baseball player Matt Kramer's diary
• Read an extended Q&A with Rick Jordan Jr. of RJ Chocolatier
• Learn more about what it's like to be a Guardian Angel, a crime-patrolling citizen

Note: For each new issue, St. Louis Magazine publishes only a select number of articles online. While all articles will eventually be published online here, your best bet for reading current content is to subscribe, buy an issue, or head to your local library. Thanks. —Jarrett Medlin, Editor-in-Chief

WHAT'S ONLINE
Online on stlmag.com

BEHIND THE SCENES
The making of this issue

FROM THE EDITOR
Behind the Best
By Jarrett Medlin

FEEDBACK

CURRENT

• First Shot: Dancing for the Stars
  Dancer Hettie Barnhill
  By Jarrett Medlin
• The Buzz: Battle of the Boutique Hotels
  St. Louis' newest boutique hotels have no shortage of quirks.
  By Bryron Kerman
• The Buzz: Pitching a Curveball (Web Exclusive: Peruse more excerpts from baseball player Matt Kramer's diary)
  A Harvard grad skips med school for the minors.
  By Jeannette Cooperman
• The Buzz: Summer-Camp Blues
  This new novel is no beach read.
  By Byron Kerman
• The Buzz: What's Haute at Hogwarts
  What you can't do at one of the city's premier parties for the last Harry Potter flick
  By Jarrett Medlin
• What It's Like to Watch Over St. Louis (Web Exclusive: Learn more about what it's like to be a Guardian Angel, a crime-patrolling citizen.)
  By Byron Kerman
• Agenda
  Our five picks for the month

GLITTERATI
See these and more at our Party Pics page.

STYLE

• Things We Love: Postcards From Paradise
  What's in order for the perfect holiday
  By Nicole Benoist Edgerton
• Shop Talk: Flipping the Byrd
  The Clayton boutique gets a dramatic makeover.
  By Nicole Benoist Edgerton
• The District: Maplewood, Multiplied
  The St. Louis County burg attracts three notable additions
  By Rosalind Early

BUSINESS
Ye New Inn
Bob O'Loughlin reopens the Cheshire Inn this month after an extensive makeover—and a long wait.
By Christy Marshall

THINK AGAIN
Who Let the Pols Out?
The puppy-mill fiasco shows our legislature needs to be housebroken.
By Ray Hartmann
 

COVER FEATURE
A-List 2011
170 of the city's finest across a dozen categories
By Jeannette Cooperman, Rosalind Early, Nicole Benoist Edgerton, Rose Maura Lorre, Dave Lowry, George Mahe, Christy Marshall, Nancy McMullen, Jarrett Medlin, Joe and Ann Pollack, Stefene Russell, and Margaret Schneider

• Web Exclusive: See more A-List Readers' Pics from each category.
• Web Exclusive: Read more about Ted Drewes, including his take on customers, cars, and concretes

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Bluiett Music (Web Exclusive: Watch a video of jazz legend Hamiet Bluiett performing)
Hamiet Bluiett is widely held to be the best baritone saxophone player in the world. And at 70, there's still only one direction he wants to go: forward.
By Stefene Russell

Look Back
A snapshot of St. Louis in the 1960s and '70s
By Nancy McMullen
 

A CONVERSATION WITH MARIE GRIFFITH
Courting controversy
By Jeannette Cooperman

FOOD & DRINK

• First Look: Half & Half
  By George Mahe
• Review: Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine
  In Veritas, Vino
  By Dave Lowry
• The Well-Seasoned Life: Good Golly, Miss Molly
  A little more New Orleans for old Soulard
  By Joe and Ann Pollack
• Kitchen Q&A with Rick Jordan Jr. (Web Exclusive: Extended version)
  RJ Chocolatier: From bonbons to bon mots
  By George Mahe
• Liquid Assets: Sommelier Winespeak
  How to talk the talk
  By Chris Hoel
• Ins, Outs, and Almosts
  By George Mahe
• The SLM Restaurant Guide
  Plus the following box-outs: "Take the Kids," "Overheard," "Editor's Pick," "Wine Varietal," and "Micro Rant."

CULTURE & EVENTS

• First Stop: Off Broadway
  By Stefene Russell
• Out & About: For Those About to Rock
  Superjam rocks the classics straight up—without apology.
  By Stefene Russell
• Cameo: Art + Access
  VSA celebrates artists with disabilities.
  By Stefene Russell
• The SLM Calendar (with Critic's Picks in Music, Visual Arts, Fairs, and Fairs & Festivals)

FLASHBACK
1961: Welcome to the Dollhouse
By Stefene Russell