Home Front

Local Artist Blown Away

Chris McCarthy's glass radiates brilliance.

With furnaces scorching at more than 2,000 degrees, it's a wonder how Chris McCarthy, a glass artist and owner of Park Avenue Glass, stands the heat. From the outside, the studio doesn't look like much--a garage that blends in with the others. But once you step inside, you know you're in a place where art reigns supreme. McCarthy didn't get serious about glass blowing until he began volunteering at the City Museum six years ago. He started blowing glass part time while working at a photography studio until he had the chance to open his own glass art studio last year.

Park Avenue Glass features McCarthy's beautiful, brightly colored works. He describes his pieces, which are mostly bowls, platters and vases, as "contemporary functional." Because he combines colors in waves or stripes, the shadows from the bowls and vases dramatically enhance the beauty of McCarthy's creations. His personal favorites are vases designed in the Italian "Battuto" style, solid-colored vases covered with hand-cut facets that give the pieces a hammered look.

According to McCarthy, who also shows and sells his works at art fairs around the country, as well as at several museums and visual arts centers, caring for glass art once it's in your home isn't difficult. Dust it periodically. Bubble wrap it when moving. "Don't break it," he says with a smile.

—Jane Louis

Chris McCarthy, Park Avenue Glass, 3145 Park, 314-776-7155, www.parkavenueglass.com.

Good To Go

The three scariest words for a parent harried after a busy day? No question. They are: What's for dinner?

Help--that's actually healthy--is here. Saint Louis University's Health Sciences Center and its department of nutrition and dietetics have opened Fresh Gatherings. The restaurant serves homemade food made from produce raised by local farmers; the food can be vacuum-packed in family-sized portions to take home, and meals average $3 to $6 per serving. The basic menu is roast chicken on Mondays, roast pork loin on Tuesdays, Mexican/Latino on Wednesdays, lamb on Thursdays and barbecue on Fridays. Vegetarian variations of the fare are also available, as are artisan breads. The cook in charge is no less than Eddie Neill, locally famous as the chef and co-owner of Cafe Provencal. The restaurant at 3437 Caroline is open for lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and for breakfast from 8 to 10 a.m. If you call 314-977-8523 before 1 p.m., you can pick up dinner to go by 4 p.m.

—Christy Marshall

Tracking the Offbeat

From finding houses built in caves to a homemade roller coaster, former St. Louisan Patrick Clark has landed on an odd beat.

One day while flipping through television channels, you might catch a glimpse of a house that sits on a mountain and rotates 360 degrees. It's not a scene from The Jetsons or a futuristic SciFi Channel show. It's on Offbeat America, a new HGTV program, featuring host Patrick Clark, formerly of St. Louis' WB11. The show, which premiered this past July, includes four or five stories about unusual homes, gardens and other attractions per episode. Artists with eccentric crafts, such as a retired farmer in Colorado who welds giant metal sculptures from old motorcycle parts, are also featured.

"It's been a lot of fun," Clark says. "I got the opportunity to work in TV in St. Louis right out of college; I got really lucky. HGTV's in 100 million households. I get to travel and meet so many interesting people."

With Offbeat America, HGTV hopes to reach a younger audience than its shows generally draw. Clark has visited a storybook castle, a house in a cave and a homemade roller coaster, and shooting has taken him across North America, including stops in Mexico, Long Island and St. Louis. Clark looks forward to trips back to his hometown, though, where his wife continues to live while he travels three weeks of each month.

He also still works with St. Louis musicians Pete Lang and Darrell McClanahan, formerly members of the Patrick Clark Band. The trio occasionally writes jingles, including one to promote Clark's old home station Channel 11.

"Honest to God, I miss St. Louis a lot," he says. "My family and friends are there. There's a lot to be said for having your family and friends around. But also, I think people are nicer there. People in L.A. are into their own thing. But you know, in St. Louis, we knew all our neighbors. We knew everyone. We knew what was going on."

For the sake of raising a family in a close-knit environment, Clark plans on moving back to St. Louis eventually but probably will continue to work out of New York or L.A.

He jumped aboard the HGTV cast after his show Pulse on the G4tech TV network was canceled last December and a few other hosting opportunities fell through. Clark remembers when the network offered him a spot on its wacky road trip.

"They just said, 'Great news, you got the job, and we need you on a plane today to Mexico.' It's been nonstop since then," he says. "So I have a lot of frequent flyer miles, a lot of hotel miles." Catch Offbeat America Sundays at 5 p.m. on HGTV.

—Laurel Leicht

Local Luminaries

Awards won by some of our own.

St. Louis County Parks, Joanne Kohn and the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park (120 N. Ballas, 314-822-8359, www.ebsworthpark.org) received The Wright Spirit Award. This national award, given by the Wright Building Conservancy, recognizes extraordinary effort in the stewardship of Wright's buildings. The Ebsworth home is a Usonian home built for Ruth and Russell Kraus in 1951 and contains all of the original Wrightdesigned furnishings and fabrics.

Brentwood Townhomes in North St. Louis County has received the Governor's Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing, marking the third year that a client of Roseman & Associates has been recognized in this way. For the second year in a row, Total Landscape, Inc. has received an award of distinction from the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET). This year they won for landscaping work done at Jim and Audrey Yarbrough's home in Lake St. Louis.

Missouri Display homes for The Jones Co., Hayden Homes and Rolwes Homes, in collaboration with June Rosselein Interiors, received multiple HOMER Awards in the area of new home building from the Home Builders Association of Greater St. Louis.

Leonard Masonry received an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects for work on St. John the Apostle and Evangelistic Catholic Churches. The award is part of AIA's Design Awards Excellence Program.

—Stefene Russell

New Spots to Shop

Bruno David Gallery (3721 Washington, 314-531-3030, www.brunodavidgallery.com) opened with a big group show (appropriately titled "Inaugural Exhibit"); they'll carry contemporary work by mid-career and emerging artists working in several genres. Lola & Penelope's (7742 Forsyth, 314-863-5652, www.lolaandpenelopes.com) offers high-end goods "for pets and their families." Competition is barking in Webster at Lucky Dog (38 N. Gore, 314-961-PUPS). Salt of the Earth (1121 Locust, 314-241-8008) has opened a second location downtown, which carries folksy housewares on a larger scale for loft-sized living. Casa Semplice (321 N. 10th Street, 314-436- 8699, www.casasemplice.com) aims to streamline your kitchen with modern, well-designed cookware, bakeware, appliances, utensils and table linens. Copia Urban Winery (1122 Washington, 314-621- 7275) offers nearly 300 fine wines in its retail shop, as well as upscale wine accessories and gourmet snacks. Want a spa that works around your schedule? Hurry to Go!Spa (11735 Manchester, 314-822-0772, www.gospagirl.com). Valley Farmer's Market (128 Long Road, 636-530-5948) brings the open-air market experience to Chesterfield, seven days a week. Provence Boutique now has a second shop in Webster Groves (102 W. Lockwood, 314-962-2580) with even more goods from the South of France. Teavana (that is, nirvana + tea) (Westfield Shoppingtown, 85 South County Center Way, 314-892-5203, www.westfield.com/westcounty) started brewing in late October. Their specialty is bagged and loose teas from all over the globe. Rock, Paper, Scissors (636-724-5002, 833 Main, St. Charles) opened in October. As the name suggests, their forte is unusual and artistic paper, but they also offer clay, stamps, yarn and craft supplies.

Where Do I...Get a Porcelain Bathtub Reglazed?

Fletcher Calder of AAA Tub & Tile can tell you more than a few bathtub horror stories. More often than he'd like, he shows up at a job only to find that an unscrupulous company has shown up before him and spraypainted a porcelain tub, rather than actually reglazing it. This means he has a long day of stripping paint before he can begin the process of bringing the tub back to its shiny, white glory.

AAA's basic reglazing service is "a two-part acrylic glaze, basically just an acrylic urethane," Calder says. "And that's what any reputable company will use. Epoxy used to be the standard, and some companies still use that because it's cheaper, but the acrylic has the same durability—it's made to be submerged in water—but it doesn't yellow over time." Prices should fall into the $250 to $300 range, with at least a one-year warranty. "If it's more than $300, it's likely that they're gouging," Calder says, "and anything less than $200, you can be sure it's one of these little fly-by-night companies." For antique claw-foot tubs, or for bathtubs that see more use (e.g., in apartment buildings), AAA restores the porcelain—which, Calder emphasizes, is not the same as putting new porcelain on your tub. "Some companies will claim to do that and say they have ground porcelain in their finishes," he says, "but it's impossible. We have a porcelain firing kiln at the shop, and if we could bring it to someone's house, we would." Refinishing a tub means stain removal and then a reseal and re-gloss. "It's hard work," Calder says. "We use a lot of different polishes and compounds and sealers."

The company will restore a tub on-site, using tarps and plastic to seal off the room and keep things clean. If you want to restore a salvaged tub, they will pick it up for free and work on it at the shop. And though they mostly do "standard white-on-white porcelain" they will customize the tub to your specifications.

"We just dropped one off today," he says, "up in Wildwood. It was money green inside; it was for an art promoter. He sprayed graffiti on the outside, then we clear-coated that and installed brass feet and fixtures. That's probably the craziest one we've ever done."

AAA Tub and Tile, 10701 Old Halls Ferry, 314-568-4836, www.aaatubandtile.com

Cut the Rug

A chic and relatively cheap alternative to buying area rugs is to create your own with leftover pieces of your wall-to-wall carpet. Fortunately, there are several stores in St. Louis that will happily transform your scraps into a banded rug. (A few even sell remnants to use for these personal creations).

"You can get the exact size you want," says Maryann Spring of Winschell Carpet, "and you can pick all your colors." The design can be as simple as a border, or as complicated as taking a floral print on the sofa and duplicating it on the rug.

Production time and price can vary greatly; binding, a process in which the edge of the carpet is outlined with cloth tape, is quick and inexpensive. Whipstitches, serging and more elegant designs can take longer to finish and can cost several more dollars per foot.

Woodard Cleaning and Restoration

9308 Manchester, 314-961-9102

A testament to the timelessness of area rugs, Woodard has been experiencing high demand for its binding and serging services. Binding, the inexpensive option, runs $3.15 per linear foot; serging, offering an upscale look, costs $4.20 per foot.

Folkweave Carpet and Flooring

7368 Dale, 314-645-4468

Folkweave does not have a set cost for finishing rugs but charges according to amount of labor, which can vary depending on the type of carpets and fabrics, the style of the rug and the technique.

Winschell Carpet

2060 N. Highway 67, 314-831-8181

Winschell's prices also vary based on technique: binding is $1.50 per linear foot, and serging costs $3.50 per foot. Winschell also combines multiple colors and carpet remnants. These more dramatic designs run $5-$6 per linear foot.

—Laurel Leicht and Stefene Russell