Bacon Grease

Neon Memes Bacon grease makes the world go round. With rare exceptions and only a few hiatuses, I've been meeting my old friend Leonard Rifkin for breakfast each Friday for almost a decade and a half. I consider it a way of treating myself for surviving yet another week. In any event, lately Leonard and I have been alternating between the Clayton Stratton's Cafe (190 Carondelet Plaza, 314.726.0900) and another restaurant. Stratton's quite pleases me. The cashier--customarily a young lady named Lauren, according to my receipt--is invariably chipper, the kitchen service speedy, and the food satisfying. (This morning? Stratton's Bacon Cheddar Cheese Scramble, with some impeccable wheat toast on the side--$5.09 plus tax.) Leonard and I sit there, inhaling our coffee and grumbling about the inanity of the world. Such a small moment of tranquility starts the day and ends the week pleasingly, even promisingly.--Bryan A. Hollerbach