ILLUSTRATION BY JOEL KIMMEL
In assembling the annual A-List feature, we’re perpetually on the lookout for St. Louis standouts. Some are obvious: the long-anticipated National Blues Museum, the long-overdue Tennessee Williams Festival, the ever-packed Union Loafers. Others, however, are subtler.
Take, for instance, the Born to Read program. The St. Louis County Library quietly launched the program just over a year ago, partnering with a handful of hospitals to hand out bags holding free books, teethers, and library cards. If, like me, you’re a new parent swept up in the arrival of a child and endless baby supplies, it’s easy to take the materials for granted: just one more packet, one more program. But when you realize that a child’s first three years are vital for brain development—and that the program will touch the lives of an estimated 15,000 babies in 2016—it registers as a profound gesture.
Then there are the people behind the scenes. Several weeks before Olive + Oak opened its doors, executive chef Jesse Mendica was regularly putting in 15-hour days. Already she’d learned the ropes from chef Lou Rook at Annie Gunn’s. “I can run a kitchen like nobody’s business after working for Lou,” she told writer Jenny Agnew, adding that she’s assembled a “dream team, a badass kitchen.” Indeed. The last time we checked, weekends at Olive + Oak were booked more than a month out.
Finally, there are the small things, those tucked-away treasures. Novelist Danielle Dutton shared just a few of her favorites, including the rocks in the lower level of Wash. U.’s earth and planetary sciences building (“Hit a button on the wall, and a black light reveals a secret wild phosphorescent pageant”) and the bell tree at the Missouri Botanical Garden (“One of the loveliest things in one of the loveliest places in the city”).
Compiling the annual feature pushes us to truly observe, leading us to discover even more reasons—big and small—to appreciate St. Louis.
