Ę stlmag.com July 2019
FROM THE EDITOR
VOLUME 25 / ISSUE 7jul 19
The Write Stuff
While we’re bragging
about St. Louis, it’s
worth mentioning that
staff writer Jeannette
Cooperman was
recently named Writer
of the Year at the City
& Regional Magazine
Association Awards.
The judges lauded her
“fearless reporting.”By Design
Design director To m
White won CRMA’s
Designer of the Year
honors. “Whether it’s
poster-style or modern
design,” judges noted,
“he proves himself as
one of the best.”Awards Season
SLM also swept the
Great Plains Journalism
Awards, taking honors
for Magazine of the Year
and Website of the Year,
among other awards.THE LINE STRETCHING out the door said it all. Hours before
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, customers were crowding
into Arch Apparel to buy blue T-shirts emblazoned with
simple, proud phrases: “Best in the West,” “Play Gloria.”
Even my father-in-law, a diehard Chicago Blackhawks fan,
couldn’t help noticing the energy in St. Louis right now.
Signs of resurgence are everywhere. Cranes and crews
in hard hats dot the central corridor. Developers are trans-
forming historic buildings into modern apartments and
hotels. As Evy Swoboda, The Last Hotel’s executive chef,
told us (p. 54): “Out-of-town developers see the local com-
mitments—the NGA project, City Foundry, the success of
Cortex and St. Louis attracting more tech in general—which
attracts their investment. They’ve seen other cities turn the
corner, and I’ve been told that St. Louis is next.”
Buildings that long sat vacant now house some of the
region’s hippest new restaurants. Inside a former Fox Park
liquor store, Savage owner/chef Logan Ely produces some
of the most imaginative dishes in the country. Bulrush exec
chef Rob Connoley has transformed a bare-bones Midtown
space into a modern restaurant that turns foraged foods
into fine dining. Along Delmar, across from Third Degree
Glass Factory, the MADE maker space is a much-needed
resource for grown-up artists, designers, and entrepre-
neurs but also for children as it partners with The Magic
House to extend the museum’s reach beyond Kirkwood.
And that’s to say nothing of our forthcoming aquarium,
Forest Park’s plans, and the raceway’s revival (p. 83).
Then there are the arts. New faces are bringing fresh ideas
to our most beloved institutions: Stéphane Denève at the
symphony, Hana Sharif at The Rep,
Andrew Jorgensen at Opera Theatre,
Tom Ridgely at Shakespeare Festi-
val... St. Louis artists (Tonina, Justin
Phillip Reed, Kennedy Holmes) and
exhibits (Kehinde Wiley at SLAM)
have received much-deserved
national attention.
The prospect of a Major League
Soccer team—what would be the
league’s first majority women-owned
franchise—has generated a new wave
of excitement. “The response locally
and nationally has been overwhelm-
ingly positive,” says World Wide
Technology CEO Jim Kavanaugh
(p. 74), part of the MLS4TheLou
ownership group.
We saw the same kind of enthusi-
asm when we asked readers to share
some of their favorite people and
places for our annual A-List Read-
ers’ Choice Awards ballot. This year,
we expanded the size of the ballot
to more than 150 categories and
received more than 317,000 votes
(almost triple last year’s tally), with
more than 26,000 readers weighing
in on everything from their favorite
Vietnamese restaurant (Mai Lee) to
their favorite actor (John Goodman).
As Goodman noted in a recent TV
campaign touting all the region has
to offer, we have not only the long-
time favorites, but we have “more
than our fair share of James Beard
Award–winning chefs,” and “we’re
still turning out some of music’s best
every night at legendary music halls
all over town.”
St. Louisans have known all this.
Now the rest of the nation is begin-
ning to find out.Follow Along
@stlmag@stlmag@stlouismag