People & Places >>

• Best Month to Be in St. Louis
  January
  Carping about the "bitter" St. Louis winter is the city's second-favorite weather-related pastime (right after bitching about the brutal St. Louis summer). But you know what? Winter in St. Louis is beautiful, and January is the best time of year to be here. The air is cold enough that you can... More >>
• Best Local Girl Made Good
  Sarah Clarke
  You know Sarah Clarke as Nina Myers on 24, and you were devastated when she was killed off in the third season. But you may not know the rest of this 33-year-old Ladue native's résumé, which includes a supporting role in last year's sleeper thirteen and a Screen Actors Guild... More >>
• Best Local Boy Gone Bad
  Mike Danton
  St. Louis Blues center Mike Danton's fall has all the elements of a Southern -- make that Midwestern -- gothic drama: A devoted volleyball-playing fan/lover, rumors of drug addiction, celebrity, shady hit men and a murderous plot bred of the rising star's intense homoerotic relationship to his... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Men
  Upper Limits Rock Gym & Pro Shop
  If belaying, shirtless hunks isn't your idea of a good time, by all means stay away from Upper Limits climbing gym downtown. "It's a great place to meet people," a helpful staffer tells us. "We have a lot of people who start dating because they met there." Men are said to be more common on the... More >>
• Best Place to Meet Single Women
  Yoga class
  Sorry, fella, but you gotta go where the odds are with you. You're unlikely to luck out at a bar, where drunk dudes outnumber sober ladies by about twelve to one, and where even the best pick-up line is so obviously a cry for help. Plus, what does a respectable woman want with a drunk? She's... More >>
• Best Spot for a Nooner
  Hyatt Regency St. Louis
  The beauty of Union Station's Grand Hall -- now the Hyatt Regency's lobby and cocktail lounge, replete with vaulted glass ceiling and handsome club chairs -- conjures up Bogart-Bacall romance: witty banter over stiff drinks with a secret paramour, the titillation of a clandestine rendezvous held... More >>
• Best Bed and Breakfast
  The Park Avenue Mansion
  Unless owners Kathy Marks-Petetit and Michael Petetit hire folks to hang out in the parlor of their bed and breakfast impersonating satisfied customers, their Park Avenue Mansion is the real deal. The Petetits, who moved to Lafayette Square from Clayton a few years ago as empty nesters, rehabbed... More >>
• Best Hotel
  Best Western Inn at the Park
  On a clear day you can't see forever from a room at the Best Western Inn at the Park -- but you can treat yourself to a pretty spectacular view of the Central West End. Which brings us to three of this hotel's best features: location, location, location. It's within walking distance of Forest... More >>
• Best Citizen
  Micheal Ocello
  What is a citizen? Merely a resident? No, a citizen has rights, privileges and responsibilities. Isn't the best citizen, then, the person who's most successful at getting others to exercise their rights, privileges and responsibilities? In one sense, strip-joint mogul Micheal Ocello is an... More >>
• Best Gadfly
  Thomas Diehl
  This past December, a group of neighbors opposed to a trash-transfer station in their neck of south county distributed a tough-talking anonymous flier slamming Fred Weber Inc., the company behind the proposed waste dump. The handbill suggested that residents contact county officials, boycott... More >>
• Best Bureaucrat
  Rollin Stanley
  When Rollin Stanley was appointed executive director of the St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency in May 2002, local planners and academics were shocked. How could Stanley, a man with an international reputation as a progressive urbanist, land in the Lou, a place where city planning the... More >>
• Best Pipe Dream
  Merging St. Louis city and county
  We all know our city's sad story: From its population zenith of more than 850,000 in 1950, the postwar hemorrhage brought down St. Louis. Most recent census nadir: fewer than 350,000 inhabitants. Blame it on white flight, the drying-up of factory jobs or the highways that severed the city from... More >>
• Best Boondoggle
  The Lambert Airport expansion
  It takes one heckuva boondoggle to bowl us over two years running. Let's see if we can figure this one out: At Lambert St. Louis International Airport this fiscal year, 3.7 million fewer passengers than last year boarded planes. American Airlines has cut its daily flight schedule to 207 from 417... More >>
• Best Lawyer
  James Hacking
  When three area Muslims were called recently by the FBI for an "informal interview," the men arrived accompanied by attorney James Hacking. As head of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, St. Louis Chapter, Hacking lends not only his time but also his legal services to the city's estimated... More >>
• Best Attorney Nom de Guerre
  Scott "Free" Rosenblum
  Scott "Free" Rosenblum More >>
• Best View of Downtown
  Martin Luther King Bridge, headed west
  Preservationists may argue that the best view of downtown is to be beheld from the pedestrian lane of the newly renovated Eads Bridge. Wrong. The best view of St. Louis is afforded one upon entering the Show-Me State on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge, just north of Eads Bridge. For one... More >>
• Best Mile of St. Louis
  Market Street, between 4th and 20th streets
  With a nod to Cherokee Street and its eclectic hodgepodge of antique stores and Mexican grocers, the finest mile in St. Louis runs along Market Street beginning at 20th Street and ending at 4th. Along the way you pass Union Station and Carl Milles' spectacular Meeting of the Waters fountain... More >>
• Best Local Landmark
  Giant Amoco sign
  Traveling west out of the city, Highway 40 is pretty basic: There's horizontal concrete to drive on, and there's vertical concrete separating you from the eastbound traffic. Oh yeah, and there're some giant concrete turtles. Pretty straightforward stuff. While the Gateway to the West is... More >>
• Best Cheap Thrill
  Horse Hooky Tuesday
  Admission sets you back $1.50. A small beer costs the same. (If you want to bump it up to a sixteen-ouncer, that'll be $2, buddy.) Hot dogs are 75 cents apiece, a Coke goes for two bits less than that and parking is free. Whatever else you might end up donating to the track -- well, that's up to... More >>
• Best Kids' Thrill
  The Butterfly House
  When kids venture inside the tropical conservatory at the Butterfly House, their eyes get huge and they look around in awe. (Many of them actually stop talking!) More than 1,200 butterflies of 60 species flutter through the warm air, landing on the leaves of 150 different kinds of tropical... More >>
• Best Kids' Thrill (Railroad Division)
  The Wabash Frisco and Pacific Steam Railway
  Oh sure, there's the zoo train, and it's great. But nothing beats riding on a track next to the Meramec River in an open-air wooden car, the sun peeking in through the shady trees, the steam engine filling the air with puffs of smoke. Starting the first Sunday in May and continuing every Sunday... More >>
• Best Place to Take Out-of-Town Guests
  Missouri Botanical Garden
  The sheer beauty of the Missouri Botanical Garden makes it a perennial favorite with St. Louisans and visitors alike. During spring and fall, the garden's flowers and verdant green foliage are the main attraction. In the winter it's the massive Buckminster Fuller-inspired Climatron, with its... More >>
• Best Festival
  Italian Fest
  Festivals abound in the summer months, and you can count on pretty much the same experience at each one: Parades, live music and funnel cakes are universal joys. Why, then, is Collinsville's mid-September Italian Fest so great? Is it the burg's Mayberry-like Main Street, still lined with locally... More >>
• Best Local Boy Made Good
  Sham Daugherty and Zo Lee Jr.
  Sure, it was Nelly who restored St. Louis to its rightful prominent place on the music map with Country Grammar back in the summer of '00. But four years later it's Alonzo "Zo" Lee Jr. and Shamar "Sham" Daugherty, a.k.a. the Trak Starz, who are keeping us there. The production whizzes behind... More >>
• Best Local Girl Gone Bad
  Shandi Finnessey
  Poor Shandi Finnessey. This could have been her year. This should have been her year. Our very own Miss Missouri USA turned into Miss USA and then came within a blond hair's width of being crowned Miss Universe. (Damn you, Miss Australia!) How, then, has she become the Lou's favorite whipping... More >>
• Best Worthy Cause
  Saint Louis Crisis Nursery
  Sara Erselius remembers the call to the Saint Louis Crisis Nursery vividly. A baby screamed in the background. The mom, desperate, cried, "I can't handle it anymore. I'm going to hurt him." Within hours the baby was safe in the arms of a crisis-nursery volunteer and the mom was getting a... More >>
• Best Old Building
  The Century Building
  Let's get this straight: On the one hand we have the Century Building, a Georgia marble-clad, Classical Revival-style office building that dates from 1896 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On the other we have a redevelopment plan for the Old Post Office (vintage 1884)... More >>
• Best New Building
  The chapel at the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis
  The members of the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis had quite a dilemma when they wanted to expand their little church at the corner of Kingshighway and Waterman Boulevard. On the one hand, the original 1913 building was a gorgeous example of Gothic in limestone. On the... More >>
• Best Restoration
  Forest Park
  Do you find yourself veering off Lindell, or even Highway 40, for a leisurely drive through Forest Park? Do you look for any excuse to pass by the new fountains in the Grand Basin? Have you eaten at the Boathouse, whose outdoor tables offer the most pastoral view within the city limits? Rented... More >>
• Best Place to People-Watch
  Tri-City Speedway
  If you're in New Orleans and you want to people-watch, where do you go? Easy: The French Quarter, where everything and everyone is on display. Miami? South Beach, of course! St. Louis? A trickier proposition, but only slightly. If you're looking for prime people-watching turf in St. Louis, let's... More >>
• Best Place to Tamper with a Jury
  Subway
  You've got a problem: You've been hired to talk some sense into John Q. Juror but you've forgotten the details. Was the trial going to be held in the civil courthouse, the municipal courts building or the Eagleton federal courthouse? Never fear, beefy friend -- finding your sap is going to be a... More >>
• Best Bus Route
  Madison County Transit No. 18
  Madison County Transit's Route 18 offers something for the fun lover in all of us. Care to get your crunk on? The 18, also known as the "Collinsville Metrobus," will shuttle you from downtown St. Louis to the Monastery, East St. Louis' hip-hop mecca. Disco dancing more your style? The 18 will... More >>
• Best Public Works Project
  MetroLink Expansion
  MetroLink expansion has sprouted in many locales simultaneously, so it's easy to assess the progress. Whether it's straddling Interstate 44 near Shrewsbury, disrupting Skinker Boulevard at Forest Park Parkway or slicing Clayton at Forsyth, we can follow its pace based on how it's inconveniencing... More >>
• Best Alibi
  Stranded in Ghana
  Mornings at WGNU (920 AM) were a little quiet in July. Absent was the voice of Lizz Brown, host of The Wake Up Call. Then again, Brown had a pretty good excuse for her absence: She was stuck in Ghana. Along with 72 companions, Brown had journeyed to West Africa on a trip organized by a... More >>
• Best Example of Taking One for the Team
  Larry Washington
  Look, everybody does shit they don't want to do for their boss. Somewhere a rookie is claw-hammering moldy drywall all by his lonesome while wearing a faulty respirator because the senior man wanted to play golf. Right now, some young idealist is fetching coffee for a man who can't properly... More >>
• Best Poster Boy for the First Amendment
  Bob Jamerson
  Alas, Bob Jamerson, resident peacock of the Central West End, is hanging up his roller skates and calling it quits. What started out three years ago as a sunny romance with the city turned irrevocably sour earlier this year, when Jamerson was ejected from a Fourth of July parade in Webster... More >>
• Best Local Politician
  George R. "Buzz" Westfall (1944-2003)
  Until his death from a staph infection late last year, Buzz Westfall was the defining player in local politics. A graduate of Saint Louis University, Westfall cut his teeth as county prosecutor before being elected to the post of St. Louis County executive in 1990. It was a position he'd hold... More >>
• Best Cemetery
  Oak Grove Cemetery
  For sheer spookiness, few local graveyards can rival Oak Grove. The cemetery boasts 65 hilly acres, several of whose tombs are the final resting places of famous forefathers, including Henry Kiel (1871-1942), who served as mayor of St. Louis from 1913-25; and Henry Caulfield (1873-1966), who was... More >>
• Best Random Act of Hoosierness
  The Shanti
  Picture, if you will, this early-summer hoosier tableau: Two men, one white, one black, both plastered, playing Ping-Pong. Without a net. One of them bumps the light switch and then, after briefly attempting to remedy the situation, the pair presses on in darkness. For nearly an hour. Perhaps... More >>
• Best Public Restroom
  Plaza Frontenac
  Everyone poops, Taro Gomi noted in his seminal book of the same name. But some people poop in more opulent surroundings than other people. The main restroom at Plaza Frontenac, set beneath the stairs in the Center Court area, is not just a lavatory, it's a Palace of Poop. Immediately upon entry,... More >>
• Best Drinking Fountain
  St. Louis Public Library, central branch
  In the downtown public library basement, in the middle of the hall connecting periodicals on microfilm to Science and Technology, there's a Halsey Taylor pedestal fountain -- the best of the best -- that'll blow your mind. Approach respectfully, press the sturdy top-corner button and, bingo,... More >>
• Best Kept Secret
  The South Coast of St. Louis
  If they aren't going to use it, we may as well. When you're at the foot of the Arch, start walking south along the riverbank. Then keep walking. Just keep going. Walk around fences, along railroad tracks. You'll have to dodge barge companies, sand and gravel dealers. You're probably not supposed... More >>
• Best 'Ville
  Belleville
  Sorry Edwardsville, Wentzville, Nashville, Collinsville, Caseyville and Centreville. There's just something about Belleville that offers respite from St. Louis like no other metro-area 'Ville. Maybe it's the walking-distance proximity between Belleville's quaint Main Street and its MetroLink... More >>
• Best Place for a First Date
  Wrestling at the South Broadway Athletic Club
  If you want to play it safe, pick a restaurant, any restaurant. When it comes to the first date, this is a status quo, bubblegum move. Second date? Sure. But a first date that harbors any aspirations of moving on to that second date requires an eccentric, action-packed selection. And it doesn't... More >>
• Best Place for a Last Date
  The Loading Zone
  Nothing says "I don't love you" like "Honey, I'm gay!" You could be honest and take her to the Majestic, hunker down over a slice of peach pie and tell her your love is as stale as the 1904 World's Fair, but please -- when it comes to breaking up, honesty is the worst policy. It's a lose-lose:... More >>
• Best Month to Leave St. Louis
  February
  Want to know a little secret? (Sure you do.) We never leave St. Louis. That's right. Never. Haven't you noticed that this newspaper, like, comes out every single week? Now, ask yourself: How could those folks put out a weekly paper if they weren't here? But if we could pick a time to leave St.... More >>