respublica

Five Star Burgers

Clayton's Five Star Burger restaurant has landed on a national list of the 25 Hottest Hamburgers in America Right Now. And rightfully so. Honestly, when you think of all the hamburgers in this country you think there is no way to make one stand out without becoming "not a true hamburger". But Five Star burgers are amazingly good, tender, flavorful and toppings galore placed on a perfect brioche bun. Something about the Brioche bun makes takes this burger from sooo good to amazing. Too often hamburger buns are an after thought, too big, too dense, no taste at all. 

If you haven't tried a Five Star and live anywhere near Clayton, you really have to go there. The nice thing about the place is you don't have to be dressed to the 9's as you might at some other Clayton restaurants. And, they have all kinds of great milk shakes, some with liquor.

 

Tuesday numbers

In just one month (December the first month legalized video gambling went into effect) Metro East gamblers spent 4.5 million dollars on 35 newly legal machines throughout the area. The amount gamblers lost was 400,000. Statewide 91.8 million dollars were played and of that total, 7 million was lost. 

Actually 400,000 as a loss on 4.5 million played sounds like pretty good odds, but I am not a gambler so I may have this completely wrong. Taverns and veterans posts and small restaurants look to do pretty well with these video games. 

More numbers

The Clayton School District recently voted to cut 1.2 million dollars out of its budget. The cuts will be permanent.

The Miners Institute Theater in Collinsville will have nothing more done to it for at least 3 years, it will, for all intents and purposes, sit idle. At issue is 190,000 dollars in TIF funds the Recreation District would have to prepay in order to return ownership to the Miners Institute Foundation. It's been tough sledding for years and years with the Miners.

Cutting the ribbon on the new Clayton police station

Today was the day many in the city of Clayton have been waiting for, the first look at the new police station on Brentwood just across from Shaw Park. The building which now houses the police was once a commercial building with residence rooms on the third floor. Interestingly, the third floor remains a rental unit residence and the city will be receiving market value in rent each month. The other 3 floors-basement, first and second are all set up for everything a modern department needs.

The original structure was built as a residence and commercial building in the 1950's by Sidney and Jane Studt who modeled it after the famous Williamsburg Virginia Governor's Palace constructed by the British in the Colonial era. The Palace was the residence of 7 British governors and 2 American governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. After Jefferson the state capitol was moved to Richmond. The exterior of the Clayton building does look much like the palace although on a smaller scale. 

Governors Palace in Williamsburg.

Clayton building (The Heritage Building)

The Studt's lived on the top two floor for over two decades. The middle portion of the Palace is remarkably like the Brentwood building. The daughter of the Studt's was in attendance-Janey Symington wife of Stuart Symington Jr. son of the former Missouri senator.

The renovation includes the introduction of the most energy efficient materials and infrastructure including rooftop solar arrays which is a machine used to generate EU from the sun and is the equivalent of many normal solar panels. 

The community was invited to the ribbon cutting and tours this morning and many took advantage of the opportunity. 

Here the ribbon is cut with members of the Board of Aldermen and Mayor along with the Symingtons, Police Chief, Director of Public Works, Parks and Recreation and others who worked on the building as architects or construction.

Chief Thomas Byrne, Mayor Goldstein, former alderman, Judy Goodman and Parks director Patty DeForrest.

Then the tours began and if you'll notice the incredible woodwork which is throughout the main floor and is original. Everything possible was done to save it while getting out all the old heating, cooling, electric and plumbing.

On the first floor off the main entrance is the municipal court.

Going to the right from the main doors will take you to the hallway and receptionist.

Most of the offices have windows which is a wonderful change.

The Chief's office

Stairway between floors, original woodwork and terrazzo floors.

The Sally Port for unloading prisoners. The first time I ever heard of a Sally Port was when I went on a tour of Collinsville's new police station.

The lock up area where prisoners are put in modern day cells which are mostly concrete and very stark.

A cell

Also there is a room they call the sympathy room where witnesses or victims can find a restful place to recover, maybe meet family.

No window but peaceful

The disaster task force meeting room.

Then my favorite because you so seldom get to see this, 

Various department weapons and protective armor were explained.

And last the exercise room 

Beautifully equiped and paid for by...

Then on to a quick look at the basement where all the machinery is purring away.

This was very impressive and informative a morning.

Please use other door

Clayton is a city which takes good environmental practices very seriously having implemented just about every municipal green idea that has come along. The sign on the door of the Center of Clayton, the exercise/pool/community room place, asks that you not use the automatic door opener unless absolutely necessary. Please manually open the other door.

I have never seen this sort of notice anywhere else.

Five Star Burgers Wow

Last night we went to dinner at the relatively new place in downtown Clayton-Five Star Burgers. It would be hard to describe how good these burgers were, let's just say, unbelieveably good. The restaurant is set up very simply, small tables along the wall and seating at the bar. It's a place in Clayton where you can get a great meal in a casual atmosphere. Casual enough that you can wear a Notre Dame hooded sweatshirt as Dale did last night.

The owner took one simple concept, burgers, and does them as well as they can be done and accompanied by a nice selection of toppings. As an added bonus, the fries and onion rings (oh so good) come in little fryer baskets with a small condiment cup of catsup.

They also do shakes of all kinds including shakes with liquor. And salads and homemade soups. But it's the burgers you come for. You have to go.

Owner Steve Gontram, the former owner of the respected Harvest Restaurant, modeled this restaurant after the Five Star Burgers his father created in New Mexico. The father also put one in in Colorado near the New Mexico border. It's a family thing.

I had a burger with cheddar cheese and their own New Mexico Hatch Chilies. The onion rings were great, thin and done perfectly with a crunch. They also have fried pickles which we did not try but the pickles which came with the meal were really tasty and I'm not ordinarily a pickle eater.

You must try this place.

 

 

Hunting for food, 21st Century division

Our local Schnucks brought in a ton of workers last week to help accomplish what a sign at the front door described as, "remodeling". Every aisle except for produce and liquor had people removing everything from the shelves. There were pallets of new shelving sitting here and there around the store. Shoppers had to detour around all this and hope that they could grab what they needed before the shelf got emptied. 

Then, if you went in there enough times last week as I did, you'd see that what they were really doing was changing which aisles held what type of grocery product. It was less remodeling than changing everything around which means that everyone who knew where the tomato sauce aisle was will now have to search. 

Probably this kind thing is a way for stores to force you to go round the entire thing as opposed to coming in and going straight to what you need which in turns makes you more susceptible to impulse buying. My guess anyway. 

It was pure chaos in there each day as too many workers clearing shelves, others putting up new shelves and still others carting around the taken down food to another spot in the store. They battled for space with shoppers and their carts, wandering puzzled from place to place. Gone are the days when grocery stores had employees stocking shelves in the overnight hours. 

Surely they've finished by now and we can venture back in to see if we can find what we need without having to walk back and forth through the entire store several times.  If I know this Schnucks, they'll have someone standing at the door with a map.

The Restaurant is packing them in

The venerable Cheshire Inn, long a fixture on Clayton Road under the shadow of the big Amoco sign, recently reopened after a complete renovation. In the past month two restaurants in the complex have opened as well and if the number of cars in the lot and on the side streets are any indication, they are doing a huge business.

The Restaurant at the Cheshire as it's now named has received great reviews  (is a bit pricey) and Basso, (not so pricey) a more informal wood fired pizza place and bar is getting the same.  You don't pack your restaurants just because you're new and part of history, you have to have a good product and it seems that these two do.

We drove by last night about 7:30 and cars were everywhere around the Cheshire. It's great to see this place back on top of its game and bringing people back.

May be something to see there

Last January the Clayton board of aldermen and the parks department agreed to the construction of a dog park off Clayton Road west and north of the Galleria in the former Haddington Court subdivision which was condemned for being part of a flood plain.  The dog park was going to take money to put together and while fund raising has been going on, there was not enough to begin.

But, guess what?

Recently a donor came through with a hefty sum, I think it was 100,000 dollars. So we should be seeing something soon. 

Two new local restaurants to try

While new, both are occupying space which formerly housed two longtime restaurants. The first, The Restaurant at the Cheshire opened in November and everything I've heard is that this is a go to place. The interior has been redone while keeping much of the charm of the original Cheshire including the big fireplace. The food is great, the staff is wonderful and the prices are a bit high. Dale went there for lunch last week and raved about it. A friend of ours went with friends during the evening last week and thought it was a great experience though pricey. But never fear food lovers, a second eating area has now opened in the Cheshire complex, Basso's, which features wood fired pizza. More casual and less costly.

The second new restaurant in this area is Pan D'Olive occupying the former wonderful Mihalis Chophouse on McCausland across from the Olympia Kabob House. The idea behind this restaurant is 'nice but not expensive'.

"The menu is described as “a celebration of Mediterranean cuisine with a California twist,” but what stands out even more is its composition: a large selection of mezes and bruschettas are $4 each (or 3 for $10), salads are $5-6, flatbreads $10-13, pasta averages $13 per order, with meat and seafood entrees priced in the teens as well."

This looks very promising and it's great to have two new places close by after passing them daily and seeing empty buildings.

St Louis Art Fair 2012

We walked and walked through the streets of downtown Clayton this afternoon, looking at tents of art and watching people. Didn't buy anything for the first time ever. But tomorrow is another day. :)

First thing we did was eat a late lunch. 

Found a table amidst the many tables.

Dale had a crab sandwich, at least I think it was crab, it looked like a hamburger patty but beige. I got the peppered tenderloin sandwich.

Then we walked around from tent to tent with several thousand other people.

The artists frown on having their works photographed so I restrained myself this year. We thought the prices were higher than other years.

The souvenir stand was very cool, they call it the Festival Store.

We ran into people we know, but the biggest kick was running into Dale's cousin John and his wife Kay who were with friends of theirs.

And we're home.  For now.