That’s the title of Peggy Noonan’s column in the Saturday Wall Street Journal but I’m gonna borrow it for this post. A few thoughts…

1. Go ahead and ask the price of those off-menu specials your server is touting. Even if he/she says, “I’m not sure. I’ll have to check.” Let her/him check. It might save you from gulping when the check comes.
2. Fresh corn on the cob! One of the highlights of summer. Do you put salt and/or butter on yours? Don’t. It’s just as delicious without that stuff. (Or should be, depending on where you’re getting yours.)
3. Been a pulled pork partisan at BBQ joints for the past several years. But had some very good brisket recently and will be drifting back over thataway in the near future. As long as it’s not too dry.
4. We ate at an Italian joint in Moab, Utah. We ate at a Mexican joint in Gatlinburg. Regretted both. In resort towns, it’s probably best to stick with the people pleaser types of places.
5. The most generous tipper I know is my daughter. She works in the industry.
6. I’ve enjoyed some wonderful pizza in my life. But I wonder if I’m the only person who thinks that pizza, in general, is overrated. And, in many cases, way overpriced.
7. I’d wager that most beer drinkers don’t give a darn whether there’s corn syrup in the brew. Is that something that concerns you?
8. I picked up the book American Advertising Cookbooks: How Corporations Taught Us To Love Spam, Bananas and Jell-O at St. Louis County Library. Lots of mid-century promotions for various foodstuffs. Trying to decide if a peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich is something I might want to try. Suggested in a Hellmann’s ad.
9. Here is a list of some of the FRIED things you can get at the Illinois State Fair this year: Twinkies, Oreos, Snickers, Milky Way, Keylime Pie, Pecan Pie, Cheesecake, Pickles, Peaches with Ice Cream, Green Tomatoes, Brownie Bomb, Funny Bones, Bacon Wrapped Oreos, Dough-E-Oreos, More Than a S’More, Red Velvet Oreos, Apple Pie Fries. (From the State Fair website. Fair runs August 8-18 in Springfield.)
10. For the record, I have no problem with Oktoberfest beers being for sale already in grocery stores. I mean, why not?

Haven’t posted anything here in a couple of years.

From July 2016 thru August 2018 we spent most of our time in Birmingham. My dad passed away and we worked on the family home, cleaning things out and getting it ready to sell.

Now we are back in St. Louis. I am retired. Not that I’ll never work for money again but I haven’t for a while now. Since I am no longer doing a radio show and catering to advertisers nor am I currently doing PR, social and other marketing work for any food and beverage clients, I can be a bit more candid with my comments on this site.

Like, for instance, I can mention that the St. Louis magazine A-List party last week was a mess. The food was good and sometimes great. It was wonderful to see some folks I hadn’t seen in a long time. But the timing and the logistics were awful. The Sheldon was a bad venue for this event.

We arrived just before 6:00 p.m. and were told that the food would not be served until 6:45 p.m. because of an awards ceremony. We had not purchased tickets to attend an awards ceremony. We wanted to sample the food offerings. At about 6:20 a woman who was an event official told some of us who were waiting in a long line for drinks that she was going to close the bar so people would go to this awards ceremony. As she surveyed the long lines of thirsty people, she wisely reconsidered.

The food was served on three different levels at the Sheldon. Inconvenient but not something we couldn’t handle. Until we got to the third level. A band was playing. They were good. But they were too loud for that smallish room. It made conversation impossible.

The list of restaurants at the A-List party was impressive. Many of the best new joints in St. Louis. Most of the places offered good representations of their cuisine. A few phoned it in but I won’t name names. We got plenty to eat. And I had a couple of Goose Island beers that were tasty.

I understand that events like this party generate good revenue and visibility for the magazine. In my radio and PR work I have helped plan and execute events. My wife and I chaired a few school trivia nights with hundreds of attendees. So I know that events are not easy to pull off. Still, this one was a mess. (I used a less polite term on Facebook. A term that begins with “cluster.”) Let’s hope next year’s party will be better.

More to come.

—David Craig