Fun time Friday night at The Thaxton on Olive in downtown St. Louis! It was the ALIVE Influencer Network’s Lifestyle Lounge with many cool people and things.

Food and drink were provided by Snarf’s Sandwiches, Billy Goat Chips, Eckert Farms, Strange Donuts, Bissinger’s, The Dark Room, Old Bakery Beer and Barrister’s (among others).

The Dark Room in Grand Center brought chef Samantha Pretto’s Chicken Florentine Meatballs. They were spicy and delicious.

Old Bakery Beer from Alton, Illinois served up a couple of their brews including the Golden Oat which I loved. (Went back for seconds.) (That’s Ryan Myers grabbing a brew from Patrick Shaw of OBB.)

Eckert’s Farms of Belleville shared Strawberry Shortcake made with freshly-harvested strawberries.

Sam and Kristie Boctor of Barrister’s in Clayton brought food and drink. Nice folks! BTW, they offer brunch on Saturdays and Sundays at their place on Forsyth.

Attendees at the event included a couple of folks who were guests on my Food Talk STL radio show back in 2012. On left in the photo below is Stefani Pollack with her 15.8K Instagram followers at @cupcakeproject. On the right, with his 111K (!) Instagram followers at @grillinfools is Scott Thomas. (Stefani’s husband, ace photog Jonathan Pollack, is in the middle.)

Some other folks I enjoyed visiting with at the event: Lindsay Van Quaethem from Downtown St. Louis and  Jen Porto of Jenporto.com.

Also… reps from Opera Theatre of St. Louis (opening night is May 21), St. Louis Premium Outlets, Firecracker Press, Snapdragon Studio, My Coconut Kitchen, Living Collective and Fair Acres Quality Goods.

Thanks to Linday Pattan of ALIVE Influencer Network and Mad Dog of the Thaxton for the hospitality!