Suddenly September
Compiled by Grayling Holmes
Fall is in the air. Can’t you feel it? Yes, the calendar still says August, but Mother Nature says otherwise. In true St. Louis fashion, she flipped the script on us again and the weather went from a hot and humid 97 one week to 72 degrees the next, with not a humid in sight. And the nights. Once the moon makes his nightly debut during this faux fall, the temps dip into the 50’s. Sugar plum sparks dance above bonfires. Hoodies and sweaters are donned. Suddenly, it feels like fall is here. And not a moment too soon. Because Sophisticated Living’s September/October issue is here.
Any day now, subscribers will receive the golden-covered magazine in their mailbox. Others might see a copy at their favorite store if it happens the be one of our advertisers. For the rest of you, as always, I reveal it to you here digitally. Just click here. From the grand reopening of Powell Howell after the multi-million dollar restoration and expansion, to another St. Louis “institution,” Crown Candy Kitchen, to an institution in the making, Yuppy Puppy, the new issue is a good read. Grab your pumpkin spice latte and throw blanket and curl up on the couch for some literary enjoyment.
Something Old. Something New.
by Christy Marshall / Photo by John Lore
Marie-Hélène Bernard, president and CEO Powell of Symphony Hall. / photo by John Lore
Excerpt:
When Marie-Hélène Bernard, then executive director and CEO of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, came to interview for the job as chief executive of the St. Louis Symphony, she immediately noticed a problem — not with the symphony but with its residence.
“When I took this job, I had it in the back of my mind that we had to adjust and improve Powell Hall to meet the needs of current and future audiences,” Bernard said. She landed the job in February 2015 and she moved here four months later. From the moment she got the position, she started working on a strategic plan to renovate and expand the existing concert hall. The Powell Hall Task Force was created, experts were consulted and studies were commissioned. Ultimately, the Symphony board was convinced and in 2018, Bernard got the green light to go ahead.
Now, 100 years after first opening its doors, the building has a new $140 million, 64,000 square foot complex and it has a new name, the Jack C. Taylor Music Center, named after the late founder of Enterprise Holdings.
Sweet Dreams are Made of This
by Alexa Beattie / photograph by Carmen Troesser
Crown Candy Kitchen. / photo by Carmen Troesser
Excerpt:
Summertime on a Thursday, minutes after opening, there’s a line at the door. Inside, Joe Eisenbraun is putting out chocolate snappers, Zach Thomas is at the soda fountain wafting clouds of cream over a banana split and back in the kitchen another smiling somebody is piling a pound of bacon into a BLT.
This is how it is at Crown Candy Kitchen.
This is how it mostly has always been — ever since 1913 when a man called Harry Karandzieff bought the 1880 building at the corner of St. Louis Avenue and 14th Street in the Old North neighborhood. “Zoned commercial” but with living quarters upstairs, the building had housed, at different times, a feed store (which served the flourishing neighborhood’s work animals), a shoe store and a tailor. It is where Harry Karandzieff, a young man from Macedonia with a taste for sweetness and grit for hard work, started serving (hand-cranked) chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream for a few cents a cup.
Getting the Royal Treatment
by Grayling Holmes / Portrait by John Lore
Excerpt:
We love our dogs and cats. We treat them as we would want to be treated –- we try to give them the best. Jessica Cooke, owner of Yuppy Puppy, has elevated that care to a whole new level. They are fast becoming the gold standard in pet care –- overtaking other luxury pet care establishments in St. Louis.
Jessica has created an elegant spa and resort for pampered pooches…and fine felines. Her upscale pet resort has wings for both canine and feline fur babies. Every inch of Yuppy Puppy is designed to envelope one’s precious in luxury.