Amsterdam Tavern in Tower Grove | Image via

This Thursday, May 23, soccer hooligans will descend upon Busch Stadium. That's right, the world's most beautiful game will be played on a baseball diamond-turned "pitch" (that's British for "field," you noobs). The match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and features two of the top contenders in the British Premier League, Manchester City and Chelsea. Tickets sold out almost immediately when they went on sale in early April, so in the likely event that your only chance to watch the game is via TV, Gut Check compiled a list of the best soccer bars in St. Louis. So throw on your kit (jersey), grab your supporter scarf and choose a side.

See also:
- Soccer Bars and Farmers' Markets: An Updated Guide to Tower Grove
- The Dam to Open Next to Amsterdam Tavern

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A slice with pepperoni | Corey Woodruff

St. Louis should have a dozen by-the-slice joints battling for your downtown dollar. Can King Louie's Empire Deli & Pizza (1131 Washington Avenue; 314-553-9999) get the ball rolling? My review of King Louie's Empire Deli & Pizza is now available online.

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via Facebook

Some quick-hit opening news from around town.

- Driving South Grand Boulevard the other day, I spotted activity at the former Mikey Moes location at 5535 South Grand, near the intersection with Bates Street. A sign in the front window advertised a new restaurant called Premierz, featuring "American Cuisine & Soul Food." Premierz has established a Facebook page, which doesn't reveal too much more info besides a phone number, 314-932-7408, and a few photos of food, including steak with onion rings and a chicken-and-waffles dish.

Gut Check is always hungry for more restaurant news. Feed us your tips.

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EarthDance Farms has its roots in a fifteen-year-old girl's first encounter with organic agriculture.

Hoping to cultivate his daughter's love for fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, Molly Rockamann's dad took her to visit Al and Caroline Mueller's organic farm in Ferguson.

The seed was sown. It took more than a decade to germinate, but germinate it did. Now what began in 2009 as an apprenticeship program at the Muellers' farm has grown into EarthDance. A year ago this week, with funding from the Open Space Council, the nonprofit was able to purchase the fourteen-acre urban farm where Rockamann's dream began.

Crystal Rolfe

Apprenticing at EarthDance Farms involves a great deal of fun. And weeds.

See also:
- Molly Rockamann cultivates Gut Check's urban-farming acumen

Today EarthDance plants and harvests organic produce, raises chickens and even keeps bees. The fruits of the farmers' labor can be purchased at the Tower Grove Farmers' Market, the Ferguson Farmers' Market and EarthDance's own CSA program.

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St. Louis' neighborhoods are gems in their own right: full of history, great people and, as far as Gut Check is concerned, fantastic food. Each week we'll take you into a specific neighborhood and point you in the direction of the best places to grab some bites.

View DeMun in a larger map

DeMun is one of St. Louis' most historic neighborhoods, designed by the famed urban planner Henry Wright, and chock-full of 1920s architecture and peaceful, tree-lined streets. From DeMun Avenue south to Clayton Road is a great collection of restaurants, shops and bars that generally cater to a more upscale clientele. That being said, whether it's modern Italian or fresh seafood, DeMun is a terrific place to treat yourself, because you deserve it.

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A slice from King Louie's Empire Pizza & Deli | Mabel Suen

Another by-the-slice joint gives it a go downtown. Will this one gain a foothold? That's what this week's review of King Louie's Empire Deli & Pizza (1131 Washington Avenue; 314-553-9999) seeks to answer.

See Also:
- First Look: Empire Deli & Pizza Serves East Coast Style Slices and Sandwiches Downtown

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Chef Clara Moore

Last month Gut Check reported that chef Clara Moore, former executive chef and regional manager of local grocery and restaurant chain Local Harvest Cafe & Catering, had launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a cookbook and grocery guide with food writer Matt Sorrell.

As of this writing the project has exceeded its Kickstarter goal of $6,000 by $464, and to celebrate, the authors are hosting a "kick-down" party at Salt (4356 Lindell Boulevard; 314-932-5787) on Friday, May 24, from 7 to 10 p.m.

See also:
- Chef Clara Moore Writing Cookbook and Grocery Guide, Launching Kickstarter Campaign April 24

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Time to cross another chain off the don't-have-yet list.

Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, a Wichita, Kansas-based chain, will open its first area location at 1365 Jungerman Road in in St. Peters. Though Freddy's is new to St. Louis and its exurbs, the chain already boasts locations throughout Missouri, including Branson and Columbia. According to the Freddy's website, since 2002 the chain has expanded from Wichita to locations in sixteen states, with seven additional states targeted for future openings.

Gut Check is always hungry for more restaurant news. Feed us your tips.

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Mark Lucas of Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium | Jennifer Silverberg

-Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium (1170 South Big Bend Boulevard, Richmond Heights; 314-932-5414) will open a second location in Des Peres.

Hat tip to George Mahe of St. Louis Magazine, who broke the news. The new edition of the wildly -- and, in this critic's estimation, deservedly -- popular Fozzie's will be located at 11656 Manchester Road.

Lucas tells Gut Check that the new space will be much bigger than the cramped original, with about 1,400 square feet and projected seating for 40. Lucas is aiming for a mid- to late-June opening.

See Also:
- Mark Lucas on Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium's Food & Wine Appearance
- Busted! Scamwich Artist Unmasked by Local Restaurant Owners

Gut Check is always hungry for more restaurant news. Feed us your tips.

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"There was music from my neighbor's house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars...In the main hall a bar with a real brass rail was set up, and stocked with gins and liquors and with cordials so long forgotten that most of his female guests were too young to know one from another."

If Chapter 3 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic American novel The Great Gatsby doesn't make you long for a bottle of Champagne or a gin martini, you deserve Prohibition. It throws you headlong into one of Gatsby's famous parties, complete with a seemingly endless supply of bootlegged booze. The narrator, Nick Carraway, describes "floating rounds of cocktails," and a band playing "yellow cocktail music." At one point during the party, a woman "seizes a cocktail out of the air, dumps it down for courage and, moving her hands like Frisco, dances out alone on the canvas platform."

Like the party, Prohibition was in full swing, but the wealthy and careless people of Fitzgerald's novel (and the rest of the country) cared not a whit.

Yummy cocktails after the jump!

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