Phoenix won a grammy today.  We interviewed Phoenix for our cover story.  We interviewed a grammy-winning artist for Eleven.  Holy smokes.

I thought I’d use my blog today as sort of a wastepaper basket.  We introduced a new feature to the magazine for February, titled The Neighborhood of the Month.  I wanted a spread, and ended up being alotted a single page, so the entire piece I wrote up had to hit the scrap heap.  Good thing there’s the internet, where space is about as scarce as Taylor Swift is awesome (read: not very).

Enjoy the new issue of Eleven, if you’re lucky enough to live in the area.

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Neighborhood of the Month: Soulard

I’ve run into Tom Gullickson at five different bars in the last four nights.  By a stroke of chance, or a stroke of luck, he’s inescapable.  And definitely not in a bad way.  At our second encounter, he buys a round of drinks for everyone still left at the bar (The Shanti) at closing time.  He doesn’t know who I am yet, just that I’m drinking beers with one of the GMs of his bar – who I’d only briefly met no more than 5 hours earlier.  I suppose that’s enough to put me (or anyone) in his good book.

This is a running theme I’ve heard from nearly everyone I’ve spoken to in the area.  People live in Soulard, work in Soulard, play in Soulard.  When I later caught up and spoke with Tom, he commented that “most places you go into you’re only a stranger once.”  In a similar conversation, Vedad, the owner of The Gyro House, says “everybody knows everybody.”  A lot of people don’t have cars – why bother, when all of your friends are within walking distance?

The revelation hit me like a sack of shitty Mardi Gras beads.  Soulard is like a big college campus for grown-ups.   And the remarkable thing is: of all the college kids I’ve talked to, nobody knows about this place.

For my first two years of living in St. Louis, Soulard only really existed for one 24 hour period each year: Mardi Gras.  Not that anyone would really complain about beads and cantalope-sized beers.  But it overshadows the fact that, underneath the gold, purple, and green regalia, there’s a neighborhood unique to any other place in St. Louis.

What’s Tom’s favorite thing to do in Soulard?  Bar hop.  He makes it into every bar in the area on a monthly basis.  And he’ll find someone to say hi to almost immediately upon entering.  Does he have a favorite spot?  Of course.  But he won’t tell me.  “I think people need to find their own.”  Could he share a favorite story about his time in the area?  Absolutely – he’s got dozens.  But like any good tale of drunken debauchery, you’d be hard-pressed to convince anyone to let you put a recap in print.

To point:  At Eleven, our inspiration for this expansion of the Neighborhood Watch is to nurture our curiosity about a part of our city that –admittedly, even us experts – didn’t know that much about, and hopefully, to impart the same spirit of adventure in you, the reader.  We created the section to celebrate St Louis as a unparalleled city full of unique places.  And also, more simply, as an excuse to go out drinking and meet new people.  Mission accomplished.