COMO | July 2020

JULY 2020 | T HE FO O D & DR I NK ISSU E | A PU B L ICATION OF TH E B U SIN E SS TIM E S COM PAN Y

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THE ART OF FORAGING PAGE 3 6

COOKING UP A SHARED KITCHEN PAGE 9 4

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Letter from the Publisher

ART DIRECTOR’S PICKS

Food for Reconciliation

W

hen faced with writing my publisher’s letter, I was torn on what to discuss. The theme of the issue…food and beverage? The state of our community with our social conversations and tensions? Or that awful topic of COVID-19? As I was seeking inspiration, I found a blog by Kendall Vanderslice titled “Food: God’s Tool for Reconciliation” that started with this line: “From the soil, to the stove, to the dining room table, I am convinced that food lies at the center of reconciling work.” I couldn’t agree more.

When people ask me what I like to do for fun, I often reply promptly with “I love to have a meal with my friends.” Frequenting my favorite restaurants with my friends allows us to stay connected and gives me great joy. During the last few months of what most business owners can only refer to as a complete and total dumpster fire, I was terrified of what would happen to our neighbors and my friends in the food and beverage industry. I missed my favorite tables. But more than anything…I missed the time with my friends. However, I knew the restaurants were missing so much more: quite possibly the opportunity to keep their dreams and hard work alive.

As the days and weeks went by, I saw things that gave me hope. People lifted up our restaurants on Facebook. Families ate more carryout than ever before. Businesses bought gift cards for later use. As a community, we came together to do all we could to carry our friends through.

We decided on the theme of this issue way before anyone had ever heard the word

The Black Lives Matter movement has led me to stories and ideas that have changed my perspective on race in America. Here are a few resources I've been recommending.

As a community, we came together to do all we could to carry our friends through. “coronavirus,” but the timing couldn’t be better. In this issue, we celebrate legends like Rick Robertson from Booches (page 106) and Hoss and Trish Koetting from Hoss’ Market (page 61). We explore latte art with the newbies Three Story Coffee (page 19) and investigate what the all-new shared kitchen on The Loop (page 94) will bring to our community’s own makers.

I hope you enjoy perusing the pages of this issue as much as we did creating it. I also hope that during this time of social unrest and reflection, you find time to sit at a table at your favorite restaurant and be open to healing conversations. If you need some suggestions, just let me know.

13th I cannot believe I was so ignorant about our prison system. This Oscarnominated documentary challenges and inspires. Did you know the prison population in the US has risen by 2 million people since 1970? The film examines exactly what led to this surge.

Redefining Realness Primary sources are critical when researching. As I was trying to understand the Black trans experience, I came across Janet Mock's memoir. In the book she says: “I believe that telling our stories, first to ourselves and then to one another and the world, is a revolutionary act. It is an act that can be met with hostility, exclusion, and violence. It can also lead to love, understanding, transcendence, and community. ” What Happened, Miss Simone?

This documentary about Nina Simone tells a story of civil rights and mental illness. It paints a touching picture of a complex woman. Make sure not to miss the song "Mississippi Goddam."

ON THE COVER Cherry Street Cellar’s dish of Alaskan halibut with wheat berries, vegetable fricassee, and confit lemon (page 74).

Photo by Keith Borgmeyer

JULY 2020 | THE FO O D & DRI N K ISSUE | A PUBLICAT ION OF T HE BUSINE SS T IME S COMPANY

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THE ART OF FORAGING PAG E 36

COOKING UP A SHARED KITCHEN PAG E 94

ERICA PEFFERMAN PUBLISHER

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President Erica Pefferman

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Senior Vice President Fran Patrick Fran@comomag.com

EDITORIAL Publisher Erica Pefferman Erica@comomag.com

Editor Fran Patrick

Fran@comomag.com

Department Editor Hannah Kueck

Hannah@comomag.com

Contributing Editor Emma Bentley Editorial Assistant Kim Ambra

DESIGN Art Director Cassidy Shearrer

Cassidy@comomag.com

Senior Graphic Designer Jordan Watts Jordan@comomag.com

Graphic Designer Sadie Thibodeaux Sadie@comomag.com

MARKETING REPRESENTATIVES Director of Sales Bonnie Hudson Bonnie@comomag.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Keith Borgmeyer, Than Drage, Amy Jainchill, Anthony Jinson, Sadie Thibodeaux

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Emma Bentley, Prince Chingarande, Nicole Flood, Lauren Sable Freiman, Katie Perry Harris, Jessica Jainchill, Amanda Long, Jessica Vaughn Martin, Kermit Miller, David Morrison, Jennifer Truesdale

Operations Manager Amy Ferrari Amy@comomag.com

INTERNS Christine Pham, McKenna Neville, Alyssa Shikles

OUR MISSION

To inspire, educate, and entertain the citizens of Columbia with quality, relevant content that reflects Columbia’s business environment, lifestyle, and community spirit.

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ON T H EM E

What is the best meal you've ever eaten?

Kim Ambra Editorial Assistant

Alyssa Shikles Intern

McKenna Neville Intern

Christine Pham Intern

I did a walking food tour in Memphis, and one stop on the tour was a place called South of Beale. The duck fried rice . . . I still dream about it.

Each year for Christmas, my mom makes her famous Yorkshire pudding, a buttery biscuit-like dish with mouth-watering gravy. It's a recipe that was handed down and perfected through my family for generations, and it's hands down my favorite mealturned-tradition.

I was in New York City at a little Italian place right off Times Square.

That day, I ate the best bread, cheese tortellini, and cheesecake I've ever had in my life.

My dad’s pho ga is the best. Pho ga is the Vietnamese version of a chicken noodle soup. It tastes amazing and it cures all of my ailments or sicknesses.

N OW OPE N

LeanKitchenCo.com/columbia COMOMAG.COM

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IN THIS ISSUE

24 FRESH IDEAS FOR AN OUTDOOR SPACE Catering company owner Matt Clervi creates an outdoor space fit for a chef.

JULY 2020 | The Food & Drink Issue

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36

71

Publisher’s

GOURMET The Art of Foraging

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

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74

Letter

LIVING 19 ART & CULTURE Lattes Made with Love

21 PET FRIENDLY The Companionship of Rabbits

STYLE Bonbon Baubles

45 FRIENDS & FAMILY Miss Sophia

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT

79

65

HOMES

76

COUPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW Hoss and Trish Koetting

WELLNESS

24

Cherry Street Cellar

Community

WORKING

Food Sensitivities

CELEBRATIONS

61

23 Discovering Your

Cleaner. . . or Dirtier?

CLOSER LOOK

66 BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS

Fresh Ideas for

69

an Outdoor Space

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Garden Coalition

BUSINESS UPDATE Clovers Natural Market

83 PERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW Jeff Spencer

106 THIS OR THAT Richard Robertson

FEATURES 51

SUSTAINABLE SCRAPS: TURNING KITCHEN TRASH INTO TREASURE Three local restaurateurs discuss the different ways they use their food scraps to make new items for customers and the community.

56

A FLAIR FOR CUISINE How Myah Greene’s passion for cooking has led her to serve mouthwatering food in Columbia.

94

COOKING UP A SHARED KITCHEN After three years in the making, COMO Cooks is preparing their shared kitchen for local chefs.

98

WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE NORTH SIDE? Explore what’s being built and discover new favorites on Columbia’s north side of town.

Committed and authentic for the greater good of our company, and more importantly, our clients.

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Vice President and Trust Officer Jenny and I have our own responsibilities, strengths and weaknesses. By encouraging and supporting one another, we enhance each other and more importantly, our clients benefit from working with a cohesive, high performing team. And they’ve learned to count on us to cheer them on toward their professional and personal goals.

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Living

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56

BONBON BAUBLES

A FLAIR FOR CUISINE

Indulge in sweet treats from The Candy Factory, Buchroeders Jewelers, McAdams’ Ltd., and Betz Jewelers.

How Myah Greene’s passion for cooking has led her to serve mouth-watering food in Columbia.

61 COUPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW Hoss and Trish Koetting talk about what it’s like to work together and their favorite spots in Columbia.

Living

ART & CULTURE

Lattes Made with Love Than Drage uses espresso and milk as a way to enjoy community through creativity and camaraderie.

BY PRINCE CHINGARANDE | PHOTOS BY THAN DRAGE

C

offee shops are a fixture in downtown Columbia. Spots like Three Story Coffee and Shortwave Coffee sell a wide array of beans and also function as cozy environments where people can gather to enjoy the company of others or delve into their work, all while sipping on their favorite dark brown bean drink.

Taking it a notch further than just offering great coffee, these places create even more enjoyable experiences for their customers through latte art, a form of intricate drink artistry.

Latte art is a method of preparing espresso by pouring milk into the liquid resulting in a pattern or specific design that floats on the surface. For Than Drage, a local barista at Three Story Coffee, latte art transcends basic artistry by yielding opportunities for him to connect with Columbia’s community while initiating fun drinking experiences.

Than’s journey with latte art began three years ago. “I got into latte art when I started working at Shortwave Coffee,” he says. “It’s just a part of being a barista, and with every drink that we made, we had the option to put a personal and creative aspect into it.”

His time at Shortwave allowed him to learn more about his craft and expand on his artistic skills. He mastered the process of pouring milk into the espresso in specific ways that generated specific designs.

“When doing latte art, there is a little bit of creativity that can go into it, but because of how pouring works, there is only so much that the barista can do without etching,” Than says. “Etching involves using a thin utensil like a toothpick to move the milk around in different ways.

I never got into etching, but when I make a drink, I can think between a few different designs in my head and then decide which one would be the most fun or which one I think the customer might appreciate the most.”

Some of Than’s favorite latte art designs are swans and phoenixes that involve pouring a rosetta design, creating two rows on either side of the cup, drawing a line of milk, and then pulling up and through to create the swan or phoenix’s head.

In addition to serving customers with uniquely designed lattes, Than also participates in latte art competitions where he displays his coffee-making prowess and learns more about the art from other baristas.

“I went to [a competition] in Northwest Arkansas last fall and competed against baristas from all over the country. The competitions are based off of flavor description and latte art, and while I didn’t place very well, I had the most fun,” Than recounts.

Than has also participated in unofficial latte art competitions called “throw downs” where he and other staff members at Three Story take turns making drinks and pick a winner in the end.

Creating latte art is a gratifying venture for Than. During throw downs, he gets to enjoy his friends’ company, promote camaraderie, and enjoy the drinks afterward all while engaging with customers who happen to be present.

All in all, latte art has presented itself as a way for Than to create long-lasting relationships in the community that go beyond regular customer service.

COMOMAG.COM

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JULY 2020

Living

PET FRIENDLY

The Companionship of Rabbits For one local woman, pet rabbits have become essential companions over the years.

BY JESSICA JAINCHILL | PHOTOS BY AMY JAINCHILL

T

he quarantine is lifted in Columbia, but some people are still staying home to stave off possible virus infection. Such isolation can lead to loneliness, and that is when people often turn to their pets for comfort.

However, while most people turn to a dog or a cat, Margaret “Peg” Schrader turns to her rabbits for companionship.

Peg has kept rabbits since long before the virus quarantine started. She started collecting rabbits with her husband, Julius Schrader, 30 years ago. Her collection started with four Flemish Giants that her husband retrieved from a research lab. The lab said the rabbits would either be adopted or euthanized. Peg made sure they were adopted.

During her years with rabbits, Peg has gotten to know their unique personalities and stories. She recalls: “I had a little baby wild rabbit, and he was hopping around in the cage overnight, and he broke his back and

became paralyzed. I took him to the vet, and of course, they couldn’t do anything for him, but he was so vivacious and I didn’t want to put him down, so my husband and I took care of him.

“Th is rabbit was an indominable rabbit,” Peg fondly remembers. “I called him FDR. My husband really got attached to them. He did a lot of the caregiving while I was working.”

When Julius passed away in 2000, Peg found even more importance in her rabbits. To cope with his death and the loneliness of living alone, Peg collected rabbits until she reached 17 total.

“It was after my husband passed away that I gathered so many rabbits,” she explains. “[The rabbits] gave me a purpose and a reason to get up in the morning. I had something to take care of. I think it gave me a diversion because I needed to do things for them. And they’re also good companion pets.”

Peg is making plans to grow her collection again, but presently, she has reduced her collection to four rabbits. Th is collection includes a black Netherland dwarf rabbit crossed with a lionhead rabbit named Fuzzy, a golden lionhead named Doc, and two red and white New Zealand sisters named Ruby and Maggy Rae. However, even with a smaller collection, Peg loves rabbits and passionately cares for them.

“I have four rabbits now, but [they help] give me a schedule,” she says. “I take care of them in the morning, clean cages, feed them, water them, pet them, and then the same thing in the evening. I have them, in the evening, hopping around the kitchen so they get exercise.”

She believes people should consider rabbits because of the wonderful companionship her own rabbits give her. Peg says, “They’re just very good companion pets, and in times like this, when you can’t get out to friends, it’s really neat to have them around.”

COMOMAG.COM

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JULY 2020

Living

WELLNESS

Discovering Your Food Sensitivities A local doctor explains what to look for and what to do if you think you have food sensitivities.

BY EMMA BENTLEY

F

ood sensitivities, also known as food intolerances, can wreak a lot of havoc on someone’s body without them realizing it. They may attribute feeling crummy after eating pizza to not getting enough sleep or not drinking enough water when, in reality, there may be more going on in their body.

Dr. Chris Link, an integrative medicine specialist in Jefferson City, specializes in helping people improve their health through nutrition, and part of what he does is help his patients discover and understand their food sensitivities. These may be sensitivities the patient has had all their life or ones they developed over time.

Chris explains that an antibody known as IgG4 is the responsible for food sensitivities. “People can develop these sorts of antibodies to many different foods,” he says. “There are five that are really common, though: wheat, or gluten; dairy; soy; corn; and eggs.”

In addition to these common sensitivities, people can also be affected by ingredients in processed food like excess amounts of carbohydrates, salt, and sugar, as well as ingredients like artificial colorings and flavorings.

Whether someone develops a food sensitivity depends greatly on the health of their GI tract and its lining, which impacts overall gut health and the immune system, Chris says.

“The GI tract is about 20 feet long, and along the GI tract is the majority of the immune cells in the whole body,” he says. “Sixty to 70% of the white cells in the body live along the digestive tract. They stand guard there so the good things get in and the bad things don’t. And if the gut lining is irritated because of food sensitivities, stress, alcohol, ibuprofen, and things that can irritate the lining of the gut in general, then

it’s not as effective at keeping things out. The immune system gets riled up, and it can start to get oversensitive to foods.”

Chris continues: “The chronic, daily food intolerances you’re exposed to ramp up the immune system, and it’s corrosive to the body. Eventually, this shows up as chronic headaches, pain in joints, and rashes. That’s why food tolerances are important. And they’re overlooked.”

For people wanting to find out if they have food sensitivities, Chris says there are three ways to go about this: a test, an elimination diet, or a combination of the two.

“There’s some testing that can be done,” he says. “You can do the IgG4 testing for the sensitivities, and those tests are good, but they’re not great. They are 70% to 90% accurate, but they’re not 100%. So what we often do is don’t test, and we do an elimination diet instead. Or we could do both depending on the discussion between the patient and provider.”

Chris explains that an elimination diet would take out the big five sensitivities mentioned earlier: wheat, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs. After a couple of months, those can be added back in one at a time once the body has had a chance to feel better. Chris adds that he also recommends his patients eliminate processed foods from their diet.

“Many of the people who come to me are tired of being tired and sick, and they’ve been everywhere and aren’t getting better. We go back to fundamentals and help their whole system get better,” he says. “We help people understand how to get healthier from the inside out, and they often end up with less food sensitivities and a healthier gut, and they overall feel better.”

COMOMAG.COM

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JULY 2020

Living

HOMES

Fresh Ideas for an

Outdoor Space Catering company owner Matt Clervi creates an outdoor space f it for a chef.

BY KATIE PERRY HARRIS PHOTOS BY KEITH BORGMEYER

COMOMAG.COM

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Living

HOMES

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sk Matt Clervi his favorite thing to cook in his home’s outdoor space and you might be surprised by his answer: baked chicken with roasted vegetables. For the classically trained French chef and chief executive officer at Fresh Ideas, it’s the perfect menu to serve guests at his home’s outdoor pavilion.

Matt and his wife, Kathy, chose a lot in the Copperstone subdivision in south Columbia seven years ago to build their custom home. “We have just under three acres, so we can build our raised gardens and have woods to walk in,” Matt says.

“It was a beautiful lot, so it was easy to envision a beautiful home and still be close to amenities and the trail. Kathy wanted to be in the city but not live in the city.”

The home has an arts-and-crafts feel with large windows in the living room and a screened-in porch overlooking the backyard space, which they worked on finishing after the home’s construction was complete. “Our vision was to bring the indoors and outdoors together and to make it feel like an extension of the house,” Matt says.

Cooking Up an Outdoor Chef’s Kitchen Their goal was to create an entertaining space where they could host family and friends, and where Matt could further hone his culinary skills.

Before co-founding Fresh Ideas 20 years ago, Matt worked as a sous chef at Café Allegro in Kansas City and the Toledo Room at the Lake of the Ozarks, where he says he didn’t realize just how much he was learning.

Now, at his own outdoor space, he “didn’t want to feel like [he] was standing right outside in the middle of my backyard grilling.” That’s why the couple worked with RS Construction to create the centerpiece of the outdoor space — a large, custom outdoor pavilion with a true chef’s kitchen that still ties into the look and feel of the main home. For Matt, it offered the perfect space to entertain and showcase his skills. The pavilion features 20-foot tongue-and-groove cedar ceilings and rustic cliff blocks centered around a large custom stone fi replace with a television hanging overhead.

Matt loves to work with wood. He has a wood-fi re grill on order from Grillworks, a premier maker of wood-fi red grills favored by

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Living

HOMES

COMOMAG.COM

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Living

HOMES

“Our vision was to bring the indoors and outdoors together and to make it feel like an extension of the house.” professional chefs, along with a chimney that will be installed in the next few months.

No outdoor entertaining area would be complete without the extra touches, like a kegerator featuring craft beer on tap and a wine fridge. A teak bar and furniture provide comfortable spots to sit and enjoy that craft beer while listening to the soothing waterfall in the backyard.

The kitchen area is fi nished with granite countertops from Central Missouri Countertops and a granite farmhouse sink with a chiseled, rough-hewn apron and an Elkay faucet. A speaker system and Wi-Fi offer entertainment options that are all easily controlled with Pure Audio’s system.

The outdoor kitchen is the perfect space for cookouts and for Matt’s baked chicken, although appetizers and small plates are also a favorite for the family. The family also often plays host to a Copperstone neighborhood association food and drink crawl.

Fresh Ideas for Enjoying the Backyard

Fresh Ideas is celebrating its 20-year anniversary this year, and amid a global pandemic, Matt is most proud of the company’s employees.

“With Fresh Ideas, it boils down to one thing: our employees. Our focus is on employee satisfaction. It always has been and always will be,” he says. “That’s the key to our success and the key to keeping clients.” With a diversified base in health care, senior living, business and industry, and private K-12 education segments, the chef-inspired food service company is currently in 10 states. They’ve been using the lockdown time to work further on employee certifications.

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JULY 2020

At home, Matt finds comfort in watching his martin birdhouses and growing vegetable gardens and a small fruit orchard shared with neighbors. Helmi’s Gardens also worked with the couple to complete the landscaping and greenery for their yard.

The couple’s two teenage boys, Nick and Trey, also enjoy hanging outside with their friends, and soon they’ll have another feature to make the yard more entertaining — a Michael Phelps Swim Spa, which provides a current so that you can swim in water without the stress of gravity. For the Clervi boys, who both swim with Columbia Swim Club, it will be the perfect addition to their yard, particularly during a time when they can’t regularly attend practice.

In the future, the Clervi family plans to enclose the outdoor pavilion so that it can be a heated space and stay functional throughout Missouri winters. It will be the perfect spot to cook and enjoy that baked chicken.

W H AT T H E

Home

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David Kling

Marc Schumer

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THE TINT GUYS

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Home P R O S

KNOW

Relax and Recharge

By Jake Baumgartner Find more at baumgartners.com

A

fter a long day of working, cleaning, and playing with your kids, you’ll need a little getaway. Even if this getaway is simply to your bedroom, the time alone is crucial to help you recharge for another day of play tomorrow. That’s why, just like any other space, curating a welcoming and cozy bedroom is an important element to help you relax and recharge.

Your bedroom isn’t seen by guests like your living room or dining room is, so it might not be high on your priority list to design it just as thoughtfully as you did the common spaces of your home. Through having a well designed bedroom, you’ll be able to fully relax and have a good night of rest. You’ll wake up each morning happier and stronger all because of your environment.

When putting your bedroom together, it’s important to find a bed that’s just right for you. You need a mattress that will form to the curves of your body to help relieve pressure. At Baumgartner’s, we have a large selection of mattresses to choose from— whether you prefer Tempurpedic foam or a hybrid, we have a mattress for you. For added comfort during those nights you want to read before bed, relax as you lean up against an upholstered headboard from Ashley Furniture, and other top furniture brands.

Try to avoid clutter. A cluttered room will prevent you from being able to fully relax.

Add a nightstand to either side of the bed to tuck away small items that will get in the way.

Should you need something throughout the night, it’s only a drawer away.

Color is always an important design element. To help get the best sleep possible,

choose warm and neutral tones for your bedroom rather than bright colors to help achieve maximum relaxation.

Are you ready to update your bedroom?

Whatever your project, we’re here to help. Visit our showrooms in Columbia and Auxvasse and let our staff help you find everything you need for your perfect bedroom.

Jake Baumgartner

BAUMGARTNER’S FURNITURE Jake essentially grew up in the furniture industry as he is the fourth generation involved in Baumgartner’s Furniture. Working very closely with his father, Alan, Jake has been devoted to the stores full-time since 2004. His greatest enjoyment, however, still comes from working closely with the customers. He is married to Sarah and they have two active boys, Noah and Laine. Jake received his degree in finance from Saint Louis University.

573-256-6288 BAUMGARTNERS.COM

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KNOW

Principles of Landscape Design

By Brendan Rost Find more at rostlandscaping.com

C

reating a striking, well-balanced landscape can be a challenge with exciting solutions and unexpected pitfalls.

Whether you are starting from scratch, or adding elements to an existing landscape, a little industry insight can take you from good to great. A proper layout will incorporate the six principles of landscape design: balance, focalization, simplicity, rhythm/line, proportion, and unity.

Before the first line is drawn, a site analysis noting drainage, space, exposure, and shape/ style of existing structures is key to add function rather than new eyesores. Scale and condition of the site will impact every element from hardscapes to bed lines, and plant selection must be accounted for.

When forming our bed lines, it’s better to do fewer, grander curves that draw the eye and create interest for both our bed and turf areas. Small, wavy bed lines detract from the plantings and fail to add shape and rhythm to our plantings, and straight bed lines are boring and harder to keep looking clean.

Movement in beds and plantings draws interest and creates focal points. These focal points are often specimen plants such as ornamental trees or a showy hardscape feature. Drawing focus to a few key features prevents the eye from being overwhelmed and promotes proper balance in the design.

While many of our focal points are usually made up of a single tree or small cluster of elements, filler plantings should be massed

plantings that promote simplicity and unity.

Try to avoid the old-fashioned rows of alternating plants following the A-B-A-B-A-B pattern or planting in a completely straight line. We like to use the shape of our shrub plantings to form large pockets in the front of the beds to fill with perennial color. This gives us a great pop of color throughout the spring and summer without crowding the beds and giving us a bulky feel.

To that point, selecting appropriate plants for the space is paramount. Plant selection should include a variety of sizes and statures all while keeping the mature size of the plant in mind. Failing to do so can result in overcrowded blobs of foliage that detract from

the landscape as a whole. Plants of the same variety look much more natural when planted in mass and growing together, but a mix can turn into a shapeless blob of foliage. Local vendors are knowledgeable of your climate and how the plants react locally and can save you some headaches. Bear in mind, plantings are everchanging as plants mature. Conditions such as water needs, sunlight, and negative space will change from season to season, so be prepared to adapt as the landscape matures.

Following these steps will lay a solid foundation to a stylish landscape that will serve you for years to come. If you have any questions, stop by a local garden center or design firm to find out more about what the pros know!

Brendan Rost

ROST LANDSCAPING Brendan Rost is a Columbia native and son of owners Tim and Toby Rost. He grew up playing at the garden center and nursery and has worked in all divisions of Rost Inc. Brendan received his B.S. in Horticulture and Design from the University of Missouri and now works as a designer in the landscaping division. He thrives on building relationships and creating unique landscapes that complement the space.

573-445-4465 ROSTLANDSCAPING.COM

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What You Need to Know About Closing Costs David Kling Find more at tlclender.com

Y

ou are on the two-yard line. The end zone is in sight. What’s standing between you and the touchdown? That line of massive 300-pound dudes!

That’s how many people feel about closing costs when it comes to their mortgage.

They are so close to seeing their dream of homeownership become a reality, but having to find those closing cost dollars can seem to be an almost insurmountable hill to climb at the end of an already long journey.

But don’t throw in the towel just yet. There are ways to get over that hill and into your new home! Let’s dig in a little further.

HOW MUCH ARE CLOSING COSTS? Average closing costs for the buyer run between about 2% and 5% of the loan amount. That means on a $200,000 home purchase you would pay from $4,000 to $10,000 in closing costs.

When buying a home, you should be able to negotiate some of the fees to lower your closing costs. Some states and communities also offer low-interest loan programs or

grants to help first-time homebuyers with closing costs as well.

HOW CAN YOU PAY THEM? There are a few different options for how to pay closing costs. All these options should be on the table for your loan, and your best option will depend on the variables of your specific loan.

1. THE SELLER PAYS CLOSING COSTS Negotiating to have the seller cover the closing costs is always an option.

Sometimes, when the buyer and seller are very close to a deal, the last piece the seller can offer the buyer that puts the deal over the top is covering closing costs. Be mindful of this as your first option as the buyer. It can make a big difference for your bottom line.

2. ROLL THE COSTS INTO THE LOAN This is another good option for you to consider. It isn’t doable in every situation, but for some, it is a possibility. Obviously, you’ll have to pay interest on those costs if

you choose to go this route, but if it’s the difference between getting in your home or not, it’s definitely an option to consider.

3. PAY FOR THEM AS A ONE-TIME EXPENSE If options 1 and 2 aren’t feasible for you, or not something you want to consider, you can simply pay the closing costs as a one-time expense in conjunction with the purchase of the home. If the seller won’t cover the costs and your situation isn’t suitable to roll them into the loan, this may be your best option.

Many people go into the mortgage process insufficiently aware of closing costs and what they can mean for the loan process. We don’t want you to fall into that category! The more knowledge you have going into the process, the easier and better it will be for you and all involved.

We’d love to talk to you more about the options available to you. Reach out to me today at david.kling@tlclender.com if you’d like to learn more about our current low rates and options for you to consider.

David Kling

TOTAL LENDING CONCEPTS I love to stay active in the community so I can be a part of making a positive difference. I believe that carries over to my career where I get the chance to help make some person or family’s dream come true when they finally get to move into their new home. My personal goal is to make sure my borrowers are happy, get a great deal with their home financing, and receive the high level of service they deserve. I make sure to make myself available for my borrowers and to have quick responses to any questions or feedback they need. Currently, I have been fortunate to help over 300 families get into a new home and look forward to helping out many more.

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Tinted Privacy

By Marc Schumer Find more at windowtintcolumbiamo.com

P

rivacy in your own home shouldn’t be a luxury—it’s a necessity. You should be able to relax with your family, or let loose with your friends after a long week, and embrace all of the moments life has to offer you and your loved ones all without having to worry about outsiders seeing these memories being made.

Protecting these precious memories from peeping outsiders is easy, and it’s all thanks to LLumar Vista Window Films. Adding tinting to your home windows can help increase your privacy during those bright summer days without disrupting your view of the outdoors. You’ll be able to gaze at the flowers, watch your kids play outside, watch the delivery trucks drop off your packages from a day of online shopping, and more, but the outside world won’t be able to see you or your family. The film will also maintain an attractive appearance, so your curb appeal will not diminish.

Do you have a window in your bathroom or closet you want tinted? With the HIPAA compliant film, you can have privacy in these areas both day and night—you won’t see the outside world, and they won’t see you.

Regardless of what windows you need tinted—whether it’s your home or office— The Tint Guys can help the right tint for you. LLumar Vista Window Films has endless options when it comes to solar, privacy, and decorative films. If you want to improve the privacy of your home or office,

or simply change the atmosphere of your environment, there’s a window film for you.

Llumar Vista Window Films has a lifetime transferable warranty that we include on all of our solar residential film installations and a limited warranty on the privacy and decorative films. Living in the Midwest, we have very dynamic weather conditions and lessor film products will breakdown quickly,

so a great warranty is very important.

Should something happen to your window films, we’ve got you covered.

Are you ready to embrace those goofy moments with your family and friends without worrying about the outside world watching. Give The Tint Guys a call. We’ll do an on-site consultation to help find the perfect window tint to fit your needs.

Marc Schumer

THE TINT GUYS, A DIVISION OF SOUND PERFORMANCE INC Marc and his wife, Shelly, have been in business in the same location serving Columbia and the surrounding areas for nearly 20 years. Their original focus on personal connection, expert service, and value-based products stands as true today as it did in 2001. They truly enjoy bringing solution-based options with competitive pricing to all of Mid-Missouri. They split their time between their work-family and their six kids and one grandchild.

1310 INDIANA AVE., COLUMBIA, MO 65203 573-874-9203 | WINDOWTINTCOLUMBIAMO.COM

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A Thriving Market

By Bennett Arey Find more at tracyarey.com

W

e can all agree that this year has taken some unexpected turns. If you’re looking to the real estate market and wondering what might come of it, we have some answers for you!

More than ever, we are now part of a “Seller’s Market.” What does that mean exactly? Most simply put, there are not many homes currently listed for sale. Thus, when buyers are looking to purchase, they have fewer options to choose from.

At Tracy Arey Real Estate in a typical market, we have four to five months worth of homes to sell at any given time. As of today, we are working from an inventory of roughly one month’s worth. This means, with a lean pool of properties to choose from, things are selling quickly.

WONDERING HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU? 1.

If you’ve been toying with the idea of selling your home, even if you purchased it within the last few years, chances are, you have some equity built up. That means your home’s value has already increased since you purchased it! Wondering if this might be the case for your home?

Contact us for a free consultation! We can calculate your home’s equity and

2.

determine if now is the right time for you to sell.

If you’re looking to buy a home right now, keep in mind that while things are selling quickly, that also means that the offers being placed are competitive. It’s important to work with an experienced and

knowledgeable real estate agent so that your interests are protected.

Still have some questions about our current market or your home? Contact us!

Our consultations are always low pressure as we work to determine the best options for you, your family, and your home.

Bennett Arey

TRACY AREY REAL ESTATE Whether it’s buying or selling, new or existing, Bennett Arey is experienced in all aspects of residential real estate. Being an agent makes him feel so lucky — every day, he gets to work alongside amazing clients and help them to accomplish business and personal goals. Outside of real estate, he is blessed to come home to his high school sweetheart, Alexis, and their sassy two-year-old, Eleanor. One thing you might not know about Bennett is that he loves remodeling homes! Alexis and Bennett have completed three full home renovations in the last few years and Bennett can do most of the work from the floors up!

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Choose from a wide variety of colors, wood grains, and widths to create unique designs that impress — all backed by the industry’s best warranties. Imagine the possibilities at TimberTech.com.

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The Art of Foraging Learning to discover the wild side.

BY A M A N DA LO N G

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GOURMET

People by nature are hunter-gatherers, although, for most, foraging for food means making a trip to the grocery store or local farmers market. But the thrill of eating something you procured with your own hands can give you an appetite for learning more about all the abundance nature has to offer.

Although he wouldn’t call himself an expert, MidMissouri native and avid hunter and angler Josh Glover has been foraging one thing or another for most of his life. “When I was a kid, I didn’t think ‘forage’ when I was out stripping mulberry bushes and blackberry brambles, devouring them until my white T-shirt was stained a deep purple,” he laughs.

“Now I know that what might appear as a weedy hayfield or cow pasture may actually be a treasure trove of unharvested edibles.”

Gathering your own food offers a wide variety of benefits. Foraged food is basically free, costing nothing except your time and effort. Not only are wild foods often loaded with nutrients and health benefits, but hunting and gathering can also provide exercise and a connection to nature.

Common Local Edibles Here are a few of the countless local goods that any beginner can easily find, identify, and utilize.

Herbs and Tubers Dittany (Cunila organoids) is sometimes referred to as “wild oregano,” and pairs well with poultry as a culinary herb and in teas. Dittany grows on dry, wooded slopes, borders of woods, shaded rightsof-way, savannas, and prairies.

Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is commonly thought of as a weed, but they are actually one of the most nutrient-dense plants you can eat, and they’re likely growing in your backyard. All parts are edible, and the taste resembles

a slightly bitter green, like arugula. You can eat them fresh in salads or boil them with other greens.

Groundnut (Apios americana) is one of the more unknown native edibles. Related to beans, groundnuts form a vine that produces a tuberous fruit and can be used in recipes as a substitute for potatoes.

Groundnuts take two or three years to grow to a usable size and can be found in low thickets and along streams and ponds, or they can be grown in raised beds or pots.

Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also known as sunchoke, can be found on the borders of streams, ponds, and prairie wet spots. The edible parts of sunchokes are the elongated tubers, and

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Foraging Ethics

these can be consumed raw in salads, pickled, or used to flavor meat stews. The flower petals are also edible and can be used to garnish salads.

Native Fruits Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) grows in the open woods, in streams, along fencerows, and along roadsides. The lacy white flower clusters can be breaded and fried for a tasty fritter. The berries become ripe in August through September and are best when dried and used for baking or in the production of wine.

Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) is one of the tastiest wild fruits and can be found along the borders of woods, in prairies, and abandoned fields. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, a locally grown persimmon can predict the weather according to the shape of the kernel inside. If the kernel is spoon-shaped, expect plenty of snow to shovel. If it is fork-shaped, plan on a mild winter with powdery, light snow. If the kernel is knifeshaped, expect frigid winds that will “cut” like a blade.

Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) is similar to a blueberry and can be found in open woods and steep wooded slopes and bluffs.

The fruit is delicious to eat raw or can be made into a jelly or pie.

Mushrooms Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosa) is not only a delicious mushroom, but also has health benefits like lowered blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels. These clusters can be harvested from September through November and are usually found at the base of oak trees.

Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) are a summer mushroom harvested June through August and best sautéed in butter and onion and used in soup or even as a pizza topping.

Beware as they are dangerously similar to the poisonous Jacko-lantern mushroom (Omphalotus illudens).

Wild Game Following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps, Josh remembers squirrel and rabbit hunting when he was barely able to carry a gun. As he grew, hunting became more than a hobby — it became a passion. “It’s the connection to nature and experiencing all the woods has to offer that keeps me coming back for more,” he shares. He remembers the first time his dog, Ina, had a successful quail hunt. “She was looking birdie, pointed, and then flushed a giant cubby of quail,” he reminisces, smiling.

While most might assume hunting deer is best for a novice hunter, he suggests squirrel hunting. “They are a small game but there are lots of them - teaches you how to be quiet and sneak around in the woods,” Josh says. “And don’t worry if you scare one off — there are dozens more.”

Josh loves the challenge of cooking the parts of wild game that are usually discarded. “The front shoulder of the deer is tough and sinewy, but braised low and slow with a little red wine, and you’ve got something surprisingly flavorful.”

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“Now I know that what might appear as a weedy hayfield or cow pasture may actually be a treasure trove of unharvested edibles.”

— Josh Glover

According to Dr. Nadia NavarreteTindall, it’s important to not only learn what can and cannot be eaten, but also how to harvest safely so that the supply is not destroyed.

“Wild leeks grow naturally in woodlands and shaded areas. You can find extensive locations where they grow, but when people discover them, they harvest too much. I want to teach people to grow them on their own land and learn to take only a little,” she says.

As a native plant and specialty crops specialist at Lincoln University, Dr. Tindall is Mid-Missouri’s expert in native plants. She says, “It is vital to increase awareness about the importance of native plants in people’s lives and for wildlife habitat in order to restore and enhance native plants in MidMissouri.”

Through her part-time business, Native Plants and More, she offers training as to how to identify, grow, and utilize native plants.

She also offers training for farmers on how to grow native plants more effectively.

Living

GOURMET

Wild Greens Soup Recipe by Veronica (Ronnie) Taylor

Recipes Braised Front Venison Shoulder Recipe by Josh Glover Ingredients • 2 ½ pounds venison shoulder • ⅓ cup oil • ½ stick butter • 1 tablespoon flour • 1 yellow onion, chopped • 3 carrots, peeled and chopped • 3 sticks celery, chopped • 8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced • 2 cans beef broth • ½ bottle dry red wine (don’t cook with something you wouldn’t drink) • 3 cloves garlic, minced • 1 teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon black pepper Directions • Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

• Dust the deer shoulder with the flour, salt, and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, heat oil on medium-high heat. Sear all sides of the shoulder until a brown crust forms.

• Remove the shoulder and add butter to the same pan on medium heat. Add vegetables and garlic and cook for five minutes until slightly softened. Return shoulder to the pot and add equal parts wine and broth until the liquid is two-thirds covering the meat, stirring to deglaze the pan.

• Cover partially with a lid and cook in the oven for three and a half to four hours, checking periodically to make sure the roast still has cooking liquid. Add broth as needed.

• Remove meat from the oven when it’s falling off the bone. Discard bones and any sinew or cartilage that remains. Serve over mashed potatoes or grits, and use basting broth as a sauce.

Ingredients • 1 tablespoon olive oil • 1 carrot, peeled and diced • 1 cup wild leek leaves. Can be replaced with 1 large potato, peeled and sliced • 8 cups vegetable stock • 4 cups blanched stinging nettles, lamb’s quarters, goldenglow, or cup plant • ½ teaspoon salt • ½ teaspoon pepper • ¼ cup heavy cream (optional) Directions • Warm the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the carrot, wild leeks, and potato, and cook until soft. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and add the native greens. Cook for 15 minutes, then remove from heat. Blend the soup with an immersion blender until very smooth. Return to pot and season with salt and pepper.

Lastly, stir in the cream and serve hot.

Pickled Raw Sunchokes, AKA Jerusalem Artichokes Recipe by Randy Tindall (Adapted from a Japanese temple or shojin cuisine recipe for pickled potatoes) Ingredients • Sunchokes, washed well, drained, cut into bite-sized pieces, rubbed with salt and left for 10 minutes, then rinsed. (Use any quantity you like.)

• 1 part soy sauce • 1 part rice or white wine vinegar • 1 part mirin, a sweet Japanese cooking wine. If unavailable, use maple syrup.

• Sesame oil to taste (optional) Directions • After sunchoke pieces are rinsed of salt, put them in a container and add enough of the pickling mixture to just cover. Cover and let marinate overnight. Sunchokes can be eaten the next day.

• This is a simple, mild pickle that allows the flavor of the ’chokes to come through without overpowering it.

Tips and Tricks Initially eat only what you can identify and in small amounts (particularly mushrooms). Even safe edibles can irritate certain stomachs. Be sure to save some to identify if there is a problem.

Avoid foraging near roads or polluted water sources that may contain chemicals from vehicle pollution, herbicides, or heavy metals.

If you’re unsure of the laws around foraging in specific areas, ask the appropriate parties for permission prior to entering private property or federally designated wilderness areas, where there may be specific protections around what may and may not be picked.

Free resources are easily available to the novice forager. The Missouri Department of Conservation website has information on hunting, fishing, and native plants, as well as an extensive library of wild game and edibles recipes.

Armed with the right knowledge, resources, and stamina, your next deliciously nutritious summer meal could be waiting right outside your back door.

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As we work together to make it to the other side of this COVID-19 season, it is important for us to be mindful and draw a?en@on to those en@@es that are con@nuing to do important work in our community even in the midst of this global pandemic.

Keep Your Distance is a reminder to us all to to prac@ce social distancing, while simultaneously doing our part to support organiza@ons that serve at risk and underserved children.

Proceeds from the sale of Keep Your Distance t-shirts and bandanas will beneďŹ t these great organiza@ons.

T-SHIRTS AND BANDANAS AVAILABLE AT

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Buchroeders Jewelers

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McAdams' Ltd. (LEFT PAGE)

Betz Jewelers (RIGHT PAGE)

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I don’t just see a customer.

I see you.

While other insurance companies just see a customer, I see a neighbor in my community. I’m here to get to know who you really are so I can help life go right.

LET’S TALK TODAY.

Phyllis Nichols, Agent

573-443-8727 | phyllis.nichols.g15k@statefarm.com 1006 West Boulevard North | Columbia

1706814

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company State Farm Fire and Casualty Company Bloomington, IL

Hope needs a helping hand.

BECOME A CASA VOLUNTEER. Children in foster care who have a CASA volunteer are more likely to succeed and adjust to change. And they’re half as likely to re-enter the foster care system later. As a volunteer, you can make all the difference for a child who has experienced abuse or neglect in your community.

Training begins July 14, 2020.

www.homcasa.org

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Living

FRIENDS & FAMILY

Sophia Miss

“We have people who are hurting, and I’m seeing it out of my front door. I cannot sit down and I won’t sit down; I have to do whatever it takes.”

How Sophia Smith devotes her days to improving her neighborhood for all.

BY L AUR EN SABLE FR EI MAN

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W

hen Sophia Smith pulls into her Currituck Lane driveway on Columbia’s north end, the neighborhood kids keep an eye on her. If she heads for her trunk, or a passenger door, they know something special awaits.

“When I pull up in my yard, the kids are looking at my car because if I’m opening my doors or trunk, they know Miss Sophia has something for them,” Sophia says.

Known around the neighborhood as “Miss Sophia” or “Grandma,” Sophia has devoted her days to improving her neighborhood and supporting the kids and families who live there. When she first moved to the area in 2015, she says she quickly became a neighborhood advocate with the goal of improving the relationship between the community and the Columbia Police Department.

“They wanted people in the neighborhood to start coming to meetings, and I became a community neighborhood leader — advocating for the neighborhood to get better support out here for the north end of Columbia,” Sophia says. “We were talking about how to better our neighborhoods and have better communication and relationships with the police. I got deeply involved, but more because I saw the need of the children and families in general.”

When she noticed that kids were dragging around an “old raggedy basketball hoop,” Sophia says she worked with the city to create a neighborhood basketball court by adding a basketball hoop and solar lights to the cul-de-sac. She says she is encouraged by the positive differences these simple initiatives have made.

“We used to have people who caused a lot of trouble over here, and it used to be high crime,” Sophia says. “I’ve never had any trouble here. I respect people, and I’m well respected. I’ve had no disrespect from the kids whatsoever.”

In addition to movie nights, Sophia has held Halloween events, Easter events, and barbecues. Through the generous support of Moser’s Foods, Walmart, Hy-Vee, and Sam’s Club, she has distributed trays of food for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Local businesses have also stepped up to support Sophia’s efforts. When Shakespeare’s Pizza has slices leftover from their lunch buffet, they donate them to Sophia to share. Harold’s Donuts also donates donuts, which are a favorite among the neighborhood kids, for her to distribute.

“I’ve had kids come up to me and ask me if I have any donuts,” Sophia says. “It hurts my heart. People don’t have to miss out on the important, very basic needs of life.”

Simple Initiatives

The Helping Hand

One of her fi rst ideas was to hold a movie night in the cul-de-sac at the end of Edenton Boulevard, a few steps from Sophia’s back door. Sophia says when the neighborhood had the opportunity to come out to participate in a positive and fun event, they showed up in a big way.

“We’ve had 100 families at movie nights,” she says. “A lot of the parents came out with the kids. We want people to start coming together and knowing their neighbors. Th is is why I want to continue this — because it brought the families and community together.”

Though the community policing initiative has ended, the movie nights have remained, and Sophia’s efforts to better her community have increased.

“The main reason I’m doing this is for the entertainment and to bring the people together in unity,” Sophia says. “It is a sign of hope that someone still cares — the encouragement that there is still an open door.”

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Feeding those in need is nothing new to Sophia. When she moved to the north end from the east side of town, she already had many years of service under her belt through her nonprofit, Sophia’s Helping Hand.

“Sophia’s Helping Hand started as a food pantry at my church, United Cathedral,” Sophia says. “I took the pantry into the schools in 2011 at Cedar Ridge Elementary.

I was having food pantries on event nights, which gave families who were ashamed to come to a food pantry a chance to get food and brand-new clothing.”

Though the resources were often limited, Sophia always helped. Feeding people and sharing what she has is a lesson Sophia learned from watching her mother and grandmother, who always opened their doors and pantries to those in need.

“My grandmother had 15 kids. I had a lot of cousins coming while she cooked meals, and when I cooked for my kids, I would always cook big meals,” Sophia says. “That’s

Living

FRIENDS & FAMILY

what I was used to. I was a young mother at 15, but we always had more than enough food because I’ve always shared. I was helping to feed my cousins’ families and a married couple with three kids. I had a deep freezer and I kept it full of meat. I always was a food pantry before I became a food pantry.”

The food pantry at United Cathedral closed in 2013 when the church’s building was sold, and Sophia moved into another building to reopen her food pantry. But when the rent got too high, the pantry became financially overwhelming to the single mother of three adult children and grandmother of 13, who was caring for her aging mother and oldest grandson at the time.

Whatever It Takes

When she moved to the north end, she quickly identified the tremendous need in her community, but she also realized some key logistical issues were hindering the support that so many of her neighbors needed.

“We have families that are just needing food, but a lot don’t have transportation to get to food pantries,” Sophia says. “If you get there on a bus, you can’t bring a lot of stuff back home on the bus. I’m trying to be hands-on and reachable so we can make these things happen. Take what you got and use it. I’m using what’s available — the cul-de-sac and my front yard.”

Today, Sophia is actively searching for a piece of land or building to house her food pantry and to provide a safe haven and support services for the neighborhood’s youth. She envisions a safe space that offers encouragement, positive influences, and activities to deter them from risky behavior.

“They need encouragement and empowerment,” Sophia says. “A lot of kids in poverty don’t have that at home.”

While she seeks community support to make her vision come to life, she is quick to say that she is not interested in handouts. She has been working to launch two businesses: Grandma’s Southern Eats, a barbecue sauce and catering business, and CC Productive Services, a cleaning business. Sophia says she hopes that with a lot of hard work, proceeds from these for-profit companies will support her not-forprofit initiatives.

“It’s not about me — it’s about what we can do with our youth and our families who are in need right now,” Sophia says. “We have people who are hurting, and I’m seeing it out of my front door. I cannot sit down, and I won’t sit down. I have to do whatever it takes.”

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Sustainable Scraps Turning Kitchen Trash into Treasure Three local restaurateurs discuss the different ways they use their food scraps to make new items for customers and the community.

BY J E S S ICA VAUG HN M ART IN

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I

n a time when shortages are aplenty — jobs, money, food, and more — making the most of what we have is a necessity not just for individuals, but for businesses too. We caught up with three Columbia restaurateurs who are turning kitchen “trash” into edible treasure.

SHELLY LA FATA PA S TA L A FATA

On Saturdays, you can find Shelly at her booth inside the Columbia Farmers Market pavilion, serving up freshly-made pastas, soups, and other Italian delicacies. For several seasons, she’s rolled and cut golden pasta dough into ravioli, cannelloni, and lasagna, but until recently, she tossed some of her dough trimmings into the trash. “Whenever my crew members saw them piling up in the past, they’d be like, ‘What should we do with this?’” she says. “And I would say, ‘I’m too busy to even worry about scraps, so you can take them home with you or you can just throw them away. Just get them out of here; we’re moving on, no time for scraps.’”

But instead of tossing them, her crew took advantage of the offer to take them home. So when COVID-19 shut down dine-in services and a sea of local restaurant staff was laid off, Shelly saw the scraps in a new light.

“I saw that Flower City was giving away free meals on a Monday night out of Barred Owl, and I saw that Beet Box was offering free meals to frontline workers and students, and I saw what the Broadway Diner was doing. I just thought, ‘Well, we could cook up the scraps, toss ’em in pasta, and do what we do with everything else — make a frozen meal,’” she says.

But this wasn’t just another frozen meal for sale; it was a gesture of goodwill offered at no charge to those in need. It just made sense, she says. “It’s so much better than throwing them away. We already have everything on hand — the containers, the tomato sauce. It really is a very simple thing for us to do.”

So what exactly goes into a scrappy meal (as they’re lovingly called)? It starts with the

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“IT’S CHANGED THE WAY I OPERATE AS A BUSINESS OWNER. AS SOON AS I STARTED ADVERTISING THIS,

I GOT SO MUCH ENCOURAGEMENT.

THAT ALONE HAS HELPED ME SO MUCH.”

“ONE OF THE THINGS WE ALWAYS HAVE AN EXCESS OF IS BEEF TALLOW. YOU

CAN MAKE CANDLES,

AND IT’S REALLY GOOD FOR MAKING HOMEMADE SOAP — IT’S A KEY INGREDIENT.”

pasta trim, which is “gorgeous, perfect pasta,” Shelly says. “We cook it, cool it, toss it in tomato sauce, and put it in the pan, and then we top it with more sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, pecorino romano. If we have things leftover from the week, we’ll add that in, like our ravioli fillings — a mushroom filling went in one time, meatballs went in another, just little bits of it to add something extra.”

That something extra goes a long way, not just to fill empty stomachs, but to lift spirits too. Shelly makes about 50 scrappy meals each week to distribute to those people out of work or in need of a meal. And though it’s strictly a charitable act, the deed has paid off in non-monetary ways.

“We got a phone call a few weeks ago from a woman who’s on hospice, and she had received a scrappy meal,” Shelly says.

“She said, ‘This is the best meal I can remember having, and it meant so much to me that you would make this and share it with me.’ When I heard that I was like, OK, we’re gonna do this forever.”

This response, along with many others, has altered Shelly’s industry perspective. “It’s changed the way I operate as a business owner,” she says. “As soon as I started advertising this, I got so much encouragement. That alone has helped me so much. Sometimes someone will message me and say, ‘I’d like to cover the cost of your scrappy meals this week.’

Some of my best customers now, when they place an order, they’ll just add $50 and say this is for scrappy meals. It is so encouraging, and it helps me understand that using Facebook for advertising, taking beautiful pictures, gimmicks, and things — it’s all part of the picture, but giving back is a serious part of being a good, responsible business owner. I have all this stuff, and I’m so happy to share it.”

If you or someone you know needs a scrappy meal, message Pasta La Fata on Facebook or send an email to pastalafata@gmail.com.

BEN PARKS B A R R E D OW L

Barred Owl’s whole-animal philosophy means chef and co-owner Ben Parks is no stranger to making the most of scraps. From snout to tail, every bit of the animal that can be used is used. “The vast majority of it, if you do something with it, there’s a way to make it delicious

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“WE’RE USING A PRODUCT THAT MIGHT JUST GO INTO THE TRASH AND CREATING

SOMETHING OUT OF IT.”

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JULY 2020

and palatable in a dish, whether that’s smoking it or curing it or making sausages, pâtés, those kinds of things,” he says. At Barred Owl, scraps blend in with the rest of the menu. “Livers are a good example . . . just because of the flavor and texture of them, they’re pretty crucial to a lot of charcuterie-type projects.”

Less desirable organs — think spleens and skins — find a home on the menu too, one that’s curated especially for Columbia’s canine companions. “A family dog will eat most anything, especially if it comes from an animal,” Ben says. This truth inspired Barred Owl’s dog treat program, one that’s been a success since day one. “Any kind of scrap, whether it’s organ meat or pig ears, we use a lot; if we do have extra spleen or liver that we can’t use or don’t have a need for, usually we’ll just dry that out and smoke it into a jerky sort of thing,” he says.

There are some things that even dogs won’t devour, but Barred Owl still doesn’t see those products as automatic throw-aways. “One of the things we always have an excess of is beef tallow, or rendered beef fat, which just doesn’t have a lot of usage,” Ben says. It’s best used, they’ve found, for non-food products.

“You can make candles, and it’s really good for making homemade soap — it’s a key ingredient. There’s a woman that we work with who buys a pretty significant amount of our rendered beef tallow.”

MELANIE LISING S YC A M O R E

Sycamore has long been known for its creative bar program, one that bar manager Melanie Lising says is often crafted hand-in-hand with the kitchen. “As much as I can, I try to use up scraps from the kitchen,” she says. “If I have peppers or anything like that, anything that would be flavorful infused with alcohol, [I use them].”

Inedible food scraps can still pack a punch in a cocktail. “Pepper tops usually don’t get used because there’s a stem, but there’s still flavor that will leech over, for lack of a better word.” Peppers frequently find their way onto the cocktail menu at Sycamore. “We pickle jalapenos in house, so we have a lot of peppers,” she says. Infused into vodka or tequila, these peppers become the base of varied drinks. “I kind of do a play on other cocktails; I have a jalapeño margarita, but it’s got a shrub in it which isn’t a typical margarita component,” Melanie says. A vodka cocktail named the “Pepper Queen” uses house-made shrubs, too.

The use of scraps at Sycamore doesn’t always end at the bar; sometimes the kitchen gets their goods back again. “I make some simple syrups and stuff down here as well, and there’s an ancho chile simple syrup that I have. We use a dried ancho chile, we reheat it to reconstitute it, and I’ll make a simple syrup out of it,” Melanie says. Once the syrup is made, there’s no need to keep the chile around at the bar. “If [the kitchen] has a way to use that product too, I’ll leave that for them.”

For Melanie and the rest of the team at Sycamore, the benefits of using food scraps fly beyond added flavor.

“We’re using a product that might just go into the trash and creating something out of it,” she says.

flair a

for

cuisine

How Myah Greene’s passion for cooking has led her to serve mouth-watering cuisine in Columbia.

BY LAUREN SABLE FREIMAN | PHOTOS BY ANTHONY JINSON

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A

s a new student at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in St. Louis, Myah Greene was bored. The material wasn’t new to her — it didn’t challenge her skills, and it didn't hold her interest. After all, she learned to make French omelets at home when she was five and has been working in Columbia’s best restaurants since age 15.

“My father and mother are both excellent chefs, both with no formal training,” Myah says of her parents, Kenny and Deborah. “From my home life, I gained a hunger for more knowledge of the culinary world.

At the Fifth Street Christian Church, during Sunday services, I was downstairs helping Martha Williams in the kitchen. At home, I was watching and learning whatever I could from Food Network. I got hooked.”

With a hunger for knowledge about food preparation and kitchen operations, Myah found opportunities to soak up as much information as she could. Myah says her mom, her four aunts, and her grandmothers, Georgia and Martha, were all influential in her life because of their prowess in the kitchen. In the home economics class at Lange Middle School, Myah constantly asked when the class was going to learn about the things chefs do in restaurants. As a student at Hickman High School, she absorbed every bit of knowledge she could from the Columbia Public Schools culinary program that offered accredited culinary classes.

“I took intro to culinary arts and baking and pastry,” Myah says. “I was able to gain a lot of practical knowledge from Columbia Public Schools.”

When she wasn’t at school, Myah says she was in front of the television, watching her favorite chef, Emeril Lagasse, while absorbing all that she could learn. She was also working at her fi rst restaurant: the downtown hot spot Trattoria Strada Nova, a job she landed with the help of her father’s contacts. As a pantry line cook at Trattoria Strada Nova, Myah says she prepared salads, shucked oysters, and prepared carpaccio — quicker, easier tasks typical of a starting position in a kitchen.

“My fi rst job was at Trattoria Strada Nova, one of the most popular restaurants in Columbia,” Myah says. “For that to be my fi rst gig, I always thought, ‘I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.’”

Going Back Home With so much experience under her belt, Myah says it wasn’t until the Cultures Across Cuisines class at Le Cordon Bleu that she started becoming more challenged and engaged with new material.

After two years of hands-on learning and coursework, Myah graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in 2010 and moved back to Columbia to be near her parents and grandparents and begin making a name for herself in the restaurant industry.

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“My first job was at Trattoria Strada Nova, one of the most popular restaurants in Columbia. For that to be my first gig, I always thought, ‘I can’t believe they’re letting me do this.’”

“My sense of family brought me back,” Myah says.

“It was mixed emotions for me. I didn’t necessarily want to come back, but I knew I could build my career in Columbia and work under a lot of great chefs.”

Though she considered the possibility of moving to a big city upon graduation, she says she knew that returning to Columbia would allow her to hone her skills as a chef and still allow her the option to pursue new opportunities in the future. As a recent culinary school graduate, Myah also says she would have struggled in a big city with a higher cost of living while working a lower-paying, entry-level job.

Her fi rst job in Columbia after culinary school was at Addison’s, where she worked as the kitchen manager for five years. Then, she moved on to become a sous chef at The Wine Cellar and Bistro (now Cherry Street Cellar) for one year before helping open Barred Owl Butcher & Table alongside chefs and mentors Ben Parks and Josh Smith.

“I feel a sense of community here because I started so young in the culinary industry, so I was able to build relationships with chefs,” Myah says.

“When I came back, I was able to use those relationships to form relationships with new chefs to get where I am today.”

Putting Her Own Spin on Dishes Today, Myah is the executive chef at Park Restaurant and Bar on Columbia’s south side. Since its opening in December 2018, Myah’s influence and expertise have shaped everything from the menu to the staff.

“I opened Park Restaurant, made the menu and the recipes, and hired my cooks that I have to this day,” Myah says.

Park Restaurant’s menu has an Asian-American influence that came, in large part, from Myah’s travels. Two years ago, she enjoyed a 10-day trip to the Philippines and Hong Kong to visit family — a trip that was influential in more ways than one. In addition to bringing back a love for Asian cuisine, Myah also experienced leaving the United States for the fi rst time.

“It hurt me to come back to real life. I enjoyed it so much there,” she says. “Leaving by myself on a plane to the Philippines is something I’d never experienced before.”

In addition to influences from her trip overseas, Myah says the menu includes her own personal “Myah” flair.

“There is a little flair of Myah in there: the little bit of sass that I have in me and the little bit of spunk —that’s Myah’s flair,” she says. “Well-seasoned food — that’s how it translates. Everything is well balanced, and it's a meal that will surprise your taste buds. I hate when I go to a restaurant and have to ask for salt.”

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There’s More Around the Corner Park Restaurant was ready to roll out a new menu right as the restaurant was forced to shut its dining room due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the dining room closed for about six weeks, Myah says she was able to perfect the new menu, which features her favorite dish, smoked pork belly ramen.

“What makes ramen is the broth,” Myah says. “You want to get some of the best quality meat because you’re rendering the fat and getting the juices off the meat, which is the basis for your broth. Without the broth, whatever you dress it with won’t be as flavorful.”

After working to build a clientele and reputation over the past 18 months, Myah says the shutdown resulted in an 80% loss of business, despite still maintaining a steady take out, delivery, and Grubhub business.

“We were in the swing of things, steadily staying busy,” Myah says. “We were the ‘happening, new place’ in Columbia. Now, it is a matter of rebuilding that and doing it all over again. I do love a challenge, and I’m proud that during these times, we were still able to stay busy and hit our bottom line.”

At the end of a long day at the restaurant, or on a day off, Myah says anything goes in her own kitchen. One day it might be Taco Bell and a fancy bottle of wine, while the next day’s meal might require a day of preparation and cooking.

“My favorite thing to cook is a lovely pot of gumbo,” Myah says. “Putting in the okra, chicken, shrimp, and andouille sausage — I love making gumbo. I love the mix of surf and turf.”

While Columbia has allowed Myah to quickly climb the ranks in the culinary world, and chefs like Ben Parks, Josh Smith, and Adam Wells-Morgan, from Flyover, have mentored her and given her opportunities to grow into the chef that she is, she says she’s taking the time to evaluate her career and her opportunities, and will likely venture outside of Columbia as she continues to pursue her love for creating memorable, mouth-watering cuisine.

“Columbia has been a great starting place for my career,” Myah says. “It may not be tomorrow, but in due time I do plan on making my name somewhere else.”

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We’re happy to welcome our new associate attorney, Rob Temple, to the team.

NATHAN JONES ERNIE UELIGGER

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

C E L E BR ATI NG 4 Y EA R S O F BEI NG YO UR TRUS TED LAW F I RM .

2412 Forum Blvd, Suite 101, Columbia | 573-874-1122 | Fax: 573-340-1465 | NathanJonesLaw.com

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A-1 Party & Event Rental can make your dream event a

reality.

We are open and here to support your event.

From weddings to small celebratory events our team is on hand. A-1 Party & Event Rental is taking every measure to clean and sanitize our products so you can relax and enjoy. Call us today.

211 Peach Way, Columbia 65203 • 573-474-7881 • A1PartyFun.com

Living

COUPLE YOU SHOULD KNOW

Hoss & Trish Koetting Jim “Hoss” and Trish Koetting share what it’s like to work together, what they admire most about each other, and their favorite spots in Columbia.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST DATE? Hoss: I can’t really say when the first date was. We did not actually go on a date — we hung out together because we both worked at Boone Tavern.

Trish: I’m not going to give you the whole

story, but it was after the By George dance club in 1988. Hoss then proposed in the Dairy Queen drive-through a year later after a work picnic with the Boone Tavern staff.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN COLUMBIA? WHAT’S YOUR GO-TO FOOD AND DRINK THERE? H: I like the lamb chops from Chris McD’s

and the short ribs from Sycamore. My drink is a bourbon on the rocks.

T: We only eat at local restaurants. There’s too many to name, but a few that we frequent are 44 Canteen, Sophia’s, and Chris McD’s. I drink wine everywhere I go.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE AT-HOME ACTIVITY TO DO TOGETHER? H: Gardening, but as we do at [Hoss’s Market,

TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY.

the business the couple owns], we split things up. I do the food and vegetable garden and Trish makes everything look good and does the landscaping and flower pots.

H & T: We have two boys that have grown

T: Entertain friends on our back deck.

WHAT’S THE BEST QUALITY OF YOUR PARTNER? H: She is very compassionate, and she is

constantly working to improve the status quo.

T: Hoss is very kind to everyone.

up in the business. They both work at the market. Joey is 23 and is getting his MBA at MU, and he works in the athletic department in the Tiger Scholarship Fund. Sean is 21 and is a biology pre-med major. He’s also a kicker on the Mizzou football team.

each have our area of expertise and are the yin to each other’s yang.

YOUR PARTNER? H: Her lack of fear to voice her opinion.

T: I’ve never met a single person who met Hoss that did not like him.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ART AND CULTURE ACTIVITY IN COLUMBIA?

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE PLACE

H: The Roots N Blues festival and live music

YOU HAVE TRAVELED TOGETHER?

in town.

H: France, for a good friend’s wedding.

T: Aspen, Colorado, in the summer.

T: Spending time biking and hiking on the MKT trail and going to MU football games.

HOW DOES FOOD PLAY A ROLE IN YOUR

WHAT IS THE KEY TO A LASTING AND

WHAT’S IT LIKE WORKING TOGETHER? H: Well, it tests the bonds at times, but we

WHAT MAKES YOU MOST PROUD OF

RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC?

HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP?

H: It is what brought us together.

H: Wine and liquor! Seriously though: It’s

T: Interesting and challenging at times — we

T: It is what we do at home and work. Hoss

both have our strengths, and we stay out of each other’s areas. Plus, we try not to talk about work at home.

cooks at home — I just reheat, I don’t cook at all — and I hang out with him while he cooks and I clean up.

important to be able to compromise on the minor issues and discuss the major ones.

T: Trust each other, never raise your voice, and don’t sweat the small stuff.

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Working

79 CLOVERS THRIVES DURING THE PANDEMIC How the local natural market has operated successfully amid the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping employees and customers safe.

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CONTINUING THE STORY OF CHERRY STREET CELLAR Ali and Dan Bauer share their love story and the evolution of the Cherry Street Cellar.

83 PERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW An introduction to the many roles of Jeff Spencer: owner of Just Jeff’s, father, and farming enthusiast.

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Working

CLOSER LOOK

J U LY 2 0 2 0

vised her to stay away from the unique name, but she feels it’s been one of the greatest decisions she’s made as a small business owner, driving more people into her bakery out of curiosity. At Fluffybutt Cookies, the cookies in the front case are always changing, and when the team has downtime, they can be found experimenting and making new things.

Customers can order customized cookies for any occasion, “If we don’t have the cookie-cutter — and I have close to 1,200 cookie cutters — then we can work around it. If we can find it on the internet, then we can do almost whatever you want,” Tammy explains.

FLUFFYBUTTCOOKIES@SOCKET.NET 573-881-0902 2101 W. BROADWAY, STE. 206

Veeper

The Brew Brothers

A staple in the Mid-Missouri community for nearly 20 years, Isle of Capri is adding a new restaurant to their casino in Boonville: The Brew Brothers. Heather Rapp, president of Isle of Capri Boonville, says the casino and hotel will be opening the new restaurant later this summer.

“We wanted to provide a new dining experience for our customers as well as an additional dining option for the community of Boonville. We are regularly looking at ways to change our business to ensure we are staying up to date on the latest trends,” Heather explains. The casino decided to close the doors of the Farmer’s Pick Buffet in December 2019 and renovated it to be the new home for The Brew Brothers.

The menu for the new restaurant will offer a wide variety of options, from a collection of salads to burgers, as well as a curated se-

lection of beer. And, of course, customers are only a few steps away from the casino.

ISLEOFCAPRIBV@ISLECORP.COM 660-882-1200 100 ISLE OF CAPRI BLVD., BOONVILLE, MO

Fluffybutt Cookies

Tammy Carter grew up in the food industry.

In 2011, she started baking and decorating cookies from her home, but it wasn’t until 2018 that she finally got to open a bakery, Fluffybutt Cookies. “I’ve always wanted to have my own business,” Tammy explains. “I got to the point where it could happen, so I took a leap of faith and did it.”

Named after her cats with “fluffy butts,” the bakery will help bring Tammy’s longtime passion to more people. She says some people ad-

After founding the business in January, a local startup will be bringing a new app to smartphones this August. Jordan Williams and his co-founders, Than Som, Tim Green, and Jim Neimann, were looking to help small businesses with their reopening after the pandemic and increase their customer loyalty and retention.

“Veeper is a mobile app loyalty wallet and promo marketplace that tracks a customer’s purchases and creates loyalty programs specific to a business for free,” Jordan explains.

“The more a user has spent with a particular business, the higher their incremental discount becomes on each return within a cycle.”

The app will also help to decrease the spread of germs through its in-app payment methods — a beneficial feature to have amid a pandemic. The ultimate mission for Veeper is to help increase each business’s number of patrons.

Jordan and his co-founders have been looking to sign up local businesses before mid-August so the app can be utilized by returning college students.

WWW.VEEPERAPP.COM 573-825-7751 JORDAN@VEEPERAPP.COM

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Briefly in the News JULY 2020 66

JULY 2020

SMALL BUSINESS

Local Restaurants Support Community During COVID-19 Striving to support our community during the pandemic, The Broadway Diner has been offering free meals to kids in need for over three months.

Pizza Tree (owner John Gilbreth pictured above) also helped provide food to students through their partnership with EquipmentShare to host a deepdish fundraiser party where all of the proceeds went to EquipmentShare’s No Child Hungry program.

Almost $1,500 were raised and 53 pizzas were sold.

Working

“We truly appreciate the dedication of those serving on the front lines of COVID19, and we wanted to give back. We know a meal is just one small gesture, but we hope it lets them know we care.”

— MATT MOORE, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF SHELTER INSURANCE G IVI N G B AC K

Area Insurance Companies Partner with Culver’s Columbia Insurance Group, Missouri Employers Mutual, and Shelter Insurance have announced a partnership with Culver’s of Columbia to offer 12,000 meal vouchers for health care workers and fi rst responders in Boone County. These insurance companies will fund a portion of the meals provided, and Culver’s will cover the remaining cost. Shaun and Olga Morris, owners and operators of Culver’s of Columbia, plan to distribute these vouchers to workers at MU Health Care, Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital, Boone Hospital, and to area fi rst responders.

BRIEFLY

EDUCATION

ED UCATION

Columbia Public Schools Foundation Makes Donation

Columbia College and Moberly Area Community College Create New Program

The Columbia Public Schools Foundation donated $25,000 to Columbia Public Schools to support the district’s efforts to provide meals to students throughout the summer. Th is donation from CPSF is part of a partnership with the CoMoHELPS COVID-19 Fund, a collaborative effort between various organizations throughout the community. Th is donation will help fund daily meal kits, bus transportation for delivery, and any unreimbursed food costs.

EDUCATION

Stephens College Announces New Summer Program

Columbia College President Dr. Scott Dalrymple and Moberly Area Community College President Dr. Jeff Lashley recently announced a new partnership between the two institutions called the CC-MACC program. As part of this initiative, students from MACC will have the opportunity to live on the Columbia College campus while taking classes through MACC. The initiative’s ultimate goal is to reduce the potential time and cost for students to complete a bachelor’s degree at Columbia College and to augment academic advising partnerships between the student and the institutions.

Stephens College has announced an early college program for summer 2020. This program is designed to help high school students and entering college students get ahead in their college coursework. The early college program includes four online course options that are available to men and women at a reduced course fee. Courses offered in this program include English composition, art history, introduction to psychology, and chemistry in everyday life.

AWAR D S

Missouri Employers Mutual Awards Safety Grants Missouri Employers Mutual awarded a total of $210,000 to 28 policyholders in Missouri for the implementation of new safety equipment to promote safer workplaces.

This brings the total amount of safety grants awarded to $1.53 million since 2016. Nearly four years into the safety grants program, past recipients are seeing positive results, as their number of claims has drastically reduced since implementing the safety equipment purchased with these grants.

NONPR OFIT

United Way Supports Food Security for Families Heart of Missouri United Way announced it is awarding $75,000 to support food security in the community. United Way has awarded $235,946 to 11 local nonprofits serving emergent community needs stemming from the COVID19 pandemic, including a grant to the Columbia Public Schools Foundation to help provide free meals to children.

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Accidents happen — even during a global pandemic.

As an essential service, Central Missouri Auto Body is open for business and remains dedicated to providing the highest standards of quality and safety for our customers.

Finances are the leading cause of stress in relationships.

Invest in the life you’ve built together.

• Maintain social distancing with our convenient night drop.

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We’ve got your back, and your bumper.

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Financial Planning

Portfolio Management

Investment Strategy

2801 Woodard Drive Columbia, MO

(573) 442-6146

Greg & Lon Brockmeier Financial Advisors

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Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Raymond James Financial Services.

Advisors, Inc. Brockmeier Financial Services, LLC is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.

J U LY 2 0 2 0

DR. DANIEL B. KISSINGER

Dr. Daniel B. Kissinger will join the School of Health Sciences at Stephens College this fall as director of counseling. Daniel has served as chair of the counseling department at the University of Nebraska at Omaha since 2014 and was previously an associate professor at the University of Arkansas’s counselor education program, where he served as the clinical coordinator for eight years. Daniel’s research interests include wellness and wellness counseling, student-athletes, and issues surrounding therapeutic and supervisory alliances. His teaching interests include clinical supervision, diagnosis and treatment planning, counseling theory and techniques, and crisis intervention.

BIG TREE MEDICAL HOME

Big Tree Medical Home welcomes Dr. Nathan Granneman, a board-certified family medicine physician, to the Boonville location. Previously, Nathan worked for the Jefferson City Medical Group in California, Missouri. Big Tree Medical Home also welcomes Ashlee Parkes, nurse practitioner. Ashlee previously worked at the MU Women & Children’s Hospital.

ASHLEY REYNOLDS

Ashley Reynolds has been promoted to vice president within the private banking division at UMB Bank. In this role, she provides personal attention

and comprehensive financial solutions to her clients. Ashley specializes in building step-bystep plans for her clients and managing their specific financial needs to help them reach their goals. Ashley has been with UMB Bank for more than 18 years and is an established leader in the Columbia market. Her prior position was vice president and regional sales manager in the consumer banking division.

She is deeply ingrained in the community and currently volunteers for the American Heart and Stroke Association.

JAKE LICHMAN

Jake Lichman has joined Visionworks Marketing Group as the team’s digital dynamo. Jake specializes in all things digital and works to create enticing designs for newsletters, websites, and advertisements. He also manages website maintenance and SEO and is Google-certified.

Jake holds an associate degree in arts and sciences, graphic arts technology, from Moberly Area Community College and has six years of experience in the graphic design and marketing fields.

MU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

After serving as interim dean since April 2019, Dr. Steven Zweig has been named dean of the MU School of Medicine. In addition to his responsibilities as dean, Steven is a family physician with additional certifications in geriatric medicine and hospice and palliative medicine. Dr. Michael LeFevre was named

chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the MU School of Medicine after a year serving in an interim role. Michael has played a vital role in the department since he joined in 1979 as a family medicine resident.

GRANNEMAN

CHRIS BOECKMANN

Longtime, visionary film programmer Chris Boeckmann is leaving the Ragtag Film Society. Chris started out as an intern in 2006 and then worked his way up the ranks to become the organization’s director of programming. Chris has always been a voracious film watcher and researcher, steadily rising to become one of the world’s preeminent documentary programmers. True/False cofounder David Wilson will be re-joining the team to serve as interim artistic director for the coming year.

JOHN TWITTY

The Missouri Public Utility Alliance Board of Directors has appointed John Twitty as the organization’s new general manager and CEO effective August 1. John began his utility career in 1983 at Rolla Municipal Utilities and served as general manager of the utility. John has served on many boards and committees, and has held various leadership positions throughout his career. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Central Bank of the Ozarks and Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield, Missouri.

PA R K E S

REYNOLDS

LICHMAN

ZWEIG

LEFEVRE

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MORE THAN YOUR BANKER It’s the hard times that bring out people’s true character. During this season of uncertainty, our bankers are working hard to help our community stay strong, safe and well. If you need someone to talk to about your financial situation, we are here to help. Call 888-547-6541 to talk.

#LiveWellB ankWellStayWell

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Working

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Cleaner. . . or Dirtier?

The political battle regarding the “Clean Missouri” amendment.

BY KRCG 13’S KERMIT MILLER

W

ay back in January, long before the coronavirus became the yardstick by which everything legislative was measured, the majority of Republicans in Jefferson City had two must-do items on their agenda. One, of course, was to pass a budget. The second was to create a new ballot question that would undo Missouri Constitutional Amendment 1 — the ethics and redistricting measure adopted by voters just two years ago.

Advocates had spent more than $5 million on the campaign to win voter support for Amendment 1 (labeled for campaign marketing purposes as the "Clean Missouri" amendment), while opponents raised only about $340,000. Nearly 1.5 million voters, 62% of those who went to the polls, had marked "yes" on their ballots. It won approval in every one of Missouri's 34 state senate districts. Getting rid of it did not look to be easy.

Clean Missouri offered an attractive package of ethics reforms — new limits on the behavior of lobbyists trying to affect outcomes in the legislative process coupled with a substantial change in the process by which new legislative districts would be drawn. It replaced the traditional bipartisan commission of map drawers with a non-partisan demographer, and it devalued the standard that districts be compact and community-oriented, making partisan competitiveness the priority. Advocates said that it was necessary to eliminate gerrymandering, the process by which people in power manipulate the voting boundaries in order to remain in power.

"Right now, you've got many people who are crammed into small spaces where they are guaranteed to win," Missouri NAACP president and Clean Missouri advocate Nimrod Chapel, Jr. told me in 2018. "That doesn't create a respon-

sive district. Nor would some of the stretching, snake-like districts that we currently see."

From the beginning, the critics of Clean Missouri maintained the ethics provisions were nothing more than appealing window dressing for a radical and unworkable change to redistricting.

"I think there's a lot of problems with the way this was written," observed Justin Arnold, the house legal counsel for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, prior to the 2018 vote. "And I think Missouri voters have a right to understand those problems."

"We believe that Clean Missouri was complicated, poorly written," Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz told reporters in January. "And to this day, proponents continue to demonstrate they don't really know what's in it or how it works."

Critics argue that maintaining a partisan balance in places such as the St. Louis urban core is simply not possible and will ultimately require lawmakers to represent divided districts. They have found support from some black lawmakers who say Clean Missouri will split minority neighborhoods and make it harder for people of color to get elected.

"I am standing here as a black woman first and a Democrat second," St. Louis County Representative Maria Chappelle-Nadal told

colleagues during a debate this spring. "I am unwilling to forego black political power.

We’re talking about the representation of our communities."

Yurij Rudensky, a redistricting expert at New York University School of Law, issued a statement saying Clean Missouri will "open the door to discriminatory and likely illegal efforts to draw districts in ways that minimize the power of communities with lots of children."

Rudensky says it will "hit African-American communities especially hard."

In any case, the Republican-dominated Missouri legislature this year sent Senate Joint Resolution 38 to the ballot. The resolution basically turns back the clock, eliminating the non-partisan demographer and handing the map-drawing responsibility back to separate bipartisan commissions for the house and senate.

Those commissions would be restructured with 20 members each, drawn evenly from all eight Congressional districts and appointed by the Governor from lists provided by the parties. There are six criteria to be followed by the proposed redistricting commissions. The protection of voting rights is at the top of the list.

"Partisan fairness" and "competitiveness" are at the bottom. Oh, and the ethics reforms are still there, including a total ban on lobbyist gifts.

So now, the political battle resumes.

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"We believe that Clean Missouri was complicated, poorly written. And to this day, proponents continue to demonstrate they don't really know what's in it or how it works.”

JULIA SEITZ BROKER

www.juliaseitzcolumbia.com

– MIS S OU RI S EN AT E PR E S I D E N T PRO T EM DAVE S C H AT Z

"There have been lots of issues we addressed in the past that's changed over time, and we've made changes in them,’” Governor Mike Parson told a February gathering of local reporters at the Governor's Mansion. "Going back to the ballot box, I don't have a problem with people going back and saying, 'Hey, this is what we said, you guys, so do it.'"

Parson's opponent in November, State Auditor Nicole Galloway, went with a counterpoint familiar when the issue is do-overs: "Why were voters so smart when they voted these guys into office," Galloway mused, "but not so smart when they voted on a thing they care about in their government like Clean Missouri?"

Even former U.S. senator John Danforth, a Republican, came out in favor of keeping Clean Missouri, declaring in an op-ed for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "The integrity of Missouri’s democracy is at stake."

During the legislative debate, do-over advocates foreshadowed the tone of the coming campaign. "It's a partisan trainwreck," House Republican Dean Plocher, of Des Peres, said about Clean Missouri. Lake St. Louis Republican Justin Hill said Clean Missouri advocates were guilty of "using the IP [initiative petition] process to lie to voters — to flip this state blue."

St. Louis Democrat Peter Merideth rose to caution house colleagues that nothing has changed since 2018, and SJR 38 was constructed "to allow politicians to preserve their ability to gerrymander their districts."

In any case, SJR 38 appears to be the final opportunity for opponents of Clean Missouri to get Amendment 1 out of the constitution before the 2020 census is complete and the redistricting process begins. Advocates for Clean Missouri have filed a 59-page lawsuit against SJR 38, claiming in a news release the ballot summary "contains false assertions, misleading language, and conspicuous omissions that will mislead voters."

At this writing, the ballot language issue has not been resolved.

Nor has the public heard from Governor Parson on whether the question will be decided in November or be moved by gubernatorial order to the August primary ballot.

Kermit Miller anchors the 6 and 10 p.m. news for KRCG 13. You can reach Kermit at kmiller@krcg.com

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Continuing the Story of Cherry Street Cellar Ali and Dan Bauer share their love story and the evolution of the Cherry Street Cellar.

BY KATIE PERRY HARRIS PHOTOS BY KEITH BORGMEYER

F

or Ali and Dan Bauer, Cherry Street Cellar restaurant is a special place. The couple first met and started dating while working there — Ali as a line cook and Dan as a server. Ali remembers dining at the same space as a child, which she describes as “one of her first exposures to more elevated dining when I was a kid.”

It’s only fitting that they’ve come full circle.

Now, they’re the owners of the restaurant after purchasing it from Sarah and Craig Cyr, who previously operated the establishment as The Wine Cellar & Bistro.

“It’s a special place for us,” says Ali, who serves as executive chef. “It felt like we could continue the story of the restaurant and continue it into the future.”

THE RIGHT TIMING Both Missouri natives, Ali and Dan ventured away from Columbia to spend 12 years in Chicago in the restaurant industry. Ali served as sous chef at the Michelin-starred restaurant NAHA, working under the James Beard Award-winning chef Carrie Nahabedian. She has also served as the opening chef de cuisine at Carrie’s French fine-dining restaurant Brindille. Dan also worked in the industry, with a focus on front-of-house service, employee training, and customer care.

In Chicago, they went from dating to being married to having kids. With a family of their own, they began to miss the sense of commu-

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nity and their own family back in Missouri.

Becoming business owners was also on their minds. “We were at the point where you either settle where you’re at or strike out on your own,” Dan says. “There is a great amount of community support in Columbia that made it seem like moving back here might put us in a better position to be entrepreneurial.”

Upon their return to Columbia, they again began working for The Wine Cellar & Bistro when the Cyrs, ready to move on to other proj-

ects, approached them about purchasing the restaurant. “It was the ‘right time, right place’ type of scenario,” Dan says.

They officially became owners in July 2019 and were intent on keeping the restaurant’s focus on local fare while also creating their own identity. “We wanted it to remain similar in spirit in a lot of ways,” says Ali. “The focus of the menu is seasonally driven to be supportive of all the wonderful farmers and producers in our community.”

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CELEBRATIONS

1995 Paul Vernon opens Cherry Street Wine Cellar at 707 Cherry St.

1999 Cherry Street Wine Cellar relocates and expands to its current location at 505 Cherry St.

"It’s a special place for us. It felt like we could continue the story of the restaurant and continue it into the future.”

2003 Sarah and Craig Cyr purchase the restaurant from Paul and rebrand to The Wine Cellar & Bistro.

2013 The Wine Cellar & Bistro celebrates its 10-year anniversary.

2019 Ali and Daniel Bauer purchase the restaurant, now called Cherry Street Cellar.

2020 Cherry Street Cellar celebrates its one-year anniversary.

They also worked hard to revamp the restaurant’s interior in a tight, five-week turnaround, creating an open-look to make the cellar space brighter. Dan, now general manager, consolidated the wine list and created a drink menu featuring more cocktails. Ali worked on a menu with a land-and-sea concept, with a focus on popular items like branzino and oysters.

PIVOTING DURING A PANDEMIC Seven months into their endeavor as owners, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and almost overnight they were forced to shift their focus. “Everybody was taking it day by day,” Ali says, reflecting on the month of March as the city, county, and state enacted stay-at-home orders. “It was interesting the way it unfolded. Every day it was something different we had to change.”

Luckily, the couple had already been planning and working on a business model called “Chef Share,” a program that delivers three fully-prepared meals to homes weekly. The program offers weekly subscriptions and includes three entrees, a large seasonal salad, and a little something sweet. Kid-friendly and à la carte options are also available. The menu changes weekly; one week in May featured entrees like green mole-braised Patchwork Farms pork shoulder, chick-

en pot pie with spring vegetables, and Korean bo ssam noodle bowls. The food is delivered directly to your front door.

In addition to Chef Share, the restaurant continues to offer carry-out. “A lot of our previous menu items wouldn’t have worked well for carryout, so we had to modify that,” Ali adds. The curbside to-go menu includes favorites like the whipped ricotta appetizer and entrees like branzino, fi let mignon with blue cheese creamed greens and bordelaise, and, new to the menu, a Covered-L Farms grass-fed burger with house chips.

Saturday night is fried chicken night. “We had fried chicken and champagne at our wedding,” Ali says. “It’s one of our favorite things, and it’s been well received.”

As they look to the future and a post-pandemic return to normalcy, Ali and Dan are appreciative of the community’s support. “The food scene in Columbia in general is really vibrant and continuing to grow and develop,” she says. “We’re excited to be a part of that.”

CHERRY STREET CELL AR 505 CHERRY ST. 573-442-7281 CHERRYSTREETCELL AR.COM

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Growing a Community Kathy Doisy discusses the Community Garden Coalition and the importance of the nonprof it organization during the pandemic.

BY HANNAH KUECK

As the summer sun continues to beam down, nature becomes the community’s best friend. The farmers market is open, families celebrate the season with a gooey s’more, and the Community Garden Coalition, or CGC, works long hours in its garden plots to grow fruits and vegetables to enjoy with family, friends, and the community.

CGC is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization that has helped Boone County residents grow their own fresh fruits and vegetables since 1983. When this organization was established, the members had one goal: to help the families that were food insecure around Boone County. In 2019, over 15% of Boone County residents were food insecure. The group of gardeners grew fruits and vegetables to help feed anyone that found themselves struggling to fi nd food, from the elderly to children and everyone in between. CGC was there to help — and it still is.

While this continues to be the organization’s mission today, Kathy Doisy, president of CGC explains that the organization has expanded to be inclusive to anyone who wants to be a part of a community garden. “The reason we did this is we think it’s good for people of all walks of life to be brought together in this way to grow food,” Kathy explains. “It really helps to understand people — particularly people from other cultures.” Working in these garden plots with other residents from the community has built many friendships, and more importantly, it has shown these gardeners that despite being from different cultures, they’re all human.

HOW IT WORKS Starting in February of each year, CGC hosts the Spring Thaw. At this event, garden leaders from the organization sign up old and new gardeners for plots. The organization also offers several varieties of seeds for gardeners to choose from to grow in their own garden plot. For new gardeners, or for gardeners who want to expand their knowledge, educational information about gardening topics such as water conservation and cover cropping are available as well.

Once everyone is signed up for a garden plot, the organization hosts a cool-season distribution of

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cauliflower, broccoli, various types of lettuce, and more. Later, they hold a warm-season distribution with several different types of plants such as peppers, tomatoes, and squash, to name a few. What should be a simple day of distributing plants was much more of a challenge this year given social distancing guidelines. “It was the trickiest it’s ever been because of physical distancing, but we got a system together where we were still able to distribute plants,” Kathy says. Despite the obstacle brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the gardeners retrieved their plants and are giving them love and care as they wait to be harvested. Kathy notes that donations at these events, and even apart from the events, are always welcome but never required.

Gardeners are free to plant whatever they want to in their plots — so long as it's legal. Being a trained entomologist herself, Kathy loves to promote native plants in gardens to help attract native pollinators such as mason bees.

“We have a lot of gardeners from all over the world, and many of them are growing plants that they can’t get here so they can grow food that they like from their home countries. Some of our gardeners even grow plants that are medicinal in our gardens,” Kathy explains.

FOR THE COMMUNITY The produce that is harvested from these garden plots are distributed throughout the community.

Some gardeners share their fresh produce with their family and friends or enjoy it their own. Some garden plots that are occupied by groups around the community donate all of the produce that has been harvested in their gardens to the food bank or other agencies. “Our effort is to get more healthy food into the community — to your friends, to an agency, or whoever it is you want to give it to,” Kathy explains.

Helping Boone County residents grow their own food is a big success in itself, but the achievements go beyond the healthy and fresh fruits and vegetables. As a result of these community garden plots, neighborhoods have become nicer and livelier, and they have improved the environment.

“We’re helping the community not just by giving people nutritious produce that they might not have

Community Garden Coalition Founded: 1983 Mission Statement: The Community Garden Coalition provides support, supplies, and garden plots to community gardeners, seeking especially to help lower-income individuals, the elderly, people with disabilities, children, and others who might not be able to have a garden on their own.

Board Members: • Kathy Doisy president

• Jenny McDonald vice president

• Bill McKelvey interim treasurer

• Sarah Kendrick • Ann Marie Gortmaker • Kristin Hatton

Working

A few of the faces that make it possible for the Community Garden Coalition to function and make an impact on the community.

access to otherwise, but we are also stabilizing neighborhoods,” Kathy explains. “When you know your neighbors, you’re a better neighbor.”

The Community Garden Coalition isn’t just growing produce — they’re helping to grow a community.

Kathy notes that by taking old, abandoned lots around the community and fi lling them up with flowers, food, and people, the organization is helping to reduce the carbon footprint. “It’s a win-win all the way around. I just can’t think of anything bad about community gardening,” she says.

GARDENING IN A PANDEMIC Like most things, CGC has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While gardening isn’t cancelled, the organization has had to navigate how to have a successful season while following the physical distancing parameters. “Every garden has one or two garden leaders that oversee the plots. We couldn’t function without these people — they interact directly with each gardener,” Kathy says. These garden

NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT

leaders, Kathy explains, have helped with the organization’s modified plant distribution, so gardening can continue.

As the pandemic continues and food shortages in grocery stores remain the new normal, gardening is more important now than ever before. Kathy explains, “People are really going to be relying on what they get out of their garden this year. And while this has always been true, this year as so many people lose their jobs, these gardens will be even more crucial.”

COMMUNITY GARDEN COALITION 573-875-5995 P.O. BOX 7051 COMOGARDENS.ORG

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BUSINESS UPDATE

Clovers Natural Market Thrives During the Pandemic How the local natural market has operated successfully amid the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping employees and customers safe.

BY JENNIFER TRUESDALE | PHOTOS BY ANTHONY JINSON

A

ssuring the safety of employees and customers alike has been a top priority for businesses large and small as COVID-19 has completely changed the ways we live and work. Clovers Natural Market is no different, except that it acted to protect employees and customers much earlier than most — before the idea of offering curbside service had taken off.

“We made the decision to open curbside [services] on March 20,” says Katie Epstein, marketing director for Clovers. “We did it to protect the longevity of the store and to protect our employees. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We felt like we had to stay open to serve the community because we are such a resource for health and wellness. We’ve tried to be the bedrock of local,

organic, health, and wellness — and that’s so important during this time, but again, we wanted to protect our store and employees, so we switched to curbside, and the response from the community has been so positive.”

The locally-owned specialty grocer with locations on Broadway and Chapel Hill Road was opened in 1965 as Columbia Specialty Foods by Richard Catlett, who was well

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ahead of his time with his passion for the organically grown food and natural medicinal alternatives and supplements that are so popular today.

In 1991, employees Patty Clover and Scott Nirmaier purchased the business from Richard and renamed it Clovers Natural Market.

Fifty-five years after opening, Clovers is going strong and hasn’t closed at all during the pandemic. Like other grocery stores, Clovers saw a surge of customers in March as the pandemic was ramping up. Both locations are fairly small, which makes social distancing for customers and employees a challenge.

“We had to pretty much switch the entire way we serve our customers, but it’s been really great,” Katie says. “We have a pretty small, dedicated staff that was able to adapt quickly.

We take email orders, we take phone orders, and we do the shopping. We bring it out to the customers at curbside and make it as contactless as possible.”

SUSTAINING A REPUTATION Katie says there are about 15 employees at the Chapel Hill store and a dozen at the Broadway store, and no one has had to be laid off. They reduced their business hours to allow staff to use the morning hours to restock and sanitize the stores before getting busy processing the 60 to 100 orders for curbside pickup they’ve gotten every day since March 20.

The success of curbside service can be attributed to the small and dedicated staff that Katie mentioned. She says many of the Clovers’ employees have been with the store for many years, which certainly is indicative that Clovers’ ownership and management values its employees as much as it values its customers. Katie herself has been with Clovers for a total of 16 years — it was one of her first jobs in high school, and after she finished her marketing degree, she reached out to the store to see if she could come back as their marketing director. Clovers created the position for her, and she’s been in it for the past eight years.

“We have people who have worked at our store for 20-plus years — many of us that take [Clovers’] products on a daily basis and know how they work with our bodies and have talked to our customers for many years about their experiences,” Katie says. “We have very knowledgeable employees.” These same employees can be found endorsing their favorite products on the Clovers website and social media.

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“My top three things that I think everybody could benefit from are a high-quality multivitamin, a probiotic, and a fish oil,” Katie says.

“Those three things are not only critical to our general health and wellness, but also to the immune system.”

ESTABLISHING A NEW NORMAL Clovers reopened for in-store shopping on May 25 and has continued the popular curbside service as well. Since reopening in-store services, Clovers has required customers and employees to wear masks while in the stores, and the store has provided face coverings if they don’t have their own. They must also wear store-provided gloves while handling bulk food items — many of which have been pre-bagged and weighed for convenience. The stores have also banned reusable bags for the time being to limit contamination from the outside. Customers are only able to buy limited quantities of some high-demand items like meat, milk, eggs, and paper products. But Katie says that thanks to their strong working relationships with local farmers, they haven’t struggled the way other stores have in sourcing meat and produce.

“Over the past 55 years, there have been various trends in health and wellness, and we’ve

BUSINESS UPDATE

tried to stay at the forefront of those trends and carry products that people want while also carrying those tried-and-true things that have a lot of research behind them.”

Katie says CBD oil has been in high-demand at the stores during the pandemic for its claims that it soothes anxiety. Immune supplements like elderberry products, vitamin C, and echinacea also have been very popular during the pandemic.

In a way, the pandemic has been good for the specialty grocery store that got through by prioritizing the health and safety of its employees.

Katie says, “I think people are much more aware now of their health and wellness and their immune systems because of COVID-19, and that has opened the door for us to be able to talk about those things because that’s what we’re passionate about. That’s what we do in this community — continue to educate people about their health and their bodies. It’s what we do and what we will continue to do.”

CLOVER’S NATURAL MARKET BROADWAY LOCATION: 2012 E. BROADWAY | 573-449-1650 FORUM LOCATION: 2100 CHAPEL PL AZ A CT. | 573-445-0990

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PERSON YOU SHOULD KNOW

Jeff Spencer Owner, Just Jeff ’s PH OTO BY ANTHON Y JI N S O N

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HOMETOWN

Columbia.

JOB DESCRIPTION

I wear a lot of hats. Some days I do a little bit of everything. Most of the time, I’m just an employee alongside the other employees as an order-taker or a sandwich maker. My wife runs the financial and book part of the business, and I run the restaurant part.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

I’ve never actually worked at a restaurant.

I sold cars for about 25 years, and I was a truck driver for around 10 years. Then I opened up a hot dog cart, and it worked.

I’ve always felt that this was something that I wanted to do inside me. Seven years ago, I opened this cart on the MU campus.

I quit my job and said I wasn’t happy with my life, so I bought this hot dog cart and started selling hot dogs. Now we’ve turned this into a restaurant with two locations, but we still have the hot dog cart.

FAVORITE RECENT PROJECT

Farming — that’s my newfound fun in my life. I’m starting to raise cows, and it’s been so much fun.

WHY YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT YOUR RESTAURANT, JUST JEFF’S

I’m passionate about food and making people that come to my restaurant happy.

It’s the overall customer service that I’m passionate about. I think you have to make an experience in order to be successful in a restaurant.

A COLUMBIA RESTAURATEUR YOU ADMIRE AND WHY

Mark Sulltrop at 44 Stone Public House. He’s an awesome restaurateur.

Sometimes as a business owner who doesn’t know this business, I look at others to see what they’re doing so I can make sure I follow suit and make sure I’m doing the correct things. He’s one of the guys that I really look up to in the restaurant business.

WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN

Farming. I’ve been so involved on the farm. Hay season is coming up and, of course, raising the cows is always fun. I don’t travel, so this is what my wife and I do for fun.

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Cleanliness is important to me.

I have a spotless record for my two restaurants — I’ve never had a violation of any kind. I think we have started to set new standards for kitchens in Columbia.

YOUR NEXT PROFESSIONAL GOAL

Honestly, with the situation right now, my goal is to maintain the two restaurants that I have.

WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

It’s not nearly as easy as it looks. Take that from me — from going in with no experience to being in the industry for seven years in September. But for me, the satisfaction of the happy customers is worth it.

THE NEXT CHALLENGE FACING THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY

Getting through the restrictions that have been put in place from the pandemic.

FAMILY

Taylor, my daughter, runs the location on Business Loop — she’s the store manager.

And my wife, Nicole, as I mentioned above.

HOW YOU WANT TO IMPACT THE COLUMBIA COMMUNITY

Cleanliness is important to me. I have a spotless record for my two restaurants — I’ve never had a violation of any kind. I think we have started to set new standards for kitchens in Columbia.

YOUR FAVORITE SUMMER ACTIVITY

Fishing with my granddaughter.

FAVORITE RESTAURANT IN COLUMBIA AND YOUR GO-TO DISH AND DRINK

Murry’s with a bottle of Coors Light and a filet, medium rare.

A SURPRISING FACT ABOUT YOU

I’m pretty transparent — what you see is what you get.

THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNED THROUGH OWNING YOUR OWN RESTAURANT

You have to treat your employees better than other places in order to retain them.

FAVORITE SUMMER-TIME FOOD TO PREPARE

I still love to cook cheeseburgers and hot dogs.

AN ACCOMPLISHMENT YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF

Opening our second location and making it past the five-year mark.

LEVEL UP THE FUN! OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND BACK TO NORMAL HOURS 10AM-10PM SUNDAY TO THURSDAY | 10AM-MIDNIGHT FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

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Columbia Mall | 2300 Bernadette Drive, Ste 228 | (573) 615-0443 COMOMAG.COM

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k a e r B H C N LU

The COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the Columbia community, especially our beloved local restaurants. Even through the long stay-at-home orders that pushed us out of our offices and into our homes with our families, these local restaurants kept their doors open to continue to help us feed our families and provide a bit of normalcy in these trying times.

Supporting local businesses and restaurants has always been a priority for us, but local restaurants need our help now more than ever. See what local restaurants your favorite businesses are supporting on their lunch break, and find one to support on yours as well. We’re in this together.

Eat local. Love local.

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LU N C H B R E A K

LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

We support local.

We support Big Daddy’s BBQ! While we appreciate the ability to transform exceptional exteriors, our focus is on the people who live underneath those roofs and inside those houses. The Manor team is a family, and we care about every family in mid-Missouri.

By giving back as a company, Manor is helping our community become a better place and improving the lives of others. We know that by volunteering our time as a company, we can focus on the bigger picture and leave a lasting impact. Not only does our company become invested, but our employees do as well.

WE CATER!

Manor Roofing & Restoration Services, providing Peace of Mind For a Lifetime.

7125 West Henderson Rd., Columbia, MO 65202 (573) 445-4770 • Exploremanor.com

1205 North Garth Ave | (573) 875-2227 COMOMAG.COM

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LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

Thousands of Vehicles Missouri’s Largest Volume Dealer Shop at Any of Our 9 Locations or Online at Machens.com

Thank you so much for your business, we appreciate each and everyone of you!

Open for Dine-I n& To-Go !

Stadium Plaza | 2001 West Worley • Columbia, MO 573.445.3504 • gdsteakhouse.com Supporting our LOCAL community and businesses for over 50 years.

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G&D Steakhouse has been family owned and operated by the Aslanidis family in Columbia, MO for over 50 years!

LU N C H B R E A K

LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

You can’t have a working lunch without lunch.

Restaurants are such an integral part of our small business community. Without the hard work, long hours, and creativity of our local restaurant community we’d be eating PB&Js.

Equal parts New World butcher shop and Old World delicatessen.

Bringing seasonal, local ingredients and a whole-animal philosophy to the table.

Eat Local Now!

Financial Planning Investment Strategy

47 E Broadway, Columbia, MO, 65203 (573) 442-9323 • host@barredowlbutcher.com

Portfolio Management

2801 Woodard Drive Columbia, MO

(573) 442-6146

Greg & Lon Brockmeier Financial Advisors

Curbside Pick-Up on all food, bar and butcher shop items.

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LU N C H B R E A K

LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

Nourish your Spine at

Nutrient Rich.

Locally Sourced.

Organic.

Call for an appointment 573-442-5520 AchieveBalanceChiropractic.com 1000 W. Nifong Blvd.

Building 8, Suite 100 90

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Open for carr yout, limited dine in, patio seating and deliver y

We promise to serve organic, nutrient-rich, unprocessed food made from scratch. We are obsessed with high quality ingredients, superfoods and creating delicious recipes that help our bodies thrive.

n ou r i s h c afem ar ket .c om | ( 573) 8 1 8 - 2 2 4 0 1201 E . B roadway, S te B, Colu m bi a , M O 6 5 2 0 1

LU N C H B R E A K

LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

Life is complicated.

The Quarry is not.

Proud Supporters of

The place we go for good food and good drinks.

Good food.

Good drinks.

Our values: We operate by an essential set of core values that impact the way we do business; our values are what set us apart from our competitors. When you hire us for your projects, you’re getting a team that’s dedicated to providing quality service.

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LOCAL BUSINESSES SUPPORTING LOCAL RESTAURANTS

LU N C H B R E A K

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Open MondaySunday for both dine-in and courtesy curbside service

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Cooking Up a Shared Kitchen After three years in the making, COMO Cooks is preparing their shared kitchen for local chefs.

BY DAVID MORRISON

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COMO Cooks

has been three years in the making.

The shared kitchen that will soon open at Mizzou North had methodically advanced through the steps necessary for launch since the boards at Regional Economic Development, Inc., and The Loop Community Improvement District signaled their interest in pursuing the project.

Grants from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and Smart Growth America helped leaders at REDI and The Loop consult with industry leaders on how to best run a shared kitchen space. Local focus group meetings demonstrated the need and identified the infrastructure needed to fi ll it. And the participation of MU Vice Chancellor for Operations and COO Gary Ward yielded a home for COMO Cooks at Mizzou North that was already outfitted with a commercial kitchen.

Then, COVID-19 threw a wrench into everything.

“It’s slowed down a bit, but we do anticipate the need remaining,” says The Loop Executive Director Carrie Gartner, “maybe even more so in the post-COVID world.”

Carrie and Stacey Button, president of REDI, know better than to put a definite timeline on opening in this era of public health uncertainty, but they can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Construction plans have been approved by the Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services and MU’s facilities have reopened, so the process of moving the necessary equipment into the kitchen space can start. And the local, smallscale food manufacturers who were interested in utilizing COMO Cooks are still excited to use its services.

The incubation is about to begin.

“The idea that we can create a space that’s more accessible and inclusive — that’s not going to just happen,” Carrie says. “We’ve reached out to a bunch of folks, and that sort of outreach into those communities is ongoing. It’s not like, ‘If you open it, they will come.’

We’ve been working on this for a couple of years now.”

What Is COMO Cooks?

Carrie calls small-scale food producers a “hidden economy” within Columbia. Through fo-

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Stacey Button REDI

Susan Hart Huebert Builders

Carrie Gartner The Loop

cus-group meetings, she and The Loop’s board of directors identified these entrepreneurs as crucial partners in the group’s efforts to vitalize and support businesses along Business Loop.

Stacey and the REDI board saw COMO Cooks fitting nicely into their mission — growing Mid-Missouri’s economy — as well.

“The importance is that we’re able to bring and sustain quality jobs,” Stacey says. “This sector is important to our economy, so the opportunity for REDI to initiate a program in partnership with The Loop and other partners that will become part of this project is great for the entire region. It’s not Columbia-specific. We talk about all of the opportunities we can bring from all the different areas in our region to be able to utilize this kitchen.”

“There are so many food producers who need a path to the market. We’re an [agriculture] state. We have this farming feel in our blood. It’s part of our DNA in the state.”

Aspiring local food producers who become COMO Cooks members will have 24/7 access to the shared commercial kitchen, the equipment, a community of food producers, and to business counseling and workshops. There are three levels of monthly plans: 10 hours a month at $17 an hour, 50 hours a month at $14 an hour, and unlimited kitchen time for $1,350 a month.

Members can also reserve additional time for $17 an hour.

Storage is complimentary for members when they’re working in the kitchen, and they can reserve long-term storage space at the facility for a fee. Entrepreneurs can apply and reserve spots online at the COMO Cooks website.

To REDI and The Loop, COMO Cooks will help the local business ecosystem by providing a relatively cheap way for food entrepreneurs to prepare their wares for market, improving the diversity and quality of the food sector in the region. Incubating these businesses could yield more quality jobs in the future and assist the health department in ensuring that new area food manufacturers are following proper safety, cooking, and handling protocols.

“It provides upward economic mobility for a lot of folks who may not normally have access to do so,” says Susan Hart, vice president and partner at Huebert Builders and vice-chair of the REDI board. “It offers people the opportunity to have their own business, which is a great way to build wealth for generations. When we recruit people to employ in Boone County and Columbia, they look at different things for quality of life. We’re asked more and more about our farm-to-table and restaurant offerings — people care about that. It helps our economy from all different aspects.”

Who Is It For? Carrie says she is regularly in contact with a group of about 20 food entrepreneurs who are interested in leasing space at COMO Cooks.

They run the gamut in the food production process — caterers, food truck operators, bottlers, coffee makers, chefs, farmers, and so on all looking to inject some value-added products into their offerings. (For example, making a jar of sauerkraut in a shared kitchen could net more profit than selling heads of cabbage.)

“There are so many food producers who need a path to the market,” Carrie says. “We’re an [agriculture] state. We have this farming feel in our blood. It’s part of our DNA in the state.”

The barriers on those paths to the market can be insurmountable.

Banks might be hesitant to lend startup money to an unproven entity.

Buying necessary kitchen equipment is cost-prohibitive and, for entre-

preneurs who plan on making small-batch products, doesn’t make much sense.

Having a shared kitchen space with facilities and equipment at the ready for an affordable price removes some common obstacles.

“They are folks with a lot of different paths to market, which helps the kitchen because it’s a diverse group of clients,” Carrie says.

“It’s not just diversity in the types of products, but the types of people we’re getting in the kitchen. Someone who doesn’t have access to family wealth, a relationship with a bank, or a lot of collateral has an easier time starting a business because we’ve helped lower the barrier for them.”

With the entire sector reeling from the COVID-19 hit, COMO Cooks can also serve as a landing spot for newly unemployed food workers who are looking to branch out on their own.

“There are immediate, short-term needs based on the crisis, and we can be responsive to what those needs are with the facility,” Stacey says. “At the same time, it goes into long-term recovery and ongoing needs specific to that industry in our local economy.”

What’s Left To Do? As Columbia and Boone County started reopening in mid-May, REDI and The Loop resumed the process of readying COMO Cooks for its debut.

Carrie shored up the kitchen’s initial client list and reached out to new potential lessees. Stacey continued working with MU on budgetary considerations. Susan inventoried the construction still to-do — minor build-outs to the commercial kitchen are already in place at Mizzou North.

“If we had to build a kitchen from scratch, this wouldn’t have happened,” Susan says. “The university’s infrastructure with that has been critically important. The project is so relevant and important for our economy post-COVID. That’s the most fascinating thing about this project — even though it has the basic infrastructure in place, it keeps changing for the need that arises.”

There is also the matter of reading and reacting to whatever new safety guidelines will remain in place as the world works its way to the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The kitchen setup, with separate bays for each of its inhabitants, allows COMO Cooks to follow social distancing guidelines, according to Carrie. But it’s also a fool’s errand to try and predict what twists and turns the future will hold.

“We won’t know the new needs for a while. Any business owner now is going week by week,” Carrie says. “We’re sliding into a new normal, but the past few months there have been so many changes, pivots, and new ways of doing business. We really do see delayed impacts of this virus.

What is going to help is if we make a versatile kitchen that’s affordable and has the access and equipment people need. Then we can welcome a variety of different uses as impacts are seen month to month.”

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What’s New on

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the North Side?

BY N I CO L E FLO O D

This month, we continue our development series with a look at the area of Columbia north of I-70.

From the changes at the Boone County fairgrounds to exciting shops and places to eat, there’s a Overlooking the Boone County fairgrounds.

Photo by Keith Borgmeyer

lot of exciting changes on the horizon.

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THE BOONE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS

A rendering of the proposed changes to the fairgrounds.

To

Oakland Church Road

Atkins Park Four 225' Baseball/Softball Fields with Concession/Restroom

Oakland Gravel Road

Cottonwoods RV Park

Fairgrounds Use Area 29 Acres Future Improvements by the Boone County Fair Board

Grandstand Area with Concession and Restrooms

Stormwater Detention Pond

Show Areas with Office and Restrooms Hard Surface Area 137,700 sf 500 Parking Spaces

150 Parking Spaces

Stormwater Detention Pond To ark P ith

Eight Lane Track Facility with Grandstand and Synthetic Turf Field

Sm

200 Parking Spaces

Main Building 88,000 sf 180 Parking Spaces

Building 20,000 sf

Two Large Shelters with Inclusive Playground

240 Parking Spaces

Five Synthetic Turf Fields 220'x360'

Stormwater Detention Pond 120 Parking Spaces

osed

63

nd la ak

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k Tra

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Proposed Hinkson Creek Trail

30 Parking Spaces

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O

Bear

Trailhead with Parking/ Shelter/Restroom

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Prop

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The City of Columbia introduced legislation at the April council meeting to accept the transfer of the fairground property north of town from Boone County. The transfer was approved at the council meeting in early May. The transfer officially gifts the 135-acre site — which has been the subject of much public and political attention in recent years — from Boone County to the City of Columbia. The site will be maintained and managed by the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department. The city plans to develop this site into a large multi-sport athletic complex.

“As a city and county, we’ve always looked at ways we can partner together to create a regional sports and recreation site,” says Mike Griggs, director of Columbia Parks and Recreation Department. “Th is is a winwin agreement in giving the fairgrounds to the City to maintain and allow us to work with private developers on the complex.”

As part of the big change, the Boone County Fair has agreed to return to Columbia after relocating to Sturgeon in 2016. The agreement sets aside 29 acres of land for them to build their fair facilities and use for free 10 days a year. The fair will be in charge of building their own facilities on the 29 acres set aside for them while the City of Columbia is responsible for the rest of the recreation development. Th is will allow the fair to have ample space while concentrat-

Stark Ave

Central Missouri Events Center

400

0

400 FEET

Draft Fairgrounds and Columbia Parks and Recreation Facilities 134.7 Total Acres including ROW October 29, 2019

WI LS O N’ S G A R D E N C ENTER & G I F T S H O P

WHERE TO

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JULY 2020

Wilson’s Garden Center & Gift Shop offers everything you need for your landscaping and gardening needs. From fruits and vegetables to flowers, plants, and herbs, Wilson’s offers high-quality products for their customers year-round. Come see their summer selection at their location on Rangeline Road.

Q U I LT 4 U

Quilt 4 U opened in 2012 and offers the Columbia community a wide selection of fabrics, sewing notions, and quilting supplies. They also offer hands-on classes to quilters. Marilyn Wine owns Quilt 4 U and is a talented long-arm quilter who has been quilting her whole life.

Stop in for a visit on Rain Forest Parkway.

S H OW ME D I S C S P O RTS

Show Me Disc Sports, located on Big Bear Boulevard, offers disc sport sales and education. You can find everything you need for disc golf there. They also provide instruction and tips for novice and advanced disc golfers alike.

N O R T H S ID E

WHERE TO

EAT

PH O Q UA N VI E T CU I S I N E Pho Quan Viet Cuisine offers authentic Vietnamese dishes. Located on Vandiver Drive, you’ll find excellent, delicious pho in addition to other authentic dishes.

G U M BY ’ S PI Z Z A Gumby’s Pizza has been a Columbia latenight tradition for over 10 years. It’s a college town favorite and the Columbia locations are the only locations in Missouri. The north store on Rain Forest Parkway is open late, so you can get great pizza in the late hours of the night.

AG AVE M EXI CA N R E STAU R A N T Agave Mexican Restaurant on Safari Drive makes everything fresh. Try their fresh margaritas, salsa, and chorizo.

They also have great drink specials from 3 to 8 p.m. daily.

ing the arenas and vendors in one area, rather than spreading them out throughout the property, as they were in the past.

“We’re excited about the fair returning to this site, and we think a mix of the fair and agricultural side of things with athletics is a great combination on the north side of town,” says Mike.

“It’s really a nice attraction and a mutual benefit for the fair board and our local athletics.”

The agreement also honors the existing leases on the property held by Veterans United Home Loans and UPS for the next three years. Because of this, the funding and fi nal development plans are still in progress and will take a slow-but-steady approach.

Currently, UPS utilizes a surfaced lot on the site as extended parking for their trucks and trailers, while Veterans United leases the coliseum building for a large meeting space to bring their company together for large trainings and meetings.

“We won’t begin work on the athletic complex development until these leases expire, which is the end of 2023,” adds Mike. Th is would mean the construction of the athletic complexes could start in 2024 with hopes that some could open in 2025.

“The leases we are going to honor with [Veterans United] and UPS give us time to go through a detailed planning and engineering process to make sure what is on the plans can actually be built on the land. Th is gives us time to plan that before we begin requesting funding from our citizens,” says Mike. “Currently, we don’t have the funding for the facilities, but there are several ways the funding could come. The next ballot issue for parks sales tax is up for renewal in 2021. We are also looking at some private funding counterparts to work with. We’ve already started meeting with various user groups like the 4-H horse show group and the fair board.”

Conversations with these groups help the parks department understand their needs, where they cur-

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A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SERIES

WHAT TO

DO

Book an event or just show up to watch!

S KY ZO N E SkyZone features wall-towall aerial action. Picture an awesome day of trampoline fun combined with epic ways to play and compete with basketball, rings, ramps, and so much more.

There’s something for the whole family here. It’s even a great place for adults to gather for fun.

CO M O AXE AT TAC K COMO Axe Attack lets you hang out, throw axes, and enjoy local brews. Those ages 12 and up can partake in axe throwing at targets. Their coaches show you proper axe-throwing form and how to participate safely. Book ahead of time for a private lane for up to six people for 1.5 hours, or share a lane with others. Walkins are also welcome, and you don’t have to throw — guests are welcome to just watch and enjoy the atmosphere.

T I G E R ACA D E M Y O F G Y M N A ST I CS Tiger Academy of Gymnastics is a teaching gym for adults and children alike where gymnasts can learn skills on the bar, floor, and vault. The gym also features Battle Club nights, which is an hour-long program that encourages kids age 8 and up to have fun and exercise. Participants bring their foam dart or “rival” yellow foam ball ammo blasters and play controlled battle games in the 13,500-square-foot gym.

Battle Club is held Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7:45 to 8:45 p.m.

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rently hold their events, and what would make this area attractive to them for future events. In addition, the city has discussed the land with Cottonwood RV Park, which borders the property, to see what events would be mutually beneficial for them. It’s all part of the vision for the city to be a good neighbor in north Columbia.

“I think, other than this being a great economic generator, like Cosmo Park is, the

other big part of this is that it’s on the large part of the Bear Creek Trail, which is part of a 30-mile loop around Columbia. That in and of itself is a great recreational activity for cyclists. Ideally, when we get this trail built, it will go to Stephen Lake Park then connect to the MKT Trail. It’s a great amenity to those who live in this area and an outstanding proportion of outdoor trails connectivity to those who enjoy that.”

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Working

THIS OR THAT

Details Flower Garden Classical 8-5 Learn Soda

Traveler Newspaper Solo Football Carom Billiards Steak Beer

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JULY 2020

Pop

Traditional Country Spend To Go Homebody Magazine Team Basketball Pocket Billiards Burgers Wine

Introvert

Extrovert

Kansas City

St. Louis

Sweet Documentary Film

Photographer’s note: My favorite part of the shoot was our surprise guest, Harlan, who is the number one Booches fan (and also the biggest dog I’ve ever seen)! Check out our social platforms to see Richard and Harlan.

Teach

Bees

For Here

1. I’m missing the tradition and experience of Booches, and I’m looking forward to getting back.

2. Cardinals fan. I’m missing baseball.

3. There are plenty of burgers in my diet.

4. I drink red and my wife drinks white, so that works well.

Flexibility

Butterflies

Save

Co-Owner, Booches

Jazz

Vanilla

City

Richard Robertson

Vegetable Garden

Chocolate

Modern

Photo by Sadie Thibodeaux

Big-Picture

Letters Roses

Savory Action Film Emails Greenery

300 St. James St., Suite 103 Columbia, MO 65201

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“I only needed a small loan to get things up and running at Moon Yoga. Hawthorn Bank was eager to help and put things together quickly – which was huge for me and my business.” ”I now have this partnership with them that really feels like family.”

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Brandon Kalista Commercial Loan Officer (573) 449-3204

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