Somethings to chew on

It’s official. Café Coeur, a full-service kosher restaurant, will open April 1 at 10477 Old Olive Street Road in Creve Coeur. 

“It’s true,” said co-owner Moshe Plotnik, adding that he’s “excited and pumped. It’s beyond awesome.”

Plotnik says the restaurant, which specializes in kosher sushi, pizza, salads and Italian and fish specialties will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and serve lunch and dinner. It will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays and closed on Saturdays. It also expects to have a full bar once it opens, or shortly thereafter, and a full catering team.

In addition to being kosher, several menu items are vegan, including some sushi. Gluten-free pasta is also available. For more information, call 314-439-8800 or go to www.cafecoeurstl.com.

In other food news, Schnucks Chesterfield, at 141 Hilltown Village Center, now offers Kohn’s Kosher Deli sandwiches for sale. These include subway sandwiches as well as turkey, pastrami and corned beef in half and full sizes.

And St. Louis Rotisserie, a restaurant and catering company, recently moved to 12414 Olive Blvd. located in the Shoppes at Westgate in Creve Coeur.  Jennifer and Drew Sterling, who are Jewish, say the new store will be open seven days a week from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

St. Louis Rotisserie marinates fresh whole chickens in a fat-free, oil-free and MSG-free blend of natural citrus juices, herbs and spices. Specialties include rotisserie chicken, grilled salmon, chicken salad and beef brisket burnt ends. 

And lastly, Byrd & Barrel, at 3422 South Jefferson Ave.,  will launch Bagel Champ, a New York-style bagel shop operating only on weekends. Starting Saturday (March 23), Bagel Champ will serve bagel sandwiches from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The menu will rotate a few sandwich choices each weekend. 

Rockin’ round the clock

How does one prepare himself to rock in a chair for 63 straight hours without so much as a bathroom break?

Mizzou senior Edan Goldfarb admits he’s not quite sure, but says he’s determined to do just that in downtown Columbia from 6:30 a.m. Thursday, April 4 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6, to raise money for the American Cancer Society and March of Dimes. 

Goldfarb is indeed putting the “rock” in the Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Rock-A-Thon, the largest single fraternity philanthropy in the country, which celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year. 

“I still haven’t gotten the answer as to exactly how I will do this but I’m planning to go with the flow and figure it out. I am committed to this,” said Goldfarb, a senior in broadcast journalism who grew up in Olivette and graduated from Ladue. “For me, rocking in a chair for 63 hours doesn’t seem all that difficult, especially compared to the people who are fighting cancer and other terrible diseases. What they are doing is 10 times harder than what I am about to do.”

The 100-plus brothers of AEPi elected Goldfarb to this task, who said he had wanted to do this since his freshman year. While he rocks, his fraternity brothers will canvass throughout mid-Missouri, St. Louis and Kansas City for donations. The public can also donate online, at www.crowdrise.com/mizzourockathon.

“Our hope is to break the record we set in 2015 of $132,000,” said co-chair Jordan Bernstein, a senior at Mizzou and Parkway Central grad majoring in business and economics. Bernstein explained since the every-other-year Rock-A-Thon started in 1969, AEPi has collected close to $1 million. This year, to celebrate the 50^th anniversary, AEPi hosted at gala, featuring former Mizzou football coach and cancer survivor Gary Pinkel, along with a golf tournament at Forest Park, in the hopes of raising more money than ever before. 

“We wanted to hit it out of the park this year,” said Bernstein, adding that part of this year’s mission is to spread awareness about pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. 

Meanwhile, as Goldfarb prepares for his 63 hours, he can take solace in the fact that he won’t be alone. In addition to his fraternity brothers (full disclosure: my son is one of them) and hundreds of other Mizzou students cheering him on, Goldfarb’s parents will be in Columbia watching and supporting.

“He’s pretty excited about all of this and we’re proud of him,” said his dad, Avi Goldfarb, laughing. “But I have no idea how he is going to do this. He keeps telling me he has it under control.”

Neighborhood pride

One of the many things I love about St. Louis is its neighborhoods. Each one has its own character and charm, not to mention spirit.

To that end, Benton Park is hosting its first international film festival March 29-30. Among the mix of 100-plus films are short ones (under 50 minutes), full-length feature, documentaries, animated features and much more, by student filmmakers as well as professional ones.  

“I think SLIFF (St. Louis International Film Festival) does a great job but we wanted to develop a film festival that was all inclusive, where there could be food, drink, music and more within the same building,” explained Franki Cambeletta, festival director. “We want to celebrate local artist’s works but to do so, we felt it was important that they see what the competition is. So we put out a call for submissions and got 936 from around the world, then scaled it to 103 films. The films bring down the walls and borders among us.”

All of them will be shown under one roof at the Historic Lemp Grand Hall, 1817 & 1821 Cherokee Street, which features four viewing halls. A few films, in particular, have Jewish themes that may be of interest to Light readers. They are:

A Tree Remembers – The Lidice Massacre (Czech Republic, Germany, Poland) |  5 p.m. Friday, March 29: This is the story of Lidice, leveled and – literally – eradicated by the Nazis in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. However, despite the heavy death toll it paid, the Czech village not only was not erased from the map but became a symbol of the fight against Fascism.

The Bar Mitzvah Boys (Hungary, Israel) | 7 p.m. Friday March 29: A coming-of-age story for two “boys” who are 70 years apart. They are both preparing for the greatest day of their lives: their bar mitzvah. Through their preparation for a spiritual celebration, the boy becomes the teacher and tries to restore the old man’s faith and trust.

Hounds (Israel) – Friday  | Noon Saturday, March 30: The life of a dog, trained to act as human, changes when a pack of Hounds gathers around his house.  

(Hounds is in the student showcase, it is an animation, it is within the loop of student films between 12-3pm)  

The cost to attend the entire two-day festival is $25; however, the festival is running a $15 promotion for Jewish Light readers wanting only to attend Friday. Go to http://bit.ly/BP-FilmFest and enter jewishlight19 for the Friday-only films.

News and Schmooze is a weekly column by Editor Ellen Futterman. Email Ellen at: [email protected].