Arts & Entertainment

Food for Thought

Do your tummy and your community good by Dining Out for Life this Tuesday

By Alex Weir 

Visitors to Night & Day Global Industries are too wowed by the Tadao Ando-inspired lobby, the Waterford crystal coat trees and the overall Brooks Brothers-ish panache of the place to think about food. They're here for business, and they wanna move and shake, pronto. They're not here to nosh -- but we are. In fact, in the N&D canteen, executives and pencil-pushers alike get fed as much as we can hold. Some of us are starting to resemble the man we admire so much, Karl Rove: stuffed, triple-chinned, glossy as a sated walrus. No one eats outside the compound anymore.

But all that changes Tuesday, November 30. We're stepping out the gilded corporate door, restaurant bound. Tuesday, observe, marks St. Louis' tenth annual Dining Out for Life event. Simply pick a restaurant from among more than 180 participating area establishments, and if possible, patronize more than one chow purveyor on the Dining day. St. Louis' most generous eateries take part -- from all over the city (Kitchen K downtown) to the county (Frick's Bar & Grill in Ballwin) and into St. Charles (the Chocolate Café). Some restaurants, like J. Buck's in Clayton, are pitching in for dinner; the Maya Café in Maplewood and others participate for lunch and dinner; and still others, like the Lt. Robert E. Lee riverboat floating in Kimmswick, Missouri, donate for breakfast and dinner.

Eat, drink and pay up, knowing that your restaurant of choice will give at least 25 percent of your bill (although J. Buck's during dinner and the Robert E. Lee during breakfast donate 100 percent) to Saint Louis Effort for AIDS (EFA). EFA helps stanch the spread of HIV/AIDS locally through education and provides support for people living with the disease. Just think: You'll be on Easy Street, eating well and contributing to a vital cause. For a complete list of Dining Out restaurants or for more specifics, visit EFA at www.stlefa.org, call 314-645-6451 or ask Michael Staenberg, Ozzie Smith and Shaun Hayes (pictured, left to right), who are honorary co-chairs.