The Groundhog Got It Right This Time -- An Early Spring is Here; So Is Our Spring Issue
by Grayling Holmes
Looks like Punxsutawney Phil got is right this year — it appears that we’re in for an early spring. As I write this, it’s a balmy 72 degrees, not in my office, but OUTDOORS. My lavender crocuses are in full bloom on my backyard lawn. Yellow daffodils are springing up out front. And best of all, the March/April issue of Sophisticated Living is here and will soon hit your doorstep. Yes, spring weather is also here! Ok, we might get a snowflake or two before the spring equinox officially arrives on March 19th, but until then get out, stretch your legs, open your windows, and enjoy all that life has to offer in our fair city when the weather is nice.
Speaking of things to enjoy, our March/April 2024 issue is sprinkled with springtide. We revisit St. Louis City SC, our Major League Soccer expansion team is making its mark and bringing accolades to our the storied sports city of St. Louis. This history-making team made the playoffs in 2023 — the first time a new league team has accomplished this feat — and is drawing record numbers to its stadium. Our publisher, Craig Kaminer, follows up on his 2023 cover story with an in-depth story on the team and its investment in the future through our youth.
Editor-in-Chief, Christy Marshall also pens a story in our March/April issue on Ginny Bush’s Swiss wine club, Prost. Ginny has brought Swiss-made wine to St. Louis by creating a members-only club to make Swiss wine accessible here. Read about this how her labor of love fine wines sprung from the place she and her husband wed, to now gracing the tables of others who love rare wines in St. Louis and the States.
We’ve got a plethora of stories to put spring in your step and get your spring off to a sunny start. Click the link above to peruse the digital copy of the magazine, until your copy arrives at your home, or you pick one up from one of our amazing advertisers. Here are a few excerpts to tide you over and quench your thirst for the season at hand.
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect
Mini-Pitches Are Bigger Than Soccer
by Craig Kaminer
Excerpt:
For anyone who wondered if soccer would take off in St. Louis, the proof is in the numbers. Every home game sold out in the first year and St. Louisans have caught on quickly. Just follow the crowd, inside or outside the stadium, and you’ll feel the electricity. Don’t plan on sitting; most fans stand the whole game!
But the team and its ownership aren’t resting on their laurels after a successful first year in terms of its winning season, the first time for a new team to make the playoffs, and a record number of fans. CITY SC is doubling down on its commitment to soccer in St. Louis and have announced plans to partner with American Family Insurance, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and Musco Lighting (the club’s stadium lighting partner and creator of the Mini-Pitch System™) to install 11 mini-pitches across the region to provide safe places for kids to learn and play soccer.
Prost.
U.S.: Cheers. French: Santé; German: Prost
Swiss winemakers produce approximately 26 million barrels annually but export less than 2 percent. Until now, it couldn’t be bought in St. Louis.
By Christy Marshall / Photography by Carmen Troesser
Excerpt:
Virginia (known by all as Ginny) Busch started traveling to Lucerne, Switzerland when she was a child. Her grandfather, August Busch Jr., had met his third wife, Trudy Buholzer, there while dining at the Buholzer’s family restaurant, The Old Swiss House. Ginny’s father, August Busch III, then CEO of Anheuser-Busch, had become fast friends with Trudy’s brother and proprietor of the restaurant, Willie.
She founded Prost, a members-only club. By joining, a member then has access to purchase the featured Swiss wines.
“The membership is a way to not just create a community, but to regulate the number of bottles that a member can buy so that the wine is accessible to many,” Ginny says.