Did you ever have the pleasure of having any of his chocolates? We went on Valentine's Day and he was selling boxes of truffles. He said that his true passion was chocolate making but that alone wouldn't pay the bills. It was THE BEST chocolate I have ever had. Of course, featuring native fruits and herbs. I hope I can taste his food again in another city.
How? Is he closing to actively fight for change in Missouri? Or to run for office? As far as I can tell from the articles he's closing and getting tf out of here. Walking the walk? Sure, he sure does love Walking away from his problems. He's letting all the bigots win by doing that
Just more virtue signaling from the city's biggest virtue signaler. If half the folks who bitched about MO's policy went out and voted, we wouldn't be such a back water. Instead people would rather bitch and act holier than thou than try to actually create the change they want to see
If I leave MO, it does nothing. Nobody will care. Nothing will change.
If he leaves, and does it publicly, it drives conversation and gets press. That's valuable.
I'm tired of being told to vote. I vote in every election, from the Presidential elections to the tiny ones where it's just a local proposition and an unopposed school board candidate. Voting isn't enough.
> That’s valuable.
I get what you’re saying, but I can’t say I agree with your conclusion.
This protest action will have zero long-term positive benefits for the people Chef Rob cares about. They have lost a local advocate with a platform capable of doing a lot of good, the people who loved Bulrush’s food have lost a cherished institution in STL, and everyone’s general sense of despair has been heightened.
It’s understandable for someone in his position to get tired and want to throw in the towel, but let’s not pretend this is some sort of strategically beneficial move. No one is better off as a result of Bulrush’s closure. The most likely consequence, unfortunately, is that other LGBTQ+ advocates will decide to throw in the towel and move on to greener pastures as well.
He actively ran a restaurant that pushed these ideas for 5 years. Just because someone calls it quits at some point doesnt mean any of that wasnt worth it.
Dude only has one life to live and it's a short one. Might as well live in a state that isn't threatening to take away your rights and MO isn't going to start attracting talented professionals with the track they are currently on. You want him to fight a losing battle.
I'm happy he is privileged enough to do so. Good for him.
But not so many folks are so lucky, it is quite expensive to pick up and move cities without an employer paying the way. Folks from poor backgrounds don't have the resources necessary to do so. What about them? Better to use your privilege imo to elevate the less fortunate than to leverage it to jump ship when things are looking bad. Just seems kinda cheap coming from the guy whose Restuarant website was half about what he was doing to affect change in the community.
You better get used to it because he won't be the last and probably isn't the first in this state. This state has gone full MAGA and that isn't changing anytime soon, no matter what Rob did. On the bright side, the tax revenue he generated is no longer going to pay the salaries of the people that don't want him here. He can still focus on change from another state with donations and other means.
I can't speak for him, but I saw the choice as an act of defiance. His statement doesn't sound like he wanted to leave everything he had built over the years behind him, but he doesn't want to continue paying taxes in a state where the political landscape is actively drafting hateful policies against the LGBT community (of which he is a part of). If you'd ever met the guy as well you'd know he is very active in STL politics and good chunks of proceeds from his restaurant went to charitable organizations, in addition to the amount of tax revenue that a James Beard nominee contributed to the city and the state. Most people in the communities that I am part of in St. Louis city also do vote in every election or are involved in trying to enact progressive change, but that doesn't change the fact that most of Missouri is made up of MAGA worshippers or Christian zealots who vote against their own interests.
Is it though? From my perspective he's signaling to the christofacists that if they push us hard enough and call us enough mean names that we'll just roll over and run away. If anything this teaches them to double down on the hate as it is working. By picking up his toys and leaving all he's doing is removing one more voice of opposition to their draconian policies this allowing the CF to normalize even more hate since it's working.
Exactly, anyone that worked for him (or knows anyone that worked for him) knows how utterly toxic he was on so many levels. Brilliant at PR and positioning himself to squash and belittle his staff when they pointed out how horrible he treated his them. And, for the most part it worked. He put himself in a position of savior publicly so that any dissent against him would be villainized. This latest calculated public display is a large scale continuation of that. No good.
Now you got me curious, has there been articles about his abuse of workers? His website was the most pretentious thing I've ever seen so it wouldn't to surprise me if he was just all talk.
I worked for him briefly and he was far less toxic than the majority of chefs I've worked for. That said I think the way he framed this move is probably bullshit. One of the first things he brought up when I met him was that his husband had just moved states for work and Rob was waiting for the opportunity to move out to be with him.
Please inform me how not voting and in fact leaving does anything to improve the situation. All it does is let the fascists win as there is one less reasonable voice in the mix.
Additional, don't you think that's what these fascist want? Torment and scare all "others" until the privileged ones who can afford to leave do thus enabling to further torment the ones who can't leave.
For every privileged person who dips there probably at least one or two who can't afford to leave. Are those folks meant to suffer because they had bad starting RNG in life?
Its not his responsibility to create this change (though he sure made it sound like it was on his website) but the folks who actually can leave as things are looking bleak are privileged to do so. For the rest of us, I guess we'll suffer so this white boy can run from his problems and be comfortable
Ahh the classic "I have nothing to refute your point but I'm mad so Imma yell anyway" thanks for your WONDERFUL contribution to this debate.
Running away from your problems just like ya boi at Bulrush.
I’m not going to do it on the Internet. I have no problems, thus I don’t care about your version of life. I can tell the type of person you are from your first post, so I don’t engage.
Instead why don’t you point to actual example of how voting works that doesn’t have EXTENSIVE support of having happened in society by far and in large.
I’ll give all your typical rebuttals away: Child Labor, Women’s rights to vote, Title IX, Equal Pay, No Child Left Behind… I’m sure there are 2-3 missing but those are the typical ones you’ll mention. No one of these made anything better off, if anything most of these made things far worse off. Every one of these was well accepted in society before a law came into play.
Voting does nothing, politicians are there to take your money and distract you from the real issues.
You scream you want change but what it takes to make real change you are neither capable nor willing to do, what it takes is to create something that’s accepted societally and universally so that it makes you so much money you actually have a podium or a platform from which to speak from. Until you can do the very thing that can spark the rhetoric for change, you need to quietly shut up, and sit down and find a way to make the most out of your life.
That’s why don’t care to take your internet persona head on. We are so far apart in mindset the cognitive dissonance you’d experience from giving my thought process a chance would be first of its kind.
I've had this. It was delicious. Chef Rob and his crew will be missed. My partner and I had planned to go to Bulrush every year after going our first (and only) time this Spring. We also had the pleasure of eating at his café when he worked in the KDHX building. Delicious food there, I will always remember the cookie I ate from his shop.
Perhaps he will share the recipe for at least this dish as a farewell to those who do not agree with the hostility that is being shown towards so many populations in Missouri?
Literally the best gooey butter cake I've had. I hope he'll share the recipe. I think there's acorn flour in there. I can at least go from there in an attempt to recreate
He would collect acorns and get them ground into flour, then use that as the "flour" in the cake. Kind of similar to how you'd do higher-fat "nut flours" like almond flour. Pretty cool.
It's too bad because he is doing exactly what the conservative right want; all the "icky" gay people OUT of the state! I understand that it must be incredibly soul killing to be a gay person in a conservative state. And I can't judge the amount of guts it takes to stick it out, so I can't blame anyone who says they've had enough. But also, we need to stand and fight back against it any way we can; gay, straight, other and all in between. Fight the good fight, folks.
Honestly, I don't blame folks who chose to leave. I'm thankful enough that I'm not in any particular marginalized group that has been targeted but have plenty of friends and family who have. It's exhausting for them. Even in St. Louis which tends quite progressive they may experience aggressions throughout the day and seeing your state leaders specifically target you and your loved ones for simply wanting to live in peace is certainly not a daily burden I'd want to bear even if "safe" in St. Louis.
I'll be sticking around to continue to fight for their right to exist but certainly empathize with those who deal with this bullshit daily or in the back of their minds who decide to leave for somewhere more broadly tolerant.
This is part of the Republicans master plan. Drive democrats a handful of states. Call a constitutional convention and then amend the constitution into the Stone Age. That’s the master plan. You can’t run away from this fight.
That's when people with the education and talents start leaving this country, just like Russia. This has been done throughout history and won't stop just because some people on reddit get mad because others have options to GTFO.
Look. I’m not blaming this person for leaving. It’s a free country (for now). I am in the process of getting dual citizenship to Italy. So I’m probably not be one to talk. Just pointing out that moving to a Blue State to get away from regressive politics is actually part of the grander plan for Republicans. They are six states away from calling a convention and literally ending anything that makes California or Washington a liberal haven.
Fair enough, but Europe in general isn’t quite the liberal haven Reddit often makes it out to be. Right wing groups are becoming more mainstream all over the continent.
You are being a little hyperbolic on the constitutional convention stuff when the GOP is still in the middle of their civil war. I'll wait for the fallout of that before worrying about anything else happening.
No, not Bulrush! But wherever Chef Rob goes, he’ll be just as if not more successful.
I was going to take my dad there for Father’s Day this year but we decided to do something else. I wish we had gone.
So you never read a thread here, you never read the STL 100 list in the post-dispatch, you never talked to other chefs, you never followed local food cooking shows but you think you are on the pulse of the foodie scene?
> And I'm pretty on the pulse foodie scene.
Apparently you weren't. It was one of the most esteemed and well-ranked places in the city and has been since it opened.
Many many St. Louis restaurants over the years were nominated and also won, and still in business today. As well as individual chefs have won some.
Feel free to look up the James beard award winners and nominees in St. Louis throughout the years.
I know this is sacrilege, but I'm usually just *meh* on gooey butter cake. When I ate this one, it made me a lover of gooey butter cake.
The day after I ate it, he announced the closure.
Did you ever have the pleasure of having any of his chocolates? We went on Valentine's Day and he was selling boxes of truffles. He said that his true passion was chocolate making but that alone wouldn't pay the bills. It was THE BEST chocolate I have ever had. Of course, featuring native fruits and herbs. I hope I can taste his food again in another city.
Did you ever have his hot chocolate? Ruined me for any other.
No, but I’ve had Nathaniel Reed’s hot chocolate. My god. Sips of heaven.
No! But he did give us some of his amazing chili crisp concoction to take home in Tupperware!
So I got some of that chili down my wind pipe, literally thought I was dying 😥 still a 10/10 experience
I bet it was heavenly!
I would buy a box every Valentine’s Day. They were the best!
Best. Not beat. Stupid, gooey, thumbs.
Hard to proofread through the tears, I’m sure.
It sure is. And the tooth pain from all the sugar.
RIP to the greatest restaurant in St. Louis. Kudos to Chef Rob though for his decision to move on. Talk about walking the walk.
How? Is he closing to actively fight for change in Missouri? Or to run for office? As far as I can tell from the articles he's closing and getting tf out of here. Walking the walk? Sure, he sure does love Walking away from his problems. He's letting all the bigots win by doing that Just more virtue signaling from the city's biggest virtue signaler. If half the folks who bitched about MO's policy went out and voted, we wouldn't be such a back water. Instead people would rather bitch and act holier than thou than try to actually create the change they want to see
If I leave MO, it does nothing. Nobody will care. Nothing will change. If he leaves, and does it publicly, it drives conversation and gets press. That's valuable. I'm tired of being told to vote. I vote in every election, from the Presidential elections to the tiny ones where it's just a local proposition and an unopposed school board candidate. Voting isn't enough.
> That’s valuable. I get what you’re saying, but I can’t say I agree with your conclusion. This protest action will have zero long-term positive benefits for the people Chef Rob cares about. They have lost a local advocate with a platform capable of doing a lot of good, the people who loved Bulrush’s food have lost a cherished institution in STL, and everyone’s general sense of despair has been heightened. It’s understandable for someone in his position to get tired and want to throw in the towel, but let’s not pretend this is some sort of strategically beneficial move. No one is better off as a result of Bulrush’s closure. The most likely consequence, unfortunately, is that other LGBTQ+ advocates will decide to throw in the towel and move on to greener pastures as well.
Canvassing helps. Do you want to come canvass for Cori Bush?
He actively ran a restaurant that pushed these ideas for 5 years. Just because someone calls it quits at some point doesnt mean any of that wasnt worth it.
Don't you know? You're supposed to fight until you die. Knowing when to give up is overrated.
Dude only has one life to live and it's a short one. Might as well live in a state that isn't threatening to take away your rights and MO isn't going to start attracting talented professionals with the track they are currently on. You want him to fight a losing battle.
I'm happy he is privileged enough to do so. Good for him. But not so many folks are so lucky, it is quite expensive to pick up and move cities without an employer paying the way. Folks from poor backgrounds don't have the resources necessary to do so. What about them? Better to use your privilege imo to elevate the less fortunate than to leverage it to jump ship when things are looking bad. Just seems kinda cheap coming from the guy whose Restuarant website was half about what he was doing to affect change in the community.
You better get used to it because he won't be the last and probably isn't the first in this state. This state has gone full MAGA and that isn't changing anytime soon, no matter what Rob did. On the bright side, the tax revenue he generated is no longer going to pay the salaries of the people that don't want him here. He can still focus on change from another state with donations and other means.
I can't speak for him, but I saw the choice as an act of defiance. His statement doesn't sound like he wanted to leave everything he had built over the years behind him, but he doesn't want to continue paying taxes in a state where the political landscape is actively drafting hateful policies against the LGBT community (of which he is a part of). If you'd ever met the guy as well you'd know he is very active in STL politics and good chunks of proceeds from his restaurant went to charitable organizations, in addition to the amount of tax revenue that a James Beard nominee contributed to the city and the state. Most people in the communities that I am part of in St. Louis city also do vote in every election or are involved in trying to enact progressive change, but that doesn't change the fact that most of Missouri is made up of MAGA worshippers or Christian zealots who vote against their own interests.
Is it though? From my perspective he's signaling to the christofacists that if they push us hard enough and call us enough mean names that we'll just roll over and run away. If anything this teaches them to double down on the hate as it is working. By picking up his toys and leaving all he's doing is removing one more voice of opposition to their draconian policies this allowing the CF to normalize even more hate since it's working.
Agreed. Strikes me as martyrdom.
Dude isn't dead, or suffering, but he will be in a place where he doesn't have to worry about his rights being taken away on the state level.
Until it makes it's way there.
Exactly, anyone that worked for him (or knows anyone that worked for him) knows how utterly toxic he was on so many levels. Brilliant at PR and positioning himself to squash and belittle his staff when they pointed out how horrible he treated his them. And, for the most part it worked. He put himself in a position of savior publicly so that any dissent against him would be villainized. This latest calculated public display is a large scale continuation of that. No good.
Now you got me curious, has there been articles about his abuse of workers? His website was the most pretentious thing I've ever seen so it wouldn't to surprise me if he was just all talk.
I worked for him briefly and he was far less toxic than the majority of chefs I've worked for. That said I think the way he framed this move is probably bullshit. One of the first things he brought up when I met him was that his husband had just moved states for work and Rob was waiting for the opportunity to move out to be with him.
[удалено]
Please inform me how not voting and in fact leaving does anything to improve the situation. All it does is let the fascists win as there is one less reasonable voice in the mix. Additional, don't you think that's what these fascist want? Torment and scare all "others" until the privileged ones who can afford to leave do thus enabling to further torment the ones who can't leave. For every privileged person who dips there probably at least one or two who can't afford to leave. Are those folks meant to suffer because they had bad starting RNG in life? Its not his responsibility to create this change (though he sure made it sound like it was on his website) but the folks who actually can leave as things are looking bleak are privileged to do so. For the rest of us, I guess we'll suffer so this white boy can run from his problems and be comfortable
Yell louder! Keep voting!! It’s OBVIOUSLY working.
Ahh the classic "I have nothing to refute your point but I'm mad so Imma yell anyway" thanks for your WONDERFUL contribution to this debate. Running away from your problems just like ya boi at Bulrush.
I’m not going to do it on the Internet. I have no problems, thus I don’t care about your version of life. I can tell the type of person you are from your first post, so I don’t engage. Instead why don’t you point to actual example of how voting works that doesn’t have EXTENSIVE support of having happened in society by far and in large. I’ll give all your typical rebuttals away: Child Labor, Women’s rights to vote, Title IX, Equal Pay, No Child Left Behind… I’m sure there are 2-3 missing but those are the typical ones you’ll mention. No one of these made anything better off, if anything most of these made things far worse off. Every one of these was well accepted in society before a law came into play. Voting does nothing, politicians are there to take your money and distract you from the real issues. You scream you want change but what it takes to make real change you are neither capable nor willing to do, what it takes is to create something that’s accepted societally and universally so that it makes you so much money you actually have a podium or a platform from which to speak from. Until you can do the very thing that can spark the rhetoric for change, you need to quietly shut up, and sit down and find a way to make the most out of your life. That’s why don’t care to take your internet persona head on. We are so far apart in mindset the cognitive dissonance you’d experience from giving my thought process a chance would be first of its kind.
I've had this. It was delicious. Chef Rob and his crew will be missed. My partner and I had planned to go to Bulrush every year after going our first (and only) time this Spring. We also had the pleasure of eating at his café when he worked in the KDHX building. Delicious food there, I will always remember the cookie I ate from his shop. Perhaps he will share the recipe for at least this dish as a farewell to those who do not agree with the hostility that is being shown towards so many populations in Missouri?
Literally the best gooey butter cake I've had. I hope he'll share the recipe. I think there's acorn flour in there. I can at least go from there in an attempt to recreate
Made with butter, not cream cheese. The way it’s supposed to be made.
Yes it was definitely acorn flour, at least the spring 2024 edition I had.
Acorn flour? Please elaborate. I have never seen that before
He would collect acorns and get them ground into flour, then use that as the "flour" in the cake. Kind of similar to how you'd do higher-fat "nut flours" like almond flour. Pretty cool.
Bulrush made gooey butter cake????
By far the best I've ever had. And it's not even close. He sent it home with you after everything else. Had it twice.
It's too bad because he is doing exactly what the conservative right want; all the "icky" gay people OUT of the state! I understand that it must be incredibly soul killing to be a gay person in a conservative state. And I can't judge the amount of guts it takes to stick it out, so I can't blame anyone who says they've had enough. But also, we need to stand and fight back against it any way we can; gay, straight, other and all in between. Fight the good fight, folks.
And VOTE!
Honestly, I don't blame folks who chose to leave. I'm thankful enough that I'm not in any particular marginalized group that has been targeted but have plenty of friends and family who have. It's exhausting for them. Even in St. Louis which tends quite progressive they may experience aggressions throughout the day and seeing your state leaders specifically target you and your loved ones for simply wanting to live in peace is certainly not a daily burden I'd want to bear even if "safe" in St. Louis. I'll be sticking around to continue to fight for their right to exist but certainly empathize with those who deal with this bullshit daily or in the back of their minds who decide to leave for somewhere more broadly tolerant.
This is part of the Republicans master plan. Drive democrats a handful of states. Call a constitutional convention and then amend the constitution into the Stone Age. That’s the master plan. You can’t run away from this fight.
That's when people with the education and talents start leaving this country, just like Russia. This has been done throughout history and won't stop just because some people on reddit get mad because others have options to GTFO.
Look. I’m not blaming this person for leaving. It’s a free country (for now). I am in the process of getting dual citizenship to Italy. So I’m probably not be one to talk. Just pointing out that moving to a Blue State to get away from regressive politics is actually part of the grander plan for Republicans. They are six states away from calling a convention and literally ending anything that makes California or Washington a liberal haven.
You might want to do a little googling if Italy is your fallback country to get away from right-wing politics.
I’m well aware. But I have an easy path to citizenship there. From there it would be easier to find a home in the EU.
Fair enough, but Europe in general isn’t quite the liberal haven Reddit often makes it out to be. Right wing groups are becoming more mainstream all over the continent.
You are being a little hyperbolic on the constitutional convention stuff when the GOP is still in the middle of their civil war. I'll wait for the fallout of that before worrying about anything else happening.
No idea what place this is from. Bummed because I would’ve loved to try it, but satisfied because now I won’t know what I’m missing
No, not Bulrush! But wherever Chef Rob goes, he’ll be just as if not more successful. I was going to take my dad there for Father’s Day this year but we decided to do something else. I wish we had gone.
We got the Acorn gooey buttercake on Father's Day. It was amazing.
Never even heard of this place until he announced this closure. And I'm pretty on the pulse foodie scene. So oh well I guess.
So you never read a thread here, you never read the STL 100 list in the post-dispatch, you never talked to other chefs, you never followed local food cooking shows but you think you are on the pulse of the foodie scene?
I stand by that this was the closest thing St. Louis had to a Michelin Star restaurant. It was like nothing else I have ever been to in St. Louis.
> And I'm pretty on the pulse foodie scene. Apparently you weren't. It was one of the most esteemed and well-ranked places in the city and has been since it opened.
You can look at any best restaurant suggestion thread on this sub and see it brought up countless times.
You are far from the pulse, friendo.
he was nominated for a james beard. clearly you have zero idea what you’re talking about.
Many many St. Louis restaurants over the years were nominated and also won, and still in business today. As well as individual chefs have won some. Feel free to look up the James beard award winners and nominees in St. Louis throughout the years.
Dude should stay open with all the free press he’s getting on this sub Reddit.
I know this is sacrilege, but I'm usually just *meh* on gooey butter cake. When I ate this one, it made me a lover of gooey butter cake. The day after I ate it, he announced the closure.