Whispers

ey, Super-size that Food (Bank) order!
Peggy Kirkpatrick, executive director of the Central Missouri Food Bank, is trying hard to hide her smile. This time of year always means lots of work with the possibility of a big payoff. After all, it’s time for the “Score Against Hunger” campaign, in which each donor pledges a chunk of change for every point University of Missouri-Columbia football coach Gary Pinkel’s Tigers score this football season. Co-chairs Kat Cunningham (MoreSource) and Steve Sowers (Commerce Bank) are working hard to drive up the 2007 season’s total. Unofficial, unreleased, unconfirmed reports show the team on track to set a new record for the hungry in Central Missouri. And if Pinkel’s players tally up as many points as I think they can … well, get ready for a heaping helping of funds for the Food Bank.

Little wonders at Lake of the Woods.
I wonder… Where’s the new hotel on the Southeast corner at Lake of the Woods exit off I-70? Ground was to be broken some time ago for a new overnighter on Bull Run Drive. Some have said it will be a Holiday Inn Express, but there has been very little express about it. Guess we can always shack up.
I wonder… How’s the first month been for Callaway Bank’s new branch at the L-of-the-W? I’m sure they’re enjoying that “new bank” smell as much as I like the smell of new money, and they’d better enjoy it while they can. Most other mid-Missouri banks also have highly refined talents for sniffing out potential customers.
And I wonder… What’s that smile I see on Ed Frank’s face? Apparently business is going very well at his Ashley Furniture HomeStore at Lake of the Woods. So well, in fact, that Ed and his gang have opened another home furnishings store, this one just down the road at the former Diamond Furniture location. Columbia Mattress and Discount Furniture also will allow owner Franks to showcase discontinued pieces, as well as new discount lines not available at his Ashley store.

Anybody home?
A few weeks ago we discussed Hy-Vee locating an additional store in the vacant Rock Bridge Shopping Center at Nifong and Providence. Good. Seems to me that the center has so many vacancies, including the back half facing Buttonwood Drive, that the Goodwill store is the busiest location in the entire development. Sure, the secondhand discounter has some fantastic stuff, but it seems strange to have so many holes in one of the busiest retail areas in Columbia.

Your (beer) tour of duty is op!
Old Chicago has sent out e-mail notices to its beer-drinking constituents notifying them of the impending doom of the sports bar/restaurant’s Columbia location. It seems after 11 years, the eatery’s lease has dried up, and so has its World Beer Tour. The digital message gave an official closing day, which coincides with the publication date of this column: 8/25/07. If you have completed the 110-beer tour (as I have), you’re invited to stop by and take your “completion name plate” home with you to cherish forever.

Switching to the competition
Jeremy Brown managed Cherry Street Artisan since it opened five years ago and sold the idea of using beans from Kaldi’s Coffee in St. Louis. Brown reportedly wanted to get a share of the business, but now he’ll be managing the Kaldi’s Coffee and sandwich shop that will soon open across the street at Ninth and Cherry in the Paramount Building.

So fire us
Glenn Strothman took offense at our description of him as a ‘Donald Trump wannabe,’ a reference to all the property he’s puchased in town. He pointed out that he’s invested money in restoring historic buildings, which wouldn’t follow the Trump Way to Wealth.