Joe Pollack has been writing about food and wine for 35 years, as the restaurant and wine writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for 23 years, and as the author of five books on St. Louis restaurants. More recently, he and his wife, Ann Lemons Pollack, are running a popular food-wine-travel blog.

A native of Brooklyn, NY, Pollack came to the Midwest to study journalism at the University of Missouri, graduating in January, 1952, with a B.J. degree and a 1-A standing from his draft board. Before the Army took him, he was a sports writer for the Jackson (Miss.) Daily News (MS), one of many news organizations that folded after he left. In the Army, Pollack was the managing editor of the Fort Lee Traveller (VA), spelled the same way as Gen. Robert E. Lee’s horse.

Returning to college after military service, Pollack was sports editor of the Columbia Missourian (MO), the daily newspaper produced by the school of journalism, and worked on a still-unfinished master’s degree. He moved to St. Louis in February, 1955, as a sports writer for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, became the public relations director for the St. Louis Football Cardinals in 1961 and moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1972 as film and theater critic. He added restaurant and wine portfolios a few months later. He retired in 1995.

Since his retirement, Pollack has been film and theater critic for KWMU, the local NPR station, and contributor to a number of local and regional magazines. He and Lemons married in 1994 and have collaborated on three books, "Beyond Toasted Ravioli," "Beyond Gooey Butter Cake" and "The Great St. Louis Eats Book." His other claim to fame is that he is the only person with active membership in both the American Theatre Critics Assn. and the Pro Football Writers Assn.

For Appellation America, Joe reports on the wine industries in Missouri and Iowa.