You might remember Old Town Donuts winning the best doughnut shop in America in June. After that victory, the once sleepy Florissant doughnut shop became a booming viral business with a line out the door day after day.
Owner Keith Took says that since the ranking came out he’s purchasing 30 percent more flour to make his doughnuts each day. His employees are working longer hours too—making more doughnuts.
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But while viral fame and an onslaught of customers can seem like a blessing, the overnight influx of business also brings a need to adapt. That’s something a different local eatery has seen while regularly racking up significant media attention since the early 2010s.
John Matthews, owner of Pappy’s Smokehouse, achieved his first accolade in 2009, when his restaurant was featured on the Travel Channel’s Man v. Food.
“I think that was the biggest pop we had, it was a huge national exposure,” Matthews says.
Since 2009, The Food Network crowned Pappy’s the best ribs in America, Southern Living proclaimed it the Best BBQ in Missouri, and Esquire named it one of “100 Restaurants America Can’t Afford to Lose.” Most recently, the Midtown restaurant was placed on Food & Wine’s list of “10 Restaurants Every Barbecue Lover Must Visit.”
And that attention has helped the barbecue business grow into a four-store, six-smoker venture with more than 60 employees. It’s quintupled the amount of meat it cooks each day, from 400–500 pounds, to nearly 2,500, all to satisfy the people flocking to Pappy’s parking lots from across the country.
“When it gets to summertime, it’s just so busy that we just go and go and go,” Matthews says. “You can walk through the parking lot and every third license plate is out of state, it’s pretty crazy.”
To manage the crowds and their expectations, Matthews employs the concept of “enlightened hospitality,” which he picked up reading Shake Shack owner (and St. Louis native) Danny Meyer’s book. Even when customers have to wait 45 minutes or more, Matthew says, “I try to make sure to do whatever it takes to make customers walk out and say, ‘You know what? I’m really glad I went there. That was such a cool experience.’”
Menya Rui can relate. The South City ramen shop was named the no. 2 restaurant in the nation on Yelp last year. The now three-year-old shop only has 24 seats and was used to a line out the door; after the ranking, the line snaked around the block.
“When the article first dropped, it was nuts for about a year,” says owner Steven Pursley.
The shop usually sells around 180 bowls of ramen a day, but after Yelp published its list, the shop peaked with 232 in just one day.
But with great lines come even greater expectations, Pursley explains.
“Every minute that they’re in line, that expectation ticks up higher and higher,” he says. “I see a line, and I’m very happy, but I see the person standing out on Hampton, that’s a block away from the restaurant, waiting to eat, and I feel the pressure, like, I got to get this person inside.”
So what’s the secret to managing a sudden spike in customers? All three restaurant owners lauded their staff in adapting to the increase in traffic, ensuring their business stayed alive and thriving.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to be pretty lucky to find the right people,” Old Town owner Took says. “We’ve had a lot of employees that have been with us for 10 years, 20 years. We even have one lady that has been with us 45 years. We depend on them to keep it going day after day.”
