12 of our favorite St. Louis restaurant stories from 2021

Articles published by SLM’s dining team this year run the gamut, from impressive and inspiring to calamitous and coincidental.

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Looking back on January 2021, no one would have predicted the events and circumstances that local diners experienced this year. Dining critic Dave Lowry reflected on his favorite moments, while SLM dining editor George Mahe looked ahead. The following stories defined the past year and will influence the next. Here they are, in chronological order.  

Casa Don Alfonso and Tony’s open within one day of one another in Clayton

Two of the most visually striking restaurants opened in March just a day apart and about 100 yards from one another in Clayton. Since then, both Casa Don Alfonso and Tony’s have received frequent accolades (in June, a Forbes contributor wrote an article stating that “America’s Best New Italian Restaurant is in St. Louis") and represent a study in contrasting Italian food styles and ambience. They join The Capital Grille, 801 Fish, and 801 Chophouse in the same block of Carondelet Plaza. No area in the city can boast that kind of fine dining firepower within strolling distance.  

Soulcial Kitchen, a mobile cloud mission with a mission, launches in Metro East 

When this innovative concept was first announced by SLM, its many components made it difficult to digest. In short, the business model encompasses company-owned branded food trucks, a cloud kitchen, a business incubator, pay-it-forward meal tokens, and a converted DC-3 airplane on wheels called the Space Shuttle Café, which landed at the complex in Swansea, Illinois, just last week. Soulcial Kitchen also organized and now operates the first food truck apprenticeship program in the country. Regulated through the Department of Labor, the program provides training and hands-on experience for cooks who are looking to break into the food truck business.

Elmwood’s temporary (and masterful) pivot from finer dining restaurant to pizza joint

Give Elmwood owners Chris Kelling and Adam Altnether credit for one of the more creative—and as it turns out, permanent—pandemic pivots: the conversion of its popular finer dining restaurant, Elmwood, to a more casual temporary one, ElmwoodXPizza Champ. At first, the killer coal oven–fired pizzas were only available for pickup or delivery (often dropped off by Kelling himself). Later, Elmwood’s dining room acted as a placeholder space for Pizza Champ (a collaborative endeavor with Side Project Brewing), which was quietly taking shape in an unobtrisive building nearby. Located just across the street from Side Project’s brewery in Maplewood, the project is slated to open in February. As soon as Pizza Champ reaches its fighting weight, Elmwood will transition closer to its roots but offer a prix fixe, coursed menu.  

Brennan’s moves, reopens, experiences a devasting fire, and reopens again

When the Saint Louis Chess Club announced plans to expand into the space occupied by Brennan’s—the part bar, speakeasy, lounge, cigar club, event venue, co-working space, bottle shop, and pingpong emporium in the Central West End—entrepreneurial owner Kevin Brennan found a suitable location just around the corner. Forced into pause mode by a bizarre catastrophic fire on reopening day, Brennan was nonetheless able to create a doubly refined version of the beloved original. The new iteration opened without incident in late July. At right is a photo from opening night of the legendary blackboard known for its pithy sayings. 

The Food Hall opens at City Foundry STL

After five years of proposing, planning, polishing, and pivoting, the long- awaited Food Hall at City Foundry STL opened to the public in August, boasting 10 kitchens surrounding a hub bar operated by Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group. Three additional kitchens were subsequently added (Sureste, Chicken Scratch Rotisserie, and Intergalactic Burgers), and three more are slated for early 2022, including STL Toasted, the first local eatery to specialize in toasted ravioli.

Stone Soup Cottage reopens but announces a permanent closure

Riding the top of St. Louis' "best of" lists for a dozen years, Stone Soup Cottage set an ultra-high bar for food and hospitality, exemplified by its elegant tasting menu dinners served in a stunning pastoral setting. After pausing onsite dining for 13 months (but delivering the coursed dinners, complete with linens and candles), owners Carl and Nancy McConnell announced a brief comeback tour but also that the restaurant, in its current iteration, would serve its last guests in June 2022. “It doesn’t mean it’s the end of Stone Soup," Nancy told SLM in September. "It’s just the end of this chapter.”

Outpouring of support for chef Rich LoRusso

The St. Louis community was shocked and saddened to learn that Rich LoRusso, a truly beloved chef and owner of LoRusso’s Cucina, had been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of ALS, also called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after experiencing debilitating (and unexplained) symptoms for the past few years. A fundraiser, For The Love of The Chef, quickly sold out and far exceeded its financial goals. Fellow chefs were eager to help in any way they could, but many had to be turned away. A second fundraiser—a $500 per person chef’s dinner at Persimmon Woods Country Club—is being organized to further benefit Rich and his wife, Terri, and chefs are again lining up to lend their support. Additional information will be published when it is made available. 

BARcelona closes after 19 years but may live again

In February 2019, when BARcelona owner Frank Schmitz learned that the parcel of property in Clayton containing the restaurant was being sold, he attempted to relocate the 19-year-old tapas palace, but was unsuccessful. Schmitz was given notice to vacate and closed the doors in September. For years, BARcelona was the standard bearer for both street café and sidewalk dining in St. Louis. This week Schmitz reports that “there’s something in the works” and hopes to “reopen BARcelona in a new place in time for sidewalk patio season.”

Rockwell Beer Garden opens in Francis Park

This spring, when SLM announced that Rockwell Beer would open a pastoral beer garden inside a city park, one had to wonder why, in a city steeped in beer history, it had never been done before. With former Niche Food Group corporate executive chef Michael Petres spearheading the pizza-prominent food offerings, Rockwell Beer Garden quietly opened in Francis Park for a few months beginning in October and will reopen again in the spring. 

Tempus opens long-awaited dining room after a year of takeout service only

Last October, after months of delays and in the middle of a pandemic, Ben Grupe, renowned chef and owner of Tempus in The Grove, opened his much-ballyhooed restaurant the safest way that he saw fit: for takeout service only. In a February 2021 SLM feature on top-notch takeout, Tempus’ fare graced the cover. A few months later, SLM lauded the restaurant for the way its staff serviced its sidewalk patio patrons partaking of the cardboard-boxed-but-still-beautifully presented offerings. Tempus’ dining room finally opened in early November to no one’s disappointment. Although the restaurant officially opened last year, we’ll double up and call it one of 2021's standouts as well.  

Pi + Rico expands and succeeds

Situated in a tiny freestanding building at the corner of Manchester and Berry, Pi Pizzeria + ¡Rico! Mexican packed a lot of menu options—pizza, Mexican food, burgers, and a killer chicken sandwich—into a small package when it opened last October, mid-pandemic. When a larger restaurant and bar space became available a mile west, a move made sense. Chef Cary McDowell says, “We are now able to do what we did and more in a semi-turnkey, full-service spot that happens to have tons of parking, a big patio, and logical spots for curbside pickup.” Now open for just under two months, Pi + Rico recently opened for lunch, an indicator of the concept’s immediate acceptance by the neighborhood.

Susan Barrett buys Zoë Robinson’s three restaurants and plans to reopen all of them

The most asked dining question for the past year and a half—What will become of Zoë Robinson’s restaurants?—was answered in this mid-November article. The good news: Susan Barrett (a local art consultant, gallerist, and good friend of Robinson’s) purchased all three restaurants. More good news: A-still-to-be-named operator will reopen Bar Les Freres and I Fratellini almost simultaneously with only minor cosmetic changes early next year, and Billie-Jean will be reconcepted and open at a later date. Robinson would only tell SLM that said operator “doesn’t need my help at all—this person is that good.”

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