Last weekend, I gathered up the many scraps of paper blowing around the back seat of my car. Here is the sum total:
OPENINGS:
Sweetie Pie's (3801 Nameoki Rd): Robbie Montgomery quietly opened her third location on July 10--or so she thought. The new location in Granite City (a former Krieger's) has reportedly been going gangbusters ever since. Her other long-in-the-works location in Grand Center across from Powell Hall (Feast caught wind of it way back in March) is now back on the front burner.
Pi Squared (10012 Manchester): The second location for the now internationally-renowned pizza restaurant Pi, is slated to open on 9/9/09 (which is roughly the mathmatical constant, pi, squared). Owner Chris Sommers has his construction crew working 7 days a week in an earnest attempt to make that happen. If you remember, the flagship Pi opened last year cleverly on "pi day," 3/14. OK, so if the third location will be called Pi Cubed, it should open on the...let me see...um, uh, carry the one...
April Seager at Sauce Magazine reported over the weekend here that Pi's owner, Chris Sommers, has begun Phase 1 of a presence in the CWE and will open a LEED-certified bar this coming November in the former Posh at 408 N. Euclid. The above-referenced third Pi pizza location may not be far behind.
MOVING:
Mai Lee Restaurant, at 8440 Delmar for umpteen years, will relocate by next February to one of the city's most heavily traveled areas, the Eager/Hanley/Highway 40 complex, specifically into the space just under the MetroLink park 'n ride lot on W. Dale Ave (aka "The Dale Avenue Extension"), just west of Hanley Road. Owner Qui Tran says the new digs will have double the seats, plus a bar and a patio. Looks like a shrewd move...MetroLink provides loads of foot traffic, and until the highway opens back up, auto traffic is being diverted right past Qui's new front door. I say get a "Mai Lee, Opening in February" banner up right now to take advantage of the 200 billion or so cars that will probably pass by between now and then.
CLOSED (FOR NOW) AND GET WELL SOON:
The sign on Babalu's Snack Shack at the Kirkwood Farmers' Market says "Closed for the Season." The news is spotty but it's rumored that owner Dana Holland is ill. How ironic that business at "The Shack" has never been better. More ironic still, I just did a Q&A with him...it appears in this month's SLM. Read it here and say a prayer for Dana. -- George Mahe
