Asador Del Sur (7322 Manchester), a beloved South American-themed restaurant in Maplewood, suffered a major fire late Saturday night that damaged both the first and second floors. No injuries were reported.
Maplewood fire chief Peter Marsac reported on social media that the first arriving units encountered heavy fire and smoke and called a second alarm. Units from Richmond Heights, Clayton, Brentwood, Webster Groves, University City, Shrewsbury, and Rock Hill responded. Marsac reported that while performing fire control and primary search, a portion of the second floor collapsed through to the first floor. All firefighters were ordered to evacuate the building and did so without incident.
40 South News reports that “firefighters arrived as flames erupted from the kitchen in the back of the building and soon the kitchen exhaust fan caught fire.” Fire personnel were able to keep the fire contained to the subject building, preventing the spread to adjoining structures, including True Value Hardware to the east.
St. Louis First Responder Canteen, a volunteer nonprofit that assists fire, police, and EMS with food, drinks, and care at local emergencies, reports that the restaurant was a total loss.
Reached Monday afternoon, building owner Rob Birenbaum told SLM, “We are in for a long, hard slog, with insurance companies and contractors as we remediate and reconstruct the building. I am confident that if we take it step by step and keep pushing, we’ll eventually come out the other side. And I hope Asador Del Sur is there to resurrect their restaurant.”
The Backstory
Maria Giamportone and Daniel Gonzalez met in the U.S., got married, started a commercial cleaning business in Miami, and then got the itch to open a restaurant together. Relatives convinced them that St. Louis was the ideal spot for what they were planning: a grill featuring the foods of their respective homelands, Ecuador and Uruguay. The result was Asador del Sur in Maplewood.
The restaurant has received both popular and critical acclaim, and to this day, it’s still being hailed as “a hidden gem”—though hiding in plain sight, along Maplewood’s main drag. The restaurant is situated on two levels and has a cozy alleyway patio, which is truly hidden. Asador del Sur was open for lunch, dinner, happy hour, and on Sundays.
In a review, SLM dining critic Dave Lowry noted that the meat has an Argentinean influence, “the grilling of Argentinean gauchos, the pitmasters of South America with the same ethos as their Texas counterparts.” Traditionally, the only seasoning is sal parrillera, a fairly coarse-grained salt that adheres to the meat as it grills. Gonzalez says, “In Uruguay, we tend to use the same salt, but every grillmaster has his own method for salting what he cooks.”
Beef specialties include a 16-ounce ribeye, as well as short ribs (tira de asado) cut across the bone similar to Korean-style ribs, but the showstopper is a more modest cut. In the dining review, Lowry wrote, “The skirt steak at Asador del Sur is the best piece of beef in town.”
Other signature items include Mediterranean red prawns (carabineros), grilled with lemon, garlic, parsley, and coarse salt, presented simply. “They’re a delicacy in Europe. Unfortunately, my husband and I are addicted to them,” Giamportone previously told SLM. “The high salt level in that sea gives them a flavor like nothing else in the shrimp family.”
South African Grilled Tiger Langoustines are served with chimichurri sauce. “Some people think it’s just for meat, but anything that goes on a grill goes with chimichurri,” Gonzalez explained. “It’s a go-to condiment in Uruguay, like sriracha, A-1, or ranch dressing is here.” Gonzalez, a confirmed carnivore, also has a weakness for his wife’s lobster bisque. “We travel a lot and eat a lot of lobster bisque,” he said, “but I can honestly say that Maria’s is the best I’ve ever had. It’s made with rice flour, so it’s never thick or pasty.”
While the owners hail from Ecuador and Uruguay, several other regional cuisines are represented in the broad menu, including lomo saltado (a Peruvian staple), hayaca (a traditional Venezuelan dish similar to a tamale), and eight types of empanadas.
In a prior interview, Gonzalez told SLM, “We feel that the dishes themselves, like the carabineros and the rellenos, and the way our meats are cut and prepared, will make us unique. People have reported back to me after eating meat all across the world and tell me, ‘Yours is better.’”
On Monday, Birenbaum said it was the genuine, engaging personalities of Giamportone and Gonzalez, as well as their commitment to bring something unique to St. Louis, that first won him over before the restaurant opened in his building. “They opened in late summer of 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, with curbside pickup only,” he recalls, “not the best way to introduce your cuisine to the market. But they persevered and were just about to celebrate their fifth year in business on September 14, a mark in time that many restaurants don’t achieve.”
SLM will report back on the future of Asador Del Sur as more details become available.
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