Courtesy Goss'Up pasta
Chicken penne alfredo
Goss’Up Pasta will open a restaurant and event space in Pagedale’s new Carter Commons development later this month, with a launch event on July 31 from noon–3 p.m. The restaurant and catering service will take up residence in the food court alongside two other local purveyors, non-dairy cheese producer Three Vegan Brothers, as well as Healthy Habits, which offers smoothies, protein shakes, and salads.
“It’ll be a whole neighborhood thing,” says Goss’Up Pasta owner Qiuana “Queen” Chapple, who's also making plans for the 2,300 square-foot second-floor event space, including themed brunches on Saturdays and Chit-Chat Sundays featuring soul food classics.
Named after late Pagedale Mayor Mary Louise Carter, Carter Commons is the second phase of Beyond Housing’s development of Pagedale town center. Located at the corner of Page and Ferguson, the 18,000 square-foot, two-story commercial space is designed to accommodate a combination of community businesses, national retailers, and office tenants.
Photo by George Mahe
Courtesy Goss'Up Pasta
Cheesy pasta with vegetables
The menu at Goss’Up Pasta will include a curated selection of proven dishes. “What I've learned in the restaurant business is that people don’t want a large menu," says Chapple, who's been serving St. Louis customers for 25 years as a caterer. "They don't want all of those options.”
In addition to a selection of pastas, one of the signature items will be called A Mouthful of Goss’Up, a bread bowl filled with the pasta of the day, with the option of having it topped with cheese and baked.
The wings will have gossip-themed names—for example, Backstabber and Rumor—each of which provide clues about the spice level of the wings; the hotter the wing, the more incendiary the name.
The breakfast menu will feature the Mama’s Boy, which Chapple says is inspired by the kind of sandwiches that she served her three sons, "basically a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on Texas toast or a biscuit, with maybe some potatoes or grits or rice,” she says. Also expect to see chicken and waffles and a peach cobbler among the options. And the kids’ menu is designed to accommodate the pickiest of junior eaters, the importance of which Chapple says she knows all too well as a mother and grandmother.
Chapple brings years of experience to the venture. As a teenager, she was already an accomplished cook, prepping the food for family events. “My mom has 17 siblings, and it's a cooking family, so everybody cooks, and I picked up on the art,” she says. Chapple was barely 20 years old before launching her first business, Mostaccioli by Qiuana. “I started as a dorm-room entrepreneur,” Chapple says. “I obtained my ServSafe licenses. I began to cook and to sell individual plates, cater weddings, and all those good things.”
The catering business thrived, before Chapple rebranded as Goss’Up Pasta in 2012. (Her son came up with the name—Chapple loves to talk on the phone, she admits.) Over the past decade, Chapple has continued catering while making a series of moves into brick-and-mortar business. For a time, she leased kitchen space at Epic Sports Bar & Grill and II Bar & Restaurant in North County. Chapple then opened Goss’Up Pasta locations at Chesterfield Mall and later West County Center. Both restaurants closed in 2017, a year in which Chapple and her family suffered the loss of her father amid a series of challenges and traumas. She took a year off from catering to regroup and even considered leaving St. Louis before receiving Beyond Housing’s invitation to be part of Carter Commons.
As she looks ahead, Chapple is also mentoring four other food entrepreneurs, mothers between 18 and 25 years old. Chapple is supporting them as they develop their business ideas and navigate such startup tasks as establishing an LLC and opening bank accounts for the businesses. The four mentees will shadow her at Goss’Up Pasta for three months before venturing out on their own.
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