A conversation with St. Louis restaurant veterans Jodi Allen and Rodrigo Silva of Companion and Ladue Taco

Having worked side by side for the past few decades, Companion's co-owner, Jodi Allen, and its manager, Rodrigo Silva, were recently able to fulfill the latter’s dream of owning his own restaurant. The space in the alleyway behind Companion's café in Ladue was too small to be of much use, but it was the perfect size for Ladue Taco, a nighttime, pickup-only joint that serves eight kinds of tacos, various sides, and margaritas by the gallon.

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Read More: Ladue Taco opens on Clayton Road in Ladue

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Jodi, your family has a food service background.

Allen: My family founded and owned Allen Foods. My brother Josh and I were the fourth generation to get involved but didn’t stay involved. My cousin Andy [Bravo TV’s Andy Cohen] went off to New York, and my other cousin didn’t want to participate, so it was just me and Josh, for a time. I worked my way up from customer service to street sales, which I loved, and later became a district sales manager, working a desk and managing 20 salespeople, which didn’t suit me. About that time, Josh returned from California, where he’d learned all about making sourdough bread, and decided to open Companion. He asked if I wanted to help him with it, and I did, helping him part-time at night. He and I are, and always have been, co-owners of the business.

Talk about the early days of Companion.

Allen: We started it in 1993 and in 2001 decided to open a café on a high-visibility corner in Clayton. Because I really liked cooking, talking about food, and being in front of people, we agreed that Josh would handle the wholesale end and me the café, which ended up being the ideal arrangement.

Would you ever return to Clayton or build a café elsewhere?

Allen: If we could buy that same building, we would consider it. If the conditions were right elsewhere—by which I mean located in a residential neighborhood with good foot traffic—we would probably consider that, too. [Laughs.] It got so confusing, though: The Clayton location was on Maryland Avenue, which becomes Ladue Road a block away. The Ladue location is on Clayton Road. And the Central West End location also had a Maryland address. It was all so bizarre.

Rodrigo, how did you end up in St. Louis?

Silva: I was born in Michoacán[, Mexico,]  and moved here in 2000 for the job opportunities. I worked at a Chinese restaurant before going to work at Maria & Sons, where we made a lot of raviolis. Companion is only the third job I ever had.

When did you become part of the Companion family?

Silva: I was working at Maria & Sons but was looking to make a change, and Jodi heard about it.

Allen: I had heard about this guy who has the potential to be something really special. At the time, he didn’t speak much English, and now look at him!

Silva: Jodi hired me for the Clayton store, and we opened Ladue together, where I worked my way up to kitchen manager.

Allen: Now he has his own little taco shop.

Did you ever consider doing something else?

Silva: I tried landscaping. I didn’t like it. I tried roofing, and that didn’t work for me at all. I loved cooking and was good at cooking, so that’s what I stayed with.

How about you, Jodi?

Allen: I didn’t go to school to get into foodservice. First, I majored in fashion merchandising. My dad suggested I do that for fun, as an elective, but get a business degree, which led me back to the family business. The fire within me ignited when I got into sales and servicing customers, which is pretty much the same thing I do now.

What time does your day start?

Allen: I get here between 3:30 and 4:30 a.m. to start on the morning catering. When the pandemic hit, catering was so slow that I took it on. Now it’s my third full-time job. I’m training people now and learning to let go, but it’s hard for me.

Do either of you take a day off?

Allen: Companion is open every day, so we have to. [Laughs.] We have scheduled days off, anyway. 

What percentage of Companion’s business comes from catering?

Allen: Pre-pandemic, it was 30 percent. When the pandemic hit, we never closed, but catering disappeared. I chose to stay open and gave the staff the option to stay home and I would hold their jobs or continue working. All 14 continued to work. They said, “If you’re staying, we’re staying.” We never closed and never lost one employee.

Silva: We kept the inside open as best we could, but once we figured out curbside, business exploded.

Allen: I asked the landlord if they’d dedicate two parking spaces for curbside pickup. He said since no other businesses were open in the center, and we could have all the spaces we wanted, which helped out a lot. There weren’t many other restaurants open, and people were so generous, so grateful that we remained open. Some thank us to this day. A lot of them have come into Ladue Taco to thank us again and congratulate Rodrigo for being able to fulfill the American dream. It makes me so happy for what we were able to accomplish.

How has Companion changed over the years, and what’s popular?

Allen: We started with about 20 sandwiches and salads, and that hasn’t changed. The most popular salad is the Picnic Basket, with baby spinach, chicken, bleu cheese, fresh strawberries, candied pecans, red onion, and our strawberry poppy vinaigrette. One of the more popular sandwiches is the Frenchie, which is turkey and Brie with sprouts and honey dijon on our Parisian bread. The sleeper is Back in the Saddle, sliced roast beef with horseradish mayo, cucumbers, and red onion on a pretzel baguette. It’s not a go-to until you try one. 

Who creates the new items, the new soups and the specials at Companion?

Silva: She and I talk all the time. We’ll discuss something new, I make it, and we taste it together.

Allen: Most of the soup ideas come from me. I love to read menus and cookbooks—that’s what I do. Then Rodrigo puts them together, and we experiment, we play.

Silva: A lot of the time it’s, 'How about if we put some of this in?' and go from there.

Talk about the soup program at Companion.

Allen: We serve four every day, and each is made from scratch the day before it’s featured. We must have 500 recipes, but the popular ones—like chicken noodle, tomato bisque, and clam chowder—reappear pretty often.

500 recipes?

Allen: And I came up with three new ones today. I spend a lot of time online and looking at cookbooks, gathering ideas for all sorts of menu items. Then Rodrigo tweaks them, and we see how they do. We’re both self-taught, so there’s no right or wrong way for us.

So what do you do if Tuesday’s Buffalo Chicken Chili doesn’t sell out that day?

Silva: We quart it up and sell it out of a cold case the next day for $12.95.

Allen: We offer a free baguette with it, so it’s probably a loss leader for us. We also sell quarts of that day’s soup to go—same price, same deal. Soup is an easy pickup and a great drop-off for someone who’s sick or needs a quick, hot meal.

Companion’s Ladue café is a juggernaut. It’s always busy. 

Allen: We created such a well-oiled machine. We have lines, but they move quickly. Last Friday [October 14], we set a record for transactions—more than 800. It was our best day ever. We shouldn’t do the numbers we do out of this size location, but we do.

Was the sweets program always as robust as it is today? Companion seems to sell a lot of cookies, pastries, and gooey butter cakes, all strategically located near the cash register.

Allen: It has grown over the years, and, yes, that placement helps. Some items we make in house, others—like the gooey butter cakes—get made in Maryland Heights, but we might top them here with something like homemade pumpkin pie filling.

Describe each other’s management style.

Silva: I would say she’s too nice.

Allen: I probably am, but that said, our turnover is close to zero, because I treat everyone like family. In all our years here, I’ve lost six people. Regarding Rodrigo, he takes ownership and pride. We’re both here all the time and we both work, hard. He’s always treated Companion like he owned the place, which means so much to me.

How did the Ladue Taco concept materialize?

Silva: I talked to Jodi for years about wanting to do my own place.

Allen: And I would always half-jokingly say, “You’re not leaving me.” But when the space opened up behind Companion and we knew it made no sense to expand there, Rodrigo and I thought, “Why not this place? Why not do this thing together?” And we made it happen.

There are eight taco options at Ladue Taco. Where did the recipes come from?

Silva: Some come from Michoacán, like the barbacoa. We marinate beef overnight with chile guajillo, garlic, vinegar, and spices. We use skirt steak for the carne asada, which gets marinated and cooked on the grill. Most of the others come from my head, like the mango salsa.

Allen: It goes on the breaded mahi mahi and the shrimp tacos. It’s wonderful.

The original menu at Ladue Taco was much broader than the present one. 

Silva: There were too many items for the size of the kitchen: burritos, quesadillas, fajitas, tortas... We had to cut back. It was too much.

Allen: The name is Ladue Taco, so we were fine with scaling back to simply that, a few sides, plus guac, queso, and chips that we fry here.

You serve tacos in both corn and flour taco shells. 

Allen: We did that because we know so many people like their tacos that way. What we didn’t anticipate is how many simple ground beef tacos we’d sell.

Silva: Most people prefer flour, but they will ask what I like. I tell them corn, and they usually get some of each.

What’s on the drink menu?

Silva: Mexican cerveza, Jarritos, Mexican Coke, margaritas…

Allen: Regular and spicy, both frozen and on the rocks. It blows my mind how many half gallons—and even gallons—that we sell. A few couples will order a gallon, sit outside, and take home what’s left. One nearby shop ordered food and four gallons for an inventory party. Can you imagine?

Are there any tweaks planned?

Silva: We’ll expand the menu a little at a time.

Allen: We already started that by running specials. The carne asada fries were a big hit, and Rodrigo makes some of the best ceviche I’ve ever tasted, for example. You can’t get that around here.

With the two restaurants being next door to each other, Ladue Taco really is a companion concept to Companion.

Allen: Companion closes at 3 p.m., and Ladue Taco opens at 4 p.m., so the two businesses can share patio seats and parking spaces. We’ll keep heaters on the patio for as long as it makes sense.

What’s the best way to place an order?

Allen: Order at the counter in person, where you watch everything being made. Or order online for self pickup or curbside pickup, and either park in front or right behind the shop in back, which is even closer. We would like to offer free delivery to the 63124 ZIP, but we haven’t pushed those buttons yet. I don’t think we could go any farther than Ladue.

Ladue Taco is located down an alleyway, and the sign is quite small. Has the lack of visibility presented a problem?

Allen: I don’t want this to come across as arrogance, but Companion has relied upon word of mouth—and now social media, which one of my employees handles—for years. So those customers became early Ladue Taco supporters, and they’ve been telling their friends.

Ladue Taco opened only a few weeks ago. Have you seen much return business?

Silva: Yes, sometimes in the same night.

There’s a very small, much more visible space in front of the building that prior tenants have utilized. Are there any plans for that?

Allen: It’s unattached to Ladue Taco, so it would be hard to use it directly. In the spring, we plan to open a walk-up window with margaritas, boozy sno cones—and non-boozy ones for the kids—along with simple snack food like chips and guac. If people want something more substantial, Ladue Taco is right around the corner. We created a little community gathering spot here, and we want to keep that going.

So, Rodrigo, are you happy so far?

Silva: I’m smiling every night.

Will there be more taco shops?

Silva: I hope so.

Allen: [Smiles.] But remember: No matter how many of these you do, you can’t leave Companion!