Courtesy of Lauren Adler
St. Louis didn't have a poke restaurant when Lauren Adler, a former brewery sales representative, first applied to be a part of the LemonShark Poke franchise. She'd seen restaurants like it while visiting California and wanted to bring the dish back home.
"I thought, 'OK, if I don't hop on this, someone else will. Or years down the road, I'll think I should have got poke in St. Louis when I had the chance,'" she says. "If we could have started on time, we may have been the first one in St. Louis. But it's been really cool to see the others pop up and get people excited about the cuisine."
Her franchise location, the first in Missouri, opened in the Ceylon building in Clayton (33 N. Central) on July 24.
As she explains to new customers, poke is a Hawaiian dish that means "to cut." Essentially, she offers, it's deconstructed sushi in a bowl.
Courtesy of Lauren Adler
The franchise, which offers sleek, modern interiors, is so named because lemon sharks have particular diets. "Only the finest foods," Adler says. "They don't eat just anything in front of their face, and they're also one of the only sharks that travel in groups, so it's about coming together and a sense of community." The interior design follows suit, with community tables and a long counter.
Courtesy of Lauren Adler
The menu, which includes a brand of natural fountain sodas called Stubborn (PepsiCo's line of craft sodas) is filled with both poke and poke-style dishes and offers diners a build-your-own option with four bowl sizes. Adler likens the restaurant's fast-casual style to Chipotle.
"Build-your-own is the most popular poke choice. You start with a base, then pick your toppings, and so forth," she says. Start with a sushi rice base, the eatery's most popular choice. Choose spicy tuna or regular ahi tuna. Next, top your bowl with edamame or cucumbers. Want a sweet mix? Add pieces of mango and pineapple. Mix sauces like the spicy mayo and the eel sauce, which give "a little bit of heat and a little bit of sweet," Adler says. Finally, add some crispy onion or crispy garlic as a crunchy garnish.
Of the signature creations, the most popular picks are the aloha tuna bowl and the Maui Heat Wave.
Though open for just two weeks, the restaurant already has regulars. "I think that's the most satisfying part of it," Adler says. "Seeing people try poke who've maybe never had it or heard of it before. Then they end up coming back multiple times—maybe twice a day."
Lunch is typically the busiest time, although the restaurant is open until 8 p.m. during week days and 9 p.m. Friday and Saturdays.
Adler plans to offer beer, wine, and sake within the next three weeks, after the restaurant receives all of the required liquor licenses. "We plan on having a serve-yourself beer wall that's activated by a fob," she says. "People can pour for themselves out of our six craft beer options."
