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Pedicure chairs lined up at the new Red Lotus Spa & Bistro in Rock Hill.
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The spa meets the bistro
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Spring roll in one hand, wine in the other, in the pedicure chair
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The classic spring roll with its gummy rice paper bulging with shrimp, noodles and fresh herbs, and a plum-peanut dipping sauce
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The classic Banh Mi sandwich, with herbs and veggies peeking out from crusty French bread
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Buttermilk-fried shrimp emerges with a light and crispy batter, and is served with a buttermilk-mayo dipping sauce.
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Owner Dee Dee Tran making cocktails at Red Lotus
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Hair extensions, waiting for heads
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Tran demonstrates the use of a hair extension
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Kids are curious about the hair extensions -- maybe too curious
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The business, with new signage (and on the door, old signage)
There is now a place in St. Louis where you can eat chicken wings while a salon beautician gives you a pedicure.
You can, if you choose, put a spring roll in your face with one hand while the other receives a fawning manicure, complete with sparkly nail designs.
You might even be fitted for a hair extension at the very same moment you are inhaling the final meatball from your Vietnamese phỏ noodle soup.
This magical marketplace of multitasking is the newly opened Red Lotus Spa & Bistro in Rock Hill. Many will recall its predecessor, Mi Linh, which drew raves for its butter-garlic chicken wings, noodle soups and other Vietnamese dishes. Red Lotus has streamlined the menu and turned about a third of the floor space into a fully functional nail salon.
Walking into the space, you can bear left for the restaurant and bar, or bear right for the salon/restaurant.
If you head to right to get pretty, Red Lotus owner Dee Dee Tran has a few recommendations to integrate the salon and dining experiences.
If you’re getting a mani-pedi (a word now recognized by the Oxford English dictionary, btw), Tran recommends starting with the pedicure so you can have both hands free for serious eating. Then you can dig into something like the Dac Biet Bun (below), a noodle salad of vermicelli, sliced crispy eggroll, grilled pork and shrimp, fried onions, sautéed green onions, roasted peanuts, pickled carrots and daikons, and shredded lettuce. You pour the vinegar-forward house-made fish sauce over it all and toss. It’s a crunchy, everything-but-the-kitchen sink salad that’s warm and satisfying.
You know what else is warm and satisfying? The bubble bath in which your feet are soaking. Tran can turn on a purple disco light in the bath, too. Ask for it, you won’t be sorry.
Another two-hander is the celebrated Vietnamese phỏ noodle soup, a rich beef broth redolent of mint and other spices with a good pound of noodles waiting to be slurped at the bottom of the big bowl. The surfeit of garnishes – lime wedges, jalapeno slices, fresh mint and cilantro, bean sprouts, etc. – may be added at your discretion. It’s a swell winter-fighter.
“It’s a lot of work to make the phỏ,” said Tran. “It takes a whole day to make the broth, but the customers demanded we keep it on the menu.”
If you’re getting a manicure, said Tran, the staff will work on your hands one at a time. That leaves a free hand to eat any number of finger foods.
Consider the classic spring roll with its gummy rice paper bulging with shrimp, noodles and fresh herbs, and the plum-peanut dipping sauce. Fried butter garlic chicken wings turned the heads of this town’s food writers when served under the Mi Linh aegis. They’re heavily battered, crispy, juicy and buttery, and served with a spicy sweet-and-sour dipping sauce. (Your free hand may get sticky and require a bit of a pre-wash before it’s manicured.)
Buttermilk-fried shrimp emerges with a light and crispy batter, and is served with a buttermilk-mayo dipping sauce. With its crusty French bread, the classic Banh Mi is infamous for leaving crumbs all over tables, chairs and floors. Still, you can eat this sandwich of pickled carrots and daikons, cucumbers, cilantro, soy sauce, mayo, house-made Asian egg-butter and your choice of meats one-handed.
Festive, original cocktails include the Red Lotus (house-infused lychee vodka, Aperol and cranberry juice), the Jasmine Martini (made with barrel-aged gin with herbal and orange notes) and the Pacific Plum Fizz (damson-plum gin, green tea, citrus and soda).
With its mani-pedis, shoulder massages, chair massages, cocktails and menu of ethnic delicacies, the Red Lotus experience sounds truly decadent, and that’s Tran’s vision.
“I have been to salons where you can get a drink,” she said, “but never a place where you can get all three: mani-pedis, a full bar, and a full restaurant.”
Which brings us to the questions you might be asking: Does this all pass muster with the health department, and does the smell of chemicals overwhelm the smell of beef broth?
Red Lotus passed every health-code inspection, said Tran. The kitchen is completely separate from the spa area.
“A lot of people have asked ‘what about the smell?’” said Tran. “I’m not using any acrylics or chemicals that would make a chemical smell. We’ve thought of that.”
Tran, who also owns nearby Jasmine Spa in Brentwood, also emphasized that Red Lotus is available for birthday and ladies’ group parties, too.
So what’s your fantasy combo business? A bowling alley and barbecue shack? A fireworks stand that offers day-care? How about a medical-marijuana dispensary and cat-adoption center?
We can dream, but Tran’s dream is already here in the real world, on Manchester Road in Rock Hill. Voluptuaries are welcome to check out Red Lotus’ mortal blandishments in three areas: the hands, the feet and the tongue.
Red Lotus Spa & Bistro
9737 Manchester
314-918-8868
Sun –Thu: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Fri – Sat: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
Tue: Closed
