A fusion restaurant with a whimsical name recently opened in the Central West End. Saucy Porka (3900 Laclede), from siblings Amy and Phil Le, opened Monday in a window-filled space formerly occupied by Kaldi’s Coffee at the corner of Vandeventer and Laclede.
Amy can boast that she was employee No. 14 at burgeoning startup Grubhub, though her real passion is hands-on restaurant operations. Having launched a bahn mi food truck and co-created the Asian–Latin American mashup Saucy Porka in Chicago in 2013, she longed to introduce the concept to her hometown of St. Louis, partly to fulfill a dream of opening a restaurant with her brother, Phil, a longtime So Hospitality Group staffer.
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In a stroke of luck, the existing Kaldi’s finishes were useable and appropriate: a white quartz service counter with bulbous black-and-copper lanterns above it, and the L-shaped, button-tufted black leather banquette. The existing hand-painted tile behind the counter was the exact pattern that Amy had chosen for another installation. The siblings had begun negotiations at a nearby location, “but when we discovered this space and saw that tile, we knew the search was over,” Amy says. “We signed the lease in October and opened in January,” she says.
On one wall, the duo installed a bouncy pop of custom-designed wallpaper; on another, an assemblage of green plants and pink lilies. Still to come is a mural of Amy and Phil as children. “I’ll be returning to Chicago to run those restaurants, and Phil will operate this one,” Amy says. “We’ll be together in spirit on that mural.”
Orders are placed at tables via dedicated QR codes (complete with enticing food photos). “Just because we have QR codes, we are still a people business,” Amy adds. “We still provide suggestions and interaction. Some will still occur at the counter, some at the table. A lot of the food has a story behind it, and we want to tell those stories. Things like QR codes linked to photos are new adjustments that will be part of the game plan moving forward.”
The 30-item menu combines familiar Asian-inspired dishes with appealing cross-culture touches: egg rolls made with vegetables, chorizo, or picadillo beef (all pictured above), a pho using carnitas, a handful of nontraditional banh mi sandwiches (including four breakfast varieties), and “bacos” (bao-cradled tacos).
Perhaps the dish that best represents the concept (and likely the signature item) is Asian Paella (pictured above), a signature item that combines Puerto Rican–style jasmine rice with coconut milk, different sausages, and edamame, topped with guajillo pork and a fried egg, if you so choose.
Besides introducing a mashup of the familiar foods from their youth, Amy and Phil are excited to be part of a new generation of restaurateurs representing different Asian cultures who are pivoting to create memorable dining experiences.
“This is the right time and absolutely the right place for a second-gen restaurant,” Amy says.
