Meet St. Louis

Steve Neukomm opened Square One Brewery and Distillery in Lafayette Square in 2006, but he's been working in the restaurant business for decades. He's opened and closed restaurants and breweries, and moved passed a devastating fire, but never has he experienced anything like the impact of the Coronavirus. We first sat down to interview Steve on March 6, to hear his story of the brewery and distill...

HERE'S HOW TO HELP Order curbside: https://www.curbsidestl.com/ Invest in STL: https://stlgives.org/ We started this podcast almost two years ago as a way to showcase and support the incredible chefs, brewers and small business owners across St. Louis. Now amidst the Coronavirus our independent businesses need all of us more than ever. While many of them have had to close their doors this week in...

Episode 85: Park Avenue Coffee by Meet St. Louis

Andrew Brewer has built a small eatery empire in Cottleville. Not even 30 years old, the owner of Plank Road Pizza, Cottleville Cookies and Cream, and 1798 BBQ has established some of the best restaurants in the region while seamlessly blending into a historic small town in St. Charles County. His clever menus and unique locations- built into historic homes along the main drag of Highway N- have h...

Owned by husband and wife duo Cory and Karen King, Side Project Brewery was recently named the second best brewery in the world. But as the name implies it started as a side project. Cory got his start homebrewing before working as the head brewer at Perennial Artisan Ales. A passion for oak aged beer and a desire to try out new recipes was the birth of Side Project Brewery. Eventually they opened...

When Krupa and Sid Panchal moved to St. Louis from Bombay, India, they craved the food of their homeland. There are a lot of great Indian restaurants in St. Louis but the Panchals were looking for the street food they loved. So Krupa started making it herself. It was a bit of a shift from her career as an optometrist but after watching a Food Network show on food trucks, she decided that was the n...

Taco Circus is serving up Austin-style Tex Mex on The Hill. Christian Ethridge brought his love of tacos from his home state of Texas. The taqueria first opened in the Bevo Mill neighborhood in 2015 and moved to a larger space on Southwest in the fall of 2019. The new space means a new and expanded menu, but the same focus on authentic Tex Mex flavors. While the crowded restaurant shows the succes...

On a nearly one-acre flower farm in the middle of South City, you'll find more than 70 different kinds of flowers growing. When Mimo Davis and Miranda Duschack discovered the property almost a decade ago it was in shambles. The land itself dates back to the 1870s and slowly the duo behind Urban Buds City Grown Flowers have transformed it back to a working urban farm. Miranda and Mimo sat down with...

Episode 79: Women's Creative by Meet St. Louis

At Bulrush, the space and food feel modern, but the inspiration for the food is hundreds of years of history rooted in the Ozarks. Chef Rob Connoley works to define and showcase the cuisine of a region that expands outside of Missouri at his restaurant in Midtown. The James Beard semi-finalist and self-taught chef shares his culinary journey from the world of non-profits, to opening a small grocer...

You might know Bob Brazell’s name from fast-casual spots like Byrd & Barrel and Tamm Avenue Grill, but now the chef and restaurateur is going back to his roots in fine dining as one of the new owners of the Tenderloin Room at The Chase Park Plaza. From his first kitchen job at 15 to working at Monarch and Niche, Brazell says each job has taught him a lesson he hopes to pass on to other chefs. Jugg...

For 20 years, the Shakespeare Festival St. Louis has worked to make the Bard more accessible. For their 20th season, the long running festival will put on a performance of Much Ado About Nothing. The festival’s executive producer Tom Ridgely sat down with us to discuss how they continue to shake things up. Their goal is to continue to grow the original content of the festival, from their Shakespea...

Downtown St. Louis’ latest boutique hotel features a rooftop pool, nods to the buildings’ history and a restaurant with Chef Evy Swoboda at it’s helm. Swoboda acted as the city’s culinary ambassador for the hotel’s out-of-town developer, showing off the city’s best food. When they asked her to head up the new restaurant she jumped on board, but first she took a trip from one end of the Mississippi...

A new year brings new beginnings and no one knows about starting fresh like Zahra Spencer and Telie Woods. The two had dreams of opening a beachfront joint in Zahra’s home island of St. Thomas, then Hurricane Irma hit. And then Hurricane Maria. Their dreams were literally crushed on the beach. But plan B would bring them to St. Louis and after one day of searching, Jerk Soul was born in the Hyde P...

In two days, St. Louis will unveil its new aquarium at Union Station. It's part of a comprehensive makeover of the downtown attraction, and the aquarium is the biggest piece of that renovation. We sat down with the aquarium's executive director, Tamera (Tami) Lash Brown, to get an inside look at what will be featured when the doors open Christmas Day. We talked about sharks, a blue lobster, a gian...

'Tis the season for holiday traditions, and we wanted to know what some of Meet St. Louis' most popular guests do to celebrate. So we picked up the phone and started calling our friends to find out what their traditions are. Everyone has their thing where it just doesn't feel like the holidays until THIS happens, and our guests were no exception. We talked to Andy from Crown Candy (1:15), Qui Tran...

Doug Marshall may be known as the Tamale Man, but he owes much of his success to the women in his life. From his grandmothers who taught him to cook as a young boy to his wife who first came up with the idea to start selling tamales at the Farmer’s Markets. When he first starting selling his homemade tamales, they weren’t a big hit. But slowly they took off and he even started developing vegan rec...

Adam and Jason Tilford moved around a lot growing up. From the East Coast to the West Coast, their dad was in the Coast Guard and it took them across the US. They ended up in St. Louis and thankfully for us, they stuck around. With six Mission Tacos and a seventh on the way, the brothers are known for the West Coast taco spot serving up great food along with delicious craft beer and cocktails. Fro...

When Scott Ellinger opened up his restaurant The Brass Rail in O’Fallon, he didn’t have enough money to change the sign. So he kept the name of the previous restaurant. But over the last six years, he has made a name for himself as not only the neighborhood steakhouse but also as the restaurant that serves up the largest Thanksgiving dinner. Ellinger, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, donat...

When Lisa Dolan couldn’t find the clean beauty products she was searching for, she created her own. That was the birth of Lark Skin Co. Three years after starting the business, Lark Skin Co can be found across the country and at their shop in Webster Groves. Founder Lisa Dolan and creative partner Allie Schweiter joined us on the Meet St. Louis Podcast to talk about clean skincare, building a bran...

Steve Albers is used to waiting. He waited his entire life for his beloved Blues to win a Stanley Cup and he waited years to open his brewery, Center Ice. But like the saying goes, good things happen to those who wait. The city of St. Louis got the celebration of a lifetime when the Blues hoisted the Cup on Market Street and beer fans found a new spot to sip brews in Midtown when Center Ice opened...

“If it’s not a ‘F*** Yeah!’ for me, it’s a ‘No.’” In a storefront in Historic St. Charles, Sugarbot Sweet Shop serves ups some of the area’s best treats. From sugar cookies to brownies to homemade marshmallows, everything in the shop is made with love and passion. Jackie Huebbe didn’t quit her job to bake things she doesn’t love. She worked in the corporate world and after work, found comfort in t...

Matt McGuire is no stranger to successful restaurants. From Monarch, to Herbie’s, to Brasserie and Niche, he has made a name for himself at some of the city’s best restaurants. But it all started when he and several friends opened King Louie’s in 1996. A restaurant that many today remember with fondness. And bits of that famed St. Louis restaurant now live on in Louie, the restaurant everyone seem...

From the farms of Greenville, IL to the waters of Pensacola, FL, each place Kevin Willmann lived played a role in shaping his food. The chef and owner of Farmhaus in South St. Louis has received his fair share of awards and accolades, but the real praise is from diners at his intimate farm-to-table restaurant. The menu changes based on the season and what they find in the restaurant garden. His fo...

For Travis Howard and Tim Wiggins, hospitality is top of mind at their restaurants Yellowbelly and Retreat. The two concepts are wildly different, one a tiki-inspired seafood restaurant with an emphasis on rum cocktails, the other a modern American gastropub with a rustic vibe. But they both bring equal focus on cocktails and good food, with service that brings guests coming back. Now the two are...