Meet St. Louis

Nate Hereford originally wanted to be an archologist, but thankfully for all of us, and our appetites, he found his way into the kitchen. Nate is the founder and chef of Chicken Scratch, one of the several food options at the City Foundry and later this year he will open a second location serving up his rotisserie style chicken and more in the city of Glendale. But many might know Nate’s name from...

Walking into the Companion Bakery facility in Maryland Heights, you’re met with the incredible smell of freshly baked bread. Once you meet owner Josh Allen you get a sense of what he’s worked to build for almost three decades. It’s much more than delicious bread. Companion Bakery is about community and partnership, something Josh says he’s not sure he could have built anywhere but his hometown of...

Blueprint Coffee started when a group of coffee lovers wanted to bring something new to the St. Louis coffee scene. They wanted to bring something different, something with more transparency. That means from bean to cup. For nine years, the local roaster has brought incredible coffee to the St. Louis region and they’re ready to expand it. They will open a brand new 11,000 sq ft roastery in the Bot...

In 1982, the Cheese Place first opened its doors. 40 years later, The Wine and Cheese Place, as it’s called now, has established itself as one of the go-to places for all things wine, beer, liquor, and of course cheese. We sat down at their store in Kirkwood, to talk about the milestone. Aaron Zwicker is the co-owner and wine manager and has helped countless people find the perfect bottle. He join...

St. Louis is filled with artists, creatives and makers. Whether it’s unique to St. Louis or not, you can’t argue that our city is incredible about showing up and supporting locals. We sat down with two artists who’ve seen that first hand. Malaika Tolford started Place Value Pottery as a way to combine her love of geography and ceramics. For Molly Svoboda it all started when she was 15 and took her...

For Brandin Vaughn, his love of fashion started out of necessity. His family shopped at thrift stores when he was a kid, he quickly learned to sew and tailor the clothes to better fit him. And soon others took notice. But he followed a few other paths before heading to Chicago to go to school for fashion. We sat down with Brandin inside his shop on Cherokee Street in South St. Louis as he reflects...

For 25 years, Brian Dix has worked in the beer industry. He started working for Anheuser-Busch in college, sweeping floors and doing basic tasks. From there he went on to work for other distributors. Distributors help get your favorite beer (or liquor or wine) from the manufacturer to your favorite bar or local grocery store. After working for others, Brian realized something was missing, especial...

This episode is a major milestone, our 200th Episode! To mark our milestone, we’re celebrating another one. This month, Blueberry Hill in the Delmar Loop turns 50 years old. For any business that’s a feat, but especially a restaurant. Owner Joe Edwards joined us to talk about the early days back in 1972 when he first opened the doors to Blueberry Hill. He walks us through the next five decades as...

Modern Brewery has been churning out some great beers including their most popular,Citrapolis, since it opened in 2014. But their brewery was always been a bit hidden, located off Manchester Road. Now, their brand new tasting room is a show-stopper. You can’t miss it as you drive by Highway 64/40. Located next to the Science Center, owner Beamer Eisele can’t wait to introduce their beer to new cus...

Bright flowers adorn the doorway of the Benton Park restaurant. As you walk inside, there’s colorful artwork and mermaids. Instantly you feel like you’re anywhere but South St. Louis. That’s what owner Lemya Sidki wanted; To transport you to her home country of Brazil. At Yemanja Brasil, when the drinks start coming and the food arrives, you feel like you're being welcomed into her family’s home....

There’s something nostalgic about ice cream, especially on warm summer nights in St. Louis. Creating memories was the goal for siblings Max and Darla Crask when they opened Ices Plain and Fancy in the Shaw neighborhood in South St. Louis, and the storefront-style building evokes a sense of an old-school ice cream parlor. But when you walk inside and watch the ice cream made, you realize it’s somet...

For Tony Nguyen, opening his new restaurant in South St Louis is a major milestone. While he’s worked at restaurants across the country, this marks the first that will be solely his. It also is the return to his roots: After working in Los Angeles, Tony decided it was time to come home to St. Louis. He and his wife, Jessica, a fellow chef and marine biologist, are ready to welcome diners to Sno lo...

Schlafly Brewery has been around since 1991, a long time in the craft beer world and they’re still working to innovate and shape the future of craft beer. From 2021, here's our episode about what it takes to build a revered St. Louis brewery in the shadow of AB, and why Schlafly works toward guiding a male-dominated industry into a new frontier.

Be The Good – it’s a mantra we all could use. And it was the first one Leah Longueville created when she started making shirts in her guest bedroom. She started Polished Prints after her first child was born. It began with a desire for more neutral baby clothes – something she struggled to find. So she did it herself. Now four years later you can find the sustainably made graphic tees, onesies, an...

Eric Vails says business is family. He and his brother operate Vails Brothers Shrimp Chicken and Fish. Their original location is on Delmar, just east of the Loop, and they just opened a second location in the Grove, bringing their food to a new customer base. Eric says he’s always loved the food industry. He’s worked at several places and has started several different endeavors over the years, in...

20 years in any business is a milestone to be celebrated, but it’s an especially big deal in the restaurant industry. Munsok So opened Drunken Fish in Westport Plaza in 2003. He admits he didn’t have the experience to open a sushi restaurant, but he had the drive and the selfish desire to have a place in his hometown where he could eat great sushi. It was a success and it led to another location....

Just in time for National Ice Cream Day (July 17), beloved Serendipity Ice Cream is now open in The Grove in St. Louis. It will be almost 19 years to the day that Beckie Jacobs open her shop in Webster Groves. She closed that storefront in 2021 and the new space offers a larger footprint, which means more original ice cream flavors and more opportunity for wholesale business. She saw a need in the...

For Chefs Marc Del Pietro and Brian Doherty, the restaurant business is a family affair. Marc grew up in his family’s South St. Louis restaurant and Brian married into the family. Now, the two brothers-in-law operate three distinct restaurants in the St. Louis area: The Block in Webster Groves, 58Hundred in South City, and their newest venture, Cleaver & Cocktail in Town and Country. We sat down w...

It’s incredible to think what can happen in two years. In early 2020, Mike Shadwick decided to finally make the jump into the restaurant industry. His wife Meredith convinced him to apply for a kitchen job. He loved it. Then boom: COVID. But that pause was what actually kicked things off for the Shadwicks. After tossing around ideas, Honeybees Biscuits + Good Eats was born. The Kirkwood couple sol...

It all started with a pizza in Scotland... Not what you'd expect to kick off an authentic Italian restaurant, but that was Wayne Sieve’s first introduction to Neapolitan-style pizza. That first taste set off a passion project that would eventually lead to a food truck, and then a restaurant where people often drive well over an hour to get a table. Noto Pizza is located in St. Peters, in what used...

This week might be the wildest podcast we’ve done in our almost 200 episode history. We were surrounded by animals while recording our interview with Jeff Suchland, who runs Alpacas of Troy and Brats of the World; two separate businesses both operated out of their family farm in Troy, Missouri. You can find both of them at farmers' markets across the area, including Tower Grove on Saturdays and Tu...

Tony Davis describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, always dreaming of a big idea. His love for popcorn is the one that stuck. He started Pop Pop Hurray! first as a vendor and fundraising business, but a storefront was calling. The pandemic almost put that call on hold, but the fact that other businesses were closing was what allowed him to get the perfect corner storefront in downtown Ferguson...

When you walk inside Bike Stop Café off historic Main Street in St. Charles, you're met with two distinct businesses – a café serving up healthy and fresh foods and a bike shop with gear to buy and to rent so you can hop right on the Katy Trail out the back door. That was always the goal for Jodi Devonshire and her husband Tony when they open more than a decade ago. It combines their two passions...

Inside a storefront on Cherokee street in south St. Louis, they’re baking more than just bread and cinnamon rolls. They’re helping change lives. Bridge Bread Bakery is a unique concept - a non-profit social enterprise. The bakers are all unhoused. Fred and Sharon Domke founded the non-profit in 2011. They started inside their church and expanded, and now they’ve got a large retail and kitchen spac...

Bernie Lee started working in restaurants as a teenager. He immigrated to the US from Malaysia and wanted to open a restaurant that reminded him of the fusion of flavors he grew up with. His first restaurant was 609 Lounge and Restaurant in the Delmar Loop, and then opened Hiro Asian Kitchen in Downtown. All of those experiences led him to eventually open Akar in Clayton. The tiny 12-seat restaura...