Meet St. Louis

For the second straight week, we are talking to someone who built their business based on sustainability. Katie May, who opened May’s Place in 2016 and opened their Grove location 2019, worked in retail her whole life, and had seen enough of the corporate fashion world to know that there’s just too much waste involved with what we wear. So she took her love of vintage clothes and her knowledge of...

Apologies to our listeners looking for a new episode last week, some projects at the station ended up demanding a little extra time. But we are back with a brand new episode, joined by Jordan Blackhurst, the founder of Dharma + Dwell. Jordan found inspiration where a lot of us do: in the shower. One day she looked around and realized so much of our self-care, beauty, bath, and home products are pr...

StilL 630 is hidden in plain sight in Downtown St. Louis. The craft distillery is housed inside a former fast-food restaurant, but when you open the doors you're greeted by the team creating some of the best spirits in the entire country. Owner and founder David Weglarz started Still 630 in 2012 and since then has won award after award for their whiskeys, gins, and rums. Weglarz joined us on the p...

When I first moved to St. Louis, there was sort of a hidden gem in the snack world. It was a kind of local secret known as Red Hot Riplets. Now 10 years later, it’s no longer just a local delicacy. Over the last decade, Old Vienna, the makers of Red Hot Riplets, have expanded their reach, and their flagship chips have become a treat craved by people across the country. Things really took off when...

Our guest this week is Lion’s Choice CEO Mike Kupstas, and beginning tomorrow (Tuesday), they will have a limited-time collaboration with St. Louis staple Crown Candy Kitchen. It’s a team-up by two St. Louis favorites- yes, Lion’s Choice is from St. Louis- and It’s frozen custard, bacon, and only available for a couple of weeks. Mike sat down with us in the Brentwood location to talk about the his...

Opened during the pandemic in 2020, Edera- which means Ivy in Italian- is the second restaurant from the Koplar Group. After owning and operating Scape for more than a decade, the family decided it was time to update the concept in the Central West End, and bring a different feel to the neighborhood restaurant. The first person you’ll hear from is Bob Koplar, who along with his brother Sam, has fo...

More plants, more people, more often. That’s the goal of St. Louis’s newest food delivery company, Rootberry. Launched this summer, Rootberry delivers plant-based meals to your doorstep, no subscription required. For Marc Connor, Co-Founder and President of Rootberry, that last part was critical. The company- whose food I can personally say is delicious- and I’m mostly a meat-eater- doesn’t want t...

For Martin Casas, owner of Apotheosis Comics, community has been at the forefront of his entire career. After years in politics, searching for leaders who could put on the cape, he decided to go directly to the people. Apotheosis opened in 2017, and since then has served as a spot for comic fans young and old, whether they are newcomers or connoisseurs. But for Martin, it’s always been about more...

This week, we aren’t going inside, we’re going up on a rooftop. We sat down with Urban Harvest’s Jamie Wallace at their rooftop garden downtown to talk about the fight to bring sustainable food to St. Louis as well as strengthen the community as St. Louis grows together. Urban Harvest started in 2011, and now has more than a half dozen locations across the area, providing fresh produce to those wi...

We are just weeks away from the long-awaited opening of the massive food hall at City Foundry STL. As part of St. Louis’s continued downtown rebirth, the Foundry is drawing national attention, even being mentioned in a Time Magazine article that named St. Louis as one of the world’s 100 best places. The Food Hall is perhaps the best symbol of the spirit of St. Louis, with 20 restaurants cooking cu...

How much would you gamble on an idea? For David Choi, founder of Seoul Taco, the answer was everything. Just out of college and working three jobs, he took his whole bankroll and went to the East Coast hunting for a food truck. What followed is a success story that took him from truck, to restaurant, to restauranteur, and recently featured Busta Rhymes on a stage celebrating a decade of success. D...

This week, we're actually going somewhere different. Not a brewery or a small business, but a beautiful oasis in the heart of St. Louis. The Missouri Botanical Garden has been around for more than 150 years. Established in 1859 and continuing to evolve right up to today, it is a living, breathing symbol of the city’s history; from the Civil War through its second worldwide pandemic. The beauty of...

For Lisa Nicholas-Kandel, the route to owning her own restaurant started small- with just a batch of Baklava. The classically trained dancer always liked cooking, but she never saw it as a professional path she was destined to walk. Then one day she made her now-husband Joe her Baklava, and he was so in love with the dish he told her, "You’ve got to sell this." Before long they were in several sto...

Welcome back to the Meet St. Louis podcast, the show taking you inside your favorite bars, breweries and small businesses. I’m your *producer*, JJ Bailey. I’m happy to report that since our last episode, Alexis is officially a new mom, and she, her baby boy, and her husband are all happy and healthy. As she begins her new adventure, she is taking a bit of time away from work to focus on family- as...

The heat and humidity have arrived in St. Louis and that means summer traditions are here. For so many of us, that means frozen custard. This week we are taking you inside the family business of Fritz's Frozen Custard. Brothers Adam and Bryan Fritz are second-generation owners. Their family business started back in the 1980s when their pregnant mom had a big craving for frozen custard. Almost 40 y...

At Katie's Pizza and Pasta, family is everything for chef and owner Katie Collier. The restaurant would not have gotten off the ground without the support and push from her husband Ted and the help of generous donations through a Kickstarter campaign. Katie's love of Italian food and cooking is thanks in large part to her mom who moved to Florence for work and Katie followed. The introduction to t...

About one hour outside of St. Louis, you can transport yourself to a lavender-scented oasis. Located in Wright City is Long Row Lavender. Tracy Smith and her family started the farm more than a decade ago as a way to connect with nature, but over the years, not only has the lavender grown, but so has the business. The start of June is peak lavender season, with those purple blooms shooting out of...

Tom and Tricia Nieder looked at each other one day in 2014 and decided, "Lets start a kombucha company." Back then, kombucha, a fermented tea, was huge on the coasts but slow to make its way to the Midwest. Fast forward to today and you can find Companion Kombucha on store shelves all over St. Louis and around the region. They brew the craft kombucha in Overland and have continued to grow and expa...

Since 1984, Purina has been a pioneer in helping improve the lives of animals. It was founded by William Danforth as a feed company for farm animals, and for more than a century, it's called St. Louis home. Now, it's one of the largest global pet companies, but that hasn't stopped their commitment to St. Louis. From being the first founding partner for the new MLS team St. Louis City SC to giving...

Lia Weber grew up baking cookies alongside her grandmother and she has a distinct memory of making a lemon meringue pie around the age of 12. Many years later, she still makes a version of that pie, although this one is all made from scratch and flies off the shelves of her Florissant bakery: Made. by Lia. While baking has been a part of her life since childhood, it wasn't until she was crowned "T...

The banners read, "It's a damn good day to give a damn," the coffee mug reads, "gutsy little lady," and the rainbow keychain reads, "you're magic baby." Each of the items inside the cheeky homegoods shop Golden Gems are meant to inspire and empower. That was the goal for sisters Amanda Helman and Susan Logsdon when they started the business as a side hustle. Now it's grown into their full-time job...

Brian Nolan has been brewing beer since college, well before the internet was filled with how-to guides. But it wasn’t until decades later that he would turn his passion project into a career; and it wouldn’t have happened if not for a push from his friends. Hence, the name Friendship Brewing Company. Now, the craft brewery located in Wentzville is celebrating five years in business. They’re one o...

When Jeffrey and Pamela Blair were raising their four children, they had a hard time finding books that reflected African Americans in a positive light. So they decided to fix the problem. They opened EyeSeeMe Bookstore in University City, and now they have the largest collection in the country. As they expanded to a larger space, they also brought in books featuring other underrepresented ethnici...

For 75 years, Tony's has helped St. Louisians celebrate life's big moments. The award-winning establishment is taking its next step after a big move from downtown St. Louis to Clayton, but owner James Bommarito says it will feel both new and nostalgic. The space is smaller and more modern, but long-time customers will recognize favorites on the menu. More importantly, diners will recognize the lev...

Episode 137: Series Six Apparel by Meet St. Louis