A successful urban neighborhood is made up of several components, some of which are schools, restaurants and residential housing.
During the 1970s, when business owner Joe Edwards opened Blueberry Hill in The Loop, University City experienced a certain measure of renewal. The well-known restaurant remains an anchor for that stretch of Delmar Boulevard.
Current examples of urban renewal through new restaurants include Cherokee Street and the Carondelet neighborhood in South City.
Botanical Heights is a near Southside St. Louis neighborhood, located just north of the Shaw neighborhood near I-44.
Formerly known as McRee Town, the once blighted neighborhood is experiencing improvement in recent years.
Chef Ben Poremba is the co-owner of three establishments that recently opened at the intersection of Tower Grove and McRee Avenues: Olio, a wine bar, Elaia, a fine-dining restaurant, and Chouquette, a patisserie.
Olio is located in a former gas station and Elaia is in a restored 1890s brick home. The two buildings adjoin via an interior corridor.
For our monthly Soundbites segment in partnership with Sauce Magazine host Steve Potter spoke with Poremba, Brent Crittenden, of Urban Improvement Company, and Ligaya Figueras, a senior staff writer for Sauce Magazine.
The magazine’s food reviewer, Michael Renner, said of the restaurants, “At Elaia and Olio, urban renewal is admixed with renewed emphasis on worldly wines and foods of different cultures. Exquisite, indeed.”
Related Information
Olio – 1634 Tower Grove Ave., Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., Sundays from 11 a.m. to midnight
Elaia – 1634 Tower Grove Ave., Tuesday through Saturday, from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m
Chouquette – 1626 Tower Grove Ave., Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m
