For Sarah Fisher, opening her coffee shop Good Strangers was like “riding a wave.”
“I didn’t expect it to come together so fast,” she said. “I was introduced to this space and to Cherokee, and just it felt right. … I just decided to sort of follow that energy, follow that path, and here we are.”
This was her easiest opening to date. And that’s saying something since the St. Louis native has been in the hospitality business for 25 years and helped open eight restaurants.
This is Fisher’s second coffee shop under the Good Strangers name — her first was in Austin, Texas, where she moved back from in May. She got started on this south St. Louis edition in September. Fisher wanted the coffee shop to be a welcoming place.
“I just felt like the world needed some connection and irreverence and a bit of imagination and escape from the moment,” she said. “I wanted to create a hospitality experience that was approachable and warm and like a third place and a gathering spot.”
Good Stranger takes its name from a creative interpretation of a Greek word “philoxenia,” which roughly means “love of strangers.”
Fisher’s menu includes classic coffee drinks and fare such as breakfast tacos and bagels. She’s also put together a host of “strange brews” that include a Greek latte flavored with almond syrup and a tahini latte, which she says has become Good Stranger’s signature drink.
The shop is located just west of where Jefferson Avenue crosses Cherokee Street, where it joins a host of relatively new businesses. There is Anchovy, a teeny tiny cookbook store; La Casa de los Jugos, a juice and smoothie shop; City Mouse Vintage, which is what it sounds like; and Clements Lock & Security, a lock-and-key shop that turns into a bar on Thursday nights.
The openings have injected new life into the two-block stretch. And that spirit seems to have been shared across the region last month: St. Louis saw far more openings than closings and a lot of different kinds of growth.
That includes new places to buy ingredients, like Bevo’s Mediterranean bakery and grocery store Leona Market and St. Charles mushroom farm, Erbe Farms. St. Louis City SC’s stadium, Energizer Park, got even more local and more fancy with four new concession vendors, and Olivette added Great Heart Brewing in a moment when several breweries have shuttered, including Earthbound Brewery and Schlafly Bankside.
February’s closings, though few, hurt. St. Louis lost white tablecloth classic Tony’s in Clayton and Mom’s Deli in Lindenwood Park. The latter was evicted after the two grandchildren of the original owner sued the third over the deli’s below-market rental rates.
But there’s hope for St. Louisans mourning the latter: The deli posted a note on its door that it is looking for a new location.
Openings
- Asian Arch, Downtown
- Big Mouth STL, The Patch
- Bolyard’s, Downtown West (Energizer Park)
- Chicken Scratch, Downtown West (Energizer Park)
- Damn Fine Hand Pies, Downtown West (Energizer Park)
- Erbe Farms, St. Charles
- Good Strangers, Cherokee
- Great Heart Brewing, Olivette
- Leona Market, Bevo
- Oh, London, Creve Coeur
- Pappy’s Smokehouse, Downtown West (Energizer Park)
- Pieces Board Game Bar & Restaurant, Soulard (relocated)
- Side Project Pizza, Maplewood
- Soul 2 Soul, Central West End
- Steve's Meldown, Chesterfield
- Tacos 4 Life, Midtown
- Tous les Jours, University City
- Truck Norris Twisted Eats, Ellisville
Closings
- King Edward Chicken + Fish, Crestwood
- Mainlander, Central West End (Will be relocating)
- Mom’s Deli, Lindenwood Park
- Spine Indie Bookstore and Cafe, Benton Park
- Tony’s, Clayton
- Wave Taco, Downtown
Did I miss anything? Let me know at jrogen@stlpr.org.
