Every year, restaurants tend to experience slower business after a bustling holiday season. Yet January and February included the debut of quite a few new food-and-drink establishments in the St. Louis area. Sauce Magazine executive editor Meera Nagarajan joined Wednesday’s St. Louis on the Air, offering her perspective on why that might be the case despite an ongoing pandemic and economic crisis:
“A lot of these business ideas were in place and they had the wheels turning, so they just kept going. It's hard to find a restaurant job if you're unemployed and that's your background, so a lot of people just kept charging forward and opened up their new businesses,” she said.
“People are committed to opening spaces. And as people are getting vaccinated, I think hope is rising.”
Sauce’s latest “Hit List” features five new spots:
- Beast Southern Kitchen & BBQ, 1280 Columbia Center, Columbia, IL 62236
- Clara B’s Kitchen table, mobile food truck in Belleville, IL 62220
- Golden Grocer, 4501 Chouteau Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
- Pizzeria da Gloria, 2024 Marconi Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
- Songbird, 4476 Chouteau Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is hosted by Sarah Fenske and produced by Alex Heuer, Emily Woodbury, Evie Hemphill and Lara Hamdan. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
