urbanSTL

^Interesting about Pho Long. Mai Hong and I go there a few times a year. It is indeed pretty tasty. Was thinking about Lemmon's the other day and saw that Google is still listing it as closed, though I thought I read they were reopening. The Facebook page wasn't very helpful and the phone number fell into the void. Hadn't heard anything about Apollonia. Don't get over there often, but the couple of times I've been it seemed pretty solid.

MarkGroth2020 wrote: ↑

Jul 22, 2025

Just saw on IG that Pho Long (one of the best Vietnamese restaurants in STL) is moving from Grand/Shenandoah in the Shaw Neighborhood to Grand South Grand section of Tower Grove South Neighborhood? Thrilled they are still around. Wonder if that stretch of Grand near Shenandoah will improve? The former Subway was a junkfood/convenience store for a minute, now closed and one of those fried chicken & wings places took the corner space...the rest is empty but seemingly always in stops and starts for int and ext work.  That Chinese take out place next to the former Subway is wildly popular, BTW...and pretty solid for the unhealthy style of STL Chinese food. Handsome set of buildings.

I stand corrected, the former convenience store is now a vape/smoke shop. So it goes.

Also, I forget the name, but the old subway next to the new smoke shop will be a new non-chain eatery. Upgrade IMO. 

According to the Mckinley Heights Neighborhood Association, the former Jack in the Box at Russell and Gravois has has a lease signed for some kind of mexican restaurant  

I've been told that drive thru fast food is a "great development." 
A great example of car blight is more like it.

One of the least adaptable uses, but are cheap to build appparently. 

Indeed, that's why it's so attractive as an investment, put little into the building, single use, one tenant/operation, low property taxes, ride the depreciation, leverage the infrastructure others paid for, leverage car dependency, get lots of sales, take profits out of the community.

PeterXCV wrote: ↑

Jul 28, 2025

One of the least adaptable uses, but are cheap to build appparently. 

Don't forget that often times more than half of the land is dedicated to parking lots and drive through. Rarely do you get one like Canes on Hampton that actually builds pedestrian access around the driveways.

So the building is not only cheap, it's very small and most of the land is just pavement.

https://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/new ... chase.html

The building that used to house Taha's Twisted Tiki Bar has sold for $715,000 to the Good Company.

They are planning a major renovation for a new restaurant/bar concept, but have not released any details.

The mini "food hall" concept inside the Hotel Indigo (former Holiday Inn) in the CWE is open. They have a lego themed coffee shop, a pizza window that sells $27 14 inch pizzas, and a bar. Coffee was good. Overheard GM giving an interview and it sounds like they have had a slow start. Definitely need to invest in some flashy signage to get peoples attention as they walk down Euclid. Right now it still just looks like a hotel

Have they changed the signage? Streetview from May still shows Holiday Inn Express. Have they done anything to make the approach from the sidewalk to the door welcoming?

^They have one sign up now, for Bel-Air Social. The signs for the hotel now say Hotel Indigo instead of Holiday Inn. No the pedestrian approach is not any better, still just those lil steps up to the driveway, otherwise fenced off...I'm not particularly surprised they are having a slow start, what does surprise me is their choice to open now before the patio is open, which is still torn up and looks a ways off from opening. Which would change how the place looks quite a bit, for what its worth. 

Not really sure how Pizzeria Via is going to work out for them. When it was located at Maryland & Euclid it was kind of a let down. Pricey pizza, and the owner was continually cutting back the number of hours they were open. First it was Wednesday-Saturday 5-8:30; then Thursday-Saturday, and finally just Friday-Saturday 5-8 if that. I live nearby and when I'd walk by during their supposed business hours it didn't look like a lot of people were eating in and he'd close the place random weekends here and there. 

PeterXCV wrote:^They have one sign up now, for Bel-Air Social. The signs for the hotel now say Hotel Indigo instead of Holiday Inn. No the pedestrian approach is not any better, still just those lil steps up to the driveway, otherwise fenced off...I'm not particularly surprised they are having a slow start, what does surprise me is their choice to open now before the patio is open, which is still torn up and looks a ways off from opening. Which would change how the place looks quite a bit, for what its worth. 

Not really sure how Pizzeria Via is going to work out for them. When it was located at Maryland & Euclid it was kind of a let down. Pricey pizza, and the owner was continually cutting back the number of hours they were open. First it was Wednesday-Saturday 5-8:30; then Thursday-Saturday, and finally just Friday-Saturday 5-8 if that. I live nearby and when I'd walk by during their supposed business hours it didn't look like a lot of people were eating in and he'd close the place random weekends here and there. 

I really liked the pizza at Pizzeria Via but absolutely no one has heard of it and the hours are really strange.

https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/ameri ... -location/

Incredible Pizza in South County to close August 17.

Dweebe and LeeHarvey’s comments are racist. I’m not going to be silenced.

Classic STL

“I can’t go to a restaurant because now black people go there” is certainly a hill to scream that you’re a racist

Suddenly downtown STL doesn't look so bad lol. To be fair, their location downtown was pretty bad. Probably should have just moved to a more central and trafficked part of downtown.

But you leave and get a taste of what you painted STL as.

It is interesting how little news that shooting got around Chicago. If that happened downtown St. Louis…