It's been a rough couple of weeks for St. Louis restaurants. As I reported in last week's column, the pan-Latin restaurant KoKo (3257 Ivanhoe Avenue) closed. Last Monday came word that the Dogtown institution Chuy Arzola's (6405 Clayton Avenue) is closing. The restaurant plans to serve its last meal this Thursday, July 3. A few days later I learned from an e-mail tip that Billy Sherman's Deli in Creve Coeur (12937 Olive Boulevard) had closed, and that the property is now for sale. Finally, news broke last Friday that the Central West End restaurant Savor (4356 Lindell Boulevard) planned to close after this past weekend.
How about some good news? Just in time for the beginning of summer, a new ice cream parlor, Emack & Bolio's, has opened at 3101 South Grand Boulevard. This is the first St. Louis location for the relatively small Boston-based chain. Meanwhile, Rock Hill is now home to its very own wine bar, Bella Vita. The address is 9528 Manchester Road, though the entrance faces the interior of the new shopping center at the southwest corner of Manchester and Rock Hill roads. The shopping center is also home to new locations for Baskin-Robbins and Bandana's Bar-B-Q.
St. Louis native and chef at Revival (3800 Chouteau Avenue) Christina Machamer was one of two finalists on the FOX reality show Hell's Kitchen. Machamer and fifteen other contestants have spent the past four months trying to complete various cooking challenges under the critical eye and profane mouth of the acclaimed British chef Gordon Ramsay. The final episode aired Tuesday night, after Riverfront Times went to press. Did Christina win? If you missed the episode, you can learn the answer — and relive the entire season in hilarious, minute-by-minute detail — on the Gut Check blog, where RFT contributor Jeanette Kozlowski has been live-blogging the show.
Are you opening a new restaurant? Know of a place that has closed? Something else for Ian to chew on? E-mail [email protected]. And check out this column's virtual doppelganger at http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck.
