Porano Pasta (13323 Manchester Road, Des Peres) is making its comeback in March 2024.
Niche Food Group’s fast-service restaurant, which shuttered its original downtown St. Louis location in 2018, will be making the move to a shopping center in Des Peres.
“We were looking for good locations, good parking in kind of a busy center, and we like the idea of being next to Trader Joe's,” says Gerard Craft, executive chef and owner of Niche Food Group. Craft says the new location will be near a Crumbl Cookies, St. Louis Bread Co., Chipotle, Starbucks and a future Shake Shack.
At the new Porano, diners will be able to customize bowls of pasta or salad from a menu or craft their own delicious creation from an abundance of carbs, vegetables, proteins and other toppings.
“The customization, all the ingredients and all the menu items are the same,” Craft says. “But you won't go down the same kind of assembly line like at Chipotle anymore. People will order face to face with somebody at a register or at kiosks. I think everybody's gotten a lot more comfortable ordering like that these days. It's also a lot more efficient for us. By not having all that food sitting out and exposed to the elements that allows us to keep everything a little fresher.”
Ryan Hux, a fast-food veteran of both Shake Shack and Raising Cains, and Dakota Williams, a former Porano employee turned executive chef around St. Louis, will run the new Porano kitchen.
So far, the news of the soon-to-reopen Porano has been met with elation — including from those close to the operation.
“I'm very excited,” Craft says. “Before we closed, I made myself six bowls to put in my fridge to ration them to myself. I know I can make all these things, but at the end of the day it was so convenient, even for me, because all these little things that you add to your bowls there you can't really do that shit at home. I personally love getting a bowl full of roasted vegetables and rice and stuff like that.”
Craft says the original Porano closed its doors in 2018 due to a mixture of things.
“We had an agreement with our landlord for a 10 year lease, but after two years if we wanted to get out, we could, and so we had to make the decision whether or not we were going to keep it for the long haul,” he says. “Location-wise, it didn't have any parking. It was great for lunch [downtown] because a lot of people just worked right there. But I think Porana’s fast-casual and convenient food, if you don't work right there, it's not very convenient if you can't just get in and get out.”
Keeping all that in mind, Niche Food Group hopes to open two more locations in the next two years, and Craft says they are currently looking at the Richmond Heights and Brentwood areas as possible neighborhoods.
The Des Peres location’s tentative hours will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
Email the author at [email protected]
Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
