MABEL SUEN
Kitchen House Coffee opened in Tower Grove East in 2014.
The owners of Kitchen House Coffee have shut their doors for good.
In a Facebook post yesterday, owners Paul Whitsitt and David Rodgers said they made the difficult decision to close the almost nine-year-old Tower Grove East coffee shop, located at 3149 Shenandoah Avenue.
"This decision was both long coming and made suddenly," they wrote. "We would have loved to have invited you to come for a week of last visits, but honestly we just are not staffed to do that right now, and we would not subject you or our team to a less than pleasant final experience with us.
"We opened with an idea of fostering community, and hope we have succeeded with that on some level. Thank you for being part of that community and sharing yourselves with us. And don’t worry about those chickens — they have a lovely coop and friends waiting for them just a couple of blocks away!"
The coffee shop came out of Rodgers' and Whitsitt's nearby urban farm, and as they acknowledged in the post, they had no prior restaurant experience when opening. Nevertheless, they soon perfected a menu of soups and sandwiches in addition to juices and coffees, using eggs, fruits, vegetables and honey from their farm. They also opened a second location in the Patch neighborhood in 2019, although that outlet previously closed.
The closure was greeted on Facebook by a flood of comments from neighbors and friends. In a particularly sad irony, Kitchen House Coffee was recently featured as a "success story" for the city's COVID-era Small Business Recovery Grant program, administered by the St. Louis Development Corporation. St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones came for a visit to celebrate the shop, and the program, less than a month ago.
In its promotional video, the St. Louis Development Corporation reported that the coffee shop used the $5,000 grant to upgrade its point of sale system.
"They are truly excited and grateful for the City of St. Louis stepping in to help upgrade their business during their time of need," the city agency reported. "The rest of the story is history!"
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