Episode 63: Utah Station

Explicit content warning

10/07/19 • 35 min

Housed in a once vacant and crumbling gas station, Utah Station is breathing new life into a building and a vegan menu. Chef Chris Bertke starting crafting vegan drunk food in his kitchen late at night, now he’s serving up his recipes at the Benton Park restaurant. Opened this summer, Bertke says the menu is inspired by what he wants to eat, tacos, burgers, toasted ravioli, but without meat.

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Episode 62: Cafe Natasha

In 1983, Behshid and Hamishe Bahrami opened The Little Kitchen in Downtown St. Louis as a way to support their new baby girl, Natasha. They started out on a convention oven and an electric burner, serving up Persian food for downtown workers. The lines wrapped around the building. In 1993, they opened up the first Café Natasha on Delmar. In 2001, they opened up their third restaurant on South Grand. For 35 years, the Bahrami’s have fed St. Louis. Hamishe and Natasha joined us on the podcast to talk about food, family and how one critic’s review changed everything. The mother-daughter team shares decades of memories, of the good and the bad of owning a restaurant.

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Episode 64: Yellowbelly and Retreat

For Travis Howard and Tim Wiggins, hospitality is top of mind at their restaurants Yellowbelly and Retreat. The two concepts are wildly different, one a tiki-inspired seafood restaurant with an emphasis on rum cocktails, the other a modern American gastropub with a rustic vibe. But they both bring equal focus on cocktails and good food, with service that brings guests coming back. Now the two are taking the next step, opening an event space called the Hideout, where they plan to host everything from birthday parties to pop-up events. First up is a Halloween-inspired pop-up bar called the Corpse Reviver. The two sat down with the Meet St. Louis podcast to talk cocktails, good service and why St. Louis is beating out other cities in terms of great food and drinks.