If any cliche phrase could sum up restaurant openings last month, it would be “the long-awaited...”
Take, for example, Nicky Slices Pizza Club. Over the past five years, Nick Williams has built a cult-like following for his Instagram-based, Detroit-style, take-and-bake pizza. Nicky Slices is as known for its wild toppings — think chicken nuggets or dumplings — as it is for selling out weekly. That continued at the brick-and-mortar's soft opening last week.
“That was absolutely wild,” a slightly stunned-looking Williams said in an Instagram reel the day after the soft opening. “…We sold out of every single pizza of food in the restaurant yesterday in a little more than two hours. So we don’t have any pizza to sell today.”
Last month also brought some redemption to long-vacant spaces off Lafayette Square. In 2023, a fire took down three Hamilton Hospitality group restaurants: Vin de Set, PW Pizza and the 21st Street Brewery’s Bar. This month, two of the spaces were filled. Extra Wavy, a cocktail and raw bar from the minds behind Yellowbelly and Lazy Tiger, opened in what had been PW Pizza. And Prohibition, a speakeasy complete with a password requirement, is now in the basement space that once held the 21st Street Brewery.
Finally, Mainlander reopened in its new space in the Central West End. The supper club draws inspiration from 1960s dining and had closed to relocate in February.
Openings
- Biscuit Town, Forest Park Southeast (within Neon Greens)
- Central Tap, Festus
- Cuatro Tacos, Tower Grove South
- Drips Botanical Element, Central West End
- El Jacal Mexican Restaurant, Belleville
- Extra Wavy, Downtown West
- Mainlander, Central West End
- Masala Republic, Downtown West
- Nicky Slices Pizza Club, the Hill
- Odditeas Cafe, Downtown
- Prohibition, Downtown West
- Perennial on the Trail, Kirkwood
- Key STL Burger Bar & Boogie, Grand Center
- Tous le Jours, Manchester
- Tonas Margarita Bar, Brentwood
Closings
- Blue Ocean, University City
- Central State Sandwiches, the Hill (within 2nd Shift Brewing)
- Mas Tequila Cantina, Soulard
- STL Toasted, Midtown (within City Foundry)
- Sugarfire Smokehouse, Arnold
- Rooster, Clayton
- Webster Groves Garden Cafe, Webster Groves
See one I missed? Let me know at jrogen@stlpr.org.
