In our April cover story, senior staff writer Ligaya Figueras spoke with 11 visionaries who have altered St. Louis’ culinary scene. They told us their experience in their own words. All month long, we’ll be revealing the parts of the interview with these men and women that you didn’t see, along with their favorite recipes, right here in Extra Sauce. First we gave you more from Joe Edwards. And now, more from Game Changer Karen Duffy, co-owner of Duff’s Restaurant. The Class of ’72. It was an innovative time. Of those original restaurants, Yen Ching was one of them. [Most] of them are no longer. Jefferson Avenue Boarding House, Balaban’s … Herbie was really into the food. I think he might have been the first one to bring in London Dover Sole. That was a big deal: fresh fish, not frozen. Yen Ching, Duff’s, Jefferson Avenue Boarding House, Anthony’s, Balaban’s. That was the class.
We have the dumbwaiter still. It goes with a rope, up and down. My husband makes new ropes for it. My kids used to ride it when they were little down to the dish room.
When we began we didn’t have a bar. We used to have a little rolling cart with liquor on it. Pathetic. We had a liquor license but we didn’t have a bar.
A lot of employees have been here over 25 years, some of them 30.
We had hand-written tickets until two years ago.
I really miss the phone booth. We had to take it out when we got handicapped accessible. That was the end of an era: the pay phone.
We have a wonderful reputation for brunch. We were one of the first to do it. We started on just Saturdays. This was in the ’80s. I loved Sundays at home, reading the paper. If we opened on Sundays I knew I would be working every Sunday. They said, “You gotta do Sundays.” I’ve been working on Sundays since we started. It takes me until Wednesday to read the Sunday paper, but it’s worth it.
For a recipe of one of Duffy’s favorite dishes, click here.
This article appears in April 2011.