Inside Lona’s Lil Eats, co-owner and chef Lona (Luo) Powers moves easily among customers, greeting them with an inviting smile and stopping to chat, brushing wisps of hair from her face with an effortless warmth that puts people at ease.
Powers comes from humble beginnings. Poor, in her own words, she grew up in an isolated, self-sustaining farming village with no electricity or running water, navigating the day by the movement of the sun and its shadow. Food was gathered from the mountains and the land her parents maintained.
“I didn’t even know who I was. I only knew my name. I didn’t know which country I was from,” Powers recalled.
It wasn’t until high school that she began to understand her identity. Powers belongs to the Mảng ethnic tribe, now recognized in Vietnam, but primarily found in the Yunnan Province of China. The Mảng people are known for their resilience, individually governed communities, and origins traced deep within the forests.
Raised by a stern mother and the gentleness of her father, Powers learned early how to maintain order, care for herself, and lead. The oldest among three brothers, everyone learned to cook and work the land, as early as four years old. But it was Powers who carried the responsibility of cooking for the family, making sure food was ready when her parents returned from the fields.
Cooking was never about joy in those early years. It was survival.
At age six, while other children played, Powers cooked rice: burning it, remaking it, and eventually perfecting it, alongside pickled soup, dried peanuts, beans, and attempts at tofu. Meat was rare, a delicacy, sometimes just 200 pounds of pork stretched across an entire year.“I always was so hungry for meat,” Powers said.
Depending on the season, the family survived on cabbage, squash, and whatever vegetables they could grow.
When one of her younger brothers quit school, Powers’ father sent her to school at age eight, believing someone in the family needed to learn how to read. By the time she was ten, Powers began to find light in cooking. Still responsible for feeding her family, she started imagining new flavors, new combinations, what her family might enjoy most, and even what her own life might become one day. She never saw cooking as her path, but she did know she wanted to be different.
Eventually, that dream led her to leave her village and work in a Japanese restaurant for more than a decade, learning every aspect of the restaurant business: server, supervisor, manager, front and back of the house. There she met Pierce Powers, an English teacher in China who would later become her husband and business partner. Together, they moved to his hometown of St. Louis in 2006.
Powers dreamed of opening a restaurant, what once began as a childhood duty had grown into a true passion. Together, they opened a food stall at Soulard Farmers Market selling kebabs. The name “Lil Eats” is inspired by the countryside tradition of enjoying food in small bites (little eats), little boosts throughout the day. The name was perfected with the addition of her English name, creating Lona’s Lil Eats. In 2014, the brick-and-mortar restaurant opened in Fox Park, serving health-driven, freshly cooked, vegetable-forward dishes inspired by her childhood. Their menu reflects foods they practiced and perfected together at home during years of travel and experimentation.
Early on, Powers learned the importance of giving your best effort to everything you do. She pours herself fully into her work and leads with her heart, guided by something her father told her as a child: if the food is good enough for you to eat and accept, then it is good enough to give to others. If she doesn’t like it, it never makes it onto the menu.
A three-time James Beard Foundation Award nominee, Powers’ food is intentionally light and balanced, designed to make people feel good and nourished while remaining accessible regardless of dietary restrictions, background, or budget. From steak, turkey, and brisket to glass noodles, homemade dumplings, bamboo stew, and house sauces like spicy sesame and lime ginger peanut, every dish is built around a simple formula: a protein, a staple, and a side in one complete meal.
Lona’s Lil Eats is her home, what she calls a “family orator,” a place of communion where staff and returning guests become lifelong friends. She can be found everywhere, from taste testing to prep work. To her, even slicing vegetables feels like art and magic. She loves teaching her employees, passing down lessons from her childhood: do your best, live without regrets, and treat every experience as a chance to grow.
Powers admits she is still learning to put herself first, though family, friends, and work remain central to her life. A mother of two, she still cooks three meals a day for her son when she visits him. Even after her divorce, she and her former husband continue to work together as both family and business partners, now preparing for the next chapter: a new Lona’s Lil Eats location coming soon to Kirkwood.
Her road has not been easy, but she is not defined by it. A non-native English speaker, a woman, a mother, and a chef balancing every role, she has carried immense responsibility. Yet she is not hardened by it, but shaped — guided by discipline, integrity, and structure; steady, direct, and levelheaded, led equally by love.
“I enjoy work. It is never exhausting. Lona’s is perfect. I train a bunch of people. I feed a bunch of people. Everybody is so healthy and happy, and that’s what I want to see.”
2199 California Ave., St. Louis; 612 W. Woodbine Ave., Kirkwood, lonaslileats.com
Offering food service design, equipment and supply to area restaurants and hotels, Ford Hotel Supply has been family-owned and -operated since 1911. Visit the showroom at 2204 N. Broadway in St. Louis or visit FordSTL.com.
This article appears in June 2026.