Plant-based diners across St. Louis have been waiting for this moment for a long time, and 2022 has brought good news: 12oh7 Herban Eatery owners Brandy Dixon and Jasmine Yandell will open up their new brick-and-mortar at 6138 Delmar Blvd. in St. Louis very soon. According to Dixon, they’re shooting for April. For the past two years, the duo has operated out of Retreat Gastropub on Tuesdays. “It’s amazing. We did everything backwards, honestly,” Dixon said. “We kind of built our brand as if we already had a restaurant. We created who we are, the menu. People know what to expect from us.”
As for the location, the Loop felt right. “We just knew we wanted to be in the city,” Dixon said. “And didn’t want to do South Grand, because it’s sort of oversaturated.” She said she and Yandell searched for “closed restaurants” on Google, and the empty location popped up (it used to be Shiquan Wonton and Chinese Noodle Cafe). “We fell in love with it,” she added. “We like the space, honestly, because it has a full kitchen – that’s what we were looking for. It’s a blank canvas, so we’re able to make it like we wanted.”
The menu, which features everything from soul food plates and beer-battered “phish” to Crunchwraps, should be satisfying to people who are already fans of the brand, as it will be populated with familiar dishes. “We don’t really have any new dishes – everything we’ve done so far, we planned it for our menu in the restaurant,” Dixon explained. “Everything our customers get, they can get in our new restaurant.” She added that they’ll probably run specials eventually.
According to Dixon, during the first few weeks, customers will be encouraged to order in person; after that, online ordering will open up. Days and hours of operation are still under consideration, but 12oh7 aims to be open late on Fridays and Saturdays, and plans to offer brunch on Sundays. “We’ll probably be open on days that everybody is closed,” Dixon said, and speculated that they will be open Mondays as well.
This article appears in February 2022.