A bar and a bistro are both headed to south St. Louis City. Opening today at 3819 Meramec St., in the Dutchtown neighborhood is Sonny’s Saloon. The bar at Sonny’s, open Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., is stocked with standard booze items while a limited food menu that’s set to launch this Friday will include pizza from Eovaldi’s Deli on The Hill, brats and ballpark franks. Sonny’s will also feature a couple of Lebanese dishes, thanks to one of the bar’s partners, Amanda Leisure Wicker, who is Lebanese. Along with meat pies, Wicker shared her aunt’s recipe for a darned good kibbe, a dish of bulgur, minced meat and spices that is most often prepared like a croquette, stuffed with the grain and meat mixture, then deep fried.
Lebanese food will also make an appearance once a week at Wicker’s other soon-to-open establishment in South City: JJ’s Bistro. Located at 2718 Gravois Ave., near Lynch Street, JJ’s Bistro will offer some hearty fare for lunch and dinner: steaks, lamb chops, pastas, fried chicken, barbecue on Saturdays, and. in the not-too-distant-future, a breakfast buffet. The newly renovated space that was formerly home to Carmen’s Café boasts beautiful slate floors, a granite bar and custom woodwork. The target date for the grand opening is New Year’s Eve.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2010.