Rich and Terri LoRusso met in a restaurant as teenagers and would go on to open their own restaurant, LoRusso’s, an institution on The Hill for 38 years. I sat down with Terri in her home, and she told me the bittersweet story of how she and her larger-than-life husband made it all happen.

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Peter Spoto opened the South City Diner on South Grand in 1992, and under his leadership, the diner thrived for 24 years. But Peter got his start in the restaurant business at the other end of the dining spectrum, working at high-end restaurants like Balaban’s and Fio’s La Fourchette.

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John and Anna Mineo opened John Mineo’s Italian Restaurant in West St. Louis County in 1973. John Mineo Jr. shared his family’s story when I interviewed him at his restaurant in November of 2023.

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Salim Hanna opened a Lebanese restaurant on South Grand in 1974. What followed was a career of almost 40 years in the restaurant business. I interviewed Salim at his home in Ballwin in May of 2023.

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Tony Pietoso’s Napoli restaurants are certainly not lost. In fact, Tony is making them easier to find, as he and his sons continue to expand their footprint in the greater St. Louis area and beyond.

But we don’t want the story of Tony growing up in Italy to be lost, or the winding road to his first small restaurant on South Bemiston in Clayton.

Tony told me that story as we sat in the backyard of his home in West County.

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Lia and Benedetto Buzzetta opened restaurants throughout St. Louis, including Benedetto's on Manchester and Benedetto's in Frontenac. Lia told her family's story at her restaurant in July of 2021.

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Wade and Lois DeWoskin owned Port St. Louis from 1960 to 1992. I visited with their son Tom and his wife Karen at their home in the Central West End, surrounded by relics from their parents’ restaurant.

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Legend has it that the Mother In Law House, at 500 South Main Street in St. Charles, was built in 1860, with one side for the owner and his wife, and the other side for his mother-in-law. But that was legend.

Donna Hafer purchased the Mother In Law House in 1981. I visited with Donna at her home in St. Charles in January of 2019. Along with her son, Bob, she told me the story of how she came to St. Charles from a small town in Illinois and fell in love with Main Street.

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Soulard's Restaurant and Bar was opened at the corner of Seventh and Soulard for almost forty years. Dan Badock told the story of his family’s restaurant over coffee in April of 2023.

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In 1978, Bob Mepham bought a small outdoor fish stand in the University City Loop. He called his new business Bob's Seafood. 

In 2005, Bob bought a building on Olive, just east of I-170, and moved Bob's Seafood to the western outskirts of University City. But University City forced Bob to close his doors in 2022.

I interviewed Bob Mepham about 2 weeks later.

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