RIP Zinnia
Apr 17, 2008 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants
Because it seems so many of you that read stlbites are somewhat new to the St. Louis area, and it was a restaurant that helped make it possible for us to enjoy the meals we do today, I didn’t want to forget to comment on the sad news Sauce reported in their Scoop a few weeks ago regarding Zinnia’s final dinner service.
Zinnia’s owner, David Guempel, like Zoe Robinson and Bill Cardwell, was one of the people responsible for helping to elevate the St. Louis dining scene throughout the eighties. After ten years helming the stoves at Cafe Balaban, and wanting to do his own thing, Guempel bought some space on the edge of Webster Groves and it was there that from 1990-2008 you could find what the locals endearingly referred to as the Purple Palace.
Admittedly it had been a long time since I’d eaten in Zinnia, and though I had never had a great meal, the meals were always enjoyable and consistently very good. That’s not meant to slight Guempel or Zinnia in any way as he himself said it best in a 1993 Gourmet Magazine interview:
I’m not trying to make my restaurant a trend-setting spot or yuppie watering hole. I want it to be known for consistently good meals, moderate prices, and a touch of elegance — white linens, fresh flowers, and candlelight.
For 18 years, with a staff that always seemed to know exactly how to make every diner feel at home, Zinnia succeeded in doing just that. To this day I still use their friendly service as the bar with which I measure my dining experiences and I wish I could have had those duck tacos one last time. They really were very good.
Tags: Bill Cardwell, David Guempel, Zinnia, Zoë Robinson
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