Fionna Gemzon moved round so much as a baby. Whereas St. Louis was the place she (largely) grew up, she traveled to cities like San Francisco and Omaha usually sufficient to seek for non-locational methods to determine a way of house and belonging. That’s the place meals got here in.
Born within the Philippines after which residing in predominantly white neighborhoods, Gemzon discovered that components much like these from her homeland offered a deeper sense of group. “Being away from household and from any acquainted comforts, meals felt like probably the most direct line again,” she says. So when Gemzon, who has labored in hospitality 12 years, had the chance to affix the group at Not one of the Above, a speakeasy-style cocktail lounge within the subterranean ranges of St. Louis’ Metropolis Foundry, she got here on board with all of her meals recollections and beforehand unsung concepts.
Because the bar supervisor and common supervisor, Gemzon is piling on the native reward. Her Filipino heritage evokes her tendency to lean on high-acid and sweet-sour flavors behind the bar, which additionally makes the bar’s Scantron-style cocktail questionnaire (for friends who wish to strive one thing new) significantly useful. The menu goals towards luxurious and technique-driven drinks whereas incorporating distinctive and nostalgic flavors. The Aranas cocktail combines a black pepper and bay leaf–infused rum with miso honey and calamansi lime purée to evoke the flavors of rooster adobo. Sharing her meals tradition is only one means that Gemzon is bringing new gentle to the once-dark tunnels of Metropolis Foundry.
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