Since July, Chesterfield has picked up a vegetarian Indian restaurant, a hibachi and sushi house, a locally owned smash burger counter, a gelato and pastry shop, and the only Marble Slab Creamery in the St. Louis area. Korean fried chicken is expected on Clarkson Road within days. None of these places opened on the old mall site, which is still behind a construction fence. Every one of them moved into a storefront, a shopping center or an old restaurant building that was already there. Several come from operators who already run a location somewhere else.
That explains why the new spots are spread out the way they are. It also tells you which openings to expect next.
Three Addresses on One Stretch of Clarkson Road
Chesterfield's biggest cluster of new food this year sits on Clarkson Road, in a span of about a hundred street numbers.
Laddus, 1731 Clarkson Road. Ladue News put Laddus in its August openings roundup, filed under the July openings it had missed. The restaurant serves vegetarian Indian food for dine-in and takeout. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 9 p.m. every day except Tuesday, so plan a weekday lunch around that one closed day.
Ninja Japanese Sushi Bar & Steakhouse, 1737 Clarkson Road. It sits six street numbers away and appeared in the same August roundup. Ninja does sushi, steak and hibachi, and it bills its hibachi chefs as part of the show. That makes it the birthday-dinner option of the three.
bb.q Chicken, 1627 Clarkson Road. Sauce Magazine reported on October 13 that the Korean fried chicken chain expects to open here in late October or early November. As this post goes up, the restaurant hasn't announced an exact date. Assume it's still coming until the doors open.
The newest of the three is an expansion. St. Louis Magazine's October tracker lists the Clarkson Road bb.q as the brand's second location in the metro area. The chain was founded in South Korea in 1995, and Sauce says the company is also planning a Kansas City-area location. Alicia Jang of bb.q Chicken told Sauce that the company "saw an opportunity to bring authentic Korean fried chicken to an area where there is growing interest in Korean food and culture."
What to Order When bb.q Opens
Jang gave Sauce a first-visit order. Start with Golden Original, which has no sauce, so you taste the chicken itself. Then add Honey Garlic or Secret Sauce, plus a couple of the Korean sides. Sauce describes the four signature flavors this way:
- Golden Original: crispy coating, no sauce
- Honey Garlic: sweet and savory
- Secret Sauce: sweet and tangy
- Spicy Galbi: Korean barbecue flavor with heat
The menu also has Ddeok Bokki, a spicy rice cake dish, along with Kimchi Fried Rice and So Ddeok So Ddeok, a skewer of rice cakes and sausage. Jang says the menu is built for sharing, so this is a good place to bring a group and order a mix.
The District Got a Bakery That Also Supplies Its Neighbors
The best-known opening of the season is a few miles from Clarkson, at 17089 N. Outer 40 Road in The District. Dolce Napoli opened September 2. When St. Louis Magazine summed up September, it counted seven closures and 21 openings across the whole metro. It named Dolce Napoli as one of three standout openings, next to a Fox Park bistro and the area's second CAVA.
Dolce Napoli is a new concept from the Napoli Group, the Pietoso family's restaurant group, and pastry chef Meaghan Coltrain oversees it. St. Louis Magazine's opening story describes gelato, Italian pastries, cookies, house-baked bread, sandwiches and coffee. The shop also bakes bread and desserts for the group's other restaurants. That makes it two things at once. It's a counter where you can grab gelato after a show, and it's a production kitchen for a company that was already in business.
This is the same pattern as Clarkson Road. A group with existing restaurants put its newest idea into a development that was already built, so it didn't have to wait on new construction.
Dessert Has Been the Busiest Category
Put the summer and fall openings side by side and sweets come up more than anything else.
Marble Slab Creamery held its soft opening on August 20 at 128 Hilltown Village Center. Sauce Magazine reports that owner Aasia Langrial runs the franchise with her husband. It's currently the only Marble Slab in the St. Louis area, serving made-to-order ice cream, waffle cones, shakes, smoothies and cakes. The same story says the owners are working to add Great American Cookies before winter. No opening has been announced, so for now cookies are on the way, not on the menu.
Add Dolce Napoli's gelato counter, and Chesterfield has gained two dedicated frozen dessert shops since late summer. Both opened in shopping centers that were already operating.
The One Brand-New Operator
Hanjo's Smashed Burgers is the exception. It opened July 4 at 41 Forum Shopping Center. STL.News described it in August as locally owned, with no earlier location mentioned. The menu is short: made-to-order smash burgers, fries, loaded fries, onion rings and milkshakes.
Even so, Hanjo's fits the pattern on location. It moved into an established shopping center, not a new building.
Openings at a Glance
Here's where each place stood as of St. Louis Magazine's early-October tracker and Sauce's October 13 report. The status column reflects those reports. It doesn't confirm hours or opening days since then.
| Spot | Address | What it serves | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hanjo's Smashed Burgers | 41 Forum Shopping Center | Smash burgers, loaded fries, shakes | Opened July 4 |
| Laddus | 1731 Clarkson Road | Vegetarian Indian | Opened, listed with July openings |
| Ninja Japanese Sushi Bar & Steakhouse | 1737 Clarkson Road | Sushi, steak, hibachi | Opened, August roundup |
| Marble Slab Creamery | 128 Hilltown Village Center | Ice cream, shakes, cakes | Soft opened August 20 |
| Dolce Napoli | 17089 N. Outer 40 Road, The District | Gelato, pastry, bread, sandwiches | Opened September 2 |
| bb.q Chicken | 1627 Clarkson Road | Korean fried chicken | Expected late October or early November |
| Great American Cookies at Marble Slab | 128 Hilltown Village Center | Cookies | Planned before winter |
| Yummy Bowl Mongolian Stir Fry & Sushi | 17308 Chesterfield Airport Road | Mongolian stir fry, sushi | Planned for late 2026 |
The Next Opening Is Going Into an Old Red Robin
St. Louis Magazine's tracker has Yummy Bowl Mongolian Stir Fry & Sushi moving into the former Red Robin at 17308 Chesterfield Airport Road, with a target of late 2026. The same tracker has a second Yummy Bowl going into a former Red Robin in Edwardsville, Illinois, on the same timeline. That's an operator growing in two places at once, using dining rooms another chain already built out.
The big redevelopment site is still graded dirt, and the city keeps adding places to eat through second locations, expansions by established groups, and empty restaurant buildings that get a new tenant. A closed restaurant on Chesterfield Airport Road or an empty bay on Clarkson is more likely to bring the next opening than anything going up at the mall site this year.
For the next few weeks, check in on 1627 Clarkson Road for bb.q Chicken and on Hilltown Village Center for the Great American Cookies counter. Keep the old Red Robin on Chesterfield Airport Road in mind for later this year.
A new restaurant moving into the empty storefront down the road changes how your part of Chesterfield looks to people driving through, buyers included. If you're curious how this season's changes show up in your home's value, Bliss Homes can help, from pricing to how to present the house when it's time to list. Get Your Instant Home Valuation and see where your home stands this fall.
