Short Orders

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SHORT ORDERS

[ST. LOUIS STANDARDS]

Slice of Life

Opened in 1956, Frank & Helen’s Pizzeria is a St. Louis family tradition

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

When Rebecca Horvath wants to get across just how seriously she takes her role as a steward of the Frank & Helen’s Pizzeria legacy, she brings up the light fi tures. The jewel-toned, vintage Tiffany-style chandeliers have been casting a warm glow over the restaurant’s dining room for decades — through generations of diners, three ownership changes and the necessary updates to the old cinderblock building. On Horvath’s watch, that will never change.

“We’ve done updates, but this still looks like a 1970s pizzeria, and we want to keep it that way,” orvath says. The lights are e tra special. Even if we remodeled the entire place, we’d still keep the lights. I have my staff ask me what we’d do if there was a fire, and tell them that everyone needs to grab a light and run.”

Whether or not those chandeliers have been hanging at Frank & Helen’s since its beginnings in 1956 is one of those details lost to history. What is known is that the restaurant wasn’t started by Frank or Helen. Founded as Jule’s Pizza Place at the corner of Olive and Midland boulevards by Julius Seitz 65 years ago, the restaurant would undergo its name change when Julius sold the place to his brother, Frank, in 1959. Frank changed the name to Frank’s Pizza, but that would be short-lived; about a year later, he brought on his sister, Helen, as a partner, sealing the deal on the moniker for posterity.

Though there were several restaurants along that stretch of Olive Boulevard that catered to the area’s families and high school students, Frank & Helen’s became a favorite and quickly grew out of its space. Though the brother

“ e lights are extra special,” says owner Rebecca Horvath. Everything is proudly old school at Frank and Helen’s. “We make our pizze the old-fashioned way and haven’t changed our recipes,” she says. Over the decades, sitting down together as a family here has become a tradition that extends across generations. | ANDY PAULISSEN

The composition of the creamy garlic dressing is such a closely held secret that, for most of his tenure, Frank insisted he be the only one to make it so as not to give away his recipe.

and sister bought the adjacent storefront to e pand their dining room, it still wasn’t enough room, and they decided to look for larger digs. They never dreamed that would come in the form of a car wash, but when Frank happened upon the barebones building, he knew he’d found their spot. In no time, they blocked off the front and back car entrances, moved in the equipment and set up shop to open in 19 for their first guests to the restaurant’s current home at 8111 Olive Boulevard.

Frank and Helen owned the restaurant for 35 years, gaining a following for their pizza, steaks, broasted chicken and house creamy garlic dressing — which is such a closely held secret that, for most of his tenure, Frank insisted he be the only one to make it so as not to give away his recipe. He and Helen knew their guests by name, manning the front door and welcoming them in, oftentimes to the prearranged tables they’d denote with a black plastic “Reserved” placard. Their presence was a constant, so it was reassuring to longtime regulars that, when they were ready to retire, they sold the restaurant to one of their waitresses. She eventually sold it to a niversity City police o cer and his wife, who ran the place for about ten years before Horvath and her husband, Patrick, took over in 2008.

For the Horvaths, owning Frank & Helen’s is the realization of a dream that began under the prior owners in 2002. As orvath e plains, Patrick was best friends with the University City police officer who owned the restaurant and served as his manager when he needed e tra help. There was always the e pectation that he would eventually sell it to Patrick, and though there was a point when the Horvaths didn’t know if that would come true, he eventually handed over the reins, placing it into the hands of two people who he knew would take good care of such an institution.

“We try to stay true to our roots,” Horvath says. “We make our pizza the old-fashioned way and haven’t changed our recipes. We still make the crust, sauce, grind the cheese each day and make our own sausage from the original recipe. Even one of the ovens we have is still the original. We call it ‘Frank’ and the other one is ‘Helen 2.0.’ We had both originals until the original Helen gave out on us, but Frank is still original, and he’s the one we use when we have to cook a pizza on the fly because he’s the fastest.”

As firmly as they want to adhere to the old way of doing things, the Horvaths have made some changes that they feel make the restaurant better. Horvath admits it’s a balance, but she stands by their decision to get rid of the canned corn and green beans and frozen appetizers, even as those lessthan-ideal originals were hard for some regulars to let go. Despite those cries for the canned corn, though, they have earned the trust of the longtime guests who are happy that they can still bite into that ridiculously juicy broasted chicken — maybe dipped in some creamy garlic dressing — and share their joy with their children, and children’s children.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t have at least two people come in and tell us that they have been coming here for 40, 50 or 60 years,” Horvath says. “They tell us this is where their grandparents had their first date, and it’s cool to be a part of those family traditions. t definitely puts an added pressure on us that if we go under, we are taking someone’s family memories with us. We don’t want to fail, so it makes us heighten our game, because we know this is something that is supposed to be in St. Louis.” n

MARSH Grocery Cooperative opened on Saturday in the city’s Carondelet neighborhood. | COURTESY OF MARSH GROCERY COOPERATIVE

[FOOD NEWS]

MARSH Grocery Co-Op Tackles Food Insecurity

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

St. Louis’ Carondelet neighborhood is now home to a brick-and-mortar, community-owned grocery store. The new project, MARSH Grocery Cooperative (6917 South Broadway), celebrated its grand opening Saturday, with the vision of addressing the intersection of food justice and social justice.

Described as a way to bridge the gap “between ecologically sound, nutrientdense foods and affordability,” MARSH Grocery Cooperative will operate on a sliding-scale model whereby shoppers pay what they can afford. According to Beth Neff, one of the worker-owners and MARSH’s founder, the store will increase accessibility of nutritious and environmentally friendly food, both geographically and financially.

“Food insecurity is a big issue, but there are so many other issues that prevent people from eating nutrient-dense food or from having a plot of land to farm,” Neff says. “People choose the food they choose because of extremely complex, interrelated issues. Here, we are trying to see what happens when we build our own grassroots food system from bare bones. We want to envision and try to build it rather than going off of default models of how things are done.”

As Neff explains, the idea for MARSH (which stands for Materializing and Activating Radical Social Habitus) originated with her and her daughter, who were looking for a way to connect Neff’s background in food-based social practices with her daughter’s interest in cultural arts. Their ideas coalesced once they found a building in Carondelet that — though in need of serious rehabilitation — seemed like the perfect place to establish their multifaceted cooperative that would consist of a diner, grocery store and online shop. However, after taking over the building in 2019, they encountered serious setbacks, including the pandemic and a massive basement flood that destroyed expensive heating and water systems. That forced them to reassess what they were able to offer initially.

“We had to switch gears that first year and start with the grocery cooperative, because that was the piece that made the most sense,” Neff explains. “We developed an online catalogue, connected with suppliers and opened the cooperative about two weeks before the COVID shutdown, which really honed our focus.”

In addition to running the online food co-op during the pandemic, MARSH partnered with local food pantries and St. Louis Mutual Aid to provide grocer-

R.I.P. Chef Ma

St. Louis mourns the death of the legendary owner of Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

The St. Louis food scene has lost one of its greats: Chef Ying Jing Ma, known as “Chef Ma,” died on August 5. Ma leaves behind a legion of fans who came to know him for his culinary prowess over the years, most recently at his Overland restaurant, Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet (10440 Page Avenue, Overland; 314-395-8797).

A representative of Chef Ma’s Chinese ourmet confirmed a’s passing to the Riverfront Times, though they did not offer any details out of respect for his family. The representative emphasized that the restaurant has continued to operate since Ma’s passing and that, even in their grief, his employees are committed to continuing his legacy and plan to keep the restaurant open, as he would have wanted.

A veteran chef with numerous accolades (including his most prized award for a version of Iron Chef in Austin, Texas), Ma was known for his broad appeal to both diners in search of outstanding Chinese American fare as well as those looking for traditional Chinese dishes. He got his start more than 40 years ago in his native Hong Kong with Marriott Hotels and opened properties for the brand around the globe in such locations as Singapore, Malaysia, Hawaii, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ma arrived in St. Louis in the early 1990s to work for Mandarin House, where he ran the iconic restaurant’s massive banquet operation for several decades.

In 2015, Ma struck out on his own, opening an unassuming restaurant, Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet, in a former Taco Bell in Overland. There, he gained a reputation for everything from his outstanding fish stew which wasn’t always on the menu, but when it wasn’t, he would bring it out on request) to twice-cooked pork, black pepper beef, pumpkin brown butter shrimp and his house speciality, Hainan chicken. is mastery of flavor and fierce commitment to perfection was evident in everything he did, even in ubiquitous American-style dishes like hot braised chicken and Mongolian beef, whose sauces he insisted on cooking from scratch. Even when he moved the restaurant to its current location in Overland just a few months ago, he never wavered from his commitment to putting his best into everything he did.

Joel Crespo, owner of Guerrilla Street Food and regular guest at Chef Ma’s Gourmet Cuisine, remembers Ma as one of the best cooks in town and an unsung genius in the city’s food scene.

“He was so ambitious and a beast of a cook,” Crespo says. “He had two menus — one more of your traditional Chinese takeout menu and one that was more authentic Chinese — and no matter whether he was doing orange chicken and crab Rangoon or Hainan chicken and pumpkin shrimp, he would execute it with the same perfection and consistency, and he would nail it every time. It was always fresh, and I feel like he did it so effortlessly. Living where I live, there are hundreds of great Chinese restaurants with varying styles, and as much as I love so many of them, anytime someone would ask where was a good Chinese place to go, I’d always recommend Chef Ma’s.”

For Crespo, Ma’s greatness extended beyond his talents as a chef.

“Every time you went there, it was him touching all the food and doing all of the cooking, no matter what day of the week it was,” Crespo says. “He’d always be doing five things — flipping woks and plating up dishes — but he would see you, and he would be personable and remember you and remember details of your life. I will remember that level of kindness. He wasn’t just a masterful cook; he was a kind person.”

Crespo also knows that kindness extended to the staff at Chef Ma’s.

“My heart goes out to his family and to the people at the restaurant,” Crespo says. “It seemed like they were a close-knit group, and I know how that is — whether they are actual family or restaurant family, that’s a special relationship, and I know how much they are hurting. I wish them strength and peace.”

A visitation for Ma was held on Wednesday, August 18, at Valhalla Cemetery and Funeral Chapel. As for the restaurant, it continues to operate with its normal hours, and his staff plans to do so indefinitely. Though grief-stricken, the representative from the restaurant explains that it is the best way they know to honor the man who dedicated his life to making the world a more delicious place. n

MARSH

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ies and prepared foods to those in the area who were struggling to find and buy food. Through their work, they made connections with other organizations in town and learned a lot about how several different issues like employment, housing and food insecurity were affecting people in the community. Based on what they observed, they wrote a grant to the USDA’s Healthy Food Funding Initiative and were awarded funds that would allow them to launch their brick-and-mortar operation to address these issues.

As Neff explains, the MARSH Grocery Cooperative will function like a traditional grocery store in the sense that anyone can come in and shop for a variety of products, including produce grown on the property’s vegetable garden, meat and prepared foods. Instead of prices, shelves will be labeled with how much each item costs the cooperative to provide; when shoppers head to the checkout, they will be given the option to pay what they can, whether that means more or less than the labeled amount.

“The point of the sliding scale is that if you are only looking at things like quality and less environmental impact, say with grass-fed beef for instance, it may be better quality, have less fat and have less impact, but those things don’t mean anything to you if you only have a certain amount of money in your pocket or on your EBT card,” Neff says. “Our hope is that getting quality food will help improve your family’s well-being, and you can decide for yourself how much that is worth to you and what you can afford.”

Though you do not have to be a member of the MARSH co-op to shop at the store, Neff hopes that people will join and they’re offering several ways to do so, including purchasing a one-time $100 membership, donating time and becoming an automatic member after shopping at the store ten times. As she explains, members are what make up the cooperative and get to vote on board members as well as help craft the organization’s mission.

“We’re just so excited about this being a place of mutual benefit for workers, producers and consumers,” Neff says. “We’re ready to tell everybody that we’re here.” n

Chef Ying Jing Ma was a favorite of diners but also of other chefs in St. Louis. | MABEL SUEN Chef Ma will be remembered for his outstanding restaurant and otherworldly cooking prowess. | MABEL SUEN