22
CAFE
[REVIEW]
Zen and the Art of Sandwich Making Zenwich offers soul-satisfying surprises at every turn Written by
CHERYL BAEHR Zenwich 8 1/2 South Euclid Avenue, 314-833-3165. Open every day 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
C
hai Ploentham wants you to think of his restaurant, enwich, as a deli first and foremost. That’s not difficult to do when you open your bag and pull out a beautifully butcher-paper-wrapped sandwich, sliced in half, and begin to tear into its contents. Crusty ciabatta bread adorned with mayo-dressed chiffonade lettuce makes you think, at first glance, that you’re about to enjoy an East Coast-style hoagie. owever, the first bite makes you realize this is something entirely different. Instead of the typical deli cold cuts, you’re greeted with the subtle crunch of battered shrimp and garlicky bread crumbs. And the lettuce is no iceberg but instead a verdant mix of peppery arugula and cilantro, all dressed in a sweet chili sauce aioli. There are echoes of both a banh mi and a shrimp po’boy, making you unable to pinpoint exactly what genre of food you’re eating. Whether it’s a deli, a PanAsian café or a fusion fast-casual spot doesn’t matter — which is exactly the sort of boundary-transcending experience Ploentham was going for. Ploentham recognized Zenwich’s potential to reframe how we think about delis the moment he walked into the original location in Elmhurst, Illinois, about four years ago. He had just moved
22
RIVERFRONT TIMES
A sampling of the menu: vegan ramen, spicy garlic shrimp quinoa bowl, crispy chicken gyoza, mentaiko ramen and basil crab cake wrap. | MABEL SUEN to Chicagoland for his wife’s job and was taking in the area’s food scene when he happened upon the small, quick-service restaurant. True to his nature, he got to talking with the owner about how much he enjoyed the food and continued those conversations as he became a Zenwich regular. ventually, the owner confided that he was looking to sell the restaurant and wondered if Ploentham had any interest in buying it. Seeing his chance to take a successful concept and grow it into a multi-outlet brand, he agreed and took over that original Elmhurst spot in 2018. This was not the first time loentham had been approached to buy a restaurant. In fact, the first time it happened was the push that sent him down the path to becoming a restaurateur. A Bangkok native who came to St. Louis for college, Ploentham began working in a restaurant to make some money and fell in love with the business — so much that when he was finished with school, he decided to go into the business full time. That job, with Sen Thai, took him to Las Vegas for a year, and when he returned to St. Louis, he decided that he was ready to open
JUNE 23-29, 2021
riverfronttimes.com
a place of his own. While in Las Vegas, he had the idea for an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant and figured it would work well in St. Louis. He opened that space in 2008 and found a good amount of success in it. However, he was eager to learn all that he could about the restaurant business and reached out to the owner of the neighboring Japanese restaurant, Seki, to see if he could stage during the day to expand his knowledge. The owner agreed, and before he knew it, Ploentham became an integral part of the Seki team — so integral that when the owner decided he wanted to sell the restaurant, he offered Ploentham the chance to buy it. Ploentham closed his all-youcan-eat sushi restaurant and bought Seki in 2011, converting it into the popular Japanese cuisine, ramen shop and cocktail spot Blue Ocean. Even after leaving for the Chicago suburbs four years ago, he continued to run the restaurant, traveling back to St. Louis several times a month to keep everything on track. Because he was in town so frequently and was familiar with the area, it made sense that he’d eye
St. ouis as the first place to expand Zenwich. In January 2020, he signed a lease for a storefront in the Central West End and was prepared to open in April until the COVID-19 pandemic upended his plans. Even so, he needed to pay rent on the space, so he decided to open in June of last year and make as good a go of it as he could. It turned out that Zenwich was the perfect template for pandemic dining. The restaurant is fastcasual, set up to do delivery and carryout, and even used QR codes for ordering as part of its model before they became ubiquitous. Ploentham admits it hasn’t been easy — the restaurant is getting busier by the day, and he’s even preparing to start licensing the brand — but he believes in what he is doing because he believes in the product. The aforementioned Spicy Garlic Shrimp sandwich is proof of why he’s so bullish about the Zenwich brand — and it’s far from the only piece of evidence. The menu is comprised of similarly global-in uenced sandwiches that inspire double takes because of all of the uni ue avors going Continued on pg 23
