Zoe

Zoe Elizabeth Houk was born in St. Louis in 1958. She grew up in Crestwood with her parents and her two older sisters, Belinda and Carrie. Her parents ― Jean and Billie Houk ― both worked for Union Electric; her father was an executive and her mother was an accountant.
 

Billie and Jean Houk - May 13th, 1950

Zoe's father died of cancer on August 30, 1964 at the age of 43.

My family felt like we were outcasts after my dad died. I was 5 years old, and there were no single-parent homes on the block. It was rough to be square pegs in round holes. My mom had that whole "Doris Day thing" going on — beautiful and soft, yet tough. Other women saw her as a threat, and even I wouldn’t have wanted to be her neighbor.

Belinda Houk, 1968 Carrie Houk, 1970 Zoe Houk, 1975

After graduating from Lindbergh High School, Zoe attended classes at Meramec and Forest Park community colleges.

I was in college, early days of college, and I got a job in a restaurant. I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the money; I fell in love with the camaraderie; I fell in love with the idea of learning service and learning cocktails and learning wine and learning food.

I found it so much more engaging than school. I found myself not going to class and picking up more shifts and working more. The job made me happy and I was really good at it, so I gave up on college.

Zoe's first job as a waitress was at The Loft on Mason Road.

I got a job at a chain-restaurant in West County called The Loft. I was 18 years old when they hired me, and I was thrilled — I made barrels of money. If you come from working at Famous-Barr, making minimum wage, to all of a sudden being a tipped employee, you think, "Oh my god, I’m a millionaire!" So it was the money that drew me, but, also, it immediately clicked with me and I was good at it.

I worked there for a while. My sister Belinda was going to Wash U. at the time. We got an apartment in the Central West End and I started working at another place with her; it was this grungy bar called H. Brown’s, on Laclede. It was really something. They had a house band and it was very bohemian. I was even under age, and they put me behind the bar, so I was like a 19-year-old bartender, but it was fun.

Then H. Brown’s closed, and we went to work for Caleco’s down the street. I was a server there. We both got into management and really lived in that restaurant — late, late nights and hard, hard work. But we had fun, being in the West End, being young, not having too many responsibilities.

The Ladle followed, and at each restaurant Zoe learned a little more about the business. In 1981, she moved on again ― to the Empire Cafe in Lafayette Square.
 

The Empire Cafe and Charcuterie, 1923 Park Avenue

In May of 1980, Jill Mead and Susan Vaughn opened The Empire Cafe and Charcuterie at 1923 Park Avenue. The Empire menu included soups, salads and sandwiches. The most popular item was the chicken salad, described by Joe Pollack in his March 12, 1981 St. Louis Post-Dispatch review.

Everything at the Empire is presented with style and grace, and the chicken salad is, quite simply, the best in the area. The sandwich is huge, and the large chunks of chicken are delightfully flavored. The combination of chicken salad and large portion made for a bit of a messiness, but it’s well worth it.

Zoe Houk had waited tables at the Empire Cafe for about a year when she was pegged to manage Empire's new venture, the Shell Empire Cafe, which opened in August of 1982 in the renovated Shell Building at 13th and Locust.

However, all was not well at the Empire, as Mead and Vaughn clashed over how to run the business. The turmoil led to the closure of the Lafayette Square restaurant in December of 1982, shocking the Empire's enthusiastic customer base.

Zoe, who was still managing Empire's restaurant in the Shell building, was at the right place at the right time.

It was a fluke. I was working for these two women and they were highly successful. They hated each other and they wound up suing each other. And the restaurant closed.

That was right when Lafayette Square was just getting going and they really needed that restaurant there. It was helping build their community. John Ferring owned the building and told me he'd lend me the money to take it over. I think it was $18,000 but it felt like a million to me.

So it just worked out. I was 23 years old.

In February of 1983, Zoe took over the Lafayette Square space with her partner, Steve Robinson, who she had met a few years earlier when the two were working at Caleco's.

We had to quit our jobs to work on the place. So we practically had to live there.

Cafe Zoe opened its doors four months later, on June 1, 1983.

Cafe Zoe, 1923 Park Avenue

While it was the place that Jill Mead and Susan Vaughn had built, Cafe Zoe took on an identity of its own.

Seating was available in two large rooms. The space became more sleek and less cute, losing its bay window. Light from the storefront's large windows shone on the interior's muted grays, charcoals and off-whites. Local artists were invited to hang their works on the restaurant's stark white walls.
 

Cafe Zoe Dining Room - 1923 Park Avenue
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov 7, 1988

All was not perfect at the start. Within a week after opening, Zoe fired both her chef and her restaurant consultant.

We were too scared to make all the decisions ourselves, and probably afraid to rely on our instincts, but we realized right away that it wasn’t going to work. The menu wasn’t right, and the chef was into high-prep foods with sauces. We wanted things simple.

And I’ll tell you, if the chef and consultant had stayed, we wouldn’t have made it. Our concepts were totally different.

Zoe hired new cooks and redesigned the menu. One of those cooks was Laotian born Ny Vongsaly, who had worked with her at the Empire Cafe.

Though never professionally trained as a chef, Vongsaly learned about food by watching his mother and sisters. He picked up their techniques and traditional Laotian recipes well enough to impress Zoe and his other co-workers at the Empire.

After a few months at Cafe Zoe, Vongsaly became the restaurant's executive chef, creating a menu of dishes influenced by the food he'd grown up eating in Laos, as well as what he concocted while experimenting at home.

Vongsaly would eventually leave Cafe Zoe for Modesto, California to reconnect with his brother and sister. But he would reconnected with Zoe in 1998 in an enduring partnership that would take him to James Beard semifinalist status.
 

Ny Vongsaly (left), 9th Street Abbey
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar 5, 1993

Zoe expanded the Empire menu and the dishes became more bountiful. She adding her longtime dream, Oriental Chicken Salad. Most of the changes were directed at attracting a new clientele — men in general, and business people in particular. As the Empire Cafe, the restaurant had a reputation as the kingdom of chicken salad and the mecca of the ladies who lunch. Zoe began attracting a broader clientele.

Lunch was served Monday through Saturday. The lunch menu included soup of the day, two or three appetizers, five salads and seven entrees, some of which were sandwiches.

The chicken salad, which built the Empire Cafe's reputation, remained on the menu. Whether ordered as a sandwich with homemade white bread or alone atop lettuce, it set the standard for chicken salad in the city.

Dinner was served on Friday and Saturday nights only. Entrees included broiled chicken sprinkled with rosemary and lemon juice, baked Cornish hen with apricot brandy sauce, chilled broiled beef tenderloin with mustard sauce, sautéed shrimp in pesto sauce, and broiled salmon filet with citrus butter. Salads, sandwiches and appetizers were carried over from the lunch menu.

Special dishes came and went and then came back again, if they were favorites. One that appeared periodically was asparagus wrapped in prosciutto, served with vinaigrette.
 

Cafe Zoe Lunch Menu, 1984
(click image to enlarge)
Cafe Zoe's Oriental Chicken Salad
St. Louis Magazine, 1984

Cafe Zoe was a success from day one. Crowds flocked to the little restaurant to enjoy the fresh, simply prepared food. Zoe's restaurant was one of the top places in town "to be seen." Food critics loved her food and the media loved Zoe.

We had a very interesting clientele. Mr.Joseph Pulitzer came in — he was a real regular there — and Jerry Berger and Karen Foss. It was a real "media place."

Eni Liu, Zoe Houk, and Lucy Bommarito
"Restaurant Women" - St. Louis Dining, 1985

Zoe Houk and Steve Robinson were married on October 17, 1987 in Taos, New Mexico after an eight-year courtship. The wedding took place before a justice of the peace and two 9-year-old girls who were summoned from a nearby playground by the couple to serve as witnesses.
 

Steve Robinson and Zoe Houk
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 16, 1984

In a June 12, 1990 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, Jerry Berger reported that the Robinsons had sold their Lafayette Square restaurant to Richard Cole who would rename it Park Avenue Cafe. Berger went on to report that the Robinsons were moving Cafe Zoe to Clayton.

Cafe Zoe opened at 12 North Meramec in November of 1990. According to Zoe, the location in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the city was where she had always pictured herself.

I wanted to be in the mainstream. People drop in now who never would have found us before.

The new restaurant was more spacious. It was bathed in cool grays and whites, with French blue art deco lamps. Colorful contemporary paintings hung on the walls over black and white striped booths. Gray carpeting imprinted with pale gray leaves covered the floor. Wide windows overlooking Meramec added to the light, airy atmosphere. One constant was a cheerful greeting from Zoe, who was almost always on hand.
 

Cafe Zoe Dining Room - 12 North Meramec

Along with lunch, dinner was now served six days a week. There were more Italian touches to the menu, with a selection of pizzas and pastas. Pizzas were topped with salmon, capers, dill and mascarpone; plum tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and pine nuts; eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, basil and fontinella; or shrimp, pesto, fennel, black olives and ricotta.

There was also a risotto, which changed daily. The risotto with spinach, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes and fontinella was a favorite.
 

Partial Cafe Zoe Dinner Menu, 1991

In October of 1997, it was announced that Zoe was again on the move. She and Steve Robinson had parted ways and sold their restaurant at 12 North Meramec to Mike Johnson, who would open Cafe Mira in the space.

We sold Clayton because we got divorced. It seemed the only fair way to split it.

But Zoe did not divorce herself from the restaurant business.

It's such a creative outlet for me to be able to spread my wings and do something different with another storefront. It's just who I am.

Restaurants just clicked with me right away. I'm a naturally creative person, and just being able to do that every day — write menus, make the place look good, nurture the staff — it's just what I'm supposed to do.

On January 28, 1998, Zoe Pan-Asian Cafe opened on the corner of McPherson and Euclid in the Central West End.
 

Zoe Pan-Asian Cafe, 4753 McPherson
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar 26, 1998

The idea for Pan-Asian cuisine was inspired by the Thai and Laotian employees who had worked for Zoe in Lafayette Square. Rhonda Nugent, who had been the executive chef at Cafe Zoe, moved into the same position at Zoe's new restaurant.

We realize we're two white girls, but we did our research. Rhonda went to school in San Francisco, and she also went back recently to confer with Asian friends about our menu.

But, Zoe wasn't content with "two white girls" in her Pan-Asian kitchen. Ny Vongsaly, who had returned from California, was working with Patty Long Catering. By the end of the year, Zoe had lured him back as her executive chef.
 

Rhonda Nugent, 1996

Zoe Pan-Asian had a sleek Asian decor. Black wood tables and chairs contrasted with white walls and light wood floors. Pillows in shades of curry, lime and purple lined the black window seats, and white paper Japanese lanterns hung from the ceiling. Candles in tall glasses wrapped in Asian joss paper illuminated the tables, as well as the wall behind the long bar.

Zoe's Asian-accented food was flavored with fresh mint, basil and cilantro, as well as dried cardamom, cloves, cumin and Sichuan pepper.

No MSG here. What you are getting are layers of flavors, with fish sauce and sweet chili sauce, things not in most pantries.

This is a casual restaurant. Some at a table might be having cocktails and a whole plate of appetizers, and others, a bowl of noodles before a movie. And it's easy to split things.

The highlight of the appetizers was the tempura-fried calamari with lime-soy dipping sauce. Among the entrees, grilled Thai beef with spicy cucumbers and sticky rice was a standout. A favorite dessert was roasted bananas with a bit of coconut-crème anglaise.
 

1998 Zoe Pan-Asian Menu
(click image to enlarge)
1999 Zoe Pan-Asian Menu
(click image to enlarge)

After Zoe Pan-Asian had been opened for about two years, Zoe decided to return to Clayton.

I had just been to Italy and I knew that I had to have a tiny Italian restaurant. I took my chef back to Italy with me. We took cooking classes. We wanted to try to capture those trattorias in Italy.

Zoe and her Pan-Asian chef, Ny Vongsaly, spent two weeks cooking in a chef's kitchen just outside of Florence. Their goal was to return to St. Louis and open a rosticceria ― an informal Italian cafe and market.

Zoe found a storefront space on Wydown which had housed Davis Electronics for many years, and then a children's theater.

Everyone told me that it's too tiny. You will never be able to make it. There aren't enough seats. You won't be able to turn enough tables. And I thought, it's just such a jewel. It's like walking into a little jewel box.

Zoe opened her rosticceria at 7624 Wydown Boulevard in Clayton on November 28, 2001. She called it I Fratellini, Italian for "the little brothers," named for her young sons, Spencer and Eli.
 

I Fratellini, 7624 Wydown Boulevard

The intimate space accommodated a dozen marble-top tables for 40 diners. Maroon-and-gold striped banquettes backed up to an exposed brick wall, lined with large mirrors. The mirrors, along with French doors facing the street, gave the place an airy feel. Overhead fixtures resembled bouquets of light bulbs suspended from black wires. Tables were adorned with red roses and clear wine bottles, which served as water pitchers.

A small bar with five stools was at the far end of the restaurant. A glass display case just beyond a tiny waiting area showed off desserts and Italian specialty products, available for carryout.
 

I Fratellini Dining Room

Ny Vongsaly divided his time between Clayton and the Central West End. Though he'd never really cooked Italian food, his culinary trip to Italy made him realize how much it had in common with Laotian cuisine.

Italian food is so similar to Asian food. Dumplings are stuffed pasta; we both use a lot of noodles.

Ny Vongsaly in the kitchen at I Fratellini

I Fratellini served both lunch and dinner. The lunch menu started out relatively simple, with four choices each of antipasto, salad, pasta and panini. The sirloin and gorgonzola panini was a signature dish.
 

2013 I Fratellini Lunch Menu
(click image to enlarge)

Grilled prosciutto-wrapped Belgian endive was a popular starter at dinner. There was a large list of pastas, most of them homemade. Roasted trout topped with slices of prosciutto and sage was a favorite entree.
 

Grilled Prosciutto-Wrapped Belgian Endive
2013 I Fratellini Dinner Menu
(click image to enlarge)

Zoe was hands-on at I Fratellini ― as she was at all of her restaurants.

I work Monday-to-Friday lunch at I Fratellini, and I’m part of the team. I help take orders, serve and bus the tables. I’m not one of those people who wants to hang back at the bar and direct people.

Once every three weeks I come to I Fratellini as a customer. It’s really, really hard to sit on my hands, but it’s really good to get the perspective of the customer. It’s interesting to see the product we work so hard to create from the table. It’s really fun.

Zoe working at I Fratellini

In October of 2007, it was announced that Zoe was selling her Pan-Asian restaurant in the Central West End to Scott Clark, who had worked as a chef at Cafe Zoe in Clayton. He reopened it under the name Sapphire Pan-Asian.

But by October of 2008, Zoe had opened another restaurant ― Bobo Noodle House.

With Pan-Asian, the rent was getting high; that’s part of the factor. So when you have a buyer and you feel like you need a new project, why not? And we also had the idea to do Bobo. Bobo really is the best of Zoe Pan-Asian — a smaller version that wouldn’t be so time-consuming, labor-intensive and rent-heavy.

Bobo Noodle House, 278 North Skinker Boulevard

Bobo Noodle House was on Skinker Boulevard, across from the Washington University campus. Its narrow storefront space was anchored by a laminated "wood box" which housed the kitchen and order counter. A curving black banquette offered seating for about 30 diners on the opposite wall. Light fixtures featured dozens of fluttering pieces of paper with fortune cookie-style messages.

Counter service was the methodology for both dine-in and takeout dining. A robust delivery service was also provided, with most of the recipients Washington University students.
 

Bobo Noodle House Dining Room

Chef Ny Vongsaly blended noodle traditions from all over Asia. Some of his menu items were carryovers from Cafe Zoe and Zoe Pan-Asian, including the Asian barbecued spare ribs, a signature appetizer. The vegetable dumpling pho was a popular dish, particularly on a cold winter day. Heading the list of entrees was lemongrass beef with spicy cucumbers and chilled sesame noodles. Grilled curried chicken with roasted peanut sauce and seared egg noodles was also a favorite.
 

Vegetable Dumpling Pho
 
Lemongrass Beef
 
2010 Bobo Noodle House Menu
(click image to enlarge)
Bobo Noodle House
Delivery Service

In the summer of 2011, the Wydown Shoe Service ― across the street from Zoe's I Fratellini ― closed its doors.

I would go in and I would say, "Mr. Cerulo." He was the shoe repair man. "Are you thinking about retiring soon?" He was like 80-something years old. He was there forever and his father was there forever. And then I would be in touch with the landlord all the time. "If Mr. Cerulo ever wants to retire, I would love that space."

Zoe leased the space and transformed the small shoe repair into a French bistro. She debuted Bar Les Frères in November of 2012.

It means "the brothers" in French. I Fratellini means "the little brothers" in Italian, which refers to my sons, but they’re not little anymore. So they’re both named for my sons.

Bar Les Frères, 7637 Wydown Boulevard

Zoe had intended Bar Les Frères to be a waiting area for her guests at I Fratellini.

I wanted to complement I Fratellini, which is right across the street. Bar Les Frères will be a very tiny place. I Fratellini is tiny, and this is going to make it look roomy. It will have 24 to 28 seats and another 24 on a patio. The reason I’m calling it "Bar" is for people stopping by before or after dinner for a drink or for a little dessert. It won’t be a serious restaurant with reservations; it will be a come-as-you-are kind of place.

But Bar Les Frères did indeed become a serious restaurant. After it had been open for just over a year, Zoe expanded the space by incorporating the vacant storefront next door, nearly doubling the capacity.

It just blossomed. I still think the menu is bigger than I want it to be. I wanted it to just be Bellinis and caviar and paté and a little Gruyere and simple, simple. But it is a nice restaurant and very romantic and quirky.

Bar Les Frères had the appearance of an elegant Paris bistro. Its red walls were adorned with gold-framed antique portraits. Its tables were white marble and illuminated by tea lights. Its seats were comfortable settees and elegant armchairs.

An inviting bar provided the focal point of the restaurant, with soft lighting, an antique mirror and an array of antlers. A large picture window showcased the tree-lined street outside.
 

Bar Les Frères Dining Room

Ny Vongsaly handled executive-chef duties at Bar Les Frères, in addition to I Fratellini and BoBo Noodle House. His French bistro fare included soufflés, blinis, patés, confits and cassoulets.
 

2019 Bar Les Frères Menu
(click image to enlarge)
Potato Blinis with
Crème Fraiche and Caviar

In December of 2015, Zoe announced she had sold Bobo Noodle House to Kary Lockwood, a longtime friend and former employee. She also announced she was working on a new restaurant project in the same neighborhood as I Fratellini and Bar Les Frères.

I call it "on campus." I really want to take my time and make it perfect. The location is something I've been coveting for a long time and it's finally happening.

The space, a few doors east of I Fratellini, had been a frozen yogurt store. But the transformed space would not be serving yogurt ― or Italian or French.

I want that Studio 54 feel, sexy and intriguing. I want you to be a little bit bad there.

Zoe named her new restaurant in honor of her mother and father. Billie-Jean opened on December 21, 2017.
 

Billie-Jean, 7610 Wydown Boulevard

Zoe's new restaurant was draped in a monochromatic veneer, from the matte black entryway to the black-on-black interior motif. The shotgun-style space featured a black ceiling, ebony paneling and black banquettes, with black-and-white Robert Motherwell prints on the wall. Carved walnut chairs and curved walnut bar stools provided contrast.

There’s a formality to it, but it’s also very laid back. We have an open bar and an open kitchen, and there’s a lot of energy coming from there. Each table is white linen and has its own small spotlight on it and can be very romantic and celebratory. It’s like two experiences colliding.

Billie-Jean Dining Room

Billie-Jean had the feel of a mid-century Manhattan supper club, complete with matchboxes, dice and poker chips on the bar. A black-and-white photograph of Zoe's parents was presented on a postcard with every check, a touch that added to the old-fashioned vibe.
 

Billie-Jean Postcard and Matchbox

Billie-Jean's menu was a combination of executive chef Ny Vongsaly's Asian influences and Zoe's favorite Mediterranean flavors.

When we set out to design that menu we wanted it to be a culmination of all of our work that we’d done in the past. So there are nods to our first restaurant there. There are definitely dishes that we’ve done at every restaurant we’ve done together, that we’ve elevated and we’ve changed.

Ny Vongsaly Zoe Robinson

The compact menu balanced smaller plates and full-sized entrees. Starters included coffee-rubbed beef carpaccio, spicy yellowfin tuna lettuce wraps and baked quail eggs. Mahogany glazed spare ribs were a holdover from the menus at both the original Cafe Zoe in Lafayette Square and Zoe Pan-Asian Cafe.

Heartier courses included grilled swordfish with Castelvetrano olives, whole roasted snapper and honey and soy-glazed roasted quail. More traditional offerings included a grilled strip steak and a three-mushroom pizza.
 

Billie-Jean Menu
(click image to enlarge)
Grilled Swordfish with
Castelvetrano Olives

In October of 2018, Zoe closed I Fratellini for a week to "refresh" its interior.

The configuration is all the same. It’s just like putting on a new dress ― it’s still you. People feel an ownership over I Fratellini, they feel possessive of it, because it’s been there for so long. It has become an institution and I didn’t want to change things too much.

The changes included an introduction of Louboutin red in specific areas around the restaurant. The brick walls were whitewashed and a high-gloss finish on the ceiling was used for contrast. The woodwork was stained a shade darker and new light fixtures were added.
 

I Fratellini Dining Room, Oct 2018

With Billie-Jean, Zoe had three critically-acclaimed restaurants on Wydown. It elevated the neighborhood into a culinary destination and Zoe’s personal "restaurant row."

I have a lot of love for this city. It’s important that my restaurants feel like an extension of the neighborhood.

By the end of the decade, Zoe Robinson was on top of the world.

I’m not afraid anymore ― not even to die.

Turning 50 was scary, but my 50s have been transformative. It’s freeing because in the later years, you really start knowing yourself. You finally lose a lot of insecurities, have faith in yourself, and most important, don’t beat yourself up so much.

And then Zoe's world turned upside down.
 

As COVID-19 spread through the population at the beginning of 2020, Zoe struggled with the pandemic, as did all restaurant owners. On March 13, she verbalized her angst on Facebook.

I have owned restaurants here in St. Louis for over 25 years and never experienced anything like we are facing now with the concerns over COVID-19. This is an uncertain and difficult time for our community, especially our hospitality industry. We want to assure you of all of the precautions that we are taking at our Bar Les Frères, I Fratellini and Billie-Jean to take care of you, our guests, as well as our team.

On March 16, just three days later, she changed course.

We feel that we have a responsibility to our community to stop all in-restaurant dining effective tonight at our three restaurants of Bar Les Freres, I Fratellini and Billie Jean. We will be offering carry-out orders from I Fratellini. Call to place your order & we can even bring it out to you curbside if you’d like.

And on March 20, Zoe changed course again.

Sadly, I Fratellini has decided to suspend our curbside and delivery service to insure the safety of our staff and those in our community. We appreciate all of your support and we hope to see you on the other side of this.

In early June of 2020, as restaurants were starting to reopen with limited capacity, Zoe's restaurants remained closed.

I felt nervous about getting sick. I felt nervous about getting my staff sick. I was pleased that they were able to get unemployment and I’m keeping them on that unemployment as long as I can because I feel it’s the humane thing to do.

If we open right now, we can only open at twenty-five percent capacity, and to have them come back on a part-time basis is not fair to them. So I’m one of those who is holding firm. I don’t judge anyone who’s doing something different than me. We’re all doing whatever we can and what we feel is right.

I hope a lot of these great restaurants in St. Louis will make it.

On May 3, 2021, it was announced that St. Louis restaurants could increase to 100 percent of allowable capacity, both indoors and outdoors. Zoe's restaurants had been closed for more than a year.

I'm still in a holding pattern. I really want to be on the latter end of opening anyway, waiting for people to get used to being out and being shoulder to shoulder.

By November of 2021, Zoe was living in Aspen, Colorado. On November 10, she announced the sale of her three Clayton restaurants to Susan Barret, a local art collector and gallerist, who had worked at Cafe Zoe in the 1980s. Zoe also disclosed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer the prior November.

I had to reevaluate my life and consider that it might be shorter now. Were the restaurants still in business, I would have owned up to the fact and said I was getting treatment and I made it out OK.

I didn’t decide to sell the restaurants initially, but I knew I didn’t want to put food in people’s car trunks anymore. I thought I’d reopen when the time was right, when it was safe and it made sense economically. When the smoke began to clear, I had already decided to explore other possibilities.

Considering all that I’ve been through and all the details involved, I think I did a pretty good job. St. Louis was really good to me. My clientele was so good to me, but it's nice not having to do that every day.

The sale of Zoe's restaurants to Susan Barret never materialized.

In April of 2022, it was announced that Zoe had sold Bar Les Frères to restaurateurs Michael and Tara Gallina, who would open their own French restaurant, Bistro La Floraison, in the space.

The following month, Zoe announced she had sold I Fratellini to Matt McGuire, who would reopen it as a steak house called Wright’s Tavern.

And in August, it was disclosed that the Billie-Jean space had been sold to Ben Poremba, who would reopen it as Bar Moro, featuring Mediterranean cuisine.
 

As 2022 wound down, Zoe reflected on the closure and sale of her restaurants.

The pandemic was definitely devastating for us all. For me, those tiny restaurants presented a real problem, and they were so experiential that I just couldn’t feel good about carry out. Also, the health risks were so terrifying; in restaurants that size we could not operate in a kitchen six feet apart from others. It broke my heart for sure. It still makes me incredibly sad. When I got an offer to sell them it just made the most sense. My first deal fell apart but in the long run they all wound up in good hands with very accomplished talented operators.

As for me, my health is good! My husband and I are splitting time between Aspen and San Francisco, so that’s hard to complain about. It’s been a rough ride, but in the long run a great adventure. Starting over is odd but fun!

Zoe with husband, Dean Pidgeon

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