For nearly six decades, The Posh Nosh made sandwiches in a narrow storefront at 8115 Maryland Avenue. Owner Catherine Smith eventually ran into a problem the room couldn't fix. She told St. Louis Magazine that full ADA compliance "wasn't possible in the current space without sacrificing dining and prep areas," so the deli moved about a mile east into a space with twice the square footage.
Two blocks away, 16 N. Central Avenue had a different problem. Honeymoon Chocolates made and sold chocolate there until late October 2023. Co-founder Cam Loyet told St. Louis Magazine at the time, "We needed twice as much traffic in that space as we'd been getting to break even." He added that nearby construction also played a part.
Both addresses reopened in the first week of October 2026, one day apart. The two new tenants have little in common on the menu. They do have one thing in common in how they're set up: each gives its storefront more than one job. That matters in a downtown where a single job wasn't enough for the last two tenants.
8115 Maryland: The Deli Room Becomes a Bakery
Sylvie Dee's held its grand opening at 8115 Maryland on October 3. It's the shop's third location. The first opened in Webster Groves a little over two years earlier, and the second opened at City Foundry STL about a year after that. Co-owner Rachel Closson calls the Clayton store the company's largest yet.
The front of the shop is what people know from the other two locations: an old-fashioned soda fountain, a candy store, and a freezer case with 16 ice cream flavors. Flavors include Raspberry Chip Cheesecake, Salty Jack, Banana Pudding, Vegan Mint Oreo and Bake Shoppe, and anyone who can't decide can order a flight of six tasting scoops. The candy shelves carry Bijoux chocolates, which Meggie Mobley hand-paints in Webster.
The back of the shop is the new part. St. Louis Magazine's opening report says the Clayton location is now the company's production kitchen for a new in-house pastry program that will supply baked goods to every Sylvie Dee's. Melissa Ragsdale, owner of Ragsy Pastry, moved her business into the dedicated baking space. The magazine reports the expanded program will also let the company offer for custom cakes, ice cream cakes and other specialty desserts.
"People assume we're only an ice cream shop, no matter what we do," Closson told the magazine. "Adding a full pastry component should change that perception."
So a room that was once too tight for one deli's kitchen and seating now has two jobs. It serves walk-in customers on Maryland, and its kitchen is set up to bake for the stores in Webster Groves and at City Foundry too.
The Neighbor on the Other Side of the Wall
The shop next door shaped the menu too. Zensia, a Colombian coffee shop at 8121 Maryland, opened at the end of August 2025. Its owners are Juan Carlos Antolinez, Alvaro Jimenez and Paty Galeano. Sylvie Dee's still pours Vapore Coffee, but St. Louis Magazine reports that the Clayton coffee menu is "intentionally streamlined out of respect for" Zensia.
That's how the block works now. Zensia handles serious coffee, Sylvie Dee's handles ice cream and pastry, and neither one has to compete with its neighbor for the same morning order.
Where The Posh Nosh Went
The Posh Nosh is still open. It reopened in November 2025 as The Posh Nosh Deli & Grill at 7359 Forsyth in University City, just past the Clayton city limits, in the former Original J's space. Smith has owned the deli since February 2022 and took over a business that had been part of Maryland Avenue for generations.
16 N. Central: Three Empty Years, Then a 24-Hour Broth
At Honeymoon Chocolates, the Central Avenue storefront had to work as a retail shop and a chocolate factory at once. The chocolate shop had moved into the former Wicked Greenz space, and Cam and Haley Loyet opened it as their first brick-and-mortar location. After the storefront closed, the company moved production and storage to a commissary in Chesterfield and kept selling through retail and wholesale channels.
The space then stayed empty for three years, until Tora Asian House opened on October 2.
St. Louis Magazine's first look describes a full buildout of the 2,400-square-foot room. A long, narrow dining area runs beside an open kitchen, with about 50 seats and a dark green, gold and natural wood palette. The name comes from the Japanese word for "tiger."
The people running it come with long experience. Chef-owner Calvin Hu ran a Chinese-American restaurant in West County for 18 years. Before that, he spent five years at a Japanese restaurant. After two years away from the business, he completed a three-month certification program in Lanzhou beef noodle soup. General manager Biddy Sanivong already knows the neighborhood: she was general manager of The Bao from 2022 to 2025, and she owns Thai Racha By Biddy.
Hu told the magazine that regular customers kept calling and texting during his time off. "This is why I decided not to retire," he said.
What Comes Out of the Kitchen
Hu makes four kinds of noodles, some by hand and some by machine. They go into six bowls:
- Beef short ribs noodles
- Tonkotsu ramen
- Dan dan noodles
- Lanzhou hand-pulled beef noodle soup
- Biang biang noodles
- Taiwanese beef noodle soup, the chef's own favorite from home
Every bowl comes with a soft-boiled soy egg and green onions. Hu says the broths cook "24 hours night and day, non-stop." The menu also has rice bowls such as gyudon, kalbi short ribs, unagi and wagyu beef, plus crab rangoon, mala wontons and the orange chicken that Hu says once accounted for 90 percent of sales at his previous restaurant.
For now, the drink menu is bubble tea, with a full bar planned. Hu also hopes to sell fresh noodles by the pound and to teach hand-pulled noodle classes. Tora is open seven days a week, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. That covers the downtown office lunch, an early family dinner and carryout on a Sunday night from the same counter.
The Same Two Addresses, Then and Now
| 8115 Maryland Ave. | 16 N. Central Ave. | |
|---|---|---|
| Previous tenant | The Posh Nosh, nearly six decades | Honeymoon Chocolates, retail and manufacturing |
| Why it left | Needed more seating, more prep space and full ADA compliance | Owners said it needed about twice the foot traffic to break even |
| Where it went | 7359 Forsyth, University City, reopened November 2025 | Production moved to a Chesterfield commissary |
| Time empty before new tenant | Under a year | Three years |
| New tenant | Sylvie Dee's, opened October 3, 2026 | Tora Asian House, opened October 2, 2026 |
| What the room is set up to do | Walk-in ice cream, candy and soda counter, plus the production kitchen for the company's pastry program | About 50 seats for dine-in lunch and dinner plus carryout; noodles by the pound and classes are plans, not yet offered |
Each previous tenant reached a limit, space at one address and foot traffic at the other. Each new tenant came in with a plan that doesn't rely only on whoever walks in the door that day. At Sylvie Dee's, the kitchen is the pastry base for all three stores. At Tora, the restaurant serves lunch, dinner and takeout every day of the week.
Before You Walk Over
The City of Clayton marked the Sylvie Dee's opening with a ribbon cutting it announced on October 13. The same announcement covered Vivienne STL, a new apartment building at 211 N. Meramec Avenue, which the City's announcement says puts more residents within walking distance of downtown shops and restaurants.
A few practical details:
- Sylvie Dee's, 8115 Maryland: closed Mondays; open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, according to the shop's website.
- Zensia, 8121 Maryland: the coffee stop next door.
- Tora Asian House, 16 N. Central: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily; 314-448-0888.
- Thursday, November 12, 5 to 7 p.m.: the City's Ward 3 neighborhood block party, themed "Fallin' For Our Neighborhood: An Apple Orchard Block Party," at Taylor Park, 222 N. Central Ave., just up Central from Tora.
Sellers in Clayton often ask us what's new within walking distance of their home, and two reopened storefronts this close together give a clear answer. If you're thinking about selling and want to talk through how the streets around your home have changed, Thompson & Richardson can walk through it with you. Request a Private Home Consultation.
