The acclaimed Filipino-American restaurant Guerrilla Street Food is for sale, owners Joel Crespo and Brian Hardesty announced Wednesday. Crespo and Hardesty aim to sell all of Guerrilla Street Food’s assets, including the Webster Groves brick-and-mortar operation (the equipment and taking over the lease) and the food truck, to someone who will continue the business.
“We just want someone to carry on the legacy and for it to continue,” Crespo tells Off the Menu. “That would be a dream come true if someone else would just be like, ‘Yeah, I get what you guys are doing, and I think it’s important for it to keep going.”
The decision to sell was “tough,” he says. “because it’s our baby. It’s something that we built from nothing.”
Hardesty echoes Crespo’s sentiments, noting the duo have devoted almost 12 years to Guerrilla Street Food.
“It’s definitely mixed emotions,” Hardesty says. “I mean, I’m happy for the possibilities of the future. I’m also kind of sad to walk away, but I know that it’s what needs to happen.”
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Crespo and Hardesty’s final day operating Guerrilla Street Food will be April 30. The restaurant will close if it has not found a buyer by that date.
The restaurant will still be for sale after April 30, though Hardesty says it would be “a lot more advantageous” for a new owner to take over while the restaurant is still operating.
Crespo and Hardesty launched Guerrilla Street Food as a food truck in 2011. By January 2020, the duo had opened four brick-and-mortar locations — Tower Grove East, the east Delmar Loop, Maryland Heights and then-new Webster Groves — as well as a stand inside 2nd Shift Brewing on the Hill.
In February 2020, they closed the storefronts in Tower Grove East and Maryland Heights. Later that year, they shuttered the Delmar Loop and 2nd Shift locations. (They had closed two other satellite locations in 2019.)
Crespo and Hardesty rededicated themselves to a smaller scale and local ingredients at the Guerrilla Street Food in Webster Groves, and Hardesty says that community’s support has helped them turn Guerrilla Street Food into a profitable, manageable business.
As for their plans beyond Guerrilla Street Food, Hardesty is the managing partner of the Affton food-truck park 9 Mile Garden and its soon-to-open Cottleville spinoff Frankie Martin’s Garden. Crespo, meanwhile, says he is keeping his options open.
Guerrilla Street Food is located at 43 South Old Orchard Avenue.
