ST. LOUIS — The dining room of Snō was dark shortly after the Tower Grove South restaurant’s posted 5 p.m. opening Thursday. No one answered a reporter’s knock on the door.
Snō’s exterior sign remained illuminated. At some point since September, this had been modified or replaced. What originally advertised Snō by Tony Nguyen now simply stated Snō.
After four tumultuous months, the future of Snō — once one of the year’s most anticipated new restaurants — is uncertain. If Snō has not closed permanently, it has given no indication of when it might open again.
According to the schedule Snō posted on social media in recent weeks, Thursday was at least the second evening this week when the restaurant did not open as scheduled. Snō was also dark on Monday after 5 p.m.
People are also reading…
In addition, Snō appears to have deactivated or deleted its Instagram account, and the restaurant is not currently accepting reservations through the booking service Tock. Snō’s Facebook page is still online. The most recent post was on Dec. 2, touting half-price bottles of wine on Sunday and Monday.
In her response to a direct message on Instagram, owner Jessica Nguyen did not clarify whether the restaurant would remain open or had permanently closed.
Snō opened in August at 3611 Juniata Street just west of South Grand Boulevard. Chef and co-owner Tony Nguyen had returned to St. Louis from Los Angeles, where he had been executive chef of the noted chef Helene An’s restaurant Crustacean.
The Nguyens, a married couple, positioned Snō as an ambitious modern Asian restaurant with library carts repurposed for dim sum service and such gastronomic spectacles as tuna served in a smoking cigar box.
In September, however, Tony Nguyen was arrested following an alleged incident at a private residence in Tower Grove South and charged with three counts of domestic assault (two felonies and one misdemeanor) and one count of unlawful use of a weapon, a felony.
At the beginning of November, the state dismissed all charges against Nguyen, citing a lack of evidence.
