Crispy Edge will soon close its Tower Grove South location

Crispy Edge has announced it will close its restaurant at 4168 Juniata St. in Tower Grove South on Sept. 2. The potsticker purveyor said it is moving away from restaurant service to focus on expanding its grocery and wholesale business.

The announcement was made on Aug. 7 on Crispy Edge’s social media accounts. Describing the news as exciting but bittersweet, the statement said closing the restaurant was a “strategic decision” that would allow Crispy Edge to reach more customers than ever nationwide.

“We are incredibly proud to let you know that Crispy Edge Dumplings can now be found in over 400 grocery stores and a multitude of hotels and restaurants, across 35 states!” the statement continued. “It's been an amazing journey serving our dumplings in our restaurant, but we have seen an overwhelming demand for our potstickers for wholesale, catering and local events.”

The closing statement expressed gratitude to customers for their support during Crispy Edge’s five-year run in Tower Grove South. Dresner said it has been a fun journey, but Crispy Edge had reached the point where a simple look around the restaurant told its own story. “We were like, ‘what are we doing?’ Our restaurant is full of boxes for retail and wholesale. It just became an obvious move,” he said.

Crispy Edge opened in early 2018, offering a range of potstickers influenced by a variety of international cuisines. Early in the pandemic, with the restaurant shuttered, the brand launched its line of frozen potstickers, which grew to become an essential part of the overall business. Crispy Edge’s restaurant never returned fully to dine-in service after the pandemic, operating mainly as a takeout business with outdoor seating available on the patio. Finding staff has proved to be an ongoing challenge since the pandemic, said co-owner David Dresner. “We’re working with the world and kind of against it,” he said.

Dresner said he and co-owner Jesse Stuart are excited by the opportunities retail and wholesale are presenting, and they’re setting the business up to capture as much of that action as they can. And he stressed that they are certainly committed to St. Louis – Crispy Edge is building a USDA kitchen on Washington Avenue, which will give the brand the infrastructure that will allow it to continue expanding its reach. Dresner said he hopes to see Crispy Edge add new products and innovations, including sauces and microwaveable potstickers. “I’d like to mill my own flour,” he said.

While there’s a lot of hard work ahead, Dresner said he and Stuart have been energized by their experiences presenting Crispy Edge’s products at trade shows around the country. “The grocery community is lovely,” he said. “They’re fun, they’re dynamic, they’re young, they’re old, but they’re wonderful people. It’s been a great community to work with.”

And in case there’s any doubt, there’s plenty of room to grow a potsticker business right now. “I think there are 35,000 grocery stores that gross over 2 million in the United States. There are 500,000 restaurants and 4,500 universities in the market,” Dresner said. “We want to capture those.”