Gerard Craft confirms Des Peres space for first location of revived Porano Pasta concept

Niche Food Group owner Gerard Craft confirmed that the revival of Niche’s Porano Pasta concept will begin with a location at 13323 Manchester Road in Des Peres. The fast-casual pasta restaurant is slated to open in late March or early April, and will be the first of three Porano locations Niche currently plans to open in the St. Louis area in the next two years.

Porano is setting up in a former First Watch location, measuring at a little over 3,000 square feet. Craft said that is around 25 percent smaller than Porano’s original location in downtown St. Louis, which closed in 2018. The new restaurant will have capacity for an estimated 60 guests.

Plans for the revived Porano still largely mirror the original concept and menu: fast service, customizable bowls, signature bowls and Detroit pizza. The most noticeable change will be to the way orders are placed and assembled. “The one thing we have removed is the service line,” Craft said, explaining that Porano customers will no longer relay their order to employees one ingredient at a time, assembly line-style, as if ordering a burrito at Chipotle.

Instead, the new Porano will offer customers simplified counter service or the alternative option of ordering via touchscreen kiosks. Craft said the new approach is simpler for everyone, but also means ingredients stay fresher for longer when they aren’t continuously exposed. 

Craft said the proposal to bring Porano to Des Peres has received a “warm welcome” as plans have taken shape in recent months. In May 2023, when Craft announced his intention to revive the Porano brand, he said,“We get more comments to our group about bringing back Porano than we do about bringing back our original flagship, Niche,” he said. “A lot of people still remember their order very well.”

Sauce named Porano Pasta No. 6 on our list of Best New Restaurants for 2016. Craft has described his experience with the original Porano as a learning experience, and has said his work on projects like the food hall at City Foundry STL and the City Flavor program at St. Louis City SC’s CityPark stadium in recent years gave him valuable insights into creating efficient systems and processes for fast-service concepts. “We're smarter, we're wiser, we know how to execute differently,” he said in May 2023.