Everest Cafe Closes After 22 Years, Ending The Grove's Heart-Healthy Fusion Run

Everest Cafe and Bar, the Manchester Avenue restaurant that blended Nepalese, Indian and Korean cooking with a public health mission, closed its doors last Friday after 22 years in Forest Park Southeast. The closure ends a run that began in 2004 and that regulars describe as far more than a place to grab dinner.

Co-owner Connie said the restaurant had actually been slated to close August 16, 2026, but it kept offering limited service through August 21 before shutting down for good, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Connie, who is executive chef Devi Gurung States' wife and co-owner, attributed the permanent closure to staff shortages and post-pandemic financial challenges, the outlet reported, noting that she and her husband had been running the business by themselves for several years.

For longtime customer Sarah Stromsdorfer, the restaurant's closing carries a weight measured in family milestones. She dined at Everest Cafe for 13 years, had one of her first dates there, and later had it cater her sister-in-law's wedding, per the station's report. For her final meal, Stromsdorfer ordered the Korean japchae — thin, clear noodles tossed with warm, crisp vegetables — while her sons ordered tandoori chicken and her husband, Brad Stevens, got the chicken tikka masala. Their 1-year-old son, Owen, and 4-year-old son, Theo, rounded out the family visit. Stromsdorfer said her family valued the restaurant's Himalayan and Korean fusion cooking, and Gurung States once gave her a piece of framed art as a keepsake, according to the same account.

A Restaurant Built Around a Public Health Career

Devi Gurung States, now 60, did not come to the restaurant business through a culinary path. He earned a Ph.D. in public health at Saint Louis University and worked for the St. Louis City Department of Health before opening Everest Cafe, where he led community health assessments that found many residents were struggling with heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other debilitating illnesses, per St. Louis Public Radio. He also holds a degree in social work and completed a Master of Social Work in 1994 and a Master of Public Health in 1997 at Saint Louis University, according to Saint Louis University News.

Those local health findings weren't abstract. A City of St. Louis Department of Health data brief showed St. Louis City's cardiovascular disease death rate hit 221 per 100,000 residents in 2018, well above Missouri's statewide rate of 188 and St. Louis County's rate of 179. City health equity data has also found Black residents in St. Louis face an age-adjusted mortality rate 34% higher than white residents, underscoring the disparities Gurung States' work aimed to address.

Gurung States built that public health mission into the restaurant itself, offering free health screenings and free cooking lessons alongside heart-healthy meals inspired by his Nepalese background, per St. Louis Public Radio. He has said the restaurant's purpose was rooted in humility and community-building. Beyond the restaurant, he volunteered on Tuesdays at a local pro-bono healthcare clinic in St. Louis, offering cholesterol checks and Type 2 diabetes management education, according to Saint Louis University News.

From Manang, Nepal, to Forest Park Southeast

Gurung States grew up in Manang, Nepal, and became homeless after losing both of his parents by age 15, per St. Louis Public Radio. His path to St. Louis began with Dr. James States, an adolescent medicine physician who climbed Mount Everest in 1983 and, in the process, met the teenage Gurung States in a Kathmandu restaurant. James States later adopted him and sponsored his education in the United States, bringing him to Spokane, Washington, for high school and undergraduate studies before Gurung States eventually landed in St. Louis, according to the Himalayan Family Healthcare Project.

That origin story shaped the restaurant's name and its menu, which fused Gurung States' Nepalese and Indian cooking, including momos and curries, with Korean dishes such as kimchi fried rice and beef bulgogi introduced by Connie, according to Good Food St. Louis. The restaurant sat at 4145 Manchester Avenue, along the commercial corridor of Forest Park Southeast, the St. Louis neighborhood widely known as The Grove, according to Sauce Magazine. Hoodline previously ranked it the city's top Korean spot and included the corridor among the neighborhood's most popular destinations.

A Global Health Mission Funded by Local Meals

The restaurant's profits didn't stay local. Gurung States established the nonprofit Himalayan Family Healthcare Project in 2010 to deliver primary healthcare, maternal counseling and domestic violence shelter services in remote regions of Nepal, including the Manang district, funding much of the operation through Everest Cafe's revenue, according to Saint Louis University News. Its main academic affiliation was listed at the same 4145 Manchester Avenue address in a February 2026 study Gurung States published in JMIR Diabetes examining cultural and technological barriers to telehealth adoption for Type 2 diabetes management among Asian American patients.

Gurung States has continued to appear as a global health voice even as the restaurant wound down. He presented at Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health's Grand Rounds series this past February, discussing community-based and technology-driven innovations for health education and medical access in remote Nepal. It remains unclear how the restaurant's closure will affect funding for the Himalayan Family Healthcare Project or Gurung States' local volunteer clinic work going forward, as neither St. Louis Public Radio nor other available reporting addresses what comes next for either effort.