Hope Comes to Visit

Ep 38 Hustle, Heart, Hot Dogs & Hope: Danni Eickenhorst on Feeding a City

• Danielle Elliott Smith • Season 1 • Episode 38

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I love conversations that make you want to show up for people. This is one of them.

Today’s guest is Danni Eickenhorst, the heartbeat behind Hustle Hospitality and some of St. Louis’ most beloved spots: Steve’s Hot Dogs, Steve’s Meltdown, The Fountain on Locust, and The Stardust Room.

Danni and I talk about what it really means to be “a neighborhood place”: paying people with dignity, creating spaces where everyone belongs, and showing up when a tornado rips through the block. You’ll hear how Feed the People began with one donated meal and grew into thousands, why catering and gift cards can literally keep doors open, and how abundance (not fear) guides her leadership.

I walked away reminded that hope is both feeling and practice—served hot, with community at the center.

In this episode you’ll learn

  • Simple, concrete ways to help local restaurants & the Delmar Maker District
  • Why transparency with your team builds real loyalty
  • How to turn a business into a neighborhood’s rally point
  • What it looks like to believe it gets better—and act like it

Take a next step
Book catering from a local restaurant, buy a gift card you’ll use later, or say yes to that neighborhood event invite. Little things add up.

Connect with Danni at Hustl Hospitality Group and on LinkedIn.


Thank you for listening to Hope Comes to Visit. If this conversation helps, follow the show, share it with someone who needs hope today, and leave a review - it helps others find their way to these conversations.

New episodes drop every Monday, so you can begin your week with a little light and a lot of hope.

For more stories, reflections, and ways to connect, visit www.DanielleElliottSmith.com or follow along on Instagram @daniellesmithtv and @HopeComestoVisit



SPEAKER_00:

Even in my darkest moments, I remember we had a year that just would not let up. My we we both got laid off of our jobs. My my mom died. We just had a lot going on. I think a dog died somewhere in there too, you know? And my husband looked at me one day and he said, it gets better.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi there, friends. I'm Danielle Elliott Smith, and this is Hope Comes to Visit. If this is the first time you're joining us, welcome. And if you're coming back again, welcome home. My guest today has turned going out to eat into community building. Danny Eikenhorst is a CEO of Hustle Hospitality and the co-owner behind some of St. Louis's most beloved spots: the Fountain on Locust, the Fountain on Delmar, Steve's Hot Dogs, and Steve's Meltdown. But her mission is bigger than menus. It's jobs with dignity, spaces that welcome everyone, and neighborhoods that thrive. Let's take a quick moment to thank the people that support and sponsor the podcast. When life takes an unexpected turn, you deserve someone who will stand beside you. St. Louis attorney Chris Duly offers experienced one-on-one legal defense. Call 314-384-4000 or 314-DUI help. Or you can visit Dulilawfirm.com. That's D-U-L-L-E lawfirm.com for a free consultation. Danny Eichenhorst, thank you so much for spending time with me today. Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm so happy to be here. Oh, you know what? I have been watching so much of the community effort and the standing up and standing out and speaking that you have been doing for your communities for St. Louis. Tell me what's what's driving you, what's pushing you to get out there and fight for St. Louis.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, uh, I think sometimes, some days I think of it as a I'm I'm a guest here. I didn't grow up here like everybody else did. So this was a place where uh it was where we come for vacation. And this is my special place. And so being able to raise my family here and to do my life here, I look at it as an intense privilege. And so um I look at the city a little bit differently than I think a lot of people do. And my whole life I've always been sort of a what what can I do to help? How can I help kind of a person? Um, and so no matter what I did, I was gonna be a little bit like that. But my background has always been in um nonprofit, community building on the government side. And so um it's always been a little bit of a part of my life. But then you pair me with somebody like Steve Ewing, who is my business partner, and he's got that same energy. And when we came together, it was like, let's build our entire company around, you know, doing hospitality a little bit differently and trying to leverage these businesses to make the St. Louis region a better place for everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

So, what was the first iteration of your business together with hospitality? What's the first thing you guys did and what did you want to make different?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so in 2020, we decided to partner. He, I worked with him on and off on projects uh through my marketing agency years ago. And he was going to close Steve's hot dogs all together. He had a big year of music, the business wasn't working out the way he'd planned, and he just thought it's just best to kind of close the doors. And after a lot of talking, um, I offered to invest and fix the business. He first said no. I ultimately convinced him. And um, we came together as a group, my husband, he and I, as three partners, we shut down the business, we retooled it, and we relaunched it on March 1st, 2020. Um, and so obviously not an ideal time to launch a restaurant at all. We were open for I think 14 days before we were shut down. And um, thank God we did because he was gonna have this huge year of music that was going to be his only income. And if we hadn't done that, he would have had no income. And um, and so we were obviously very, very motivated to find a way to make it work, and that's where um Hustle Hospitality Group, that name came from, that year of just hustling and figuring things out. Um, but really quickly we saw because our first location there together was tucked into a neighborhood, we got to see the struggle firsthand, a very much working-class neighborhood where there was a lot of layoffs, um, a lot of struggle, a lot of people going without food, um, a lot of people dealing with chronic illnesses that couldn't get out and safely get a meal. And so we really quickly looked to find solutions for that as a business because we just felt like we've got food. Why not figure out a way to make an impact? And so um we had a client or a customer actually who had moved to California and sent us in a donation and said, please give somebody this on my behalf. And when she did that, that sort of uh gave birth to what is now Feed the People a program where we give thousands of meals away every year. And um, that was our very first effort at doing something. And now we've done so many things, but we that's one that continues to live on as we go. We we pair now, instead of giving individual meals out, we pair with nonprofits. For um, during COVID, we got a$25,000 grant from Marcus Lamonis from the Prophet on CNBC, and he really helped support us during that time so that we could build those nonprofit relationships and give out meals at scale. And um, and that just was our first opportunity of being able to make an impact in that in that environment, and it felt really good for us and for our team at a time where nothing felt good, to be quite honest, you know? I love that. I love the idea.

SPEAKER_01:

So you and I are are kin in that I'm not from here either originally. And also, how can I help is is built into my DNA. So, how does Feed the People work?

SPEAKER_00:

How could the average person get involved? Right now, the way we have done it, because we felt a little bit like social workers trying to administer all these meals and it was so hard for our team. We have now partnered with um food banks and nonprofits. We've got St. Patrick's Center and different food banks in our neighborhood. And anytime they request a meal, as long as we have that much in donations in our fund, then we give it away. Okay. The thing we run into since COVID is that there just aren't as many donations, especially right now in the climate that we're in, is you know, really a situation where nobody has a little extra to spend. And so we've underwritten about as much as we can this year. And um, the the remainder has been uh made possible by some friends of ours at the St. Louis Bourbon Society. They do annual fundraisers for us every year just to make sure we have just enough to be able to hit our minimum goals. Um, so the nonprofits just reach out and uh we say yes whenever we can.

SPEAKER_01:

Do uh every little bit that you possibly can. Yes. What does St.

SPEAKER_00:

Louis do well community-wise? Oh gosh, I think there's something really cool about um the entrepreneurs and leaders in this area. I can say, you know, we've we've got a lot of challenges to overcome for sure, but we also have some really good-hearted people that are trying in government. We have some really good-hearted people that are trying in business. And I think, you know, I'm part of the Focus St. Louis leadership St. Louis program, and I look around the room and I'm just so grateful to be in their company. And so many of these people are people that, you know, these large major institutions are giving time and space and money to go out in the community and make an impact. They're not just saying, you know, stay in your lane, you're in finance. They're saying, I think you have some leadership about you, go make a difference. Um, and so St. Louis has really built this infrastructure, and that's part of it, that focus, St. Louis, that that fosters the ability for businesses to come in and make a difference. And I feel like after years of being in nonprofits and years of myself being in um government, it's really the business leaders that have an opportunity and are making a big difference in this community. You look around at Maxine Clark, for example, like she was on the show a couple weeks ago. One of my heroes. Um somebody I am grateful to know. I can't believe she knows my name some days, you know. Um, but I I've but the first time I met her when I was 29 years old, I was just like, I want to be her when I grow up.

SPEAKER_01:

I you know what? I I thought the exact same thing, you know, just sitting and talking to her. And when she's she very much is a how can I help kind of person, right? And her her idea, like one plus one equals 100, if she's connecting the right people, magic happens. And I I love that. But it's similar to what I see in you. So I think that whatever magic she has sprinkled on you is is clearly working because I think that you have that same effervescence about you, that same idea that you want to help, that same love of St. Louis. She's also not from here, right? So there is something about the notion that you have adopted St. Louis and you love it here and you want it to thrive. What could St.

SPEAKER_00:

Louis be doing better? I think that everybody has their own causes that they are championing. We're we are a city with, I think, the most nonprofits per capita, which is a beautiful thing. We have a giving spirit, but it's also leads to a lot of inefficiencies, a lot of territorial um thinking. And I think that if we could uh break down some silos, we would do so much better. I mean, you just look at our geography and all of our municipalities that we have. There's a lot of territorialism in this area. Um, and so what I would love to see, and what I'm always bantering about ideas to try and figure out is how do we, you know, we all have a torch. How do we lean them in and make a bonfire? Um, how do we really, really figure out who else is working on the same thing and and take our name off of it and just get it done?

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. It isn't that you want the credit for it, you just want it to get done. It just needs to get done. Yeah. Talk to me about the St. Louis community, like the community that you live within. Talk to me about those people, the people that you help and see and serve on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, um, so we have locations in um off South Grand. We have one on Del Mar, and uh we're in the Midtown Alley neighborhood, and um, and then also out in Chesterfield. And everywhere that we have a location, we've committed to making that area better because we were there. And um, that's sometimes a really tall order, and sometimes one neighborhood needs us a heck of a lot more than another. And this year, I would say the bulk of my focus has been on the Delmar Maker district in particular. Um, and so that's an area that I can say I know inside and out, forward and backward. And when we opened our doors there in particular, our our opening day, I was really blown away by the number of community leaders that showed up day one to shake hands with us and break bread with us, um, to introduce us and to tell us what they were working on so that we could help them. And um, you know, this is a an area between Union and Kings Highway and the Del Mar divide. And there have been all these groups trying to overcome all the challenges in that area for so long, from like the church level to Del Mar Main Street, uh, Del Mar Maker District themselves, you know, all these different pockets, and they were already there and just willing to partner with us from day one. And so this year's been, you know, the the first year there was not easy for us because this is an area that was underserved, and we chose to invest there, but we chose to invest there as part of a larger vision to uplift the area. Um, that momentum there had stagnated a little bit. So that made the first year a little bit hard, but but we were um all working together and rowing in the in the same direction, and we were starting to see some momentum. And then obviously we were we were hit with the double whammy of a tornado that hit two of our places there. And that's the risk when you put them right next to each other. But um, you know, uh, and and the entire time it's been um, you know, partnership from from moments after in that near area and from like just neighbors and um and community groups, Academy Shermans doing their own stuff, but they also partnered with us to make sure we were okay. They were feeding people, but reached out and said, Can we pay you to help us feed people? Because we know you guys need revenue right now. Um, you know, Del Mar Main Street helping us just on my way here. I just got an email about another grant we qualify for. Um you know, and and that's just speaks to the to to the the quality of community in that area. Um, another area that we were working in is the Midtown Alley area, just a few blocks from where we're recording this. And um, and that's another area that, you know, Joy, my predecessor at the Fountain on Locusts, she was one of the early people that saw promise in that neighborhood. The Fountain on Locust used to be on a one-way street with boarded up buildings. There was just nothing happening there when she bought the building. Um, and by collaborating with people like Eric Toki, Mary Toki, Jason Johnson, um, they slowly but surely were able to really turn around and change this neighborhood for the better. And it's a neighborhood that you look around and it looks very commercial. There's a lot of creatives there, but actually, there's a ton of people living there that are really wanting to do something special. And they they have developed this really incredible collaborative creative district that's just unlike anything I've ever seen before. So I think we've really got our hands in a lot of diverse neighborhoods and groups here, and we're just trying to be as active as possible and to see what needs there are and to see where we can contribute. What was the impact of the tornado for you guys? Um, it's been, it's been a lot. So in we're we're lucky in that we have, you know, we had four walls standing after it, whereas our neighbors did not. Um we were missing windows and systems and had a gas leak and just we weren't able to operate and did sustain substantial damage, but we were able to open 31 days later. And um, and so there's that. We reopened with uh Build Back the Block concert, and um, because we just, you know, there's some guilt in that. You look across the street and there's my friend Dallas, who lost five business locations in one day. And you're just like, why are we okay? Right. You know, that doesn't seem fair, especially given the north-south situation in this neighborhood, that that that's the way the the dice, you know, rolled. And so we decided that we would utilize our reopening as an opportunity to try and get back for them. Um, and so we were able to raise$50,000 in one night, which a generous donor doubled for us. You know, Danny, that's amazing. Oh, it was it was unbelievable. And, you know, and that's that's the kind of that's the level of impact we hope to make every day. And um, within 30 days, we were able to give that out as 20 grants to different businesses that were impacted. And now I'm working on a long-term strategy to raise much, much more than that to because I think it's gonna take years. You know, we we've been consistently about 30 to 50 percent under what it takes to keep our doors open in terms of our sales since the tornado. And we were just about breaking even before the tornado. We were, you know, it takes a while sometimes for these neighborhoods to catch on. And um, and so it's been really hard because every day we open, we lose money. And that's my family's money, and that's the that's my paycheck. And and it's hard to, you know, it's really hard to swallow. But but it's also that we're really, really bought in and we want to be there on the other side of this thing. And I really believe this neighborhood needs affordable food and like family concepts and a community gathering space. And that's what we were trying to provide. And so we've just been holding on and applying for grants and doing everything we can and being really honest in a way that makes me uncomfortable, you know, about where we are, because we we really want to be there on the other side of this thing. Um, and so the other day we we I got together 25 artists um and we painted murals on Del Mar on the boarded up buildings, and um, and it was awesome. And in the conversations we're you know, throughout the day as we're painting, I'm realizing these people still live in a hotel. These people are still living with grandma, um, and nothing's been done to recover their buildings. And we put down our brushes, and at the end of the day, instead of feeling like hopeful and like accomplished, I just it it all hit me that I'd been running on a fight or flight mode for like four months, trying to just save this neighborhood, and nobody has kept up with us, you know, and it just it floored me. And honestly, it really took me out for about a week. I just was exhausted. I think I had like an adrenaline crash.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and and so uh the reality, and I should know this. I this is not my first tornado. I've been through this. I was in Joplin for a year after that happened. And oh my goodness. Um uh I I should I should have thought it through, but you just keep moving and you just keep hoping. Um but I think that we've got two to five years before our neighbors are back and before our regulars are back.

SPEAKER_01:

And what can what can a me do? What can Mikey and Luke do? What can our our our camera crew, like the average person who's listening, um, St. Louis or not in St. Louis? Uh I mean, obviously someone who's not in St. Louis, maybe they say, like, oh, is there somewhere we can donate? Is there somewhere that we can help? But someone like me, what could I be doing? Is there a a way that aside from maybe it's patronizing the businesses on a regular basis?

SPEAKER_00:

Is there more we could be doing? If you want to help the neighborhood at large, there's two places you can give. There's Delmar Main Street, and they are putting the money right in the hands of the businesses. Um, there's also Del Maristrict themselves, and they're the ones that are creating space and beautifying the neighborhood and trying to really, really make that a neighborhood in a way that it hasn't been historically. And both of those things are important. I think the placemaking piece of it is important because people are pulling onto that street and looking around and seeing what is there right now and turning right around. And I've seen it happen. Because it still looks like it's tornado ravage. That's right. And so they, even though we're open, they're not seeing it, they're not coming, they're not supporting. I think, yes, some of it is going out of your way to specifically go to those locations and follow along and show up. Um, the other thing is, you know, sign up for a class at Craft Alliance. Um, go to a third-degree uh glass factory Third Fridays, buy it, buy a piece of glass if you can at their gallery. Um on Thursday, Friday.

SPEAKER_01:

There's an event coming up there, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

There is this Hope Create. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Yes. And so anytime you get a chance, go tip generously, buy buy lots of cocktails and um take home some art. But you know, for the restaurants, buy gift cards, even if you don't intend to use them. Um uh you can buy them on most restaurant websites. I think if you are in a position to order catering for your office, that's huge. Catering is the thing that sustains a restaurant. All restaurants, honestly, brick and mortars, the margins are so slim. But catering, that's what keeps the doors open.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So catering from any of the restaurants. Yes. Tell me which restaurants we're talking about. We've got uh Steve's Hot Dogs, The Fountain on Del Mar, Too Much Sauce, Um, the Brad, uh, sorry, Ben Ben Paremba has uh uh Nixta, he's got Florentine and Eska that are all open right now. So those are all right there within the district, all except for one just open in the last year or so.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's amazing. I mean, it's a it's a place to start. So I mean, knowing that catering from any of those locations, is that something people have to have to go pick up or can it be delivered?

SPEAKER_00:

It can yeah, I think it just depends on the size of your order in the restaurant. But usually, you know, most restaurants are if it's$150 or more, they'll bring it to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So yeah, so I I happen to know a lot of people who order food for delivery for different hospital systems and whatnot. So I figure it's good to be able to mention and and share. And oh, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no problem. You know, for for small businesses too, the opportunities like we do a partnership with um the Shakespeare Festival every year, and we come out and we we serve food for them for a month. Um, any any opportunities like that for any of those people would be game changers, right? Those are the things that keep the doors open when times are tough.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that you're doing this. You have such an incredible heart. And even listening to you, I mean, when you said that it's you've been astonishingly honest, right? I think that that's one of the reasons I do this. I think that there is so much good that happens when people are deeply vulnerable with what they're going through, because there are other people that are going through difficult things as well. And whether it's the exact same thing or something similar, I think that's where we find hope. Okay. We do find hope in in recognizing that someone else is still going, even though it's hard. Yeah. Like you just said you're not making enough to keep your doors open, but you're keeping your doors open because damn it, you want to. You want the community to see that you're there. The community, you believe in the community, you believe they deserve to have good affordable food. So you're doing it and trying to find a way. Yes. And I think that's that gives me chills. I think that's remarkable. How do you define hope?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh gosh, I think that that um I think sometimes hope is believing almost for me, in a, in a, in a pig-headed and stubborn way that things are gonna be all right. Because I do believe they're always gonna be all right. I err on the side and default on the side of of positivity all the time. But um, even in my darkest moments, I remember we had a year that just would not let up. My we we both got laid off of our jobs. My my mom died. We just had a lot going on. I think a dog died somewhere in there too, you know? And my husband looked at me one day and he said, it gets better. And I just was like, forget you. I don't need to hear that right now. I just didn't want to hear it in that moment. And he was right. And and I remember, I always think back to that because it really felt like it would never get better. Um, there was just not one more thing I could handle. We had a six-week-old baby in the middle of all that when we lost our jobs too. And um, and it was just, it really felt like it was too much. And for me, it's just always remembering it gets better. It may not be the better you're thinking of, but I really truly trust in the universe and believe that it will always get better.

SPEAKER_01:

I believe the same way. I also like something that you've done it a few times now, and I pay attention to words. You've put an emphasis on and a few times. And that's something I try to do, use and instead of but. And and I like that you do that because you are allowing for two things to exist at one time. Yes. And I I really appreciate that. You are allowing for there to be difficult circumstances in front of you while recognizing that things will turn eventually. We're hanging on and knowing that things will change, which I happen to believe is a very important thing for us to be doing right now, every day.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think I try to operate from a place of abundance at all times. Um, I think a lot of uh the world wants you to operate from a place of scarcity, to always be afraid. And at some point I saw through that veil and I can never go back. You know, I let go of a lot of fear, and there's a lot of reasons to be afraid, just like you said, my goodness. Um, and the mom in me always has a little bit of that that hangs on. Um, and uh because I I'm so deeply aware, and now now I now I'm almost feel like I'm the mom to 150 employees, and they a lot of them do call me mom. Um, and so it's really easy to get swallowed up in that. Um, but we we have to always remember that great things are possible, and oftentimes it has very little to do with with anything we want. You know, sometimes I do believe that the universe is gonna deliver because something needs to happen.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. I'm so grateful to you for being here. Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you want to share? I know you mentioned you've got a few projects coming up.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, you know, no, I would just I I think, you know, right now our our big focus internally is just shifting. We're we are turning the restaurant model on its head. We're trying to figure out how do we build a restaurant group that really feeds people, meaning our people internally, gives them a really good quality of life. So, so right now um we're doing that, we're you may not see us doing the same growth path that we had before the tornado. We've decided to go somewhere totally different and and totally um build our company in a very, very different way because our people are the thing that matter. And at the end of the day, even when times are tough, we've promised them a good quality of life and and um and that they get to come along for this ride with us and co-create with us all the great things that we're doing. So, so you know, just um support these restaurants, but support this neighborhood in particular. Um, you know, we've we've got lots of locations and they all need love and support. Please come out and be a part of our community. You know, we're trying to create gathering spaces that mean something in St. Louis. And if we can, if you want to be a part of it, we want you to be there. Sounds like family. Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Danny Eichenhorst, thank you for being here with me today. Oh, my pleasure. I so appreciate you. And thank you, friends, for spending time with us on Hope Comes to Visit. It is always a joy and a pleasure to be here with you to share real conversations and real stories and real ways that you can make a difference and you can help. And hopefully you have found a little bit of inspiration and a little bit of hustle coming right from Danny herself. The next time we see you, I hope you will take good care of yourself between now and then. Thanks for being here. Naturally, it's important to thank the people who support and sponsor the podcast. This episode is supported by Chris Dully, a trusted criminal defense attorney and friend of mine here in St. Louis, who believes in second chances and solid representation. Whether you're facing a DWI, felony, or traffic issue, Chris handles your case personally with clarity, compassion, and over 15 years of experience. When things feel uncertain, it helps to have someone steady in your corner. Call 314 384 4000 or 314 DUI Help, or you can visit Dulilawfirm.com to schedule your free consultation.