BRENTWOOD, MO - Sept. 22, 2026 (StLouisRestaurantReview) Maize & Wheat Colombian Café, a family-run restaurant that grew from a St. Louis-area festival stand into a permanent showcase for Colombian cuisine, is preparing to close its Brentwood restaurant next month unless its owner and landlord can agree on a new lease.


Owner Claudia Marcella Niswonger told St. Louis Magazine that Maize & Wheat is scheduled to close Oct. 17, when its current lease expires.


The reason is particularly significant for the St. Louis restaurant community.


Niswonger says business remains steady. The problem, according to her, is that sales aren't strong enough to support the rent increase proposed for a new lease.


“The numbers are pretty far apart,” Niswonger told St. Louis Magazine about the negotiations.


Unless they can close that gap, nearly five years of operating Maize & Wheat at 1912 S. Brentwood Blvd. could end Oct. 17.


The situation illustrates one of the difficult realities confronting independent restaurants: A restaurant does not necessarily have to lose its customers to lose its location.


Rent, labor, food, insurance, utilities, maintenance, and other operating expenses must all fit within a restaurant's economics. When one major fixed expense changes substantially, even an established operation with regular customers can be forced to reconsider whether remaining in the same location makes financial sense.


In Maize & Wheat's case, however, one important number remains unknown.


Neither Niswonger's current rent nor the landlord's proposed new rent has been publicly disclosed. The percentage increase also has not been made public.


For that reason, St. Louis Restaurant Review is not characterizing the proposed increase as excessive or determining whether the landlord's proposed terms are above or below the prevailing commercial market.


What is documented is Niswonger's position: Business remains steady, but the restaurant cannot support the proposed increase under the terms currently being discussed.

Maize & Wheat remains open for now


The restaurant has not closed.


Maize & Wheat remains open at 1912 S. Brentwood Blvd., and Oct. 17 is the planned closing date if the lease negotiations are unsuccessful.


That distinction matters because the restaurant and landlord could still reach an agreement.


Maize & Wheat's current hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.


The restaurant also continues to promote online ordering and catering on its website.


Niswonger told St. Louis Magazine that the restaurant maintains a brisk catering business and recently catered for the Chicago White Sox while the team was in St. Louis.


The continuation of that catering business adds another dimension to the situation.


This is not simply an announcement from a restaurant that says it has run out of customers or ceased doing business. Instead, the future of the physical Brentwood restaurant depends on whether the economics of a new lease work for the independently owned operation.

A restaurant that began at St. Louis festivals


The potential closing would end a Brentwood location with roots that extend well beyond its December 2021 opening.


Maize & Wheat traces its beginnings to 2017.


Before there was a permanent restaurant, Niswonger and her family operated El Fogón Colombian, serving traditional Colombian dishes at Hispanic, international, and other festivals around the St. Louis region.


Maize & Wheat's own company history confirms that the family began offering Colombian food through St. Louis-area festivals in 2017.


The idea had deeply personal roots.


Niswonger, a native of Colombia, had moved to St. Louis and found herself missing the traditional foods she knew from home.


When St. Louis Magazine interviewed her while she was preparing the restaurant in 2021, Niswonger recalled asking her husband where she could get an empanada in St. Louis.


The limited options inspired an idea.


She began developing traditional Colombian recipes, even though she had never worked as a professional cook.


What started as a family festival operation eventually attracted a following.


Customers repeatedly asked where they could find the restaurant behind the food stand.


There wasn't one.


Eventually, Niswonger decided there should be.

Family tragedy became part of the story


The path from festival vendor to restaurant owner was not straightforward.


Niswonger developed El Fogón with members of her family, including her daughter, son, and son-in-law.


Then her son died unexpectedly in 2019.


Niswonger later described the loss as she discussed her decision to continue pursuing the restaurant.


She faced a choice between abandoning the food business the family had built together or continuing it.


She continued.


When plans for Maize & Wheat emerged in 2021, Niswonger described the restaurant not simply as a business venture but as something connected to her family, her son and the city she had come to consider home.


The restaurant ultimately opened in Brentwood in December 2021.


For Niswonger, opening a permanent restaurant marked the shift from a festival operation to a place where customers could enjoy a broader selection of Colombian cooking year-round.

Maize and wheat explain the restaurant's name


Even the restaurant's name reflects the food it was created to showcase.


“Maize” represents the corn at the heart of Colombian arepas.


“Wheat” represents the restaurant's empanadas.


Those two foods became central to the concept, but the menu eventually expanded into a broader introduction to Colombian cuisine.


Maize & Wheat serves arepas with numerous fillings, along with empanadas, soups, meats, plantains, and traditional Colombian entrées.


The menu includes dishes such as bandeja paisa, churrasco, sancocho, and picada Colombiana.


Bandeja paisa is one of Colombia's best-known dishes and typically combines several components into a substantial meal.


Sancocho represents another side of Colombian cooking: a hearty soup with numerous regional variations.


Picada Colombiana similarly emphasizes the shared, abundant nature of traditional Colombian dining, combining multiple meats and accompaniments.


The restaurant has also served fried plantains, yuca, Colombian-style soups, coconut lemonade, tres leches and arroz con leche.


That breadth has helped Maize & Wheat function as more than a place to buy arepas and empanadas.


It has provided St. Louis-area diners with exposure to a cuisine that remains considerably less common locally than Mexican, Italian, Chinese, or other widely represented restaurant categories.

Colombian cuisine varies considerably by region


Niswonger has also acknowledged one of the challenges of representing an entire country's cuisine.


Colombian food is highly regional.


The country's geography and history have produced significant differences in ingredients, cooking techniques, and familiar dishes from one region to another.


Maize & Wheat's own description of Colombian cuisine points to Indigenous, European and Afro-Caribbean influences and the country's distinct culinary regions.


That means two customers who both grew up in Colombia may have very different expectations about how a particular Colombian dish should taste.


Niswonger told St. Louis Magazine that most customers like the restaurant's cooking but acknowledged that Colombian diners sometimes remember versions of dishes that differ from what Maize & Wheat prepares.


For a restaurant presenting a cuisine with relatively limited representation in St. Louis, those expectations can be particularly challenging.


At the same time, they underscore why restaurants such as Maize & Wheat matter to a metropolitan dining community.


They add culinary diversity while creating opportunities for customers unfamiliar with Colombian cooking to experience it locally.

Maize & Wheat found a permanent home in 2021


Maize & Wheat opened at 1912 S. Brentwood Blvd. in December 2021.


The standalone building already had a history as a restaurant location.


Previous occupants included Applegate's Deli, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Dickey's Barbecue Pit, and the Funnel Cake Factory.


When Niswonger took over the property, she converted it into the permanent home for the Colombian concept she had been building through festivals for several years.


Contemporary reporting described the restaurant as having approximately 48 table seats plus additional seating along a wall.


The permanent kitchen also allowed Niswonger to prepare dishes that were difficult to offer from a temporary festival booth.


That was an important step in the business's evolution.


A festival menu has obvious limitations. Food must be transported, prepared, and served efficiently to large numbers of people from a temporary setup.


A permanent restaurant allowed Maize & Wheat to broaden the menu and provide customers with a more complete representation of the food Niswonger wanted to share.

The business is locally established


City of Brentwood records further confirm Maize & Wheat's local operation.


Current city business records list MAIZE & WHEAT COLOMBIAN CAFE LLC at 1910-1912 S. Brentwood Blvd.


The restaurant's official website lists the dining location at 1912 S. Brentwood Blvd. and identifies the business as a family operation that began with St. Louis-area festivals.


The restaurant has therefore progressed through several distinct stages during roughly nine years of local operation: beginning as El Fogón in 2017, building recognition through festivals, developing catering, opening the Brentwood restaurant in 2021, and operating there for nearly five years.


Now its next stage may depend on a commercial lease.

Rent can determine whether a restaurant survives at a location


The Maize & Wheat situation highlights a basic but sometimes overlooked aspect of the restaurant business.


A busy dining room does not automatically mean a restaurant is profitable.


Restaurants operate on revenue remaining after a long list of expenses.


Food costs fluctuate.


Employees must be paid.


Insurance, utilities, maintenance, equipment, credit-card processing fees, taxes, and other expenses continue regardless of whether a particular week is strong or weak.


Then there is occupancy.


For a restaurant that does not own its building, rent is one expense that can determine whether the entire business model works.


A lease negotiated several years earlier may no longer reflect what a property owner believes the space should command when renewal time arrives.


At the same time, a restaurant cannot automatically raise menu prices enough to offset every increase in operating expenses.


Customers have limits on what they are willing or able to spend.


That creates a difficult equation.


A landlord has an interest in receiving an acceptable return from commercial property. A restaurant operator has to determine whether enough money will remain after occupancy costs and other expenses to justify continuing the business.


When those numbers no longer align, even a restaurant with customers can lose its location.


That appears to be the issue facing Maize & Wheat based on Niswonger's public account.

What remains unknown about the proposed rent


There are limits to what we can responsibly conclude from the information currently available.


The landlord has not publicly disclosed the proposed rental rate.


Neither has Maize & Wheat's existing rent.


Without those figures, it is impossible to calculate the percentage increase independently.


It is also not publicly established whether other components of the proposed lease—such as common-area expenses, property-related charges, lease duration, maintenance responsibilities, or other provisions—are contributing to the disagreement.


The landlord's perspective on the negotiations has not been publicly detailed in the reporting reviewed by St. Louis Restaurant Review.


Those missing facts matter.


It would be unfair to conclude solely from a rent increase that the property owner is demanding an unreasonable amount.


It would likewise be inaccurate to suggest that Maize & Wheat is closing because its underlying restaurant business has failed when its owner specifically says business remains steady.


The most accurate description is narrower:


Maize & Wheat says it cannot make the proposed new rent work with its current level of business, negotiations remain unresolved, and the restaurant expects to close when its lease expires Oct. 17 unless it reaches new terms.

A different kind of restaurant closing


St. Louis has experienced a continuing cycle of restaurant openings and closings.


The reasons vary enormously.


Some restaurants close because sales fall.


Others lose key employees or chefs.


Owners retire.


Partnerships dissolve.


Buildings are sold or redeveloped.


Concepts fail to attract enough customers.


Food and labor expenses become too high.


Owners sometimes simply decide that years of demanding restaurant work have taken their toll.


Based on the information currently available, Maize & Wheat's situation does not fit neatly into many of those categories.


Niswonger isn't saying customers disappeared.


She isn't announcing her retirement.


No one has publicly announced that the restaurant failed because diners rejected Colombian food.


Instead, the dispute centers on the economics of remaining in the building after the existing lease expires.


That makes the story relevant beyond one restaurant.


Independent restaurants are particularly sensitive to changes in fixed expenses because they generally lack the purchasing power, capital resources, and geographic diversification available to large national restaurant groups.


A national chain can absorb weakness at one location within a much larger system.


A single-location family restaurant cannot.

Catering provides another part of the business


Maize & Wheat's catering operation could become especially important if the Brentwood restaurant closes.


The business currently promotes catering through its official website.


St. Louis Magazine reported that catering remains active and that Maize & Wheat recently provided food for the Chicago White Sox during the team's time in St. Louis.


No announcement has established that Maize & Wheat will cease all operations if the Brentwood dining room closes.


Likewise, no verified announcement has identified a replacement location.


Those distinctions are important.


An Oct. 17 closure of the Brentwood restaurant would not necessarily mean the end of Maize & Wheat as a business or the end of Niswonger's Colombian food operation.


The company began without a restaurant building.


Its history already demonstrates that the concept can operate through festivals and catering.


Whether those channels could provide a path forward if the Brentwood lease negotiations fail remains unknown.

Restaurant's mission extended beyond food


From the beginning, Niswonger described Maize & Wheat as having a cultural purpose in addition to its commercial one.


When preparing to open the restaurant in 2021, she said she wanted to broaden St. Louis diners' perceptions of Colombia by introducing them to the country's food.


The restaurant reinforced that identity not only through its menu but also through music and atmosphere.


That mission matters because restaurants often serve as informal cultural institutions within a city.


For immigrant entrepreneurs in particular, a restaurant can become a place where food, language, music and family traditions are introduced to people who might otherwise have limited exposure to them.


Maize & Wheat grew from Niswonger's desire to find Colombian food in her adopted hometown into a business designed to offer that experience to others.


Nearly a decade after El Fogón began appearing at festivals, that original mission remains visible in the restaurant.

Customers could have only weeks remaining


For now, Maize & Wheat continues operating normally.


The restaurant's current website remains active with menus, online ordering, and catering information.


Customers therefore still have an opportunity to visit the Brentwood restaurant before Oct. 17.


And because negotiations have not necessarily reached an irreversible conclusion, Maize & Wheat could still stay.


But the clock is running against the existing lease.


If no agreement is reached, Oct. 17 would mark the end of nearly five years for Maize & Wheat at its Brentwood location and another transition for a family food business that has repeatedly adapted since its festival beginnings in 2017.


The circumstances surrounding the potential closing also offer an important reminder to St. Louis diners.


Restaurant survival depends on more than whether customers enjoy the food.


A restaurant can build a following, maintain steady business, develop catering customers, and become part of the local dining community while still confronting financial pressures that make a particular location impossible to sustain.


For Maize & Wheat, the immediate question isn't whether St. Louis wants Colombian food.


It's whether the restaurant and its landlord can find lease terms that work for both sides.


Unless they do, the Brentwood restaurant that Niswonger built from a family festival stand is expected to serve its final customers Oct. 17.


For a business created partly as a tribute to her family and partly to share Colombia with St. Louis, that would bring a significant chapter to a close.


Whether it would be the final chapter for Maize & Wheat remains to be seen.

Read St. Louis Restaurant News and Reviews at St. Louis Restaurant Review https://stlouisrestaurantreview.com/maize-wheat-faces-closure-rent/