Kevin McKernan owns a half-dozen of the kind of classic neighborhood businesses that feel increasingly endangered. He and his wife Erin own Donut Drive-In, the unpretentious shop in Lindenwood Park. They own Epiphany Lanes, a low-key bowling alley once run by the Catholic parish that still shares its parking lot. He founded The Improv Shop and they now own Cafe Manhattan and Blackthorn Pub, too.
Beyond the nostalgic factor, these businesses seemingly have little in common. But that’s not how McKernan thinks about it. “It’s like real human connection in these unique places where people have to deal with each other, or watch each other, and hopefully the result is smiling or happiness or like, ‘Oh, this is fun,’” he explains in a new episode of The 314 Podcast. Think of them as a welcome dose of local flavor in a world that seems increasingly intent on retreating into the generic.
A teacher who still works part-time at Saint Louis University High School, McKernan grew up in St. Louis Hills. He left St. Louis for college at Indiana University and then tried his hand at improv comedy in Chicago. It was only after he moved back to his hometown that he found himself bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. But it was never about wanting to run a business; it was simply about wanting to do improv…