 The restaurant was named the Missouri state winner for the National Restaurant Association's Restaurant Neighbor Award in 2006 and Best Local Restaurant Chain by the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" in 2014.Lion's Choice was founded in 1967 by Marv Gibbs, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis who worked as a chemical engineer for Monsanto, and his brother-in-law Clint Tobias.The first restaurant, which remains open today, opened on October 26, 1967, in Ballwin, Missouri.