Gerard Craft and the Melange Space
Jul 31, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, restaurants
What a busy day for St. Louis restaurant gossip…
The buzz on this one is unfortunately not true. Via email Gerard Craft said “we looked at it but that is definitely a no go and was more than a month a ago.”
Lots of hopeful fingers can uncross for now.
Tags: Gerard Craft
Other Restaurant Stuff
Jul 31, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, restaurants
From the same source as the Andy White news I’d also heard that Brian Hale was parting ways with Monarch on less than savory terms. As I didn’t think that was the case, I just got off the phone with Hale who confirmed that the parting of ways is cordial between all parties. He will be moving on to take over all three kitchens at the Chase Park Plaza.
Of course no sooner than getting of the phone with him did I notice Joe Bonwich’s post out-scooping me to the same information just minutes ago. He also mentioned another oft-heard rumor about Gerard Craft spreading his wings a little further by picking up the old Melange space in the Central West End.
Edit: Actually Sauce Magazine seems to have out-scooped everyone including more information about who will be taking over the Monarch Kitchen to what they’re doing with the old Balaban’s space.
Edit 2: See where all this gossip gets us? Ian Froeb has the whole story from Monarch co-owner Jeff Orbin over on Gut Check.
Tags: Brian Hale, Gerard Craft, Monarch, Niche
2009 Readers’ Choice Best New Restaurant
Jul 31, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, missouri, restaurants
From an undisclosed industry source Andy White has left Off the Vine and will be taking helm of the Schlafly Tap Room kitchen.
Which I guess means that unless something else spectacular opens up in the second half of the year, Revival has more than likely edged its way one step closer to Best New Restaurant glory. It also means that the post Slow Food meeting dinners should be a lot better this winter.
Tags: Andy-White, Off-the-Vine, Revival, Schlafly Tap Room
Organic vs. Conventional
Jul 29, 2008 farming, sustainable agriculture
As I catch back up on my life post Art of Food I’ve been sifting through RSS feeds and, in reading a post from the Supermarket News blog Refresh about two nutritional studies pitting Organic against Conventional produce, something occurred to me: Why is it that conventional produce is the pimped-out kind?
I’m fully aware that if I look up the word conventional it probably says something about conforming to standards, but still,
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: pesticide, Refresh, Supermarket news
Some
Jul 25, 2008 St. Louis, Television, missouri

I’m assuming three women* run the blog Blogging Top Chef, and they’ve got some posts about the Top Chef tour that rolled into Whole Foods the other day. If that’s the kind of thing you’re interested in, you can read about it.
* I’m assuming it’s three women because their profile lists three people: Chef Biatch, Chef Back Burner and Sous Chef Humor. Plus they have the following About Me on their profile: In our kitchen breasts, buns, and brains aren’t just ingredients! So stop staring at our boobs and go read the blog.
Tags: Top Chef, Whole Foods
Slow Food Art of Food Menu
Jul 24, 2008 St. Louis, chefs, missouri
This is why you want to buy tickets for Art of Food
222 Artisan Bakery / Goshen Coffee – Debbie Sultan / Matt Herren
- 222 Artisan breads in roll form: bacon, brioche, and sun dried tomato olive and feta
- Goshen-roasted Costa Rican pour-over drip coffee
Bailey’s Chocolate Bar / Rooster – Robin Murphy
- Fruitland roast beef sandwich with red onion marmalade and herbed Heartland Creamery goat cheese on a housemade roll
- Bailey’s buttercream chocolate bar cake
An American Place – Joshua Galliano
- Prairie Grass Farms lamb and foie gras ballotine, apple mustard, chickpea salad, saba
Annie Gunn’s – Lou Rook III
- Duroc pork belly confit on Companion brioche roll with Atomic horseradish mustard and house made local peach chutney
Araka – Mark Curran
- Prairie Grass Farms housemade sausages
- Local heirloom tomato salad
Erato on Main – Kevin Willmann
- House smoked Guthrie Farms chicken with local vegetable chow chow
Local Harvest Grocery – Clara Moore
- Housemade hummus served on local cucumber circles and local tomatoes tossed with fresh pesto and served on Companion crostinis
Moxy Bistro – Eric Brenner
- Duck breast with grilled peaches
Niche – Gerard Craft
- Slow-roasted Greenwood Farms pork butt sandwiches with brussel sprout slaw on Companion bread
Schlafly Bottleworks – Matt Bessler
- Schlafy “Gardenworks” beet and Arugula salad
- Troutdale Farms smoked Trout Mousse with English cucumber cups
- Bacon-wrapped Hinkebein Hills Farm smoked pork tenderloin with Schlafy pale ale raspberry BBQ sauce
Sidney Street Café – Kevin Nashan
- Hinkebein Hills Farm smoked pork butt with cornmeal “toast”, Eilerman Brothers peach bbq glaze, Claverach Farm greens and pickled peaches
- On the Wind Farms watermelon gazpacho with jumbo lump crab
Veruca – Mathew Rice
- Local peach and lavender trifles
Tags: 222 Artisan Bakery, An American Place, Annie Gunn's, Araka, Art of Food, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, David Bailey, Debbie Sultan, Erato on Main, Eric Brenner, Gerard Craft, Goshen Coffee, Joshua Galliano, Kevin Nashan, Kevin Willmann, Lou Rook, Mathew Rice, Matt Bessler, Matt Herren, Moxy Bistro, Niche, Rooster, Schlafly Bottleworks, Sidney Street Cafe, Veruca
If you were cool…
Jul 21, 2008 St. Louis, events, slow food
you would be at Mad Art Gallery this Saturday for Slow Food St. Louis’s annual fund raiser, The Art of Food.
Full event details are at artoffood.org though what you’ll really want to know is who the chefs are:
Debbie Sultan & Matt Herren – 222 Artisan Bakery and Goshen Coffee
Joshua Galliano – An American Place
Lou Rook – Annie Gunn’s
Mark Curran – Araka
David Bailey – Bailey’s Chocolate Bar and Rooster
Kevin Willmann – Erato on Main
Eric Brenner – Moxy Bistro
Gerard Craft – Niche
Matt Bessler – Schlafly Bottleworks
Kevin Nashan – Sidney Street Cafe
Mathew Rice – Veruca
and possibly more to come…
Tags: 222 Artisan Bakery, An American Place, Annie Gunn's, Araka, Art of Food, Bailey's Chocolate Bar, David Bailey, Debbie Sultan, Erato on Main, Eric Brenner, Gerard Craft, Goshen Coffee, Joshua Galliano, Kevin Nashan, Kevin Willmann, Lou Rook, Mathew Rice, Matt Bessler, Matt Herren, Moxy Bistro, Niche, Rooster, Schlafly Bottleworks, Sidney Street Cafe, Veruca
Interesting News
This doesn’t look like much, but that doesn’t make it any less unusual.
Mount Pleasant Winery’s farmers plant the final rows of Pinot Noir at Campo de los Vientos.
And here’s the full press release:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Mount Pleasant Winery, Pinot Noir
Dewey’s Conquest Continues
Jul 14, 2008 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants
Cincinnati based chain, Dewey’s Pizza, continues their St. Louis expansion in Webster Groves.
AED Enterprises, doing business as Dewey’s Pizza, has applied for a conditional use permit to operate a 3,524-square-foot, 102-seat restaurant at 122 E. Lockwood Ave. …open in the first quarter of 2009.
Tags: Dewey's Pizza, Webster Groves
Justus Drugstore
Jul 10, 2008 missouri, restaurants
As strong supporters of local sourcing, for a while now I’ve been meaning to get to Justus Drugstore Restaurant just North of Kansas City in Smithville, MO. Now, it would seem, I might not get that chance.
Earlier this month, Justus and Eklof received a letter on Board of Pharmacy stationery ordering them “to immediately CEASE AND DESIST the unlawful use of the word drugstore” (capitals in the original) in the restaurant’s name.
“I told her [Board of Pharmacy rep] that the intent of the law is clear,” Justus recalled, referring to the inspector. “She jumped all over me and said that someone could come to us thinking they were getting medical advice from a professional.”
Dumb.
Tags: Justus Drugstore, Kansas-City, Smithville







