Posts Tagged ‘Debbie Sultan’

Buckle Up For Caffeine Insanity*

Jan 31, 2010 St. Louis, coffee, missouri, restaurants

Linea Espresso Machine
Pi’s 2-group Linea w/ PID rebuilt by Barry Jarrett–formerly of Riley’s.

Due to the unfortunate closing of the Central West End location of Companion Bake House, today was to mark the opening of Chris Sommers’ new Pi Coffee Bar–located under the loft of Pi’s new Central West End location.  Teaming up with Matt Herren and Debbie Sultan of Edwardsville’s Goshen Coffee and 222 Artisan Bakery, the plan was to begin carrying a full line of Goshen’s coffee and teas as well as Sultan’s award winning pastries.

Of course, to run a great coffee bar, you need a great manager and barista, and when the topic of who to run the bar came up last Thursday, Herren told Sommers there was only one choice: Alex Brooks.  In a whirlwind of a day, the call went out, and an offer was made, mulled over, and accepted by Brooks.

For St. Louis coffee fans, this is great news.  A more passionate coffee professional you will rarely find.  It does, however, mean that the opening has been delayed as Sommers feels it wouldn’t be right to open without Brooks at the helm.  Sommers is, after all,  hoping to raise the level of what coffee can be in the Central West End saying about the Brooks acquisition, “I can’t afford him, but I can’t afford not too.”

Speaking with Brooks last week, he is currently putting the finishing touches on his employment in Portland and is excited for the opportunity to be back amongst his friends putting his mark on St. Louis coffee.

At this time, the plans are to now open Monday, February 8, with the hours being Monday-Saturday 6-11AM.  Be sure to stop in to welcome Alex home.

Full Disclosure: Alex Brooks, Matt Herren, Chris Sommers, and Debbie Sultan are all friends of mine.

* The title is lifted from a text message Sommers sent to me.

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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

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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.

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…

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Holy Bavarois!

Nov 5, 2007 Illinois, events, restaurants

222 logoSo it’s time to round out the 222 Artisan Bakery free ad campaign with the obligatory comments on the open house. If you were hoping for pictures, well that’s just too bad. I didn’t take any. You should have gone.

I merely sampled, enjoyed, and was quickly blown away once again.

To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure what an open house at a business would entail, but upon arriving, I quickly saw that for 222, it’s a congregating of their loyal fan base in a three hour window to (a) drool (b) taste and (c) drool some more.

Specifically what that meant was that Matt and Deb got to show off some seriously rockin’ pastry skills as the gist was basically that we got to try most of their holiday creations, sample what I assume were a couple new additions to the bakery, and place orders for whatever our hearts might want need for Thanksgiving. Amazingly, they’re actually going to be working from 7-11AM Thanksgiving morning to “ensure maximum freshness of your Holiday Treats.” How awesome is that? Seriously?

The new offering appeared to be macaroons. They had pistachio, raspberry, and although I’d assumed it was chocolate, coffee. They were all of the good, chewy macaroon variety, as apposed to the crunchy ones, or the almost glue like ones that threaten to keep teeth as souvenirs.  The pistachio was especially interesting, and it appeared to be the unanimous favorite by all those in the shop while we were there.

We also tried the Bavarian Apple Tart which had a sort of a crumb topping sprinkled atop apples that had been layered into a cream cheese filling.

And then — oh then — there was the Apple Caramel Bavarois. This is the kind of thing that will threaten to plump me back up again, because I can just about guarantee I’ll be dreaming about it at some point. I’m not sure how they make their bavarois, but traditionally it’s basically a whipped creme anglaise that’s been stablized with gelatin. As a result, thought it’s a custard, it has a much lighter almost mousse like mouth feel. It was an incredibly elaborate dessert as it had been assembled in a tube mold such that the bavarois completely surrounded what appeared to be a smaller rectangular apple terrine down the middle. They’d have to comment more on how they did it because I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Honestly, I wish I’d taken a picture, so you could appreciate the skill involved, because my description can not do it justice.

Its taste brought to mind a caramel apple but in a more subtle way because of the lightness of the custard. I can’t recall if it was completely surround by pastry, but the bottom was for sure, and the entire thing was then coated with chocolate after being turned out. It had to have taken forever, and my only regret is that we don’t have more people to share it with this holiday season, as we only needed to buy one.

I’m not sure if they’re still taking orders or not, but here’s the complete list of what they’re offering for the holidays. I’m sure you could twist their arms if you call this week.

Breads

  • Cranberry Walnut $5
  • Sourdough $5
  • Hard Rolls (12) $7
  • Brioche Rolls (12) $8

Breakfast Treats

  • Quiche (10″, Cheese or Vegetable) $26
  • Cinnamon Rolls $2.75
  • Croissants $1.95
  • Chocolate Croissants $2.50
  • Pumpkin Bread $4

Desserts

  • Bavarian Apple Tart $16
  • Caramel Nut Tart $16
  • Pumpkin Pie $12
  • Apple Caramel Bavarois $18
  • Cranberry Apple Strudel $12

Here’s the actual order form.

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222 Artisan Bakery

Nov 2, 2007 Illinois, coffee, restaurants, reviews

222 Building 222 menu
222 Crowd

If you’re unfamiliar, let me tell you a quick story — at least as I understand it:

A man meets a woman in San Francisco. They both go to baking school. They fall in love and move to Seattle to follow their joint-love of coffee. Then, tired of being in the hustle and bustle of the nation’s largest coffee scene, they decide to pack it up and carve out a simpler life for themselves where they could be a greater part of the community back in the girl’s hometown, Edwardsville.

Things start out small. Roasting in a small custom built roaster at their home they begin selling coffee under the name Goshen through local businesses and the local Farmers’ Market. Then they build a wood burning oven and the baked goods quickly gather a following at the market until finally, to the joy of those in the know, they open a storefront in July of 2005.

That shop is 222 Artisan Bakery and in it you can taste perfection.

So, to Matt Heren and Debbie Sultan, I’m sorry I dropped the ball and didn’t post this sooner. And for the rest of you, as words can not fully explain my affection for what Matt, Deb, and their staff do, you’ll have to continue this one after the jump, as there’s lots of pictures.

Read the rest of this entry »

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