Niche Taps Mike Sweeney for Beer Consulting
Oct 8, 2009 St. Louis, beer, chefs, missouri, restaurants
As the craft beer market has expanded, so to have the requests that top-tier restaurants take as much care in assembling their beer lists as they do for their wines. In an effort to address this and expand the beer selections in his restaurants, Gerard Craft of Niche has today tapped Mike Sweeney to consult on the beer lists for Niche, Niche Taste Bar, and the soon to open BRASSERIE by Niche. Most know Sweeney as the owner of the popular St. Louis beer blog and forum, STL Hops. In speaking with Sweeney this morning, he was excited about the news and stated that the goal is for each space to have its own list of beers to complement the food coming from each restaurant’s kitchen. As one might imagine, at BRASSERIE this will mean a strong focus on French and Belgian styles. For those looking for more esoteric selections, however, Sweeney also stated that Craft’s vision is that Niche Taste Bar will be the one place where the rules are “anything goes”.
Full Disclosure: As most know, Mike Sweeney is one of my closest, personal, friends.
Tags: BRASSERIE by Niche, Gerard Craft, Michael Sweeney, Mike Sweeney, Niche, Niche Taste Bar, stlhops.com STL Hops
Ah Ha! A Newbie’s Wine List or: How I Managed to Post Twice in One Day
In March of this year, Josh Galliano and I dined at the Niche bar together. Throughout our meal customers of Niche, who were also customers of Monarch’s, regularly came up to say hello. To my great fortune, a particularly generous customer added to his hello a bottle of 2004 Williams Selyem Westside Road Neighbors Pinot Noir and with that, my Ah Ha wine moment had happened, and a new chapter of my life began. Thanks Jeff L.
Certainly I’d had good wine before, and I definitely preferred it as my libation of choice with a meal. Outside of restaurants, however, I’d been primarily a beer drinker because I could not only wrap my head around beer, I could afford it. I had no idea what Williams Selyem was that night and, if the wallop of flavor were any indicator, I was pretty damn sure it was a winery producing a product well outside my price range. Arriving home and doing a bit of googling, however, I found a bottle at Brown Derby, in Springfield, MO, for $55. While I realize that’s not cheap by any means, it was significantly less than I’d anticipated, and I immediately purchased it and two other bottles of Williams Selyem Zinfandel to tuck away into my cellar (AKA the cool/dark corner of my basement).
The slippery slope of oenophilia had landed and, where once I was a guy that simply knew he liked wine more than beer but felt he couldn’t afford it, I quickly became a guy that reads a dozen wine blogs a day and voraciously clamors for information. Which brings us, windingly, to my poorly written point: One of those posts was written by Stephen Schenkenberg on stlmag.com about his favorite wine books and websites. It’s a good list but, as a newcomer to this world of wine, I thought I’d offer up a newbie’s perspective (which you can read here in it’s shiny-new polite form, or as an stlmag comment in it’s original, several glasses in, grammatically incorrect–but possibly more entertaining–form)
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: blog, books, cellartracker.com, drvino.com, erobertparker.com, Hugh Johnson, Jancis Robinson, Jay Miller, Josh Galliano, Kevin Zraly, Mark Oldman, Niche, Robert Parker, Tom Stevenson, Tyler Colman, vinography.com, websites, Williams Selyem, winespectator.com
#stl Foodies Look Forward to Another Niche
Sep 28, 2009 St. Louis, chefs, missouri, restaurants
No longer a rumor, Chef Gerard Craft announced via Twitter last night that he has officially secured the Chez Leon space in the Central West End. Having spoken to him two weeks ago, he’d confirmed his interest in the space, but an agreement had not then been reached. The hopeful plan was a quick turn around to get the restaurant open quickly, and some additional weekend tweaking to get things just the way he’d like them.
Now official, he confirmed last night that they’d be “shooting to open Nov 1” and that the restaurant “will be called BRASSERIE by niche just as BOUCHON defines the style of the restaurant.”
He also commented that because of the use of Brasserie, the French word for brewery, “a much stronger beer list” would also be in the works.
Tags: BRASSERIE by Niche, Gerard Craft, Niche
taste. by niche
Jul 20, 2009 St. Louis, chefs, menus, missouri, restaurants
Niche Taste Bar is, without question, the hippest thing that has ever opened in St. Louis.
Tags: Gerard Craft, Niche, Niche Taste Bar, Taste
Goshen Coffee @ Foundation Grounds
Jan 12, 2009 Illinois, St. Louis, coffee, missouri
And in still more local coffee news, Ian Froeb and Melody Meiners of toastedrav.com reported that Foundation Grounds is now open in Maplewood. Between the two of them they covered most of the W’s (like it’s being Green) except for one: Foundation Grounds is another Missouri notch for Edwardsville’s Goshen Coffee.
Continuing to increase their West-Side presence, their drip and espresso coffees are becoming increasingly easy to find around town as prominent spots like Pi, Winslow’s Home, Local Harvest Cafe, The Good Pie and Niche turn to them for service.
Tags: Edwardsville, espresso, Goshen Coffee, Local Harvest, Niche, Pi, The Good Pie, ToastedRav.com, Winslow's Home
Notes
Oct 5, 2008 St. Louis, books, farmers' markets, groceries, offal watch, restaurants
1. I spotted hardback copies of one of my favorite foodie books, The Apprentice
It’s hard to imagine a time when people were attempting to make chain food that actually stood up to some level of high standards.
2. Guanciale. Salume Beddu was slinging some made with Fararr Out Farm Berkshire jaws at Tower Grove recently and it is delicious.
Toast some good bread, render some up like lardons, and top it with arugula and a fried egg cooked in the rendered fat for the ultimate (and fast) after-work snack.
3. Grits. I’d been unimpressed by Revival’s in the past, but this week, cheesy grits baked in a dish and topped with a slice of ham and a sunny-side up egg were absolutely perfect. It doesn’t get much better than egg yolk running over anything.
4. Getting much better…the Fat of stlbites.com has made an appearance at Niche. Lamb belly is now the final savory course of the tasting menu and it’s ridiculously good–everything a solitary slice of tender lamb gut was meant to be.
Lamb – mushroom, cauliflower, tapenade (& Brussels Sprouts when I had it)
5. A guilty pleasure: Chicken Modega and a side of white cavatelli at the Town & Country Rich & Charlie’s. Bonus: it was $28 for two of us to eat. Bonus 2: That Rich & Charlie’s is BYOB. Bonus 3: It was enough for lunch the next day too.
Tags: Farrar Out Farm, fried egg, grits, guanciale, Jacques Pepin, lamb, Niche, Revival, Rich & Charlie's, Salume Beddu
Artisan What?
Sep 12, 2008 general food, restaurants
If you love cheese (and I totally do) you know what Cowgirl Creamery is. You would also know it’s a bitch to get any in St. Louis unless you feel like ponying up some serious dough by paying as much to ship the wedges of perfection as you did for the wedges. I, personally, do not. Maybe I could afford it, but I can get plenty of rocking cheese locally without going to all that effort and I’m kind of lazy.
And so I was elated a few weeks ago to see that amongst Niche’s vastly expanded cheese selection was a Cowgirl Creamery cheese. Oddly, it was cottage cheese. I, at least, had never seen an artisan cottage cheese until that moment. I had to have it. I love cottage cheese. In fact, love really doesn’t scratch the surface of my enjoyment of the stuff. When I shop for it, I pick the containers up and shake them like others manhandle ripe fruit to see which one is freshest. Somewhere in that dairy cooler I know there is one specimen filled with so much milk-juice–and it’s invariably the sourest.
As for Cowgirl’s, sad to say, it did not treat this cheese-head right. With a tight curd it was incredibly dry and it lacked the sourness I long for. I suppose that might make it the perfect entryway for the cottage cheese haters amongst you.
Tags: cottage cheese, cowgirl creamery, Niche
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
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
From the mountains of Panama and Ethiopia, to the urban-jungles of Portland and Chicago, journalist Michaele Weissman takes us behind the scenes for a look at the world of third-wave specialty coffee. How did we get to Starbucks, and where we go from here?