Short Orders

[OPENINGS]

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

For more than a year Thomas Crone has been searching for a place to bring to life his vision for a bar that takes guests on a food-and-drink-inspired trip down the Mississippi River. Now, that idea has become a reality in the form of the dual-concept bar and restaurant Chatawa and Grand Pied (3137 Morgan Ford Road), which opened on August 18 in Tower Grove South.

For Crone, a veteran barman and former co-owner of Tick Tock Tavern, Chatawa represents an opportunity to celebrate the rich traditions of the towns along the Mississippi River, beginning in St. Louis and ending in New Orleans. As he explains, the idea for such an establishment has been developing in his mind for a while and is inspired greatly by the side of New Orleans that goes beyond the caricature of the city so many associate with it.

“I’ve been to New Orleans about nine times in the past three or four years, and every time I am there I try to go to new places,” Crone says. “What I found is that there are a host of great bars and restaurants in neighborhoods. I wanted to play with that, but not with the cliche. When you say this is a New Orleans-in uenced bar, people think of the caricature, but I really want to avoid that and re ect the idea of a merged vibe between St. Louis and New Orleans — understated for both of them; there aren’t going to be a bunch of arches everywhere just as much as there won’t be a bunch of alligators.”

Crone’s idea for Chatawa, which gets its name from a small town in Mississippi, came into focus over the past year while working at Local Harvest Grocery. There, he got to talking with Brendan Kirby, chef and owner of Seed Sprout Spoon (formerly Local Harvest Catering) and Tony Collida, who was working with Kirby after being furloughed from his job running the kitchen at Civil Life Brewing Company. Kirby was in the process of relocating Seed Sprout Spoon from its home on Morgan Ford Road to a new location in Holly Hills, so the space would soon be available. The moment Crone stepped inside, he knew he’d found his spot.

With the space secured, Crone asked Collida to partner with him on a restaurant concept that would be complementary to what he was trying to do with Chatawa. The idea spoke to Collida, and quickly the idea came together for Grand Pied as a small restaurant that operates inside the Chatawa bar.

Separate but operating in concert with one another, both Chatawa and Grand Pied are organized around the food and drinks found traveling up and down Interstate 55 from St. Louis to New Orleans. Crone and Collida do not mean for this to be simply an intellectual exercise; the plan is to source as many products and ingredients as possible from the large and small towns along the route. Everywhere from Festus and Cape Girardeau to Memphis and Baton Rouge is represented in the form of beers, spirits and culinary tradition.

Chatawa and Grand Pied have the aesthetic of such an establishment. Adorned in quirky artwork and tchotchkes, the setting has the well-worn feel of an established neighborhood bar, even though it’s only been open for a few weeks. Roughly twelve tables provide seating, and there are a few seats at the small, corner bar. Guests order food from Grand Pied by using a QR code at every table, and dishes are delivered by the bar and restaurant’s staff.

Collida describes Grand Pied’s offerings as regional by default; because he uses as many local ingredients as possible, his dishes take on the air of the issourito-Louisiana route, something he’s excited to explore.

“I say this is American food in the sense that I am trying to keep as much as possible from the South and Midwest,” Collida explains. “We’ll have a version of green bean casserole — albeit an elevated one — and beignets, and then we want people to be surprised by everything else.”

On weekday nights, Collida thinks of Grand Pied as a testkitchen complement to Chatawa, serving food that suits a cocktail bar. On Sundays, however, he gets to go all-in on brunch, which he is particularly passionate about.

Chatawa and Grand Pied are currently open Wednesday through Saturday from 4 until 10 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Click through for more photos of Chatawa and Grand Pied. n

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

If you’ve been to the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market over the past few months, chances are you’ve heard the buzz about Macs by Belle, a new macaron outfit owned by up-andcoming baker Laura Branson. Just two months into business, the singularly focused bakery has developed a robust following thanks to its stunning macarons, regularly selling out well before the market closes. According to Branson, the response has not just been exciting to watch happen — it’s been completely unexpected.

“It’s been shocking,” Branson says. “ he first market, brought 400 macarons and sold out in two hours. The next one, I brought 550 and still sold out at least an hour before closing. The feedback has been so wonderful. People have been coming up saying that they saw someone enjoying them on the sidewalk, so they’ve been coming to my booth from word of mouth, and I just started getting orders from there. The market has been such a great opportunity for me.”

Not that long ago, Branson would never have imagined herself to be a macaron baker with a growing business. A longtime home baker, she traces her passion for the kitchen back to her immigrant great-grandparents who infused everything they did with love. She inherited their love for baking, but she never thought it was a career path she would follow, opting instead to go for the safe bet of a job in the health-care industry where she works in billing.

Baking has always been a way for Branson to indulge in her creative inclinations, and about five years ago, she started tackling macarons. She had come across a recipe and was instantly intrigued because of how fancy they looked, but also because there was no limit to what you could create using

them as a jumping-off point. She made her first batch as a gift for her son’s godparents following his baptism, and though she wasn’t thrilled with the result, she was determined to get better.

“ hey are so difficult to make, because you have to use the right our and take into account whether it’s humid or raining,” Branson says. “But I don’t think I would have been attracted to them if they weren’t so difficult. f had chosen anything else, I would’ve been bored. ’m definitely one of those people that wants to throw 200 percent of my energy into something, do it, then move on, but this is the one thing that has continued to challenge me.”

Branson might have continued simply making her macarons as gifts for friends and family, but they wouldn’t stop cheering her on and insisting that she explore whether she could make an actual business out of her talents. After connecting with the local food incubator and commissary kitchen STL Foodworks, she learned the ins and outs of setting up her business. With the help of its manager, Daniel Movitz, she felt ready to take the leap. As soon as he connected her with Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, there was no turning back.

Branson has big plans for Macs by Belle. In addition to taking on more special-order business, she hopes to launch a monthly subscription box in time for the holidays, though she is taking that slow considering she still holds down her full-time medical billing job. In the meantime, she’s developing more and more avors, all built around her desire to bring to life things that remind people of the dishes they enjoy, like apple pie, or some of her more whimsical avors such as butter beer and Fruity Pebbles.

She hopes that, in just a matter of months, she will be able to dedicate herself fully to Macs by Belle, where she believes the sky will be the limit to what she can do with her business.

“I’m just now at a point where I am ready to retire my other job,” Branson says. “My husband is getting ready to graduate from nursing school and will be finished in the spring. We’re waiting for that safety net because it’s scary to give up a full-time paycheck. But when he’s finished, ’m going to say goodbye to health care and do what I love. For years, I’ve been telling him that I just want to be in the kitchen and bake macarons, and now that it’s happening, I can’t believe it.” n