Short Orders

[FOOD NEWS]

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

The recent announcement of several key personnel appointments by the group behind the forthcoming 21c Hotel St. Louis has created even more buzz around the highly anticipated development. On the culinary front, the most exciting news was the appointment of Matthew Daughaday as executive chef.

Daughaday will lead culinary operations that include a restaurant, lounge, coffee shop and events spaces as the hotel group seeks to open inside the restored YMCA building at 1528 Locust Street. He brings to the project a wealth of experience that includes such acclaimed restaurants as Taste by Niche and Reeds American Table — and ensures that the property will be an anchor of the downtown dining scene.

One of the area’s biggest culinary talents, Daughaday shared with the Riverfront Times his vision for 21c Hotel St. Louis, which takes its cue from the ultra-chic 21c Museum Hotels group’s other properties in such cities as Louisville, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; and Durham, North Carolina. Though he remains tight-lipped about the menu and restaurant concept specifics, he notes that he is working to make sure that all the property’s food and beverage spaces will have a connection to the region. He says he’s confident the property’s culinary offerings will appeal not simply to hotel guests but to residents as well.

“There will be a few outlets for food, with the restaurant, cafe and banquet halls all being built around the philosophy of thoughtfulness in preparation and execution,” Daughaday says. “We’re trying to open an excellent neighborhood restaurant that happens to be in a hotel. For each of these places, there is a lot of thought put into the items on the menu; we are sourcing our ingredients and making sure they represent St. Louis as much as they fill out the concept of the space, and utilizing local farmers, local roasters for coffee in the cafe and purveyors that all have a tie to the community.

“We want to showcase to outof-town guests all the awesome products St. Louis has to offer and give another great place for local residents to come and dine.”

Daughaday says his desire to work for 21c Museum Hotels has been brewing for several years — even before he knew who they were. While working for chef Gerard Craft at Niche Food Group, Daughaday became familiar with Proof on Main, an acclaimed restaurant that is part of the hospitality group’s first development in Louisville. Daughaday did not know about the restaurant’s relationship with the hotel when he first learned of it he simply thought of it as an exceptional restaurant. He only came to understand its relationship with 21c Museum Hotels after he learned that the group was coming to St. Louis.

“That is when I came across Savoy Restaurant in Kansas City and the Hive in Bentonville and realized all these places I knew as just great restaurants were associated with the 21c brand and how important having high-quality dining establishments is to the company,” Daughaday says. “It made this opportunity exciting and made me nervous all in the same right, as I know that the expectations will be high for this project.”

Daughaday says that he is also thrilled to be a part of the organization because of its commitment to civic engagement. Working alongside Christopher Randall, 21c Hotel St. Louis’ newly appointed director of community impact, Daughaday hopes to be a piece of the puzzle in downtown’s revitalization, seeing his role as chef as but a part of a larger picture for the overall area.

“The food will be playful, modern and rooted in tradition and tied to the overall spirit of the hotel, with a commitment to quality that pulls from its connection to the local community and supports the neighborhood around it,” Daughaday says. “21c wants to make an impact in any community that it is a part of and give an outlet for creative expression. We hope to attain those same goals with the food we produce.” n

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Andrew Cisneros is a busy guy. Between running his wildly successful Peruvian restaurant, Jalea, sketching out a plan for a forthcoming rotisserie chicken concept called Brasas and consulting on the recently opened Casa de Tres Reyes in Des Peres, the in-demand chef has found the time to launch Sanguichitos (8125 Michigan Avenue), a Peruvian-inspired sandwich counter that opened inside of Perennial Artisan Ales’ south St. Louis tasting room in September.

As Cisneros explains, the idea for Sanguichitos came to him well before his partnership with Perennial. At Jalea, his nearly yearold cevicheria on Main Street in St. Charles, Cisneros began experimenting with small Peruvianinspired sandwiches, or sanguichitos, after getting ahold of some excellent pandesal bread from a local bakery. The pandesal, a soft, subtly sweet Filipino roll, was the perfect canvas for classic Peruvian sandwich flavors, so he created a few different varieties and put them on Jalea’s menu. They were an instant success and made him realize he was onto something that could be as popular in St. Louis as they are in Peru.

“Just like how Mexico has taco carts, we have sandwich carts,” Cisneros says. “We eat a lot of sandwiches in Peru, and I wanted to make something that wasn’t [a] big sandwich but has finesse and is easier to pick up for a quick bite; you can have one or two and everyone is full for the night.”

Cisneros drew inspiration not only from Peruvian flavors but from the street carts that serve them. Parked in front of bars and clubs where they provide sandwiches to merry-makers into the wee hours of the morning, the carts are a staple of the country’s nightlife culture. That’s why things clicked when he got to talking with Perennial’s owner, Phil Wymore, following a pop-up series they did together this past spring and summer. Cisneros noticed that Perennial’s kitchen was not in use, and he instantly recognized that the tasting-room environment would be the perfect place for St. Louisans to enjoy his sanguichitos. Wymore agreed, and in just two months, the two converted the empty kitchen into a bastion of Peruvian street food.

Sanguichitos’ menu consists of five different styles of slider-sized sandwiches. The Peruvian Street Burger pairs a seasoned beef patty with smoked cheddar cheese, crispy potatoes, fried shallots and a piquant take on fry sauce, a mayonnaise-and-ketchup-based sauce popular throughout Latin America. His smoked chicken salad sanguichito uses Peruvian-style rotisserie chicken as a base, then tosses it with Cisneros’ “chicken sauce,” a dressing made with aji amarillo, black mint, mayonnaise and vinegar. A blue crab salad slider features hunks of the tender shellfish dressed with citrus mayonnaise and accented with smoked trout roe. Sanguichitos also serves a braised pork belly sanguichito, as well as a vegetarian riff on choripan, which consists of a chorizoseasoned Impossible patty topped with mozzarella cheese and roasted red pepper sauce.

All sanguichitos, except for the blue crab, are served in pairs, and every order comes with a side of housemade chips and a cilantrolime ranch dipping sauce that Cisneros likens to onion dip. He hopes to expand his side offerings, but for now, he’s trying to nail down what he’s currently doing in the hopes he can build upon it at additional locations.

“I love this concept,” Cisneros says. “I’m still tweaking a lot of things, but I think this is something that can be replicated in a lot of small spaces. That’s what is on the horizon right now.” n

[FOOD NEWS]

Written by JAIME LEES

St. Louis shoppers will have a whole new version of Schnucks to explore this coming spring. Eatwell Market by Schnucks opens next year in Chesterfield, and this specialty shop is one that anyone can enjoy.

Eatwell Market by Schnucks (220 THF Boulevard, Chesterfield) will focus on offering natural and organic foods, including a wide selection of both organic and commercially grown produce. The store is designed to “celebrate the connection of food, wellness and community by offering foods with exceptional taste and uncompromising ingredients,” so it will also be carrying items such as freshly ground nut butters and meat products without added growth hormones or antibiotics.

“We are excited to introduce Eatwell Market by Schnucks to customers in our hometown area,” says Schnucks Executive Vice President of Supermarkets Ted Schnuck. “Our company’s mission is to nourish people’s lives, and we will build on that by bringing customers a store where they can discover new, local items while staying focused on health and wellness.”

The new Eatwell Market will be located in Chesterfield Valley between Sam’s Club and Lowe’s — right off of the Boone’s Crossing Road exit at Highway 40. n

Eatwell Market by Schnucks is coming soon to Chesterfield Valley. | COURTESY SCHNUCKS