September 11, 2024 • 22 mins
Gerard's path to chef - Hear how he became a chef and has had some pretty unique jobs before-- he was a snowboard photographer as well as a graffiti artist! He actually did a graffiti piece in his new venture, Expat. Listen and be inspired!
About Chef Gerard Craft & Niche Foods:
Niche Food Group is based in St. Louis, Missouri and owned by executive chef Gerard Craft. As a Food & Wine Best New Chef, Food & Wine Innovator of the Year, 2015 James Beard Foundation Award-winning Best Chef: Midwest, and Inc. Magazine Star Entrepreneur, Chef Craft has been a pioneer for the Midwest dining scene.
A native of Washington, D.C., Chef Craft became addicted to the restaurant life while living in Salt Lake City as a snowboard photographer. Chef Craft went on to cook at Bistro Toujours in Park City, Utah and Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California as well as stage at Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey before making the leap to open a restaurant of his own.
Always a believer in following intuition, Chef Craft settled on a boarded-up building in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, a city that he had never visited, to open his first restaurant, Niche, at the age of 25 in 2005.
Niche Food Group has expanded its culinary offerings, with a diverse array of restaurants spanning 8 locations in St. Louis (will be 9 with Expat) and one in Nashville, Tennessee.
These include Brasserie by Niche, known for its French bistro fare; Pastaria, serving up approachable Italian cuisine; Pastaria Deli & Wine, a unique combination of deli, wine, and retail shop adjacent to Pastaria. Additionally,.css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}
About Chef Gerard Craft & Niche Foods:
Niche Food Group is based in St. Louis, Missouri and owned by executive chef Gerard Craft. As a Food & Wine Best New Chef, Food & Wine Innovator of the Year, 2015 James Beard Foundation Award-winning Best Chef: Midwest, and Inc. Magazine Star Entrepreneur, Chef Craft has been a pioneer for the Midwest dining scene.
A native of Washington, D.C., Chef Craft became addicted to the restaurant life while living in Salt Lake City as a snowboard photographer. Chef Craft went on to cook at Bistro Toujours in Park City, Utah and Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles, California as well as stage at Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey before making the leap to open a restaurant of his own.
Always a believer in following intuition, Chef Craft settled on a boarded-up building in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis, a city that he had never visited, to open his first restaurant, Niche, at the age of 25 in 2005.
Niche Food Group has expanded its culinary offerings, with a diverse array of restaurants spanning 8 locations in St. Louis (will be 9 with Expat) and one in Nashville, Tennessee.
These include Brasserie by Niche, known for its French bistro fare; Pastaria, serving up approachable Italian cuisine; Pastaria Deli & Wine, a unique combination of deli, wine, and retail shop adjacent to Pastaria. Additionally,.css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
From photographer to graffiti artist to a James Beard Award
winning chef to restaurateur. You are in for a real
treat with my next guest on duty with an Eye
for Travel, Foody time from the niche Food Group chef
Girard Kraft. Was that your real name? I mean you
craft food? And that is really?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Is it? I wish?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I always say I missed a retirement by one letter.
If I was KrF, shit, I'd be retired.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I wasn't even thinking of that craft. I was thinking
that you craft food.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh I'm always dreaming.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So that is your real name?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It is?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I kind of actually got mad when like craft everything
became like a movement craft beer, craft cocktails, craft food.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was like, that's my name, that's my name.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You should pay me. Yeah, well, what you're creating here
in Saint Louis is amazing. I went to into pair Perano.
Oh yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Awesome it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I love the whole concept of it. I love that
it's fast, and everybody was so nice and the food
was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'll tell you that that is the food I crave
the most out of our entire company. Really, yeah, I mean,
and you're not supposed to say that, but like, that's
really the food I crave. I go out there, you
know I can I can build a rice bowl with
veggies and you know, it feels feels really healthy. Or
I can eat a pizza when I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Exactly wanting to be healthy.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And you know you could say that because you know
you're the man behind this company. Growing up in DC,
you ever be into food then when you were young?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
No, Well, so I was a pretty picky kid growing up.
But I did grow up eating a lot of Brazilian food,
and so that's really like my comfort food. Eating fijwata
beans on rice with is like, you know, I ate
that like four times a week.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is a kid. It was either that or like spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And meat sauce, peeb and j what's that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I think food wise, I was. I wasn't super adventurous.
My brother was super adventurous. So it was a little
crazy for me to be the one that became a chef.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
What happens now, I gotten far too much trouble as
a kid, ended up in a school for you know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Troubled teens in northern Idaho and out there. I had
always been into photography and so I did an apprenticeship
with a you know, kind of action photographer ski snowboard,
wakeboard and got really into that. So when I graduated
high school, I moved straight to Salt Lake City to
be right next to the mountains and do snowboard photography
(02:29):
and go to college.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The college part didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Me neither could have been ready. I found that a
lot of creative artists you think outside the box, you
think differently, and maybe someday schools will change and you will.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I hope, So me too, I hope.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So I have two kids who were completely different and
learned completely different and I went through it.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So so I see it.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So you're snowboarding photographing snowboarders.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And then so I dropped out of college and got
a job in the morning at a car walk that
my friend ran, and then at night at a pool
hall that we all used to hang out at. It
was like these two easy things. I'm like, I think
I can get myself in these places. And so, you know,
when I applied to the pool hall, they said can
(03:15):
you cook? And I said no, but they were like,
we don't care. They took me back. I was a dishwasher,
but they had me start to do, you know, prepping
stuff and then cooking, and I just instantly it wasn't
really about the food.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I really fell in love with the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And the camaraderie and the action and the instant gratification
of being in a kitchen just really spoke to me.
So I did that, but wanted to kind of take
that a little further. Went to a culinary school, a
local community college culinary school, and started to get, you know,
my basic foundations of actually being a chef. Got a
(03:47):
job during that time at a fine dining place up
in Deer Valley. I kind of like talked myself into
a bigger job than I should have had, but they
very quickly realized, They're like, ah, this kid sucks.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Went over your head going away, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I went from pool hall to twelve course tasting menus Wow,
trying to be on the line, and they did one
of the best things for me that has ever been
done in my life, which was they said, you can
either get out or you can go to the basement
and be a prep cook. I think they were shocked
that I said I'll go downstairs and be a prep cook.
But that was that was the greatest thing that ever
(04:24):
happened in my cooking career, because I really you know,
they taught me the foundation of building sauces. I got
to break down all of this exotic fish and meats
and you know, you got to learn the foundation of
cooking and and I think that was a game changer
for me. From there, I mean, I went to Parison
and spent a summer there working at the Ritz kind
(04:44):
of like a work study, so it was a little school,
a little work. Really fell in love out there with
not not at the place I was at, but with
eating with some of the adventurous chefs that were there
at the time. They were, you know, cooking really unique food.
And that's when I saw that you could kind of
you know, you talked about thinking outside the box. You know,
before that cooking was very like fundamental to me in
(05:04):
a lot of ways. But going there and seeing these
guys you know, serve savory ice creams with with glazed
vegetables and things like that, just that's when I fell
in love. That's when I was like, oh, you can
totally think outside the box. If you know the foundational rules,
you know, you can break all of them and do
something really fun, which is what we're doing right across
the street.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, Expat, let's talk about it. Expat Barbecue, which is
going to opening here in the Foundry I think tomorrow. Yeah,
if you're right now, it's September eleventh, So if this
you hear this later it's opened the Saint Louis Foundry
and Boy Barbecue seeing in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love that you're tackling it. I know it's going
to be successful. What impact with expat? I mean, what
do you want to do as an impact with Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
So, I mean I think that you know, the name
says a lot if you if you pay attention to it,
Expat somebody living abroad. Uh, you know, I think there's
so much great barbecue in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So we're not really like trying to tackle the barbecue scene, right,
We're trying to kind of carve our own own lay
in our own niche if you will, in in the
barbecue spot. And it's kind of through the lens of
an expat who you know, has a lot of barbecue recipes,
American style barbecue recipes, but they're living abroad somewhere and
(06:24):
they need to go make those recipes, but with the
ingredients that are around them, and you know they need
to kind of pivot a little bit and replace this
for that. And you know, the flavors that you get
from that are both familiar but totally different. It's kind
of the way a lot of food migration has come to,
you know, to America, Italian American food for instance, you
(06:48):
know coming this way. This is just the opposite, right,
this is American food going abroad and getting that little
bit of nuance through it.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think it's a a fun spin on barbecue and
a little, you know, something different for for people to try.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And right here Saint Louis Foundry and if you haven't
been here, you're missing.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It was awesome. You have the food hull right, your
lunch choices are.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Every place is different. I think it was. I can't
remember the name of it, but it's a place. And
I've been to Mexico a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Sorest, yes, yerest, So you never had anything of my
life like that.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I go, how is it that I have not had
this food? It's so good.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Working on curating that was a really really fun job
for for us at a niche food group, and you know, uh,
getting to it was kind of a time where it
wasn't really about us at that point, whereas like now
we get to to work with all these amazing chefs
and help you know, give them a spotlight and and
bring them up you know, places like Cereste or che
(07:50):
Ali or Chicken Scratch and so.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Many more in there.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, amazing pop the mist and yeah. And I always
tell people I go, you got to get to get
the people from the West County get over. I'll get
them here. Yeah, out of West County, get here, because
you know what, you can meet your friends, bring your
family whatever. Everybody has something there they can.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Eat, really they do.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And you're starting to see a lot of like teenagers
will come and eat because they you know, like all
their friends can can eat something. Big groups of people,
families that you know, I don't know if we have
family members that don't all eat the same thing. Yeah,
but I feel like there's three different plates at my house.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So it's a perfect spot for that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I like you better. I don't cook, so for me,
it's fantastic. You know what we're on to go here,
you get that.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I'll get the soup or now you can go up
on the patio and listen to live music at ex
pat and have a couple of drinks.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I love that. So how long have you been here
in Saint Louis?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I moved here in two thousand and five to open
Niche Okay, got it? And you know, I had seen
that Larry Forgione had just opened an American place, Kevin
Nashan had just taken over Sydney Street Cafe, and I
was like, oh, this of like some exciting stuff going
on in this town. And I have a very unhealthy
habit of looking up real estate late at night and
(09:09):
still due to this day, but found a wine bar
for sale in Saint Louis for very cheap. And wine
bar was a little overstated. I think when I got
there it was like dirt floors, hole in the kitchen,
no electricity. Oh wow, you know, boarded up windows and.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I was like, I got my work cut out for me.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But I honestly instantly fell in love with ben Park
and this space. And I was twenty five and crazy
and I was like, yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So you started with these and then realize that this
is a community that is waiting for this kind of
food or.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I don't think I was entirely that smart, Like that's
given me a lot of crap. And like, you know,
I've studied this city and I know that they're just.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Dying to eat.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So you got lucky.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, you know, I think you know, so much of
so much of business and everything is you know, there's
the skill, and you know they say, you know, you
got to be ready to be lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And I think that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I was ready to be lucky and right place, right time,
and and it was it was a little bit different,
you know, a lot more like vegetables being cooked, you know,
whole animal cooking and things like that that just weren't
as prominent at that time. And it was stuff that
you know, I was eating a lot in New York
(10:35):
City at my favorite restaurant called Prune and a place
right by it it was called the Tasting Table, and
they were both very small, intimate restaurants, kind of serving
their own style of food in the way that they
wanted to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And I was like, that's what I want.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
And so I had fifteen hundred square feet forty seats,
and we just kind of gave it a go.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And if people want to come and see, hey, we
want to go to Xpat. We want to have some barbecue,
we want to see who's playing, we want to look
at a menu or anything like that. You must have
a website.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah we do so it's expat Barbecue dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay, it'll be in the show notes by the way.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, we'll just pop eye check out a menu, you know.
And we have we have two different real styles of
dining there. The downstairs you have a server, you sit down,
you know, full plates of barbecue. We also have the
sandwiches and everything downstairs. But then you go upstairs and
it's a little more fast casual and you order at
(11:34):
the bar a kiosk and you have sand barbecue, sandwiches,
burgers and all.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So good in here. If I could like have smell
a radio, it would be like, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
It does smellger So so there's a number of different
ways to experience it, uh, you know, with with pretty
low commitment. And then we have an event floor on
the second floor which is just kind of cocktail parties
and and events that can see you know, somewhere around
eighty people.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's fantastic. Yeah, you could do bridal shower there. You
can do all kinds of fun things there.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Birthday parties.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, and we have a six thousand pounds pink elephant
up on the third floor on the terrace. Heilt by
some of the guys from a city museum.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Her name is Patty.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
She's got a name. Yeah, yeah, like that Patty.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
To Patty expat Oh that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, it's again an experience.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It is an experience. The whole thing's in experience. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And thank you for bringing that to Saint Louis and
stick in here and sticking I.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Love Saint Louis too.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I've been here around twenty years now and I can't
imagine another place to call home.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, so glad you're here, and just that had to
love you have for Saint Louis. And what else what's
going on?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean, we've opened three restaurants this year, so it's
a lot to take in for everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So we have none inviting local jobs by the way.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, there lots of local jobs. Neis Frew Group now
is around four hundred employees.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Wow. Yeah, so come check us out. None of the above.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Basement of the foundry piranho out in de Pair next
to the Trader Joe's off Manchester and now Expat Next
Pat is going to be so much fun.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And so this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we're gonna
have live music every night up on the terrace. No
need for reservations on the terraces, just just come hang out.
Lots of lounge furniture, big fans outside love that Peters
for when it gets cold, It's gonna be a cool
place to just hang out.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
What kind of music, So we're gonna have a.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Range from from DJs and I just found out that
my favorite local artist, Mattie Shell is going to be
playing Thursday night for the opening. Thank you so much.
She is incredible. If anything, just come come to check
her out.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
And again James Beard, Winter Yet and Food One Magazine,
And I mean, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We've been so lucky and so fortunate. And somebody asked
me the other day, do I feel the way of,
you know, in pre sure of you know, making Saint
Louis proud? And I really do. You know, we work
every single day. You know, we're not perfect, but but
we work every day to live up to Saint Louis
and and you know, try and make Saint Louis proud.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think you've already done that, so thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Try to keep doing it again.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Chef Gerardcraft really his real name with a C. Just
remember that. And again Expat BBQ at Saint Louis City Foundery.
You got to get here, just homegrown, keeping it local.
And the three restaurants are again so.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The three new one none of the above.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
In the basement at City Foundry we have Expat, which
is the above restaurant, So that's separate.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
None of the above is separate.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Then okay, speakeasy in the basement.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh you're the speakeasy dude, I'd be.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wanting to go. You should go.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I'm definitely gonna go. I gotta move my guy with
me because I love that.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Ion gems On, who is the mixologist now down there
is right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Oh God, I love a good drink.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So then x Pat we have Sam, not Rocky, it
is our chef up there was just killing it. Came
back to from Nashville just to just to open this
restaurant with us.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
And then we have Pirano now in to pair, which
is the fast casual, super simple concept, but so much flavor,
really affordable.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Very affordable, and you're right, so much like very fast. Yeah,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, you can get in and out of there.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So yeah, yeah, it's my new favorite place. And if
people want to come and see, hey, we want to
go to Xpat. We want to have some barbecue, we
want to see who's playing, we want to look at
a menu or anything like that. You must have a website.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah we do so, it's expat Barbecue dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Okay, it'll be in the show notes by the way.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, we'll just pop eye check out a menu, you know.
And we have two different real styles of dining there.
The downstairs you have a server, you sit down, you know,
full plates of barbecue. We also have the sandwiches and
everything downstairs. But then you go upstairs and it's a
little more fast casual and you order it. The bar
(16:00):
are kiosk and you have barbecue, sandwiches, burgers and sounds so.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Good in here. If I could like have smell a radio,
it would be like, I know.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
It does smell good. So there's a number of different
ways to experience it. And then we have an event
floor on the second floor which is just kind of
cocktail parties and and events that can see you know,
somewhere around eighty people.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
That's fantastic. Yeah, you could do bridle shower there. You
can do all kinds of fun things.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
There, birthday parties.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, and we have a six thousand pounds pink elephant
up on the third floor on the terrace. Helt by
some of the guys from a city museum.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Her name is Patty.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
She's got a name, Yeah, like that, Patty, Patty expat
Oh that makes sense. It's again an experience.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
It is an experience. The whole thing's in experience. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And thank you for bringing that to Saint Louis and
stick in here and sticking.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I love Saint Louis. I thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I've been here around twenty years now and I can't
imagine another place.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
To call home.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, so glad you're here, and just that. Had to
love you for Saint Louis. And what else what's going on?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I mean, we've opened three restaurants this year, so it's
a lot to take in for everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So we have none.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Inviting local jobs, by the.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Way, Yeah, there lots of local jobs. Theis Frew Group
now is around four hundred employees. Wow yeah, so come
check us out. None of the above basement of the Foundry,
Prano out in de Pair next to the Trader Joe's
off Manchester and now Expat next Pat is going to
be so much fun.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And so this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we're gonna
have live music every night up on the terrace. No
need for reservations on the terrace, just just come hang out.
Lots of lounge furniture, big fans outside love that Peters
for when it gets cold.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's gonna be a cool place to just hang out.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
What kind of music?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
So we're gonna have a range from from DJs and
I just found out that my favorite local artist, Maddie's
l is going to be playing Thursday night for the opening.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
She is incredible if anything, just come come to check
her out.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And again James Beard, Winter Yet and Food Wine Magazine,
and I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yeah, we've been so lucky and so fortunate. And somebody
asked me the other day do I feel the way of,
you know, in pressure of you know, making Saint Louis proud?
And I really do you know, we work every single day.
You know we're not perfect, but but we work every
day to live up to Saint Louis and and you know,
try and make Saint Louis proud.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I think you've already done that, so thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Got to keep doing it again.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
City Foundry, you got to get here, just homegrown, keeping
it local. And the three restaurants are again, so.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
The three new one none of the above.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
In the basement at City Foundry we have Expat, which
is the above restaurant, So that's separate.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
None of the above is separate. That Okay, got.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Speakeasy in the basement.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh you're the speakeasy dude. I've been wanting to go.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You should go.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I'm definitely gonna know. I got to move my guy
with me because I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Iona Gemson, who's the mixologist down there, is incredible a drink.
So then Expat we have Sam Nawrocki, who's our chef
up there, was just killing it. Came back to from
Nashville just to just to open this restaurant with us.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And then we have Pirano now in to pair, which
is the fast casual, super simple concept but so much
flavor really affordable.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Very affordable, and you're right so much like very fast. Yeah,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You can get in and out of there, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's my new favorite place. What does it mean
for regular and culinary tourism? What do you think it
means to have? Because I really do think you're part
of what is growing for us for tourism. Do you
see kind of food that we could be this place
that people also go for food?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You know, I think that that when you talk to
people about what they're doing the weekend, you know, it's
pretty shocking that it doesn't involve food. Now, you know,
it's the restaurant they're going to, the bar they're going to. So,
you know, I think the Foundry is you know, one
of the main spots for for culinary tourism because there's
you know, everything from you know, a speakeasy none of
(20:13):
the above in the basement, you know, all the way
up to the third floor at expat where you have
live music and drinks, and then you know a million
restaurants with different tastes below. I think there's no better
place to taste Saint Louis other than maybe City Park.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, you know which we helped curate.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, I didn't know that I love City Park.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
City Parks.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Also, I never even knew I liked soccer until I
went to a game and then I fell in love
with it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, I think that was one of the things that
we were trying to get at when we did it,
is that not everybody is in love with soccer, but
everybody's in love with food.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yes, it's experiences. After the pandemic especially, I think people
want more than just sitting down at a restaurant. They
want to be able to do other things. I feel
like you're creating this.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
With need well, and we want to you know, at
City Park, we really wanted people to be able to
come there and get a flavor of the city, right,
you know. So we tried to kind of like pick
from different neighborhoods spread out within the city, you know,
including Illinois, and create you know, a concept that might
make people explore when they leave City Park.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
So, ah, I've never been to that neighborhood. They have
a restaurant at this place, We're going to go check
it out. Maybe we'll check out a place right next
door to that.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So Chef Gerardcraft really his real name with a C.
Just remember that. Thank you so much, thanks for stopping
by and for what you're doing for the city.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Thank you for having me. No means so much you
to have me on here.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
And as you're listening to this, if you want more information,
it'll be all in the show notes. Thank you so
much for listening to Judy with an I for Travel podcast.
Make sure you subscribe, you don't miss a thing. And
if you have some gems you want to love to share,
just hit up Judy Dive and that's me on GDY
with an Ie for Travel on iHeartRadio, the free app,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
From photographer to graffiti artist to a James Beard Award
winning chef to restaurateur. You are in for a real
treat with my next guest on duty with an Eye
for Travel, Foody time from the niche Food Group chef
Girard Kraft. Was that your real name? I mean you
craft food? And that is really?
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Is it? I wish?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I always say I missed a retirement by one letter.
If I was KrF, shit, I'd be retired.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
I wasn't even thinking of that craft. I was thinking
that you craft food.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh I'm always dreaming.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
So that is your real name?
Speaker 2 (00:33):
It is?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I kind of actually got mad when like craft everything
became like a movement craft beer, craft cocktails, craft food.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I was like, that's my name, that's my name.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
You should pay me. Yeah, well, what you're creating here
in Saint Louis is amazing. I went to into pair Perano.
Oh yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Awesome it.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I love the whole concept of it. I love that
it's fast, and everybody was so nice and the food
was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'll tell you that that is the food I crave
the most out of our entire company. Really, yeah, I mean,
and you're not supposed to say that, but like, that's
really the food I crave. I go out there, you
know I can I can build a rice bowl with
veggies and you know, it feels feels really healthy. Or
I can eat a pizza when I'm.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Exactly wanting to be healthy.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
And you know you could say that because you know
you're the man behind this company. Growing up in DC,
you ever be into food then when you were young?
Speaker 3 (01:28):
No, Well, so I was a pretty picky kid growing up.
But I did grow up eating a lot of Brazilian food,
and so that's really like my comfort food. Eating fijwata
beans on rice with is like, you know, I ate
that like four times a week.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is a kid. It was either that or like spaghetti.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And meat sauce, peeb and j what's that?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I think food wise, I was. I wasn't super adventurous.
My brother was super adventurous. So it was a little
crazy for me to be the one that became a chef.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
What happens now, I gotten far too much trouble as
a kid, ended up in a school for you know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Troubled teens in northern Idaho and out there. I had
always been into photography and so I did an apprenticeship
with a you know, kind of action photographer ski snowboard,
wakeboard and got really into that. So when I graduated
high school, I moved straight to Salt Lake City to
be right next to the mountains and do snowboard photography
(02:29):
and go to college.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The college part didn't work out.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Me neither could have been ready. I found that a
lot of creative artists you think outside the box, you
think differently, and maybe someday schools will change and you will.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I hope, So me too, I hope.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
So I have two kids who were completely different and
learned completely different and I went through it.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
So so I see it.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So you're snowboarding photographing snowboarders.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And then so I dropped out of college and got
a job in the morning at a car walk that
my friend ran, and then at night at a pool
hall that we all used to hang out at. It
was like these two easy things. I'm like, I think
I can get myself in these places. And so, you know,
when I applied to the pool hall, they said can
(03:15):
you cook? And I said no, but they were like,
we don't care. They took me back. I was a dishwasher,
but they had me start to do, you know, prepping
stuff and then cooking, and I just instantly it wasn't
really about the food.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
I really fell in love with the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
And the camaraderie and the action and the instant gratification
of being in a kitchen just really spoke to me.
So I did that, but wanted to kind of take
that a little further. Went to a culinary school, a
local community college culinary school, and started to get, you know,
my basic foundations of actually being a chef. Got a
(03:47):
job during that time at a fine dining place up
in Deer Valley. I kind of like talked myself into
a bigger job than I should have had, but they
very quickly realized, They're like, ah, this kid sucks.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Went over your head going away, you know.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
I went from pool hall to twelve course tasting menus Wow,
trying to be on the line, and they did one
of the best things for me that has ever been
done in my life, which was they said, you can
either get out or you can go to the basement
and be a prep cook. I think they were shocked
that I said I'll go downstairs and be a prep cook.
But that was that was the greatest thing that ever
(04:24):
happened in my cooking career, because I really you know,
they taught me the foundation of building sauces. I got
to break down all of this exotic fish and meats
and you know, you got to learn the foundation of
cooking and and I think that was a game changer
for me. From there, I mean, I went to Parison
and spent a summer there working at the Ritz kind
(04:44):
of like a work study, so it was a little school,
a little work. Really fell in love out there with
not not at the place I was at, but with
eating with some of the adventurous chefs that were there
at the time. They were, you know, cooking really unique food.
And that's when I saw that you could kind of
you know, you talked about thinking outside the box. You know,
before that cooking was very like fundamental to me in
(05:04):
a lot of ways. But going there and seeing these
guys you know, serve savory ice creams with with glazed
vegetables and things like that, just that's when I fell
in love. That's when I was like, oh, you can
totally think outside the box. If you know the foundational rules,
you know, you can break all of them and do
something really fun, which is what we're doing right across
the street.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, Expat, let's talk about it. Expat Barbecue, which is
going to opening here in the Foundry I think tomorrow. Yeah,
if you're right now, it's September eleventh, So if this
you hear this later it's opened the Saint Louis Foundry
and Boy Barbecue seeing in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
I love that you're tackling it. I know it's going
to be successful. What impact with expat? I mean, what
do you want to do as an impact with Yeah?
Speaker 3 (05:50):
So, I mean I think that you know, the name
says a lot if you if you pay attention to it,
Expat somebody living abroad. Uh, you know, I think there's
so much great barbecue in Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
You know.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
So we're not really like trying to tackle the barbecue scene, right,
We're trying to kind of carve our own own lay
in our own niche if you will, in in the
barbecue spot. And it's kind of through the lens of
an expat who you know, has a lot of barbecue recipes,
American style barbecue recipes, but they're living abroad somewhere and
(06:24):
they need to go make those recipes, but with the
ingredients that are around them, and you know they need
to kind of pivot a little bit and replace this
for that. And you know, the flavors that you get
from that are both familiar but totally different. It's kind
of the way a lot of food migration has come to,
you know, to America, Italian American food for instance, you
(06:48):
know coming this way. This is just the opposite, right,
this is American food going abroad and getting that little
bit of nuance through it.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
So it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
I think it's a a fun spin on barbecue and
a little, you know, something different for for people to try.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And right here Saint Louis Foundry and if you haven't
been here, you're missing.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
It was awesome. You have the food hull right, your
lunch choices are.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Every place is different. I think it was. I can't
remember the name of it, but it's a place. And
I've been to Mexico a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Sorest, yes, yerest, So you never had anything of my
life like that.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I go, how is it that I have not had
this food? It's so good.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Working on curating that was a really really fun job
for for us at a niche food group, and you know, uh,
getting to it was kind of a time where it
wasn't really about us at that point, whereas like now
we get to to work with all these amazing chefs
and help you know, give them a spotlight and and
bring them up you know, places like Cereste or che
(07:50):
Ali or Chicken Scratch and so.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Many more in there.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Yeah, amazing pop the mist and yeah. And I always
tell people I go, you got to get to get
the people from the West County get over. I'll get
them here. Yeah, out of West County, get here, because
you know what, you can meet your friends, bring your
family whatever. Everybody has something there they can.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Eat, really they do.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
And you're starting to see a lot of like teenagers
will come and eat because they you know, like all
their friends can can eat something. Big groups of people,
families that you know, I don't know if we have
family members that don't all eat the same thing. Yeah,
but I feel like there's three different plates at my house.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So it's a perfect spot for that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I like you better. I don't cook, so for me,
it's fantastic. You know what we're on to go here,
you get that.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
I'll get the soup or now you can go up
on the patio and listen to live music at ex
pat and have a couple of drinks.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
I love that. So how long have you been here
in Saint Louis?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I moved here in two thousand and five to open
Niche Okay, got it? And you know, I had seen
that Larry Forgione had just opened an American place, Kevin
Nashan had just taken over Sydney Street Cafe, and I
was like, oh, this of like some exciting stuff going
on in this town. And I have a very unhealthy
habit of looking up real estate late at night and
(09:09):
still due to this day, but found a wine bar
for sale in Saint Louis for very cheap. And wine
bar was a little overstated. I think when I got
there it was like dirt floors, hole in the kitchen,
no electricity. Oh wow, you know, boarded up windows and.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
I was like, I got my work cut out for me.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But I honestly instantly fell in love with ben Park
and this space. And I was twenty five and crazy
and I was like, yeah, that's perfect.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So you started with these and then realize that this
is a community that is waiting for this kind of
food or.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
I don't think I was entirely that smart, Like that's
given me a lot of crap. And like, you know,
I've studied this city and I know that they're just.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Dying to eat.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So you got lucky.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, you know, I think you know, so much of
so much of business and everything is you know, there's
the skill, and you know they say, you know, you
got to be ready to be lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
And I think that's what it was.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
I was ready to be lucky and right place, right time,
and and it was it was a little bit different,
you know, a lot more like vegetables being cooked, you know,
whole animal cooking and things like that that just weren't
as prominent at that time. And it was stuff that
you know, I was eating a lot in New York
(10:35):
City at my favorite restaurant called Prune and a place
right by it it was called the Tasting Table, and
they were both very small, intimate restaurants, kind of serving
their own style of food in the way that they
wanted to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
And I was like, that's what I want.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
And so I had fifteen hundred square feet forty seats,
and we just kind of gave it a go.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
And if people want to come and see, hey, we
want to go to Xpat. We want to have some barbecue,
we want to see who's playing, we want to look
at a menu or anything like that. You must have
a website.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah we do so it's expat Barbecue dot com.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay, it'll be in the show notes by the way.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Yeah, we'll just pop eye check out a menu, you know.
And we have we have two different real styles of
dining there. The downstairs you have a server, you sit down,
you know, full plates of barbecue. We also have the
sandwiches and everything downstairs. But then you go upstairs and
it's a little more fast casual and you order at
(11:34):
the bar a kiosk and you have sand barbecue, sandwiches,
burgers and all.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
So good in here. If I could like have smell
a radio, it would be like, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
It does smellger So so there's a number of different
ways to experience it, uh, you know, with with pretty
low commitment. And then we have an event floor on
the second floor which is just kind of cocktail parties
and and events that can see you know, somewhere around
eighty people.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
That's fantastic. Yeah, you could do bridal shower there. You
can do all kinds of fun things there.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Birthday parties.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, and we have a six thousand pounds pink elephant
up on the third floor on the terrace. Heilt by
some of the guys from a city museum.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Her name is Patty.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
She's got a name. Yeah, yeah, like that Patty.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
To Patty expat Oh that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, it's again an experience.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
It is an experience. The whole thing's in experience. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
And thank you for bringing that to Saint Louis and
stick in here and sticking I.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Love Saint Louis too.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I've been here around twenty years now and I can't
imagine another place to call home.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, so glad you're here, and just that had to
love you have for Saint Louis. And what else what's
going on?
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I mean, we've opened three restaurants this year, so it's
a lot to take in for everybody.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
So we have none inviting local jobs by the way.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
Yeah, there lots of local jobs. Neis Frew Group now
is around four hundred employees.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Wow. Yeah, so come check us out. None of the above.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Basement of the foundry piranho out in de Pair next
to the Trader Joe's off Manchester and now Expat Next
Pat is going to be so much fun.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And so this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we're gonna
have live music every night up on the terrace. No
need for reservations on the terraces, just just come hang out.
Lots of lounge furniture, big fans outside love that Peters
for when it gets cold, It's gonna be a cool
place to just hang out.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
What kind of music, So we're gonna have a.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
Range from from DJs and I just found out that
my favorite local artist, Mattie Shell is going to be
playing Thursday night for the opening. Thank you so much.
She is incredible. If anything, just come come to check
her out.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
And again James Beard, Winter Yet and Food One Magazine,
And I mean, yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
We've been so lucky and so fortunate. And somebody asked
me the other day, do I feel the way of,
you know, in pre sure of you know, making Saint
Louis proud? And I really do. You know, we work
every single day. You know, we're not perfect, but but
we work every day to live up to Saint Louis
and and you know, try and make Saint Louis proud.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I think you've already done that, so thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Try to keep doing it again.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Chef Gerardcraft really his real name with a C. Just
remember that. And again Expat BBQ at Saint Louis City Foundery.
You got to get here, just homegrown, keeping it local.
And the three restaurants are again so.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
The three new one none of the above.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
In the basement at City Foundry we have Expat, which
is the above restaurant, So that's separate.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
None of the above is separate.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Then okay, speakeasy in the basement.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Oh you're the speakeasy dude, I'd be.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Wanting to go. You should go.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I'm definitely gonna go. I gotta move my guy with
me because I love that.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Ion gems On, who is the mixologist now down there
is right.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
Oh God, I love a good drink.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So then x Pat we have Sam, not Rocky, it
is our chef up there was just killing it. Came
back to from Nashville just to just to open this
restaurant with us.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
And then we have Pirano now in to pair, which
is the fast casual, super simple concept, but so much flavor,
really affordable.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Very affordable, and you're right, so much like very fast. Yeah,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, you can get in and out of there.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So yeah, yeah, it's my new favorite place. And if
people want to come and see, hey, we want to
go to Xpat. We want to have some barbecue, we
want to see who's playing, we want to look at
a menu or anything like that. You must have a website.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah we do so, it's expat Barbecue dot com.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Okay, it'll be in the show notes by the way.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, we'll just pop eye check out a menu, you know.
And we have two different real styles of dining there.
The downstairs you have a server, you sit down, you know,
full plates of barbecue. We also have the sandwiches and
everything downstairs. But then you go upstairs and it's a
little more fast casual and you order it. The bar
(16:00):
are kiosk and you have barbecue, sandwiches, burgers and sounds so.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Good in here. If I could like have smell a radio,
it would be like, I know.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
It does smell good. So there's a number of different
ways to experience it. And then we have an event
floor on the second floor which is just kind of
cocktail parties and and events that can see you know,
somewhere around eighty people.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
That's fantastic. Yeah, you could do bridle shower there. You
can do all kinds of fun things.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
There, birthday parties.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
Yeah, and we have a six thousand pounds pink elephant
up on the third floor on the terrace. Helt by
some of the guys from a city museum.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Her name is Patty.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
She's got a name, Yeah, like that, Patty, Patty expat
Oh that makes sense. It's again an experience.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
It is an experience. The whole thing's in experience. It's
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And thank you for bringing that to Saint Louis and
stick in here and sticking.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
I love Saint Louis. I thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I've been here around twenty years now and I can't
imagine another place.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
To call home.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Well, so glad you're here, and just that. Had to
love you for Saint Louis. And what else what's going on?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
I mean, we've opened three restaurants this year, so it's
a lot to take in for everybody.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
So we have none.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Inviting local jobs, by the.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Way, Yeah, there lots of local jobs. Theis Frew Group
now is around four hundred employees. Wow yeah, so come
check us out. None of the above basement of the Foundry,
Prano out in de Pair next to the Trader Joe's
off Manchester and now Expat next Pat is going to
be so much fun.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And so this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday we're gonna
have live music every night up on the terrace. No
need for reservations on the terrace, just just come hang out.
Lots of lounge furniture, big fans outside love that Peters
for when it gets cold.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
It's gonna be a cool place to just hang out.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
What kind of music?
Speaker 3 (17:52):
So we're gonna have a range from from DJs and
I just found out that my favorite local artist, Maddie's
l is going to be playing Thursday night for the opening.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
She is incredible if anything, just come come to check
her out.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
And again James Beard, Winter Yet and Food Wine Magazine,
and I mean.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
Yeah, we've been so lucky and so fortunate. And somebody
asked me the other day do I feel the way of,
you know, in pressure of you know, making Saint Louis proud?
And I really do you know, we work every single day.
You know we're not perfect, but but we work every
day to live up to Saint Louis and and you know,
try and make Saint Louis proud.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I think you've already done that, so thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Got to keep doing it again.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
City Foundry, you got to get here, just homegrown, keeping
it local. And the three restaurants are again, so.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
The three new one none of the above.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
In the basement at City Foundry we have Expat, which
is the above restaurant, So that's separate.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
None of the above is separate. That Okay, got.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
Speakeasy in the basement.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh you're the speakeasy dude. I've been wanting to go.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
You should go.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
I'm definitely gonna know. I got to move my guy
with me because I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Iona Gemson, who's the mixologist down there, is incredible a drink.
So then Expat we have Sam Nawrocki, who's our chef
up there, was just killing it. Came back to from
Nashville just to just to open this restaurant with us.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
And then we have Pirano now in to pair, which
is the fast casual, super simple concept but so much
flavor really affordable.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Very affordable, and you're right so much like very fast. Yeah,
I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
You can get in and out of there, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah, it's my new favorite place. What does it mean
for regular and culinary tourism? What do you think it
means to have? Because I really do think you're part
of what is growing for us for tourism. Do you
see kind of food that we could be this place
that people also go for food?
Speaker 3 (19:50):
You know, I think that that when you talk to
people about what they're doing the weekend, you know, it's
pretty shocking that it doesn't involve food. Now, you know,
it's the restaurant they're going to, the bar they're going to. So,
you know, I think the Foundry is you know, one
of the main spots for for culinary tourism because there's
you know, everything from you know, a speakeasy none of
(20:13):
the above in the basement, you know, all the way
up to the third floor at expat where you have
live music and drinks, and then you know a million
restaurants with different tastes below. I think there's no better
place to taste Saint Louis other than maybe City Park.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Yeah, you know which we helped curate.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Oh, I didn't know that I love City Park.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
City Parks.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Also, I never even knew I liked soccer until I
went to a game and then I fell in love
with it.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, I think that was one of the things that
we were trying to get at when we did it,
is that not everybody is in love with soccer, but
everybody's in love with food.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yes, it's experiences. After the pandemic especially, I think people
want more than just sitting down at a restaurant. They
want to be able to do other things. I feel
like you're creating this.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
With need well, and we want to you know, at
City Park, we really wanted people to be able to
come there and get a flavor of the city, right,
you know. So we tried to kind of like pick
from different neighborhoods spread out within the city, you know,
including Illinois, and create you know, a concept that might
make people explore when they leave City Park.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Right.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
So, ah, I've never been to that neighborhood. They have
a restaurant at this place, We're going to go check
it out. Maybe we'll check out a place right next
door to that.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
So Chef Gerardcraft really his real name with a C.
Just remember that. Thank you so much, thanks for stopping
by and for what you're doing for the city.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Thank you for having me. No means so much you
to have me on here.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
And as you're listening to this, if you want more information,
it'll be all in the show notes. Thank you so
much for listening to Judy with an I for Travel podcast.
Make sure you subscribe, you don't miss a thing. And
if you have some gems you want to love to share,
just hit up Judy Dive and that's me on GDY
with an Ie for Travel on iHeartRadio, the free app,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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