Short Orders

[BUZZWORTHY]

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

In June of 2020, Mike Shadwick and Meredith Gibbons Shadwick took a leap of faith and opened Honey Bee’s Biscuits + Good Eats (www.honeybeesbg. com) as a food stall in the Kirkwood Farmers’ Market. Now, less than two years later, the pair are getting ready to put down roots not far from where it all began. The Shadwicks are excited to announce that they will be opening a Honey Bee’s brick-and-mortar restaurant in downtown Kirkwood, just down the way from the market, finally giving their beloved concept the permanent storefront it deserves.

The Shadwicks announced their plans on social media on January 9, noting that they will be taking over the former Club Taco’s prime corner spot at the intersection of Kirkwood Road and East Jefferson Avenue. For the husbandand-wife team, the location made sense because of the outpouring of support they have received from the Kirkwood community since their very first day in business.

“Kirkwood has automatically showed up for us since Day One when we sold out the first day at the market,” Mike says. “The community has been so incredibly supportive, so it just felt right to be there. The building is the perfect size on the perfect corner. The community has done so much for us and have proven that they will show up if you put out a good product.”

For the Shadwicks, a brick-andmortar has always been in the back of their minds since they first launched Honey Bee’s. Instead of jumping right into that format, however, they took an interme-

diate step between the stall and a storefront by launching a food truck in February of last year. Like their market stall, the truck was greeted with instant success, prompting the Shadwicks to get serious about finding a place for a standalone restaurant. After putting out feelers with a landlord who owned several properties in the area, they couldn’t believe their luck when their dream spot came available.

“We’d always thought that building would be perfect for us, but we didn’t think it would ever go anywhere,” Mike says. “It has the white brick and black fence that totally fits our brand. It’s just one of those crazy stories where it was kind of meant to be.”

The Shadwicks are thrilled to have a permanent space for a few different reasons. As Mike notes, having a full, dedicated kitchen and storage area will finally allow them to keep all of their things in one spot, easing the logistical challenges they have encountered since they opened.

“We use the Kirkwood Park commissary, we have another storage space, and I have two food trucks parked permanently at my house,” Mike says. “Our neighbors probably think we are insane.”

In addition to easing their existing business needs, the new location will finally allow the Shadwicks to expand their offerings and do more cooked-to-order items, something that has been a longtime dream of theirs. They insist they plan on starting out slowly — Mike notes this will be his first time cooking to order in a full-service kitchen — but they look forward to playing around with different ideas and are particularly excited about finally having the chance to cook their eggs to order.

“Eggs are my specialty,” Mike says. “I’m excited to finally show off my soft scrambled ones. They are so good and just melt in your mouth.”

Starting out, the Shadwicks will offer a menu similar to the one served at their food and market stall, consisting of their signature biscuits, different gravies and a few biscuit sandwiches. They are also excited to partner with local roaster La Cosecha Coffee and plan to offer boozy beverage options as well, including bloody marys, mimosas and other daytime-focused drinks, all using spirits from local makers such as Switchgrass Spirits and Social Grace Spirits. The restaurant will also serve locally brewed craft beer and Excel soda.

In the future, the Shadwicks hope to expand their offerings to include more lunch-focused dishes like sandwiches and salads. They also plan on using the space to do pop-ups for other concepts they have been dreaming up over the past year and are open to seeing how things develop once they actually get into the space, including service flow. For now, they plan on having the restaurant set up in a fast-casual format, with guests ordering at the counter, then going through the line and watching as their food gets made in front of them, similar to a Qdoba.

At this point, the Shadwicks do not have a firm opening date for the Honey Bee’s restaurant. Though they had hoped to open on the anniversary of the launch of their food truck, February 6, they believe that is unrealistic and project a March opening, though that is up in the air. Until then, they have been granted permission by Kirkwood to use their patio for pop-ups and to serve guests out of their Honey Bee’s trailer. And while they work to get the restaurant up and running, they plan on continuing their food truck, catering and both Kirkwood and Tower Grove farmers’ market business, and insist all of those operations will stay open even after the restaurant comes online.

“It’s a lot of emotions,” Mike says. “We’re just really excited to get in there and get to work.” n

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

When Dominic Weiss first walked into Big Sky Cafe (47 South Old Orchard Avenue, Webster Groves; 314-962-5757), he was just a neighborhood kid looking for a gig bussing tables. Now, after three decades spent working at the restaurant and its former sister concepts, Weiss is stepping through Big Sky’s front doors with a much different job title: restaurant owner. On January 10, Big Sky’s longtime owner Tim Mallett announced on Facebook that he had sold the restaurant he founded in 1992 to Weiss. Citing a desire to retire from the restaurant business after 45 years, Mallett praised Weiss as Big Sky’s “defender from the challenges of the last couple of years,” stating that “there is no better man to carry on Big Sky Cafe’s traditions and no one who cares more for the staff and the customers they deserve.” For Weiss, the opportunity to take over such a storied institution is both thrilling and humbling. Though he had no idea how far he would go in the company when he started at Big Sky just a few weeks after it opened, Weiss went on to rise through its ranks, making his way into the kitchen and eventually in both front-of-house and back-of-house management positions. His tenure with Mallett extended into the restaurateur’s other brands as well; Weiss held prominent positions at Blue Water Grill, Ellie Forcella, and Remy’s Kitchen and Wine Bar. A little over a decade ago, Weiss stepped away from Mallett’s restaurant group to pursue opportunities outside of the restaurant industry. However, as he found himself missing the hospitality business, he made his way back to Big Sky, taking on a temporary role that was supposed to last a mere eight weeks. As he likes to joke, he never left.

“Tim told me that he had a short-term opportunity for me if I was still looking to get back in the business,” Weiss says. “One of his employees was going to be out on medical leave, and he asked if I wanted to fill in working the door as a host and taking care of the dining room. I said, ‘Sure, why not?’ so in a manner of speaking, I am still covering for someone who was supposed to be out for a short period of time because I haven’t left.”

As Weiss explains, the experience of coming back made him realize that he wanted to stay on at Big Sky in a permanent capacity. He began taking on more and more responsibility, and eventually, he and Mallett started talking about him taking over the restaurant one day. Originally, they assumed that would be a five-year plan, but they carried on, business as usual, for roughly a decade. Finally, in early 2020, Mallett decided he was ready to move on.

“Even before the pandemic, we started talking about it much more seriously,” Weiss says. “He got to the point where he was ready to retire, and he said to me, ‘So, are you ready?’ I figured, yeah, I guess so. This was what we were going to do, right?”

Mallett and Weiss may have recently finalized the details of the sale, but the new owner is emphatic that he will still be looking to his old boss for advice. Referring to Mallett as a dear mentor and friend, Weiss is grateful for his guidance throughout the transition, as well as his willingness to help in any way that he can as long as Weiss needs it. Weiss admits that, even though he wants to respect Mallett’s retirement, he has no plans to stop calling him to ask his opinion on things, and he is confident that Mallett will always be there for him and the restaurant.

Weiss also emphasizes that he has no plans to make dramatic changes to Big Sky. Considering his institutional knowledge of the place, as well as his respect for what Mallett created, Weiss feels that he has a responsibility to keep things running the way they always have.

“My plan is to be a steward of the brand,” Weiss says. “I am tremendously proud of what Big Sky is and my part of it. Being afforded the opportunity to run Big Sky for the last ten years, I feel there is a lot of me in what it is now. Of course, a lot of that comes from Tim, so I don’t have any big left turns on the horizon. My immediate goal is to steer the brand and continue to develop and stay relevant and continue to be what people have been able to count on for the 30 years we have been here. We want to have new things on a regular basis like we’ve always endeavored to do, and we want there to be a reason to come in and see what we are doing differently, but we are going to remain Big Sky.” n

[BREWERY NEWS]

Written by JENNA JONES

Burger 809’s founder Tasha Smith knows all fries are not created equal. She’s laughing, but she is dead serious about the extensive research she’s put into the partner to her bite-sized burgers. Fries are a new adventure for Smith, as is her newly minted partnership with Bluewood Brewing (1821 Cherokee Street; 314-261-4079). The collaboration was announced on social media the evening of January 12, when both Bluewood Brewing and Burger 809 took to Facebook to shout the good news. The grand opening of the partnership is scheduled for Friday, January 21, at 11:30 a.m.

Bluewood Brewing has been without a companion since Mac’s Local Eats closed up shop in the brewery in August. According to Grant Lodholz, co-founder of Bluewood Brewing, the brewery had been looking for a new partner since Mac’s exit that was not only local but within the Cherokee Street neighborhood. When Burger 809 was recommended to Lodholz and the team at Bluewood, they decided to check it out.

“So, we went in there, and it was the best greens and best sliders we’ve ever had,” Lodholz says. “Not only that, once we realized her food was amazing, we just loved how [Smith] treated everyone. She brought so much warmth to the place, and we were like, ‘This would be a great addition.’”

Conversations between Smith and Bluewood began after those fateful trips.

Smith credits Cherokee Street’s tight-knit community and Burger 809 regulars for fostering and supporting the partnership. She also believes that the partnership is made possible by the fact that both Burger 809 and Bluewood Brewing share similar values, such as the effort they put in their business.

Burger 809 had been operating out of 2619 1/2 Cherokee Street since early 2019, and has been featuring takeout of its sliders and premium sides for the last year-and-a-half-plus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout its time in the space, a small patio was the only way guests were able to enjoy their food in person, so the ability to offer dine-in seating is something Smith looks forward to now that she has the space within Bluewood Brewing.

“When we were catering, we were interacting with our customers,” Smith says. “And we missed that. So we’re really looking forward to providing a great dine-in experience.”

In addition to the exciting future of dine-in for Burger 809, Smith’s menu will both expand and keep fan favorites. Mac and cheese, salmon, fresh salads, new sliders, their famous Southern greens and, yes, fries have all made the cut. One burger is a collaboration between the brewery and burger spot: the Bluewood Baby. Beer cheese that utilizes one of Bluewood’s brews, ground beef and a pretzel bun all make up the new creation.

As far as fries go, Smith is putting in extensive research on which kind will grace the Burger 809 menu — the business hasn’t sold fries since its early stages, instead focusing on vegetables and mac and cheese as their side dishes. She’s weighing her options and has traveled to cities to review whether steak, crinkle-cut or an entirely different style will work best with the sliders.

“It’s a lot of pressure,” Smith laughs. “This is a serious question. I’ll have to unveil that later. We’re engineering all concepts. We know that there’s a perfect fry to marry with sliders.”

Lodholz — while very excited about the fries — also looks forward to reinstating trivia and movie nights as safely as possible with COVID-19 remaining a challenge. He’s excited about the prospect of people being able to hang out longer in the brewery since they will have food once more. Live music is also on the todo list once the partnership is up and running.

While guests are able to dine in at Bluewood, takeout will also remain an option for Burger 809’s guests; a new website launched on January 15 will allow customers to order online, with delivery a possibility in the future. Smith is closing Burger 809’s current Cherokee Street location because of the new arrangement with Bluewood.

Both partners are excited to welcome guests into the brewery; Smith says seeing the employees make the beer you’re drinking is very cool, while Lodholz emphasizes the beauty of the brewery and its new partnership with Burger 809.

“I mean, not to humblebrag,” Lodholz laughs. “We’re really excited about people getting to enjoy our spot, because let’s be real: Our taproom is beautiful.” n