There are a handful of talented local chefs who we’ve long thought should have their own restaurants. Chris Lee is one of them. And now he has one.
Coming in May to the former Black Bear Bakery space at 2639 Cherokee is a breakfast and lunch spot Lee is calling Sure Lee’s. (Don’t bother with the quips: the veteran chef’s already heard all the “and don’t call me Shirley” and “surely, you jest” jokes.)
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First, a little housekeeping: Lee was the former executive chef for In Good Company (owned by Gurpreet Padda and Ami Grimes), the folks behind Café Ventana, Sanctuaria Wild Tapas, Diablitos Cantina, and Hendricks BBQ. Lee won the Crystal Cajun Cook Off in 2011, won the Stella Artois Taste of STL Chef Battle Royale in both 2012 and 2013, won the World’s Fare Battle Pork in 2014, and is listed in Best Chefs America. Lee left In Good Company to join Chef John Johnson at River City Casino, where he oversaw the new banquet and events center. In 2014, he partnered up with Vito Racanelli at the now-shuttered Mad Tomato in Clayton. Later that year, he ventured out on his own, rolling out Chef’s Table STL, a catering company that also provides healthy, high-quality meals to busy families. Lee is also a corporate consultant for Bunge, a leading global agribusiness and food company with operations in 40 countries.
The space Lee recently leased on Cherokee Street is large enough to accommodate both Chef’s Table STL and Sure Lee’s. (When we first stepped into the massive kitchen and blurted out “holy shit!”, Lee shot back, “yep, 3000 square feet of holy shit.”
Considering the baking equipment he inherited (four commercial dough mixers, two huge butcher block tables, a six-shelf bread baking oven, etc.) Sure Lee’s will be part bakery and part restaurant. “For a long time, this storefront was a neighborhood bakery, “ he reasoned, “so I’d be crazy not to incorporate all that into Sure Lee’s.” Existing wire racks will again be used for breads (Lee envisions five different varieties) and the display cases will be used for varieties of pies and pastries not otherwise found along that stretch of Cherokee.
Sure Lee’s will fill different niches at different meal periods:
The restaurant will serve breakfast all day long, which the chef says is lacking in the area. “And since we’re baking bread on site,” he said, “it makes sense to serve stratas, baked French Toast, and toad-in-the-hole–type dishes.” He also hopes to provide an inexpensive breakfast buffet on the weekends, “since no one wants to sit and wait for breakfast on a nice Sunday.” Plus, curb service will be offered for people in a hurry.
At lunch, the emphasis will be on sandwiches, a la Union Loafers. Lee says the sandwiches will be “the culmination of all my years in the business placed between two slices of bread.” Think chicken fricassee on a baguette. Or smoked pork, pickled tongue, and cole slaw served open face on ciccioli-style bread.
At night, the space will be used for event dinners and the occasional collaborative pop-up. “Ideally, I’d love to open up a portion of the kitchen for those kinds of events, seating guests at the butcher block tables,” he said. “I’d like to put the buffet line in there as well.”
Lee is in the process of waxing floors, refinishing woodwork, and painting the entire space (above) an off-white color. “It will be clean, very clean—’“White Castle clean,’” in Lee’s words. “I want that to be the first impression…the food will speak for itself.”
There are 50 seats on the main level plus a mezzanine with a media center that can be used for meetings or a makeshift office. Since Lee is a licensed ServSafe administrator, he plans to use the space to teach food handling basics “to the locals—for free.”
He also wants to mentor people entering the business, which includes teaching them interviewing skills, including how to dress. Lesson one, he says, is “You don’t get hired on how cool you are.” Sound advice from the low-key chef, baker, sandwich maker, caterer, curb service runner, and food service mentor.
