Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
He’s operated rests in Florida, New York, Hawaii, and most recently, on the harbor in San Diego, often dubbed “America’s Finest City.” So what could lure the 1991 Parkway West grad back to a city where the humidity runs higher than San Diego’s average high temperature? It’s called The Tavern, its tag line “exquisite comfort food,” a concept that Justin Haifley mulled over during the 10 years he worked as executive chef for Roy Yamaguchi, creator of 36 Roy’s “Hawaiian fusion” restaurants. On a hot September day, one month before The Tavern opened, SLM grabbed a cold beverage with a keyed-up Haifley—whose excitement level registered in the 90s as well.
You’re 36. How many of those years have you been cooking?
I started professionally when I was 21, but worked alongside my grandmother for years, on their farm—everything from canning to butchering was done there.
Did your grandparents raise crops or livestock?
My grandfather was a tobacco farmer; my grandmother was a food writer for Good Housekeeping magazine. She was the one who wanted to put me through culinary school.
What was your first stop after graduating?
I did an externship at the Marriott on Marco Island, near where a Roy’s was opening in Bonita Springs. It was 500 covers a night, 7 days a week—it never let up. I got my ass kicked for a year.
They call that “good experience.”
It gave me the experience to get hired at Tru, in Chicago. That’s where I learned firsthand the fundamentals of professional cooking techniques. Every cook in that kitchen had a passion—a nescessity, really—for perfection.
Then Roy’s came back into your life?
Roy was making plans to come to Chicago, and since they add some local influence everywhere they go, I suggested they hire me to add a little “Chicago” to their menu, and they did. Before they opened though, I was part of a training crew that opened 6 more restaurants, back to back to back…same concept, different city.
Opening a restaurant is really difficult. Does it ever get easier?
Only because you tend to make all your mistakes early on. Eventually you make fewer, until you make very few at all. There are a lot of restaurant chains, though, that never even make it to that point.
Chicago is a great restaurant city…
…Until someone asks you to go to New York, which Roy did. I was his Exec there. That’s how I was able to assist Roy on the morning TV news shows, and shows like Regis.’
How was Roy Yamaguchi?
The nicest guy in the world, so chill. I owe it all to Roy. He was a coach, an inspiration, as well as a listener, a guider, and a friend. He sent me to cities I always wanted to visit, like New York. He deserved the 11 years I gave him.
I was going to ask if he was your mentor…
For sure. He allowed me to go to places like New York—passionate--food towns, where you can find a Mario Batali drinking red wine after hours at The Spotted Pig, and talk kitchen talk. Maybe New York City is my mentor. You don’t get a lot of sleep there, but you get a lot of experience.
What was your favorite restaurant in New York?
I think I spent all my money dining out. The most memorable meal was at Per Se. My two sous chefs and I went for lunch at noon, and we left at 5:30, $1500 lighter. I remember us saying it was the best meal and the best day of our lives. It was like the Super Bowl…so expensive, and over so fast. On another visit there, one of our dinner guests was a teenager, and while the rest of the party was having paired wines with each course, the staff served her different sodas, each one paired to the course she was eating.
Culinarily speaking, where do you go after New York? Paris?
How about Hawaii? That’s Roy’s home base and where I became consulting chef for his six restaurants there. He wanted to “bring sexy back” into his food.
What does that mean?
More finesse, better technique, better seasoning…the things I learned at Tru. For instance, we would put “meat butter,” a compound butter, on our steaks, made with lemon juice, lemon zest, shallots, fresh thyme, and little ground bay leaf, our secret ingredient. We’d rub the butter on a screaming hot steak, fresh out of the cast iron skillet, and glaze it, so it looked like a mirror. I would tell my cooks to look at the steak until the steak looked back at them.
Will you use that technique at The Tavern?
Yes, same butter, same technique. Ironically, after doing 36 similar restaurants, Roy is now rolling out a “tavern” concept of his own, in Hawaii.
Who copied whom?
I dunno. I’ve been thinking about this and developing it for 10 years…maybe we inspired one another.
What is the busiest location for Roy’s?
In San Diego, a beautiful place on the harbor. As a chef/partner, I was given a percentage of the profits. And that place does 8 million a year. I was there before coming back to St. Louis.
So what lures you away from that?
I wanted to get back the passion…the passion of cooking for each guest. You don’t get that doing volume. At The Tavern, I will have eight seats at the “chef’s bar.” There, I can be cook, server, and friend. That kind of interaction gets me excited.
St. Louis is a great place to come back to…
I’ve lived in San Diego, New York, Florida, Hawaii, but St. Louis is starting to feel like home again. Super values, super nice people, and it’s sooo reasonable. I don’t mind being a big fish in a small pond, either. The Tavern would be lost in Chicago or New York. It will stand out here.
Your tagline says exactly what you do.
The whole line is: “Exquisite Comfort Food: Flavors You Know, Artfully Reinvented.” For example, we’ll take pasta carbonara and finish it with our own bacon; or buy prosciutto from La Quercia in Iowa, the finest producer I know of; or add a fried egg to the dish, rather than incorporate eggs into the sauce.
Is there a can’t-miss item, one for which The Tavern could become famous?
Several will follow what I call the “ass-versus-class” theory... We took the lowly toasted ravioli and classed it up by filling it with lobster and serving it with a truffled-parmesan cream sauce…so toasted lobster ravioli may become that signature item. We may even do something crazy, like a “Dom-Bomb,” mixing Jagermeister with a high-end champagne.
That pushes the envelope…
It would certainly be unique, and I guarantee people would at least talk about it.
Oh, I’m sure of that. Now I do like that your menu has several styles of burger.
Flat-grilled, like Carl’s Drive-In; a boutique “Tavern Burger” with bacon jam and aged Irish cheddar; and an old-fashioned backyard burger, the size and shape you’d make at home, served with “island” sauce, on a proportioned bun, that’s buttered and crisped up, so it won’t fall apart.
Why is it that very few burger joints match the bun to their burger?
I don’t know, but it’s important… All of ours will be. Oh, and we’ll grind all our own meat, every day: 70 percent chuck eye roll, plus brisket and sirloin for a meatier, steakier flavor.
Will you make your own bread and burger buns?
No, but the giveaways will be different. The bread will be a “parmesan pull-apart,” cooked and served in mini cast iron skillets.
You will also cook sous-vide…isn’t that the antithesis of “tavern” cooking?
We won’t be getting crazy and all gastronomic with it. Sous-vide guarantees perfect consistency in our 1-hour egg, for example, an item that goes into our bacon and egg dish. It almost gives the egg a custard-like texture, and a perfect yolk every time. We may even do ribs sous-vide, cooked individually, then grilled all the way around over an open flame, garnishing them with a smoked butter foam. That’s as gastronomic as we’re going to get.
Will you do more of these taverns?
The focus is to train our people till we get this one perfect. Train, train, train….that’s the downfall of most independents. After that, we’ll see. I’m just looking forward to meeting and greeting and cooking…for individuals. I want them to be my family and friends. My mom cooked us breakfast every day…even asked us what we wanted or how we wanted our eggs. I’ve just expanded that hospitality a bit.
Do you cook at home?
No. After doing 500 covers a night for years, that’s definitely a no.
What’s your favorite place to dine out?
Carl’s Drive In…it’s Steak and Shake times 10…flat-grilled burger perfection.
It’s getting cold outside. What types of soup will you offer?
Our clam chowder will be part soup, part clam dish, served in a lidded bowl with assorted steamed clams on the side. Eat them separately, add them to the soup, or use them for dipping the soup. That’s exquisite comfort food.
Any one story that gives you nightmares?
We did a James Beard dinner for 70 and had asked—repeatedly--if there were going to be any vegetarians attending. No, no, and no. Naturally, five vegetarians show up, so I send a sous chef out with $100 to buy vegetables, which we turned into 5 courses on the fly. When the guests heard what we had pulled off, they gave us a standing ovation—one nightmare that turned out OK.
The Tavern’s logo includes an “STL.” Does that mean there may be a CHI?
Or an ATL…or maybe another STL.
