Photograph by Katherine Bish
Patrick “Pepe” Kehm has the dubious honor of having co-owned the St. Louis restaurant with the shortest life span in 2008: Bistro Toi, which replaced KoKo in South City, closed in just six weeks. So how do you follow that? By jumping into another restaurant? Now? What kind of chutzpah does that take? The guy must be [insert unflattering adjective here]! Or…maybe not. Maybe he just got caught downwind in a stormy economy and finally figured out how to tack. SLM visited with Kehm just prior to his embarking on a new concept, one he’s confident will outlast the storm. Any guesses? Buck-A-Burger? Pepe’s Street Eats? Read on.
When did you get into this business?
Washing the beer fishbowls at Rigazzi’s. Like 200 per night…which was a lot when you’re 12. I remember an old Italian dude yelling in my ear the whole time. But it was an attractive business…even back then, waiters’d leave there with $50 in cash.
Who taught you to cook? Did you go to culinary school?
Most of it came from my mom, but I also picked up a lot from a chef in Scottsdale. I took his tiramisu and brought it back here when I realized no one else was doing it. That was 20 years ago. Now look what happened.
Did you travel anywhere else to cook?
I learned a ton when I went to Brittany: their work ethic, the reverence that everyone had—and has—for the industry. Brittany was very cross-cultural. I observed some unusual techniques and combinations, things I’m reluctant to do here, like pairing seafood with an interior accent. I remember lobster with rabbit sauce.
Do you have any mentors, local or otherwise?
I learned old-school techniques in Europe, but innovation and interpretation and how to run an operation came from Greg Perez. He could adapt what was happening elsewhere to what was not happening here.
Do you think St. Louis is a good restaurant town?
Only if you don’t get too far out of the box. I would question the locals’ response to things like foams and weird emulsions. St. Louis is basically straight-ahead and I’m not super cutting-edge—so that works. What I’m planning is simple but creative.
First, let’s discuss Bistro Toi. What happened there?
We were already in an off location, then an investor disappeared at the 11th hour. But you know, I’ve overcome those things before. I feel it was the economy that did us in. We just never got it off the ground. We’re reverting to the Spaghetteria [Mamma Mia] concept that worked for us before.
What was the genesis of that idea?
We first saw the concept in Bologna…spaghetterias were everywhere. St. Louis had pizzerias and trattorias, but no spaghetterias. So we started with one noodle and several different, mismatched sauces, and once we tweaked it, it was successful.
So why did it close?
We got dinged by a local critic, then had a disagreement with the landlord and lost our lease.
The new arrangement is better?
Like Johnny Londoff, my partner [Don Bellon] owns the building and lot, which will allow us to keep menu prices low. All the pastas will be $10 to $12. We couldn’t do that if the rent structure was different.
So will you duplicate the concept exactly?
It will be more innovative and broader in scope. We have a fresh pasta room—all the short pastas are fresh. Few people take the time to do that. We’ll have a veal London broil instead of a veal chop, a bistro filet versus a beef tenderloin. There will be a dessert cart and a wine cart, for here or for grab-and-go.
But with Highway 40 closed, do you think the new location at Vandeventer and Chouteau will see much traffic?
Right now Chouteau is Highway 40 for many folks. I’m seeing cross-town traffic, nearby students, theater traffic, as well as the customer who’s already attracted to the Grove.
I love to ask about signature items.
I’d bet on the lobster cannelloni, made in-house. Mussels will be served out of shell and skewered. There’ll be escargots in a hollowed-out roll with the sauce outside…so the whole thing will disappear. What some people call goofy, others see as innovative.
Will the pricing be innovative, too?
Everything will be in the teens or below. That’ll be this year’s niche: affordable, casual elegance.
You’ve also got an innovative take on freebies.
I’m doing a small soup taster to start. Then, instead of bread, there’ll be roasted, salted garbanzo beans and lupini beans with a balsamic sweet roast. They’ll be poppin’ ’em like potato chips.
Serving free bread has become a major cost problem.
There are several things St. Louis won’t accept: paying cash for meals, paying for better water, paying for bread…and bones in chicken. I’ve accepted the first three, but I’m still doing battle with the last one.
There’s a place in Clayton that serves very cold St. Louis tap water in stoppered bottles.
I did that at the Spaghetteria five years ago, and I’m planning it again here. I like not having goofy busboys spilling ice and water all over the table.
Were you inspired by the success of Sugo’s Spaghetteria in Frontenac?
I think they may have been inspired by mine. Neither of us has reinvented anything. But it is the perfect idea for right now.
Anything else planned down the line?
I’d love to do a cevicheria. But the smart move right now would be to do several spaghetterias.
Any interests besides the restaurant biz?
The entertainment business. A group of us recently released our first movie, a fantasy thriller, Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen. It’s now on DVD. It was an interesting diversion, but my real passion is still food.
Did you ever want to do a restaurant somewhere else?
I have a plan to eventually do a concept in a college town in North Carolina.
The concept being…?
Handmade pasta, sauced and packaged with a salad and garlic bread for $10…all ready in a deli case. Grab it and go. To-go packaging has been refined to the point where you can put the whole thing in the microwave and have dinner ready in three minutes, the kind of thing that’s perfect for college kids or anybody on the run.
I hear Don Bellon’s building has an interesting story behind it.
I’m told that when Redd Foxx lived in St. Louis, he remembered driving by the building when it had its original name: Sanford and Son Salvage.
Where there is salvage, there are always stories.
This building is loaded with artifacts… oak paneling is from Cyrus Clemens’ house [Mark Twain’s nephew], the back bar came from The Lenox Hotel, the marble tables and floor were from marble reclaimed from local seminaries, and the cobblestones outside are now back in the city after my father demolished a cobblestone house in Chesterfield.
