For Zoë Robinson, the restaurateur behind some of St. Louis’ most elegant restaurants (I Fratellini, Bar Les Freres, and Billie-Jean) the blessing of her Clayton home’s kitchen was that most of it was already designed by the time she moved in—by her husband.
“He had already put in the Viking, the Sub-Zero, the wine fridge, and the cabinets. The basics were here,” she says.
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Just one caveat: “He had this big honking island.” That piece, topped with a hunk of butcher block, was first to go. Replacing it: a dreamy marble–topped table that seats six, three on a white banquette and three on the walnut chairs that echo the updated butcher block. Robinson loves the airy quality: “I like that it’s open and you can move around in here.”
1. Robinson describes her husband’s style as traditional but with a modern art collection. She brought “quirky antiques and a few really modern pieces to marry the styles.”
2. The marble backsplash is the same Danby that Robinson used as her tabletop, lending a sense of continuity as well as contrast to the butcher block counters. “The marble is behind the stove, too, which is kind of scary,” she says. “I thought that I would screw it up—you know, tomato sauce—but I’m careful.”
3. For most people, glass-front cabinets pose a threat: Everything inside has to be organized. For Robinson and her husband—she calls him a neatnik—it’s no big deal. “If I could do it over,” she says, “I’d have the Sub-Zero refrigerator with the glass front. I like the challenge.”
4. “I had window treatments, but I took them all down,” Robinson says. “The bare windows bring the outside in, and at night, all that bamboo is lit up and it’s beautiful.”
5. Originally, the parquet floors were a darker oak color; Robinson had them stripped for this lighter look.
6. If she were stranded on a desert island, Robinson says, she’d choose her Shun knives as her must-have. Her favorite tool in the kitchen? Tongs—specifically OXO tongs. “They’re the best ones,” she says. “You use them for meat and for pasta or if you’re roasting vegetables. I always have to have a lot of them. Sometimes I use them so much that the plastic wears off.”
7. Robinson’s pantry is stocked with sea salt, Parmigiano-Reggiano, flat-leaf Italian parsley, and arugula. Of the last ingredient, she says: “It’s so versatile. You can put it in pasta; you can make a salad out of it; it can top a steak.”
8. The best restaurant appliance she wishes she could bring home? “A commercial-grade dishwasher,” she says, “because it washes in about one minute. That’s magnificent when you’re really cooking.”
