The idea seemed ingeniously simple: a restaurant where half of the menu was vegetarian and the other half wasn’t. Literally.
After 50/Fifty Kitchen opened at 3723 S. Kingshighway last year, however, a string of unfortunate events complicated matters. The Northampton restaurant closed its doors Monday, February 25.
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Owner Bob Madden, a vegetarian who ironically worked at Fleming’s for years, offered a menu with vegetarian offerings listed on the left column and carnivorous offerings on the right. His goal was to encourage people to eat a little less meat and a few more vegetables, “a nudge rather than a shove, an informed decision rather than an edict,” as we put it last year, around the time the restaurant opened.
The starting point was to create a restaurant with a hybrid menu, so vegetarians and carnivores could dine at the same table. Live music was an important component, so a stage was built with a complete backline PA, allowing musicians to play without lugging in speakers and amps.
After a series of locational stops and starts, the restaurant opened last July. The recipes were a convergence of ideas, formulated by Madden and respected local chef Dana Holland, who had to bow out of the project prematurely because of health reasons. “Dana tweaked my dishes and made them executable in a restaurant setting,” Madden says. “Losing Dana early on was a blow, which took us awhile to recover from.”
Then, after he felt the menu was finally dialed in (“both sides were clicking”), successive weekend snowstorms hit St. Louis. “The first two months of the year are the hardest to survive as it is,” says Madden, who also slipped, fell, and had to undergo surgery, which kept him from maintaining his typical pace.
“My landlord knew I was struggling all around and offered to forgive the last two years of our lease,” says Madden, “so leaving seemed like the best course of action.”
He sounded the official death knell on Facebook: “The restaurant is now closed…but the dream—the food/music/art and community connection—I hope lives on in spirit!”
Regarding future plans, his comments on Facebook were positive: “We will keep you all in the loop! We will see what the future will bring!”
Madden has not ruled out a revival of the concept sometime in the future. He’s so sold on the idea that he’d welcome the opportunity to help someone else do something similar.
The affable restaurateur signed off with his favorite phrase: “Peace, Love and Chickpeas.”
