Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Smoked sweetbread Parmentier at 808 Maison: wild mushroom–foie gras duxelles, duchess potato, veal jus gras
The unexpected announcement came on Facebook late this afternoon: French restaurant 808 Maison, located at 808 Geyer in Soulard, has closed.
The post was uncharacteristically brief: "Regretfully, we have discontinued service at 808 Maison and would like to thank to everyone who has supported us. Please come visit us at Molly’s In Soulard."
Both 808 Maison and Molly's are owned by Luke Reynolds and John Rogers. The executive chef at 808 was Jon Dreja (known for his stints at Franco, Eleven Eleven Mississippi, and Vin De Set).
Courtesy 808 Maison
SLM fell in love with the place immediately. We thought it was about time that Soulard laid claim to a finer-dining French restaurant, and 808 hit all the sweet, lusty notes. In his review, dining critic Dave Lowry wrote, "A French restaurant in a neighborhood that exudes early St. Louis history is welcome. The fact that it’s of such high caliber is even nicer." (SLM was so enamored that 808 Maison was named among the Best New Restaurants in the October issue.) St. Louis Post-Dispatch dining critic Ian Froeb awarded 808 Maison with three out of four stars. On Yelp, the tally was four and a half stars out of five.
Dreja's menu was a symphony of classics (esacrgots. mussels, steak frites, poussin, a bouillabaisse-esque bourride). Just last weekend, the chef served one of the best appetizer specials in recent memory: crabmeat-stuffed frog legs that were so good, one diner quipped, "I don't even like frog legs, and I ate two of them."
Courtesy Rick Gould
The setting was as one would expect from a French restaurant in Soulard: two small rooms with aged brick, tin ceilings, fuzzy velvet booths, and muted lighting.
We've long argued that French-founded St. Louis needs more French restaurants. Now it really does.
On Wednesday morning, Reynolds responded via text that "in the end the concept did not work in the location, in spite of a lot of hard work on the space and Jon producing what I thought was some of the best food I’d eaten anywhere. People just did not come."
He added that it may have been "the proximity to Molly’s or people’s unfamiliarity with French cuisine." And then a jolt of sobering reality: "Or perhaps sometime in this business you can do everything right and it just doesn’t work" and in the end, "one's chance of foundering is more likely than that of getting fat." He said the staffers at 808 have been offered positions at Molly's, including sous chef Brian Agnes, who will be taking over the kitchen.
