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Once upon a time, somebody realized you could put a restaurant and a gas station together in the same truck stop, and make extra bucks for extra service. (And you could call it “Eat Here. Get Gas.”) In the American entrepreneurial spirit, other mulitplexes soon followed suit. The liquor-and-bait shop. The liquor-and-fireworks stand. The Richard Nixon Library, Birthplace and Clown Academy. (Just kidding. There are not many books in the Nixon Library.)
Christina McHugh had such an epiphany. She decided to combine a drop-in day care center with a restaurant and elements of a community center. The Nest will open its doors in tony Frontenac in December, a stone's throw from sleeper Italian fast-casual legend Grassi's Ristorante & Deli and The Salted Pig, Michael Del Pietro's new American comfort-food spot on German Boulevard.
“I've been in the hospitality industry for over a decade,” said Nest creator/co-owner McHugh, “and a lot of concepts are male-driven and masculine-focused, like sports bars and pizza places. A female perspective is missing. I wanted to combine everything women want in one location... The Nest is a new concept, a kind of one-stop clearinghouse for busy moms.”
The business will surely become known for its signature feature, a three-story indoor treehouse dripping with swings that rises from an Astroturf “play forest.” Kids are encouraged to run riot on the thing while moms keep watch or wander off to parenting classes, the cafe, or other areas within the multi-use facility. Other offerings include an area for younger kids, drop-in child care, membership-based child care, mother-child classes, and birthday-party packages.
The restaurant on the premises will offer something more than salads for gals and chicken fingers for kids, she explained.
Breakfast, lunch, high tea and Sunday brunch will be low-gluten affairs, with a focus on fresh, locally sourced, internationally inspired dishes, she said. Think Eggs Benedict with quinoa pancakes; tuna tartare; a lettuce-wrapped hamburger served with baked “fries”; and a Mediterranean plate with hummus, tzatziki sauce, and roasted seasonal veggies. Look for a rice-noodle dish with seasonal veggies and greens, and a simple side dish of chopped avocado with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.
The executive chef will be veteran restaurant manager Christopher Vomund (Pi Pizzeria, Pei Wei, Hard Rock Café), but one creation is all McHugh: pho with matza balls.
“I love pho and matza ball soups,” she said. “They're filling, warm, and you don’t feel overly guilty afterward. For a long time I've been saying someone needs to make a ginger/cilantro/lime/lemongrass matza ball soup! It's something we'll be serving in a combo alongside a house-smoked salmon with capers, arugula, and dill-infused olive oil on flatbread.”
Jewish-Asian fusion -- ya gotta love it. The matza balls in that soup, along with plenty of other items on The Nest's menu, might very well be gluten-free. McHugh (right) has celiac disease, she said, “and over the last few years I've made a complete modification of my diet and turned to nutritional, holistic dining,” she explained, which involves dropping nearly all traditional wheat flour. Her personal epiphany has led to a desire to share this “nutritious but satisfying” eating style with the moms and kids who'll frequent her space. “I'm also really inspired by what they do at True Food Kitchen,” she added. The chain of restaurants with a menu approved by health guru Dr. Andrew Weil's does not have a St. Louis location (yet).
The daily afternoon high tea at The Nest is comprised of a traditional three-tiered platter with sweets (chocolate items and scones in gluten-free, fruit and healthy varieties); a modern take on English tea sandwiches (a “healthier pimento cheese sandwich, a traditional cucumber/dill sandwich, and a 'grown-up,' healthier grilled cheese,” said McHugh); and an “international level” with a choice of cheeses, Mediterranean fare, or any number of options.
Cafe beverages will include fresh juice, smoothies, and Goshen coffee. Champagne, brunch mimosas and other “mommy helpers” will be available, too.
The dining room will seat 100; all diners will order at a walk-up counter. A specially designated to-go entrance (with associated parking) will lead to a portion of the counter intended to provide rapid-fire service for “moms on the go,” said McHugh. That area will offer a daily “On the Fly Brown Bag Special” like, say, a salad wrap, along with beverages.
The kids' menu is a similar take on low-carb, healthy dining, but with all the challenges that come with getting junior not to spit out his food. Check out kids' flatbreads, French toast, “PB&J sushi,” a healthier version of the Lunchable, a “Baby Bento Box,” and the tried-and-true “ants on a log.” A kids' take on chicken and waffles is made with a sweet potato waffle and gluten-free breading on the chicken. The “Little Bird High Tea” comes on a mini three-tiered platter, just like mommy's but smaller.
“Kids' menus at restaurants for kids and adults are usually dumbed-down,” said McHugh. “I wasn't just gonna do quesadillas, chicken fingers and hamburgers.”
If the dads who stop by the Nest can't handle the quinoa and burgers wrapped in lettuce, she added, there is another option: “Guys can go to Grassi's and have pizza and beer and the girls can go to the Nest and have their high tea and everyone wins.”
The Nest
10440 German
Preview Day November 18
Grand Opening December 2
