Been meaning to head out to Stone Soup Cottage for brunch one of these Sundays? Good luck with that: Sunday brunch service at the Cottleville restaurant is booked solid through December, after which it will be discontinued. “In the beginning, brunch was a great entrée [for some diners] into what we were doing here,” said owner Nancy McConnell of the choice she and her husband/chef, Carl, made to phase out the meal. “We feel so blessed, but we have gotten so busy that we just had to tweak something, and we wanted to have some Sundays available for family.” That’s not to say that it will be impossible to brunch in the charming cottage; the McConnells will open the doors on Sundays in 2012 for groups of 16 or more, “offering more of a private party feel,” Nancy explained.
Nor is it to say that having Sundays off means the couple is taking it easy. Beginning in November, the McConnells will offer weekly cooking classes at the restaurant. The three-course tasting menus will be based on recipes from Stone Soup Cottage: A Vignette of Seasonal Recipes, the restaurant’s recently released cookbook (above). Guests – up to 20 per class – will dine at “one long, elegant table” while Carl McConnell demonstrates how to prepare each dish at a custom-made cooktop wheeled into the dining room. Classes are $45 per person and include wine pairings with each course; as with sales of the cookbook, a portion of the proceeds from the classes will be donated to The Boys and Girls Club. Visit the restaurant’s website here to register.
