Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Before moving here last year, native St. Louisan Michael Gallina and his wife, Tara, worked at the acclaimed Blue Hill at Stone Barns, which presents proteins and vegetables in new ways. The Gallinas believe locals are ready to embrace the concept at the much-anticipated Vicia (4260 Forest Park), slated to open this winter.
Was your culinary road a bumpy or smooth one?
MG: When I first left the California Culinary Academy, I drove from the Bay Area to Florida to accept an externship at a resort property that I discovered was not going to open for three months. I couldn’t wait it out and drove home to St. Louis and got a job at Tony’s. That was my first job out of culinary school, 13 years ago. I shucked a lot of oysters, and I was responsible for their special salad. That was it. I was by far the youngest person in that kitchen.
TG: His story is better. I went to school for journalism and thought I might be the next Katie Couric.
MG: I tried to go to J-school, too. They just didn’t want me there.
How did you both get to New York?
MG: I had worked with Daniel Humm in San Francisco at Campton Place and he asked me to help him open his restaurant in New York.
TG: I applied to the French Culinary Institute in New York City, moved there on a whim, and decided to give the city a year and suck every last ounce out of the experience. I worked for free, I volunteered, and I never looked back. Eventually, that’s how I ended up at Blue Hill.
MG: I basically said the same thing: One year, and I’ll probably go back to San Francisco. But working alongside Dan at Blue Hill was the best decision I ever made.
Which restaurant had the most impact on you?
MG: Stone Barns is such a magical place, but Fäviken was unique because we were in Sweden, out in the middle of nowhere, foraging and harvesting vegetables just for that night’s service. There were times we’d go out and pick for days just to prepare for the winter. It was a unique and special experience that gave all involved a different view of things. That’s where I got my first sense of the concept of ‘vegetable-forward,’ where I learned it was possible to celebrate vegetables in ways I’d never thought of before. Because the winter was long and rough, we learned the value of preserving vegetables, pickling them, aging them in beef fat, curing and aging meats…
TG: I initially went to Stone Barns for their unusual apprenticeship program. It was a teaching facility as well as a restaurant, so we worked one day per week on a farm and the other four in the restaurant. Visit a deer farm and watch how the family uses the animal, right down to making jewelry with the antlers, and it opens your eyes. We had research assignments; we learned all about sustainability. That apprenticeship was the most transformative moment of my life. It was utopian there. It felt like graduate school much more than a job.
MG: The camaraderie aspect was special. We want Vicia to be the same way: not just a clock in/clock out, get-your-money-and-go place. How that translates to the guests elevates the experience at a restaurant.
What elevates a restaurant from really good to superlative?
TG: The secret sauce at Stone Barns was their focus on every small detail of the experience, so the guest always felt special. For example, if you were late, you were right on time…a guest’s tardiness was never discussed. The food and service can be amazing, but it’s the behind the scenes magic that will make the difference. Our answer was always yes, no backs to the guests…that sort of thing. If any of us saw even the smallest piece of trash on the ground, we’d pick it up.
What one piece of advice would you give a young person considering a career in the restaurant business?
MG: Travel is invaluable. Experiencing culture is what makes you a better chef. I staged at several places in Sweden, including Favaken, and several in Spain. I might suggest not even going to culinary school, maybe just go out and travel. That’s how important it is. Bang on people’s doors and work places for free.
TG: If you’re really interested in service, you can do the same thing. Some of the great restaurants allow front-of-house stages. You can go for a week, sit in on the meetings, and see how things are done. It’s the best way to determine a restaurant’s personality, and if that kind of place is for you.
Why did you choose St. Louis for your first restaurant?
MG: We’re prideful of what we’ve done and what we’ve learned, so why not share it with more people, bring it back home, and communicate it to a new audience? I wake up every day thinking, "Why can’t one of the next best restaurants in the country be in St. Louis?" We did not move here to lay back and coast.
Why Cortex? What other areas of town were considered?
TG: We never really looked outside the city. The city is more small business-oriented, with more independent restaurants and fewer chains. It felt more supportive to be a first-time business owner surrounded by more of the same.
MG: A place like Maplewood has the same feel, but once we toured Cortex, we were in. We’re forward thinkers, and once we learned about the master plan, we wanted to be a part of this emerging community. Cortex should put St. Louis on the map in a super-positive way, and we thought it would be amazing to be a part of that.
How would you explain Vicia’s concept?
TG: Because it’s not common—like a fried chicken place or a taco shack—makes it harder to describe. For us, the restaurant is a celebration of what goes on above and below the soil. Our cuisine is driven by the best of what’s available and sourced from relationships we have with farmers. We want to offer an elevated dining experience that can be enjoyed by guests in a new way each time they visit.
So you don't feel compelled to exclusively use local products?
MG: Everything does not need to be from right here in our back yard. We want to be able to use citrus or an incredible cheese from somewhere else. Our seafood supplier, for example, who sells to some of the best restaurants in the country, is in Maine.
How do you balance offering traditional menu items and more creative offerings?
TG: Everything has a season, so you won’t find us bringing in something traditional just to have it on the menu, because people feel it should be there. The concept is to have a menu that changes all the time. There will be basic items on our menu, just not the same things all the time.
MG: But we will listen to the customer. If we’re serving pork jowl, chances are we’ll have a chop in house, too.
What you serve sounds more healthy than traditional restaurant fare.
TG: We would never call our food healthy. We don’t want to suggest that it’s vegetarian or diet food or gluten-free. We love carbs, we work with fats… We celebrate good ingredients. We just think a little outside the box.
Can you explain the idea behind “vegetable-driven cuisine” and cooking over a wood fire?
MG: There are so many ways to cook over a wood fire: high heat and rest, low heat, leave proteins or vegetables above the grill all day to slow-cook, burying in embers… Vegetables can be cooked in ways you never had them before. Then we take proteins and use them in a supplemental role.
TG: It’s all very visual. You’ll see vegetables we are smoking or charring to make a sauce that we’ll use two days later.
What’s a typical dish?
MG: We take a whole cabbage, coat it in pork fat, grill it, cut it in steaks, baste it with more pork fat, drape it with charcuterie, and serve it with a bit of sour cream and sauerkraut sauce. It’s not meat and vegetables in the traditional sense, but both are there.
Describe the space.
MG: Sasha Malinich, who designs spaces all over the world, visited us at Stone Barns, so he understands where we were coming from. In St. Louis, he designed the original Niche, Peacemaker, and Sardella. The kitchen will be encased in glass, so it will feel and look open, but won’t be. And there are glass doors that open to the outdoor dining space. You can’t have that free flow of air and an open kitchen. The entire space is mostly glass, with pieces of local art on the little wall space we have available. The tables are bleached oak, ebonized black ash for the chairs, the bar is stone… Definitely a Nordic influence.
Why do you shy away from referring to your outside dining area as a patio?
TG: The dining room is only 50 seats, so we wanted to develop a seating area outside, in full view of a wood-fired grill. There’s a steel canopy with pull-down shades, fans, heaters, and seating for 34.
MG: We devoted as much attention to the space as to the interior. It’s an extension of the dining room—and it costs the same amount of money. [Laughs.]
TG: There’s an imaginary set of stairs that we could one day build to the roof if we wanted.
MG: Right now, it’s an imaginary rooftop garden with a few imaginary tables. [Laughs.]
Having an interactive staff is important to you.
MG: We have the ability to serve a course at the outside grill, which engages that cook. I also want the cooks to spend time as food runners. Customers appreciate it, cross-training never hurts, and getting cooks onto the floor helps even out the wage disparity between front and back of house. I hope to send cooks out to local farms, because farmers cannot afford to hire all the people necessary to maintain a farm. So maybe once a month, we’ll go to go out to a farm and do what ever the farmer needs. Our people will feel more invested and attached to what they’re doing.
You spent almost a year doing pop-up dining events. Why?
TG: We didn’t want to blow into town and say, "Hey, look at us. Eat this." That’s not who we are. We knew it might take a full year to meet vendors, chefs, and customers. It was an opportunity to fully introduce ourselves and learn what people like and don’t like.
What did you learn at the pop-ups?
TG: We were impressed with how open-minded people were. We never a published a single menu ahead of time. People were excited about the surprise element. People ate and enjoyed interesting cuts of meat, like the lamb neck we served one night.
MG: People here are as interested in knowing what goes into their bodies and where their food comes from as we hoped they would be.
TG: And we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of dietary restrictions compared with New York, where so many dislikes become allergies. That was refreshing for sure.
Was one of the early ideas to do a tasting menu-only restaurant, similar to Stone Barns?
TG: Maybe in our minds. We just left that environment, so maybe it was instinct to just keep doing the tasting menus we’d been doing, but we knew we could never recreate Stone Barns, here or anywhere.
MG: We think we can recreate the energy and the element of surprise, but it won’t be exclusively through tasting menus. That’s happening in many cities, not just St. Louis… I think most people just don’t want to eat that way anymore. We can create and surprise through an a la carte menu that changes a lot, and have an optional tasting menu for those who want to come in and say, "Cook for me." But that experience won’t last all night, as it does in other places. I want our tasting menu to come out as quickly as at the next table that ordered a la carte.
How will Vicia be priced?
TG: We’d like to be accessible in as many ways as we can. For example, there’s a whole section of the menu with items for $12 to $14 that could either be shared or a quick meal for one and you’re out the door. We don’t want to be a special occasion restaurant, but we can be.
MG: It’s not white tablecloth, though, and you won’t feel like you should have worn a tie.
Is the service at lunch the same as dinner?
TG: No, lunch will be fast-casual in the most casual way, because we don’t even have a counter. People tend to eat traditionally at lunch, so it’ll be mostly sandwiches, salads, and soups. You don’t mess with lunch.
And the wine program?
TG: The list will be limited due to space and will likely change as often as the food. We’ll start with six whites and six reds by the glass in the $10-to-$12 range, a few sparklers, and then 20 to 25 bottles—the sweet spot being $65—from areas of the world that produce familiar varietals, but are less expensive.
What might the future hold?
MG: We both want to be really thoughtful with what we do. We didn’t come here to open five restaurants in five years. We want to focus on this one being incredible. The future may entail other interests…
TG: Like a farm, a bakery, a wine-centric spot…but all that’s years down the road.
What would you do if you had to choose another career?
MG: I’d be a pro baseball player. I still watch The Rookie and think “I’m 35. There’s still time.” [Laughs.]
TG: Our retirement plan is to have a small B&B somewhere where we cook for people, teach them a few things, tend a little garden…
Did you ever consider doing any other type of restaurant?
TG: One thing we talked about doing—but not in St. Louis—was to open a fish shack and serve whatever we caught that day. But that’s down the line. Maybe that’s part two of our retirement plan.
See also: If you would like to get a sneak peek of Vicia before it opens, sign up to attend St. Louis Magazine's Food Wine Design on October 21, 2016.
