Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Root Marrow: roasted carrots, filled with carrot and beet hummus
This city needs more Rob Connoleys. In 2016, the Bridgeton native, James Beard Award–nominated chef, and forager returned home to open Bulrush (another term for the cattail), a first-of-its-kind restaurant serving foraged foods. It’s yet to take root. In the interim, he opened Squatter’s Café, a high-ceilinged modern diner in Grand Center focused on “100 percent farm-to-table, not farm-to-fable.” Connoley reinvents breakfast and lunch staples in colorful, whimsical ways. His 20-seat restaurant abounds with unexpected discoveries. Cut into a beet to find it filled with lemon curd and local goat cheese. Shatter a white chocolate sphere and send encapsulated huckleberry juice into yogurt. A hundred-layer apple hides in the duck hash. A ricotta toast (in a palette straight out of Fantasia) is topped with crunchy dukkah. For diners wanting the same but different, Connoley offers Crunchy Cinnamon Toasters, served with pecan milk and a version of a Pop-Tart made with eight ingredients. The prices ($10 for breakfast, $13 for lunch) already include tax and tip. Today’s diners want restaurants to be fun. Connoley makes it so. 3524 Washington.
