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The future home of olive + oak, located at the corner of Lockwood and Gore in the Old Webster Business District.
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A wintertime view of the building
“It’s been on my agenda for a long time,” says Annie Gunn’s manager Mark Hinkle, referring to opening a restaurant of his own. “I had no business even thinking about such a thing 10 years ago—but I was. The difference is now I’m ready.”
His new restaurant will be called olive + oak, located at 102 W. Lockwood (and Gore) in Webster Groves. His partner in the venture is Greg Ortyl, with whom Hinkle shares a common bond. Both of their sons were born with congenital heart defects, and both died at a young age. The men met through the The Children’s Heart Foundation, an organization created exclusively to fund research for congenital heart defects.
Both partners founded organizations (Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation and Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation) to honor their sons and fund further research. Hinkle hosts an annual event, Ollie Hinkle I ♥ Food & Wine Festival, that does the same. (Hinkle and his son are pictured at right). The restaurant's name—short for Oliver and Oakes, the boys' names—will keep those tributes alive and top of mind. (SLM has written about the Ollie Hinkle Festival before, an occasion where a local restaurateur calls on the chef community—and the community at large—and they respond in droves.)
The native St. Louisan returned to St. Louis after working in Chicago at Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House, part of the Gibson’s Restaurant Group. SLM met up with Hinkle in 2009, during his tenure as general manager at McCormick & Schmick's in Des Peres. Hinkle, 35, has been part of the management team at Annie Gunn’s in Chesterfield for four and a half years and will stay on for the next 30 days.
Hinkle says the 2,600-square-foot restaurant will seat 80 people, plus a few more at storefront tables. The look will be “everyday casual,” incorporating design elements like raw woods (oak is a safe bet), subway tiles, and an open kitchen. Since the building is a historic property, though, any exterior alterations will have to be approved by Webster’s Architectural Review Board. Demolition will commence in early June, with a completion date slated for the fall.
Hinkle describes the menu as “solid, old-school cooking,” with entrées averaging in the teens and twenties. Asked if the fare would be similar to Annie Gunn's, Hinkle replies, “Smaller portions, more affordable, more focused, maybe slightly more refined,” but the style of cooking (“consistent execution of food you recognize,” he says) will be exactly the same.
The announcement of executive chef will come at a future date, Hinkle says. He then teases, ”It will be a recognizable name.”
Old-school hospitality will prevail as well, promises Hinkle, a self-proclaimed Danny Meyer fan and Setting the Table advocate.
“For the longest time, the restaurant industry treated both its guests and employees poorly,” Hinkle says. “Now, there are people who are forcing things to change. I want to be one of them.”
One example of how Hinkle thinks: “People are willing to forgive an overcooked steak… They will not, however, forgive a staff who’s been unkind to them.”
Although Hinkle confesses to being “a big wine guy,” he was responsible for ramping up the beer-and-cocktail program at Annie Gunn's. For olive + oak, he theorizes, “All local beer taps, plus one surprise brew,” and a solid bar program that to him means “no 10-minute cocktails.”
Hinkle, who will be the managing partner of olive + oak, sums up his new endeavor by saying, “Greg and I both live in Webster. Our kids go to school together near the restaurant. Plus, we had this connection… It only made sense. People drive out of Webster to eat now,” he adds. “We’re doing this, so they don’t have to—so we don’t have to.”
Photo courtesy of Kitchen Conservatory
Update, June 1, 12 p.m. Owner Mark Hinkle announced this morning that the executive chef at his upcoming olive + oak restaurant in Webster Groves will be Jesse Mendica, a Webster native. Mendica has been the executive sous chef at Annie Gunn's for the past eight years and part of the back-of-house team there since 2000. Hinkle added that "Jesse's been a critical part of Annie's kitchen for a long time. She's got a great head for food, for managing staff, and for delivering hospitality, all of which are essential in today's kitchen."
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on May 21.
olive + oak
102 W. Lockwood
Webster Groves
314-736-1370
Dinner service initially, then lunch and brunch
On Facebook: Olive + Oak
On Twitter: @oliveandoakstl
