At a time when many restaurateurs are slowing down, David and Meggan Sandusky are speeding up by opening a third restaurant. In late summer, the co-owners of BEAST Craft BBQ and BEAST Butcher & Block plan to open Southern Kitchen & BBQ in Columbia, Illinois.
“We feel like it’s a great time to expand, because it’s like, ‘No one else is moving, so what do we do? Do we just stay in the same place, where we’re not moving either, or do we make moves?’” says Sandusky.
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
The new restaurant, located in the former Bully’s Smokehouse at 1280 Columbia Center, will offer a new menu of Southern-inspired dishes, guaranteed to offer new flavor to the BEAST experience. In keeping with the Southern theme, the Columbia location will also boast a wide selection of whiskeys.
“We don’t like the idea of just doing the same thing over and over again because we know it worked one time,” Sandusky says. “We wanted to do some different things that we couldn’t do at the other locations, just kind of branch out and do some things that are new, do some things we could tie into barbecue, and just do something different. We want people to be able to go from store to store and enjoy something different at each location.”
Though the dining rooms at the existing BEAST locations haven’t yet reopened, the restaurants do offer carryout. The Butchery at BEAST Butcher & Block also now delivers meats, rubs, and other favorites (with at least a prior day’s notice). “We want to get out there and be able to provide pork cuts, beef cuts, even barbecue cuts and things like that to people’s doors, because obviously there’s a need for that right now,” Sandusky says. “But even going forward, I think it’s a nice convenience model to be able to meet people on their doorsteps.”
Sandusky also recently reached out to the community by serving free sandwiches and water to protesters in The Grove. Says Sandusky, “We were just very blessed to have that opportunity to meet people where they’re at.”
