Beets & Bones opens in Clayton
After a months-long delay, the concept expands with cold-pressed juices, healthy food offerings, regenerative bone broths, and a coffee program curated by Upshot Coffee in St. Charles.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
As several noteworthy restaurants launched over the past week—Tempus, Bowood by Niche, Tradicional 314, among them—the same words were uttered each time: It was well worth the wait. And so it was with Beets & Bones, which quietly opened in a prime corner location in Clayton (8401 Maryland) on November 4.
“We didn’t even have signage up yet,” says co-owner Nick Zotos, "but we did an insane amount of business in a just a few hours."
Photo by George Mahe
B&B schwag
Beets & Bones was conceived over cups of espresso at Upshot Coffee in St. Charles County, where coffee shop owner Conor VanBuskirk and Zotos launched a brand within a brand, combining coffee and a fresh juice bar with healthy food offerings and trendy bone broths.
In a collaboration with Katie’s Pizza & Pasta last year, they provided a custom juice for free to Katie's employees, plus small glasses to dine-in guests and curbside customers.
The juices also popped up at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market. And as the shop was being built, they supplied local shops (The Annex, Winslow’s Table, Clover and the Bee, Road Crew Coffee & Cycles) with the brightly colored juices in charming, squatty bottles, creating a demand that turned into a frenzy. The Lucky Accomplice, for instance, currently orders juice in gallon lots to complement its beverage program.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Having found success (veritable “lightning in a bottle”), the duo sought out a spinoff location, this time a true brick-and-mortar. When Zotos and VanBuskirk began calling around town, "quite honestly there didn’t seem to be much interest," VanBuskirk said in this earlier Q&A. "I don’t think anyone knew who we were or understood what we were offering. We wanted to rent space in a COVID market, and no one would return our call."
When they discovered the former Northwest Coffee location, however, they knew it had all of the right elements. Fortunately, Zotos went to high school with the broker, who "knew our idea could be an important business for Clayton at this point in time."
Courtesy Beets & Bones
Ruby - beets, cucumber, apple, lime, pineapple, spinach, yacon
The restaurant's offerings include fresh juices, smoothies, adaptogenic coffee, avocado toasts, salads, pastries, bone broths, and provisions to take home.
On hand are 14 varieties of cold-pressed juice (out of the 28 flavors Zotos has created to date). “I didn’t just throw these blends together," Zotos says. "I went all in.
"I did a lot of research and testing,” he continues, “adding healthful products, creating flavor balance, then presenting the juices in a recyclable bottle [worth a 50-cent credit upon return]. We thought that if we’re going to put that much effort into the produce and the juice, we should use a container that won’t compromise it at any point,” he told SLM earlier. “It’s quality control, it’s waste reduction, it looks nicer, and it feels better in your hand.”
The biggest seller is the bright-orange Friday Feels Good (“80 gallons last week,” says Zotos), made with pineapple, carrot, orange, ginger, turmeric, and “pearl powder,” pulverized pearls that are said to improve the appearance of the skin and digestion, among other health benefits. Other popular flavors include Fire Cider and Sweet Green, made with spinach, pineapple, green apple, red apple, mint, ginger, lime, and parsley.
Zotos says a well-made juice is an expensive process, as it takes 4 pounds of fruits and vegetables to make 12 ounces of finished juice, and there’s the time spent to squeeze, blend, and bottle it. Beets & Bones’ juices sell for $10 per 12-ounce bottle. Hot and cold coffee drinks are also available, using beans roasted at Upshot Coffee in St. Charles, which also can be purchsed in 12-ounce bags, whole bean or custom ground.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A latte with dried rose petals, at Beets & Bones in Clayton
Zotos feels that the juices will be the main draw, followed by his unusual takes on avocado toast. One comes on pumpernickel sourdough with pastrami-seasoned smoked salmon, whipped cream cheese, caper berries, pickled shallot, and honey mustard. Another on rosemary polenta sourdough is topped with confited tomatoes and a warm bacon-shallot jam. The Dirty South Toast comes on sweet potato sourdough with hot pepper peach jam, kale pesto, and candied pecans. The classic, on regular sourdough, includes confited tomatoes, roasted corn and poblano peppers, feta cheese, and micro cilantro. (All are pictured below.) There's even a special that comes on "activated charcoal sourdough."
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Smoked Salmon Toast
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Bacon Avocado Toast
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Dirty South Toast
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Basic Avocado Toast
Courtesy The Edgewood Baker
Sourdough bread from The Edgewood Baker
Not to be overlooked are the breads and pastries, both from The Edgewood Baker, a small artisanal bakery in St. Charles owned by Bekah Stamps.
“It’s a great collaboration,” Zotos says. “She was already baking sourdough bread, but I said let’s do it next level,” which is how the rosemary polenta, pumpernickel, and the E-3 spirulina varieties got created. The latter is the base for the “Delray Toast,” a special named after the shade of sea blue that Zotos recalls from the years he spent living in Miami.
Stamps’ morning glory muffin is made with carrots, coconut sugar, cinnamon, ginger, banana, walnut, and olive oil, plus reishi, lion’s mane, and turmeric. Adaptogens never tasted so good.
There’s also a cream puff made with chai tea, a savory scone with spinach and feta, and two cruffins (a cross between a croissant and a muffin), one stuffed with beet jam mascarpone (pictured below). Several donuts are available and baked fresh daily, plus there are several cookies (currently Gluten Free Lavender Earl Gray and Raspberry Rye) and another novelty, a Juice Pulp Cracker made using dehydrated juice pulp, honey, and agave syrup.
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Vegan and gluten free chocolate espresso donut with vanilla icing
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Protein bites - dates, help, oats, chia seeds, toasted coconut, cashew, almonds, blue spirulina, vanilla, coconut oil
Courtesy Beets & Bones
Coming soon to the Clayton location: Spicy Beef Broth Bowl, with red lentils, charred green onion, lacinato kale, sun dried tomato, saffron, fennel, and bison kielbasa
Beets & Bones’ house-made bone broths are made using non-GMO, grass-fed, pasture-raised animals and fresh vegetables. Two varieties are available at any one time: chicken (the biggest seller), plus one of six other options including spicy beef, “range” (chicken, turkey, and beef), the violet-colored “vegan No. 25,” made from 25 vegetables including purple potatoes. (To maintain consistency, the broths are dispensed in temperature-controlled countertop machines with blending paddles.) Zotos will soon add several varieties of broth bowls, with optional add-ins, such as togarashi, rosemary, and curried carrot caramel.
If all these creations sound unusually elevated, consider that Zotos worked for Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, opening their restaurants around the country before returning to St. Louis to take the helm at Mike Shannon’s Steaks & Seafood, and in so doing, transforming it into one of the most popular fine-dining restaurants in the city.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Blue Protein Bites - dates, help, oats, chia seeds, toasted coconut, cashew, almonds, blue spirulina, vanilla, coconut oil
Photo by George Mahe
In the grab-and-go case are the juices (in both 12- and 2-ounce “shot” sizes), several varieties of overnight oats, salads, hummus, blue protein bites, and rotating specials. A window on the side of the building will facilitate pickup orders once online ordering is activated.
When Zotos first introduced his line of healthy, rainbow-colored juices, he said that the market “seemed to be split between twentysomethings and people 55-plus.” But in the few days that the Clayton shop’s been open, "it’s grown within and beyond that," he says. "Some people have stopped by three times in three days.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Like many new restaurants, because of supply chain issues Beets & Bones opened with temporary tables and chairs
Beets & Bones - Clayton
8401 Maryland, St Louis, Missouri 63105
Mon-Thu: 7 a.m. - 2 p.m. ; Fri-Sat: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sun: 7 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Moderate
