RJ Hartbeck
Ben Grupe
For the past several years, followers of the local restaurant scene have wondered if and when wunderkind chef Ben Grupe would open his own restaurant.
We learned the answer today.
Wednesday afternoon, Grupe announced that he would be opening Tempus at 4370 Manchester (at Newstead), just east of Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. in the up-and-coming neighborhood the Grove, sometime late this summer. The former executive chef of Elaia/Olio and successful pop-up concept star said that he was “anxious to get back into a kitchen, a real kitchen, and away from one-off dinner events and campfire grill cooking.”
Tempus is a Latin term meaning "time," and the chef said the menu's focus will be familiar yet elevated flavors, simplistic yet sophisticated, the style a distillation of his career, not one in particular. “Dishes will all be extremely familiar, unlike at some of the competitions I’d entered," Grupe quipped. "Steak and potatoes, chicken and dumplings..."
RJ Hartbeck
The cod chowder
"Call it 'food without labels,'" the chef said. "I don’t want to be labeled an XYZ restaurant, or fine dining, or a certain ethnicity, or an ABC restaurant [anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations]."
Ingredients at Tempus will be sourced from local suppliers Double Star, Bohlen, Mushrooms Naturally, Dirty Girl Farms, The Chef’s Garden, and Rare Tea Cellar. Sample dishes include a celeriac parfait, a cod chowder, and verjus-braised onion.
Two examples of Grupe's "familiar but unfamiliar" items, served at Wednesday's media event: A riff on chicken wings becomes crispy chicken skin seasoned with blue cheese ranch, celery, and hot sauce; and a pastrami sandwich of sorts with corned cow tongue, sauerkraut, and braised red onions atop a cheese cracker.
Tempus will open with a la carte and prix fixe dinner service Tuesday through Saturday, and though Grupe says he wants to remove the pretentiousness factor from the tasting menu concept so people can visit multiple times per week or month, expect to pay $40 to $50 per person, with the prix fixe starting at $50. Tempus will add a late-night Friday and Saturday menu at a later date, with Grupe hinting at "prepaid experiences" down the pipeline.
Drew Lucido (Juniper, Olio, and Taste), who will head up the bar program, says the prix fixe menu will include pairings options with wine, cocktails, or nonalcoholic drinks. Beer will be offered in large-format bottles—meaning diners will be able to buy a bottle of beer for the table the same way they’d buy a bottle of wine.
Courtesy of V Three Studios
A rendering of Tempus' interior
Tempus will be able to seat 60 diners, 36 to 40 seats in the dining room and 20 in the bar. A garage behind the building was transformed into a kitchen, and a basement will be turned into a cellar and fermentation area. The 2,600-square-foot building's interiors were designed by V Three Studios, whose recent projects include Sugarfire Smoke House and the National Blues Museum, and include elements of Missouri White Oak and tables from St. Louisan Martin Goebel of Martin Goebel Design.
Artist Grace McCammond at work
The steelwork and table bases were created by Joe Bacus of the City Museum, and a black, white, and shades of gray mural outside of the restaurant is by Grace E. McCammond, who has created art all across the Grove. "There was plenty of color present in the Grove's other murals," she said. "We wanted this one to stand out by being more subtle." A sax-playing jazz player from the prior mural remains behind, otherwise, McCammond's installation plays a game of how many hidden images can you find?
Grupe said that inside, the noise factor was not overlooked. Strategically placed sound boards make it so that table conversations will still be possible.
Grupe’s chef credentials are impressive. He apprenticed under chef Chris Desens at The Racquet Club Ladue and under Peter Timmins at the renowned Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. He returned to St. Louis in 2010 and was nominated to the U.S. Culinary Olympic Team the same year. He later served as team captain and brought home three gold medals and a world championship in 2016 (the same year SLM named him to our A List). Concurrent with his captainship, he joined forces with Ben Poremba at Elaia and Olio where he served as executive chef. (Aaron Martinez became Elaia’s exec chef in 2018.)
In 2017, Grupe competed in the American Mentor BKB selection for the Bocuse d'Or (often called the most prestigious culinary competition in the world), and finished second. All told, he has won more than 30 national and international medals. Last year, Grupe was nominated as a James Beard Award Semifinalist for Best Chef: Midwest for his work at Elaia, his first Beard nomination.
Over the past several years, testing the waters for a place of his own, Grupe has hosted different well-received popups and events, starting in 2015 with the intimate the Soigné Dinner at the now-shuttered Central Table in the CWE. He cooked there with fellow chef Ray Carpenter. In late 2018, he teamed up with Brennan's Work & Leisure for two dinners, as well as with The BAO in Clayton for its monthly “No Borders” series.
Tempus will be located at 4370 Manchester (at Newstead) in the Grove.
