Photo by Gregg Goldman
A familiar face clocked in at Herbie’s on February 1.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Bill Cawthon was recently named executive chef following the departure of Ramon Cuffie just after the first of the year. Cawthon rolled out a new brunch menu over the weekend and says new lunch and dinner menus will follow in four to six weeks.
“I came on board at a good time,” says Cawthon. “It’s always nice when you can launch and fine tune new menus before patio season hits,” he notes, especially in a place like Herbie’s, where the two patios are extremely popular.
Some St. Louis diners will remember Cawthon from the nearly two years he spent at Pastaria or his three years with Bill Cardwell at Cardwell’s at the Plaza. Others may have seen him at Katie’s Pizza in Town & Country during the past nine months. He took that position after closing Frankly Sausages, a restaurant that he owned with his wife, Jamie, that offered artisan sausages and some of the most craveable French fries in town. Still others might recognize Cawthon from the Frankly Sausages food truck, which preceded the brick and mortar. What most people don’t know is that Cardwell’s kitchen was used as a home base for the food truck’s prep.
Still fewer know of Cawthon’s deeper roots in fine dining. A St. Louis native, he attended the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in New York, and worked in NYC kitchens for a year before heading to L.A., where he worked at the Four Seasons Los Angeles, as well as fine dining restaurants Gusto and Culina, among others, before returning to St. Louis to assume the sous chef position at Pastaria.
Cawthon says that in both classic and especially rustic Italian cuisine, the less-is-more theory is practiced: The preparations are simple, the components limited to a handful. “Present simple food at its farm fresh best,” he says, “and deep, complex flavors will develop.” He describes his cooking style as ”simple but complex.”
His just-launched, pared-down brunch menu follows suit. “The kitchen is small, and the restaurant is busy and will get busier,” says Cawthon. “The menu is a list of solid performers, which should limit the special requests that bog down a kitchen.”
Newcomers include a banana bread pudding French toast, Herbie’s breakfast sandwich, chicken and waffles, and Cawthon's renditions of classic steak and eggs, shrimp and grits, biscuits and gravy, and a Cobb salad, among others.
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Courtesy Herbie's
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Courtesy Herbie's
Banana Bread Pudding French Toast - caramelized bananas, walnuts, and whipped cream cheese frosting
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Courtesy Herbie's
Herbie’s Breakfast Sandwich - two sunny side up eggs, Grafton 2-year aged cheddar, and house-made sausage on a toasted English muffin, served with house potatoes
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Courtesy Herbie's
Chicken & Waffles - crispy Double Star Farm confit chicken leg, waffle, and sorghum butter
The Umami Bomb, a riff on eggs Benedict with shiitake mushrooms and kimchi (pictured above), join Herbie’s other two offerings, Eggs Madison and a Classic Benedict. The physical brunch menu has shed its leather-bound cover, and a kid’s menu has been added for the first time. “Brunch should light-hearted, accommodating, and fun,” Cawthon says. “Brunch should be a departure from old school.”
Herbie’s brunch is served Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Courtesy Herbie's
Friday night's special: pan-seared halibut with caramelized shallot/tarragon butter, wilted squash with herbs, and cherry tomatoes
When the lunch and dinner menus debut in the coming weeks, expect the same themes to prevail: familiar items, minimal components, and light sauces. Examples include pan-seared scallops with celery root mash, black truffle emulsion, and Brussels leaf salad; duck breast with root vegetables and haricots vert, served with Madeira duck jus; and squid ink tonnarelli with stewed tomatoes, lime, and sea urchin. And for Lenten Friday lunch, there's Zwickel beer battered cod.
Courtesy Herbie's
Cawthon joins forces with general manager Dan Rolf, a veteran of Harvest and Westborough Country Club. Herbie’s owner Aaron Teitelbaum is bullish on the duo. “They both have hospitality at their core,” he tells SLM, which he says "is integral to the next generation success of any restaurant, especially Herbie's."
