Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Brandi Artis
This article appeared in the November 2022 issue of St. Louis Magazine under the title, "Artis(t) in the Kitchen."
Brandi Artis had known success as a singer, a nanny, and a diamond seller for a large jewelry chain. She attended culinary school, started a catering company, and almost became a real estate agent while in Chicago. Ultimately, the food and beverage industry won her over, resulting in two St. Louis restaurants—4Hens Creole Kitchen at City Foundry STL and Simply Delicious downtown—and at least two more are planned. “This girl is not nearly finished dreaming or achieving,” she says.
When did you learn to cook? Both of my grandmothers were instrumental in getting me involved in cooking. One was the head lunch lady for the KC School District, and she had 12 children, so she was used to feeding the masses, at school and at home.
What was the first dish you were proud of? Both my grandmothers were proud of their salmon croquettes, and that rubbed off on me. There was the basic breakfast of fried potatoes, toast, eggs, and some form of meat—bacon, pork sausage, a fried pork chop, maybe some leftover chicken—that we called the “regular degular.” It was an everyday item growing up, and it’s a menu staple at Simply Delicious now.
What’s the dish that you’re most proud of now? My wife and I were intrigued when we tried shakshuka in Chicago, but it left me wanting something more in the dish, so I added feta, cilantro, turmeric, and other Middle Eastern spices to give it a little more zhuzh.
When did you know you’d make cooking a career path? I worked at Godfather’s Pizza in high school and started experimenting with different combinations of toppings and flavors. When I was at Mizzou, I would cook Sunday dinners. I missed the belonging that came from family eating dinner together, so I created it for myself there. I ended up moving back to KC and enrolled in the culinary program at Johnson County Community College, where I learned the basics and then some. It was a life-changer.
How so? Truth be told, I once weighed over 400 pounds. When you grow up in a Black household, everything is fried or smothered or fast food. I was the fat kid who was made fun of during my adolescence. I was the mixed [race] kid who didn’t know she was mixed.
How did you lose all that weight? I ended up getting gastric bypass surgery, partly because I wanted to become a healthy mom. Then I went to culinary school to learn to prepare food differently. After that I opened Simply Delicious, which was a small catering company in Kansas City, and after attending the International School of Bartending, moved to Chicago where that business blossomed into Simply Delicious Bartending and Catering.
Why Chicago? When my wife got a business opportunity in Chicago, which is where she was born, I took the leap with her. When I was in Kansas City, I was working at Helzburg Diamonds, and got a promotion by moving to Chicago. While there, I also got my real estate license, so I had several career paths to choose from.
Are there other career paths might you have chosen? When I was in culinary school, I was a nanny on the side and cooked for those people in their homes, so I learned how to cook Indian food, Bangladeshi, Spanish—including the secrets to their comfort foods. I would not be the chef that I am had I not cooked for these families.
No doubt you were introduced to some unfamiliar spices. I had no idea how to properly use turmeric or cardamom or cloves. I was 25 before I learned that I was part Lebanese, so I felt an obligation to learn about those flavors and spices as well.
So by the time you moved to Chicago, you had a very solid background in cooking, more than many other chefs. I did pop-ups at LGBTQIA parties at a club on Sunday nights, which mushroomed into pop-ups at different clubs serving different foods four nights a week, which is how the Chicago version of Simply Delicious got started. Word of mouth led to more traditional catering gigs than we—which in those days was more like I—could handle. I had our son with me during the day while my wife worked, and I did most of the catering at night when she was home.
When you moved to St. Louis, was the intent to do pop-ups or something else? When we decided to move to St. Louis, the intent was to partner with two women friends of ours who ran a home health care company that takes care of adults with special needs. The plan was for me to be their regional manager, but we had also kicked around the idea of opening a restaurant, which is how 4Hens Creole Kitchen got started.
How does 4 Hens distinguish itself? I wanted it to be different, different than any food I’d ever created before. I’d used a Creole cream sauce but seasoned ours differently, using the spice blend that became 4 Hens Creole Seasoning. At Simply Delicious, it’s the seasoning we use on our meats—the only one.
Can you describe 4Hens Creole Kitchen in a sentence? 4Hens is my take on traditional Creole flavors with a modern twist. Succotash soup, for example, contains tomato, okra, corn, and lima beans, and has gumbo flavoring and spices but no rice, and it’s tomato-based—so more Creole than Cajun. It’s all of the flavor without the heat.
What’s the most popular item? Shrimp and grits. We make an 8-gallon pot of grits three to four times a day, more on Saturdays. Then comes the Big Easy, which is one of those you-see-it-you-want-it dishes…a big pile of fries with crawfish, shrimp, andouille sausage, or chicken, topped with Creole cream sauce. It’s my take on poutine.
Can you cater out of 4 Hens? We only have a 350-square-foot kitchen, which means small catering jobs only. The upside is that since we order food three to four times a week, things like seafood are as fresh as can be. It comes in and goes right back out.
Why choose the Food Hall at City Foundry over a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant? Food halls are generally busy. You can’t say the same about restaurants. Plus at a food hall, diners might not stop on one trip but might see the space and the menu and remember us on a subsequent visit. I am an unknown chef in this area, so that kind of exposure is necessary.
The beverage program at 4 Hens is unorthodox as well. Our two children—ages 5 and 2—own their own company called Little Chicks, which even has its own EIN number. Little Chicks offers a line of lemonades and sweet tea, all of which they taste-test. If they don’t like it, we don’t serve it. All of my restaurants sell it, and they can also do pop-up stands. The newest offering, Passion Tea, contains mango and passionfruit juices.
Eventually the 4 Hens became two. Brittani Gardner-Evans and Ebony Evans were still running their other business. 4 Hens was a side gig for them, and I needed more help, so they stepped back, and I hired Nate Scott as a full-time chef. He came from Bonefish [Grill] and really knows seafood, which is the basis for many of 4 Hens’ dishes.
Can you sum up a few of your past jobs in a sentence or two? The Classic Cup is where I learned to appreciate the experience of French press coffee, which is why we only serve that style at Simply Delicious. You order a coffee; you get a French press. So many senses are involved letting that coffee steep, then slowly pushing the plunger. It’s an ode to classic service, instead of pushing buttons, everything being rushed, and everyone being in a hurry. Bar Louie taught me the importance of pairing a specific drink with each food item and how many more drinks you can sell as a result. You get people ordering drinks that would otherwise never have looked at the cocktail menu. Chuy's Tex-Mex and Chipotle taught me the importance—and the incredible difference in flavor—of using a corn tortilla on a taco, so that’s all you’ll see at Simply Delicious. Doing otherwise is a compromise. What I serve is what I am and what I believe in. It is me on a plate. If you still want that flour tortilla, order a burrito or a quesadilla. At Kona Grill, I saw that sometimes the service staff didn’t get to tables as quickly as they should have, so that’s one reason I’m using QR codes, so guests can order food or drink the moment they sit down if they want to. Being downtown, where some people are pressed for time, service speed is especially important. Your time is probably different than my time.
4Hens had barely been open six months when you opened Simply Delicious. Why so fast? When you have hopes and aspirations, there’s no timeline. If an opportunity presents itself, you have to go for it. 4Hens is my food—which was a start—but it’s not me. It’s not my space. I got to fully choreograph Simply Delicious, so it’s a more accurate impression of me.
How else do the concepts differ? 4Hens was a departure from anything I’d ever done, and Simply Delicious is the opposite and celebrates all of the traditional, comforting dishes I’d made at home over the years but amped up. The croquettes are made from salmon trim; the fried potatoes are tossed in chimichurri and topped with feta; our grilled cheese is made with bacon and Brie.
Any other whimsically named items? The croffle is buttered croissant dough put into a waffle press. It’s light, airy, flaky, and completely different than a traditional croissant or waffle. My stomach can’t handle heavy breads, which is why our Bougie Breakfast Sammy—there’s another fun name—is made with thin-cut, artisanal, sourdough, which has a lot of air bubbles in it.
And you host a drag brunch every Saturday. We have kids, we go to bed early, we love brunch, and I wanted something that my community could do during the daytime because a lot of them work at night, so why not a daytime drag show? We also do a live jazz brunch on the back patio every other Sunday. Musicians didn’t—and still don’t—have many venues where they can perform during the day.
Music is an important part of your life. I used to sing in a band in Kansas City, so music has long been part of my essence. Music has the power to take you to where you want to be. I asked a DJ in Chicago to curate a playlist that’s matched to this space, so there’s jazz, neo soul, some Erica Badu, Keyon Harrold, Mikes Davis, Billie Holliday… I feel you have to pay homage to the past.
Why no dinner service? Downtown needs more dinner options. Serving only breakfast, lunch, and brunch means I can be home with my kids at night. We want to be participatory parents and not miss out on practices and recitals. It’s important that my career dovetails with my family life.
How did the restaurant end up at 1115 Pine downtown? I love to eat outdoors, so it was the hidden area out back that sold me. It was never a patio, but it is now, almost like a secret garden. With weather patterns changing, we hope to use it well into the fall. We can rent it out. Maybe develop a happy hour out there. The restaurant was a gift from my wife. She asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I said, “I want my own space.” She runs the business end of both restaurants and teaches physical therapy, which was a dream of hers. When I asked what her next dream was, she said, “To open my own physical therapy practice,” which she’s in the process of doing now.
Do you have a five-year plan? We’re looking at doing a second concept within City Foundry and a three-level space, which I hope to open within nine months. La Chica Bonita - Street Eats, which will specialize in street tacos, will be on the first floor. The Owl Lounge—which, by the way, will be the only lesbian-owned bar in St. Louis—will be on the first and second floor. The third floor has 20-foot ceilings and will be events-only, geared to LGBTQIA weddings and parties. We plan to add a rooftop bar later. That landlord stopped by just to say hello, and I ended up leasing a building from him. You have to be able to roll with what your vision is developing into, rather than what it started out to be. Be willing to transition your vision. I’m on board with whatever St. Louis has in store for me. This girl is not nearly finished dreaming or achieving.
What’s the best part of the restaurant business? Waking up every morning, knowing I’m my own boss, fulfilling my dreams, and making dreams come true for other people. I am able to give opportunities to those in my community, be they Black, brown, queer… Most of my staff at Simply Delicious is Black men, really good professionals who don’t always get the jobs they should, because sometimes their skin is the wrong color or their sex is the wrong sex. I’m trying to shine a light on these people and the amazing work they put in that they don’t get any recognition for.
What are you most proud of on premise? The fact that everything is well thought out, orderly, and in its place. If someone wants to walk through my kitchen, I’m proud to show it off.
What’s the worst part of the restaurant business? Not knowing the next day’s business level. You don’t know how to staff; you don’t know how to stock. Every time you think you’re guessing right, you’re wrong.
Do you have a mantra? Everything has a reason and a season. When it’s your season, it’s your time. This is my time, and I’m blessed to be in it. I see the beauty in every day.
