Bill Cardwell, one of the city’s most respected restaurateurs for the past 30 years, has announced he is closing Cardwell’s at the Plaza at the end of December. For the remainder of the year, the restaurant will celebrate his “semi-retirement.” In a statement, the 68-year-old chef said once the celebration is over, “I want to play with my two grandchildren. I want to ski. It’s time to live a little.”
Cardwell’s restaurants are known for their high standards and the chef’s obsessive attention to detail. A known taskmaster, Cardwell may not have been an easy man to work for, but he was an easy one to respect. Along with Andy Ayres, Cardwell pioneered the “creative seasonal cuisine” movement in St. Louis. Raised on a farm in Vermont, he stayed close to the season—“farm to table” cooking was all he knew, and he’s been cooking that way ever since. Over the past three decades, some of the region’s best chefs trained in his kitchens: Lou Rook, Dave Owens, John Kennealy, Matthew Glickert, Heidi Haller, Pat Baltes, Bill Cawthon, Chris Dessens, Michael Farrell, Margaret Kelly, Dan Caruthers, Tim Blessing, Mathew Duffin, and Tony Marchetto, all of whom are active in the culinary field today.
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.
Cardwell graduated from the acclaimed Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, with the highest honors, and, in the 1970s and ’80s, worked for Gilbert-Robinson (parent company of Houlihan’s, Bristol Bar and Grill, and Fedora Café). Cardwell eventually became the company’s corporate executive chef.
In 1984, Cardwell opened the Fedora Café at Union Station. In 1987, he opened his flagship restaurant, Cardwell’s, on the corner of Brentwood and Maryland in Clayton along with fellow G-R exec Rich Gorczyca. In 1994, he opened Cardwell’s at the Plaza, and in 1997, he sold the Clayton restaurant to Gorczyca and took full ownership in Frontenac. This author often called Cardwell’s at the Plaza “the most consistent restaurant in town.”
In 2008, Cardwell opened BC’s Kitchen at the Meadows in Lake St. Louis, and—in a previously unannounced bit of news—sold it in May 2018 to Canyon Restaurant Group, the owners of the three-unit Canyon Café. The restaurant group continues to run it under the BC’s Kitchen moniker.
For the past several years, rumors have swirled regarding if and when Cardwell’s at the Plaza would close, especially since the lease was expiring at the end of 2018.
According to the release, Plaza Frontenac ownership wanted to broaden the dining options at the plaza and approached Cardwell “with the opportunity to do something new.” One hitch: The commitment required signing a 10-year lease. Cardwell passed. “I’m just too tired to take on another huge endeavor like that,” he said in the release. A slow closing allows Cardwell’s staff adequate time to find a new home for 2019.
The chef’s next chapter has yet to be written. His two children remain in the business: Justin works for a wine distributor, and Brooksey works at Frontenac. The trio has been offered several opportunities and are investigating ideas of their own. “I’ll want to do something at some point,” Cardwell said. “It just won’t be on the scale of what I’ve done in the past.”
After the first of the year, Cardwell says he’s eager to start that new chapter in his life. “Play more. Laugh more. Travel more,” as he says. And “maybe get back to teaching and mentoring young people who are interested in the business.”
Sounds like the perfect recipe for a retiring chef.
