We’ve seen some unconventional fusion restaurants in St. Louis over the years, such places as Sub Zero (burgers, sushi, vodka), Kimcheese (burgers, burritos, bibimbap), The Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. (lobster shack meets Cajun), and, more recently, Yummi Tummi (sushi, subs, poke, ramen) and Café Coeur (Italian and Japanese).
But Cobalt Smoke & Sea, a mashup of fresh seafood and globally inspired smoked meats, is the first to take the surf-and-turf theme in a whimsical new direction.
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Last year, Woodsmoke BBQ Bernadette Faasen felt she had two options: Sign a new lease in Chesterfield, or reconcept and move to another area. Thinking West County already had many barbecue joints and the region could benefit from another fresh seafood restaurant, she decided to combine the two concepts under the same roof.
Having previously worked for a restaurant-food distribution company, she knew the importance of creating a singular experience, otherwise known in the trade as a having a hook. And Cobalt Smoke & Sea has more hooks than Bennett Springs on opening day of trout season.
The design revolved around two visual elements, representing land and sea: several brightly illuminated ginkgo trees (the same type used at The Bellagio in Vegas) and a skeleton of a pygmy whale that was just too unusual to pass up.
On the 50-seat patio, patrons dine beneath cobalt-blue lit ginkos, easily visible at night from Olive Boulevard. Inside the 105-seat dining room are a matching set with white lights.
The aforementioned skeleton has a few skeletons of its own: It arrived disarticulated (in hundreds of pieces), with no assembly directions.
“Let’s just say it involved a lot drilling and small pieces of wire,” Faasen says. “I thought I could do it all with a glue gun.”
A hooped-steel cage was fashioned on site to corral the beast, and (just to be sure) the rig was tethered with braided crab lines. The bespoke piece became a source of light and discussion.
In case you missed the subtlety elsewhere, on one wall is Cobalt’s logo (note the crab and steer) in reclaimed wood and aluminum, finishes that are repeated throughout the space.
On another wall are depictions of land and sea: paintings by Faasen’s mother and a swirly, sea-evocative depiction courtesy of Faasen’s former art teacher. It may come as no surprise that a sailfish is mounted on the same wall, along with an old johnboat, another reclamation.
Above the bar, a clever staccato use of barnwood hides otherwise unsightly ceiling joints and HVAC appurtenances. Below that are attractive groupings of Edison bulbs emanating from barnwood boxes. A likely unintentional benefit: Viewed from the dining room, the lights partially obscure (in a good way) the two flatscreens behind the bar. There are “just two TVs,” Faasen notes, to keep Cobalt from looking like a bar and grill. And to keep the vibe more cordial, she chose a deep-sea blue and yellow for the wall colors, rather than the more jarring cobalt color.
Speaking of cobalt, it was the color selected for the water glasses. (Its opaqueness creates a challenge only for the do-I-fill-it or-not? bus staff.) Besides being eminently drinkable, the signature cocktail, A Cobalt Affaire (with Bombay Sapphire, St. Germain Elderflower, lemon Juice, cane sugar, and blue hibiscus flower-colored ice cubes) changes colors (from blue to pink) after it’s poured from shaker to glass. It’s also refreshing that the 10 signature cocktails are priced at a cool $10.
Executive chef Joe Stamer based his menu on “globally inspired smoked meats,” such as burnt ends with Yakiniku BBQ Sauce over sesame soba noodles (pictured below). He then cast in a fresh seafood component: the obligatory scallops and salmon, plus bouillabaisse and a fisherman’s risotto enriched by housemade fish stock.
The fish special features less obvious choices, such as cobia and amberjack, “fish that are not on many people’s radar but should be,” says Stamer. At Cobalt, the “Daily Market Catch” has several connotations: Besides changing every day, the same menu is served at lunch and dinner, so patrons can indulge in a duck fat burger at night or short ribs with horseradish mash at lunchtime.
Stamer, the former chef de cuisine at Edibles & Essentials (who also worked at Balaban’s and Sidney Street Café), begins the meal with an amuse of cornbread madelines, a one-more-please delicacy that includes cheddar and a whisper of green chile. Highly recommended are the tempura string beans with sweet and spicy sesame syrup, a near misnomer due to the crunchy, translucent rice flour coating that’s barely a coating at all.
Cobalt Smoke & Sea is an anomaly that checks a lot of boxes: It’s a locally owned establishment in an area that’s lacking local dining options, a fresh seafood restaurant in a metro area with limited options, a finer dining option when the trend is toward fast-casual, and, if nothing else, an excuse to get blown out of the water while in Creve Coeur.
