City Foundry STL just added another popular option to its roster of restaurant concepts: barbecue.
Award-winning restaurateur Gerard Craft of Niche Food Group will open Expat BBQ at the Midtown development in the fall. The 16,000-square-foot restaurant and patio will be located above and to the east of the complex’s Food Hall. (A local outpost of Fassler Hall, a regional chain fashioned after a German beer hall, was originally slated for the space.)
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The Space
The restaurant will include a 100-seat, full-service dining room, and a mezzanine area for private events. A second level will also offer a more casual, sandwich-focused menu, accessed via self-service kiosks and app-based ordering. It will also include a sprawling outdoor terrace overlooking Foundry Way. Instead of the rustic barn wood and rusted farm implement look of traditional roadside barbecue shacks, Craft says the design will take a modern approach.
“What I love about the space is that it’s broken into several different parts that offer several completely different experiences,” Craft says. “Downstairs is full service, with bigger plates and sides, where reservations are accepted,” he continues. “The mezzanine will be great for parties—75 people seated or 100 standing. The upper area will be a fast-casual restaurant and bar—sandwiches, burgers, snacks, and beers—with items you can eat at tables and or take out onto the monster terrace, which can probably seat 180. Heck, we could do a whole hog event up there. It’ll be lively, with lots of TVs, music, DJs, bands…”
The Food
The name “Expat” (short for “expatriate”) “celebrates the flavors that someone would experience when traveling abroad,” Craft said in a release.
Asked to elaborate, he says, “Every culture has some form of barbecue—cooking with fire—it’s one of the great equalizers. The difference is how the foods get seasoned and specifically prepared, whether grilled or smoked or put in the ground. Different cultures get to be known for their specific flavors. That’s what we’re going to be introducing [at Expat], presenting different herbs, spices, fruits and marinades, and delivering international flavors using items that are familiar to St. Louisans: brisket, pork butt, St. Louis–style spare ribs, so something that’s familiar and different at the same time.
In a departure from the norm, Expat will have options for plant-based eaters, too. “Guests from Niche will remember the many vegetables that we grilled and smoked in creative ways,” Craft adds. “We plan to give vegetables the same attention and respect as the meat proteins.”
The Team
Chef Sam Nawrocki, a St. Louis native and former chef de cuisine at Oak Steakhouse and 404 Kitchen in Nashville, will return to St. Louis to become Expat’s executive chef, according to Craft.
Melinda Cooper, Niche Food Group’s director of beverage and bar operations, will spearhead Expat’s beverage program, which will include cocktails with the same global flavors as the food menu and a more worldly beer program, a departure from the majority of local lists that focus on regional craft beers.
“It’s been a rough three years,” Craft says. “We just want to look forward, cook great food, and have some fun.”
