In late June, the Tower Grove South neighborhood added a new place to grab a sandwich, salad, side, and beverage. Garden Variety Deli (3131 Morganford) opened for lunch in a 1,000-square-foot space a block south of Tower Grove Park.
The principals are Travis Howard (of Retreat Gastropub, Yellowbelly, and Lazy Tiger fame) and longtime manager/chef Jack McGinn, who sources fresh herbs and produce from his own half-acre garden.
This week, the deli expanded to weekday hours and is now open from 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Here’s what to know before you go.
The Menu
McGinn has developed a menu of five staple sandwiches served on house-made sourdough focaccia. Items made à la minute include a turkey sandwich (with Havarti, seasonal slaw, and a dill Ranch dressing), a roast beef sandwich (with romesco, mixed greens, and pickled radish), and a classic BLT (made with slicing tomatoes in summer and preserved, roasted cherry tomatoes in winter).
Vegetarian options include a veggie sandwich with fennel goat cheese and greens, as well as a grain bowl with freekeh, veggies, currants, capers, and feta.
A menu highlight is the panzanella salad with tomatoes, fennel, croutons, fresh herbs, and a sherry vinaigrette. “That easy combination of ingredients is super satisfying,” McGinn says. The traditional Italian dish makes use of the deli’s focaccia, which McGinn perfected by baking it three or four times a week for a full year, resulting in exactly the right ingredients (including Janie’s Mill organic wheat flour) and technique.
The kitchen—which McGinn wryly describes as “not the biggest”—includes magnetic induction burners and a “combi” oven. But the limited space is more than sufficient for McGinn and Brandi Trujillo to bake the focaccia and the deli’s signature $4 chocolate chip cookies.
McGinn credits a friend for sharing the recipe with him after a potluck meal where he first tasted “the best cookie I’ve ever had.” He scaled it up and incorporated dark brown sugar for an impressively decadent dessert.
The deli will eventually branch out into breakfast items such as burritos, frittatas, pastries, and coffee.
Cold beverages include soda, sparkling water, Sump coffee, and Companion kombucha. There’s also a small selection of packaged wine, beer, and cocktails, with an emphasis on picnic-friendly options such as Elocuente cava, Ocean Road sauvignon blanc, Gumballhead American wheat pale ale from 3 Floyds Brewing, and 2nd Shift’s Technical Ecstasy Czech-style lager.
Down the line, McGinn says he and Trujillo will leverage their bartending skills to offer premade, bottle-aged cocktails. “I’m first getting back to my cooking roots,” McGinn says, “but I also made niche cocktails for years after I stopped cooking, so that’s a skillset I’d like to revisit as well. There are many people who know me as a bartender first.”
The Atmosphere
The dining room seats approximately 20 people at tables or a counter along the huge front windows. The building maintains the architectural character of Tower Grove South, including exposed brick walls and a stamped tin ceiling.
Howard, whose other establishments are in the Central West End, says he is “excited about this concept in this neighborhood. People will pick up on the inside-outside connection.”
There are also plans to add outdoor dining options along the sidewalk and on a yet-to-be-completed back patio.
The Background
Over the past nine-plus years, Howard and Tim Wiggins opened three successful restaurant/bars: Retreat Gastropub, Yellowbelly, and Lazy Tiger. At about the same time that they sold Retreat Gastropub to two longtime employees, in 2023, Howard came upon a small storefront with three upstairs apartments located a stone’s throw from Tower Grove Park. There are a lot of cool concepts you can do in a small space—that work best in a small space, he thought. Howard had previously kicked around restaurant ideas with McGinn, Retreat’s first general manager and a longtime employee.
“Being so close to the park, Jack and I had the same idea of what would work well there,” Howard recalls, namely a small breakfast-and lunch restaurant that offered quick-assembly, made-to-order fare. If customers want to have a picnic in the park or a quick lunch, McGinn says, “It’s a one-stop shop.”
During his tenure with Howard, McGinn became serious about gardening, which led to his cultivating a plot outside his house in the Metro East. He sold vegetables to restaurants and directly to consumers—and he says talking to chefs about how they would use his produce motivated him to return to cooking after eight years working in the front of the house.
McGinn’s culinary career started at a catering company in Maplewood. He later cooked at a local senior living community before heading out to discover the country, working in kitchens from the heart of New York City to a ranch outside Denver. While living in California, he helped out on a farm outside Yosemite. “I found it endlessly fascinating,” he says.
Although the climate in Missouri is more limiting than California’s, “as long as the ground isn’t frozen, you can experiment,” McGinn says. He also has a large greenhouse where he can grow produce to be used year-round. “There’s something so satisfying about knowing the seeds I planted in January are on your salad,” he says.
Once Garden Variety Deli was officially in the works, McGinn spent a full year preparing his backyard operation to be more labor-efficient, knowing the restaurant would take most of his time.
“It’s the super seasonality that makes Garden Variety Deli different,” he says. “The fact that the vegetables in your salad or on your sandwich were picked by me that morning. It doesn’t get any fresher than that. There’s no gap in the supply chain—I am the supply chain.”
Howard adds that while he and McGinn connected around the commonalities in their approach to food, McGinn has the creative reins. “I’m the business end of the deal,” he says. “I do the administrative things most restaurant guys don’t want to do. It’s a good partnership.”
Garden Variety Deli
📍 3131 Morganford, Tower Grove South
⏰ Hours: 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Wednesday–Sunday
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