Gringo reopens in former Robust space downtown, featuring tacos, margaritas, and half-pound burgers

Owner Chris Sommers calls the corner spot “the best restaurant location in St. Louis.”

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A brighter, tighter, buttoned-up version of the late Gringo opens today at the Mercantile Exchange, in the former Robust location at 635 Washington Avenue.

After the wine bar closed this April, owner Chris Sommers decided to “double down on downtown”—having already opened a Pi Pizzeria outpost at the other end of the block years ago—by resurrecting Gringo, a concept that he launched in the Central West End in 2013 and sold to the owners of Mission Taco Joint in early 2016.

He had several reasons for reviving the concept. “At the time, we had nine restaurants—three of them new and out of town—and Gringo was the only one that wasn’t a pizzeria,” says Sommers, who also founded ‘ZZA Pizza + Salad and Pi Pizzeria. “But when [executive chef] Cary McDowell came on board, we found ourselves spending a disproportionate amount of time there, like half our time. We got a good offer from the Mission Taco guys, but we didn’t leave because the restaurant wasn’t working.”

Moving downtown appealed to Sommers because his nearby Pi is the busiest of the mini-chain's St. Louis locations and “if there was any stigma regarding Gringo, it didn’t apply there," he says. "The downtown market is made up of people who live and work there, plus travelers and visitors. It’s safe to say most of Pi’s other customers have never been to the downtown location. We were proud of the Gringo concept, what Cary had done with it, and to downtowners, it’s all brand new.”

McDowell loves the variety on the block: “There’s pizza, a sandwich place, barbecue, then you fill in the blanks with Mediterranean food and Crazy Bowls—and now tacos, margaritas, and burgers. It’s becoming a destination block. And we’re proud to have a bar on each end of it. It’s part of our night strategy.”

Another part is to offer more margarita options than the Gringo's previous incarnation. Joining the list of six hand-shaken margaritas are three on tap and two frozen varieties. A healthy roster of tequilas, cervezas, vinos, and American craft beers promise a lively bar scene.

With all of the nearby high-rises, there was a need for more after-work bar space, says Sommers, and having a pizzeria and a taco joint means two different bar options offering reasonably priced food.

“If you add in the 200-room Embassy Suites that opens seamlessly into Gringo, all of its conventions and the 212 apartments in The Laurel upstairs, it translates to a tremendous amount of foot traffic and the potential for room and dinner service,” he notes. "And that’s before you factor in any convention business, which by the way, is on the upswing.” The menu was designed to appeal to the groups of conventions that St. Louis has been getting of late: "religious groups, student groups, younger people,” Sommers says.

And though another Mexican restaurant, Rosalita’s Cantina, is seven blocks west, Sommers considers the other side of Tucker a different submarket for his customer base—too far to walk but not far enough to drive (although the rental scooter market might change that mindset).

Sommers hopes to re-create Gringo's same cheerful, resort-esque feel, though in a less kitschy way, with subtle splashes of color rather than the prior symphony of pastels. He took a white paint brush to the dark-stained wooden gridwork and hung mini-tropical plants and fleshy succulents from the slats to add interest and punctuation.

The bar top was covered in a glossy, pigment-died white epoxy. (“[It was] the most expensive thing we did here,” Sommers says.) Above it are a scatter of woven baskets, bedecked with low-maintenance greenery. The existing hanging storage shelf was painted; the barface and back bar have been freshened, including a smaller TV than at Robust. (“It was a focal point, and it didn’t need to be," says Sommers. "There are four other TVs in the space.”) He also removed another key design element: the glitzy, shimmery curtain of thin metal rods hanging from the bar ceiling, which served no purpose in a taco-themed restaurant.

There are 100-plus seats in the dining room and bar and another 50 at sidewalk tables. A private dining room seats 60 more. When Sommers built a 30-seat private room at Pi, he hoped for “a little private event business," he says. "Now we wish we’d built it bigger and wish we had another one.”

The menu is a combination of Gringo 1.0 favorites (brisket taco, Cubano sandwich, taco salad, Gringo fries), new takes, and an expansion of Gringo’s burger menu, for which McDowell won local acclaim. Four burger options are available at Gringo 2.0, “all based on an 8-ounce blend of chuck, rib, and pectoral meat made to our specs,” says McDowell. (The pectoral is the muscle near the shoulder in the fore end of the animal, which McDowell says “eats like a brisket at a quarter of the price.”)

The menu's sandwich section also includes a masa-encrusted chicken breast on a brioche bun and an impressive vegetarian offering: spice-rubbed jackfruit on a talera roll, with avocado, portabella, black beans, chopped romaine, and pasilla salsa.

Speaking of salsa, there are two: A balanced, just-thick-enough roasted tomato version and a superb green chile option made with serrano chiles, cilantro, lime juice, and avocados (not tomatillos) an important distinction.

A machete—a quesadilla named for its resemblance to the blade and that’s popular in Mexico City—is described as “giant rolled tortillas stuffed with sabor-slaying yumminess.” It can be negotiated several different ways, says McDowell: “Pick it up, tear pieces off it, knife-and-fork it, share it, eat it yourself. All are good.”

Dale Beauchamp and David Rodriguez, both alums of the original Gringo, are running the kitchen. “With the original kitchen managers back together again, along with Cary, Gringo’ll be better than it ever was,” says Sommers. The culinary team spent months researching preparations, proportions, spice combinations, and cooking methods for the eight taco varieties, as well as holding times and temps. The result: brighter flavors and a noticeably fresher-tasting product.

Tortillas (both flour and corn) are made in Chicago. The soft corn version has one shell, not two, which is common elsewhere. “Two weak shells are superfluous, and the filling can end up on your shirt,” McDowell says. “We thought it important to source a shell that could stand up on its own and to the amount of filling we use.”

Gringo’s version of street corn is made with just enough cotija cheese and mayo to be indulgent. It’s topped with Tajin (ground chili and desiccated lime), a popular granular “fun dip” that accompanies Mexican street snacks, such as jicama sticks. “Anywhere lime works, especially in Mexican cooking, tajin works better,” says McDowell.

Special attention's even been paid to the rice, an oft-overlooked staple item in most every Mexican restaurant. It's moist, flavorful, properly spiced with annatto. A Mexican native said it was “just how it tastes at home, not like American kids trying to figure out something unfamiliar.”

On the table are two hot sauces—a large bottle of Valentina (thicker, more flavorful, and less vinegary than Tabasco), a small bottle of El Yucateco green, and a shaker of Tajin, McDowell's aforementioned secret weapon.

In addition to having the right product and the right place at the right time, utilizing an inside nook, Sommers plans to launch a lunch concept along the lines of Gringo Rapido, an offshoot that he compares to an indoor taco truck. Customers short on time can choose from quick-serve tacos and burritos made from small-batch, short-hold ingredients. Online ordering and delivery through DoorDash will also be available.

Reservations will only be accepted for parties of 10 or more. Feliz Horas will be from 3–6 p.m. and 10 p.m.–close Monday through Friday.

Gringo marks a major addition to the 600 block of Washington—and there could be more news to report soon.

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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts

Gringo

635 Washington Ave, St Louis, Missouri 63101

(314) 449-6777

Visit Website

Mon - Thu 11a.m. – 11 p.m.; Fri - Sat: 11a.m. - 12 a.m.; Sun: 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.

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