Steve St. Pierre wants you take his employees, please. While restaurant managers around the country are struggling to fill kitchen jobs, St. Pierre hopes his best employees leave him...for better jobs, that is.
At Have A Cow Cattle Company, a café and urban farm store coming to 2742 Lafayette Avenue in the Gate District neighborhood, St. Pierre will employ people from his West End neighborhood who've had a hard time finding work.
“I live in the West End—not the Central West End—and unemployment is very high in North St. Louis,” explains St. Pierre. “I asked my neighbors what would make a difference, and they said, ‘Give us jobs!’ My hope is to help these people, some of whom are essentially unhireable, learn to get, maintain, and hang on to a job. I want people to come in and take my best employees, give them a job, and let them be successful."
St. Pierre is also attempting to bridge some gaps that he sees between the people working at his restaurant and patrons. “I want my customers to know my employees and learn to love them as they are; I want my employees to know my customers and love them as they are,” says St. Pierre. “If there’s any hope for our city, state, nation, it’s to love others even if we don’t agree with them.”
The Gate District storefront is an extension of St. Pierre’s farm of the same name, located 10 miles north of Cuba, Missouri. The farm will supply beef to the restaurant, as well as hand-harvested honey that St. Pierre is calling “Sweet Justice” to be sold in the urban farm store, alongside beehive kits, chicken coop supplies, and more. Its own small-batch, hand-roasted coffee, called Barbwire Brew, will be served and sold there as well.
The daytime café will offer a classic diner breakfast of such staples as pancakes, eggs, and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. Burgers will dominate the lunch menu, and to complement the farm theme, gourmet s’mores—called s’moos—featuring different cookies and candies will be served for dessert.
“I know the cow theme seems cheeky,” says St. Pierre. “It comes from the saying ‘Don’t have a cow,' meaning don’t do anything crazy. But I want people to do crazy things, whatever’s necessary, to bring what’s right to expression.”
The café is currently under construction and slated to open in November.
