Courtesy Intergalactic Burgers
The Ground Control Burger at Intergalactic Burgers at the Food Hall at City Foundry STL.
The owners of Intergalactic Burgers are hoping that 13 is a lucky number for the newest food concept at City Foundry STL. The most recent addition to the Food Hall officially opened its kitchen yesterday, December 13, marking the 13th food kitchen at the complex to date.
Courtesy of Intergalactic Burgers
From the research lab, a custom double burger with two cheeses, bacon, secret sauce, and a fried onion ring
The smashburger-and-fries concept is the third at the Food Hall from Jonathan Schoen and Brian Schmitz, following Good Day and Subdivision Sandwich Co. The former specializes in walk-away breakfast sandwiches and crepes, while the latter boasts some “serious” sandwiches with whimsical names inspired by popular movies, such as “I’m King of the World” and “The Dude Abides.” The duo also owns acclaimed full-service restaurants Polite Society and The Bellwether.
Intergalactic uses two pressed, 3.5-ounce patties (“a properly proportioned double [burger], cooked just past medium,” according to Schmitz) for its specialty burgers, as well as a proprietary blend of beef, a recipe that is still being tweaked. “We’re fine-tuning the ratios, the tightness of the grind—that sort of thing,” he says. “We did and are still doing research. The working document for our burger has more red lines than a real estate contract.”
Photo by George Mahe
A taste of home: smashburgers, fries, and beverages from Excel Bottling Co.
Courtesy Intergalactic Burgers
The name comes from the partners’ desire for pairing nostalgia with the feeling of timelessness. (“I imagined a future intergalactic traveler longing for a bit of home planet comfort,” Schmitz says). The names of the burgers follow suit. The Home World (pictured at right), comes with American cheese, secret sauce, and standard garnish (lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion). Ground Control is a Swiss cheese and mushroom burger with added caramelized onions, horseradish, and steak sauce. Venturing a little further out, The Andromeda is topped with goat cheese, peppadew peppers, arugula, and balsamic glaze. The Big Bang is an explosion of cheddar cheese, guac, bacon, fried egg, and red hot aioli.
Corporate executive chef Thomas Futtrell—who now splits his time between the company’s five concepts—has a created a burger seasoning with a secret umani-producing component. A buttered, brioche bun bookends the six burgers on the menu. The affable Anthony Redden, an industry vet whose resume extends back to the original Culpepper’s location in the Central West End, heads up the kitchen.
Courtesy of Intergalactic Burgers
After still more experimentation, the group decided that waffle fries would best complement their aspirations as the only side offered. “The fries are loaded up in one way or another,” Schmitz explains, “in poutine-esque kinds of ways, and waffle fries were the only ones that would hold up and that didn’t necessitate a knife and fork.”
Options include Planetary, with cheese sauce and green onions (pictured at right); Rocket Fuel, as in jazzed-up chili cheese fries; and Warp Drive, topped with shredded turkey, aioli, cranberry relish, green onion, and gravy, ingredients cross-utilized from Good Day. “We’ll be using beef trim from the burgers to supplement our other onsite restaurants, too,” Schmitz says.
An a la carte menu of burgers and fries (both with 25 topping options) will be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Next up: milk shakes that will dovetail with the concept’s Mid-century but modern approach. “At the end of the day, we thought our clientele would be best served with basic shakes done better,” Schmitz says. The vanilla flavor comes from infused vanilla beans, the strawberry contains homemade compote, and the chocolate (also made in house using semi sweet cocoa nibs) was developed by Kaylen Wissinger, owner of the neighboring Poptimism.
Schmitz says such collaboration is typical at the Food Hall. “We’re all in this experiment together,” he says. “In helping each other out—like borrowing the proverbial cup of sugar—we’ve all become close.”
Each kitchen at the Food Hall sets its own hours. Intergalactic is currently open from 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, and 11 a.m.–9 p.m Friday and Saturday. The entire Food Hall complex is closed on Tuesdays.
Photo by George Mahe
Chef Anthony Redden's thumbs-up means "come get a burger."
