In early May, when St. Louis Magazine broke the news that chef/owner Ben Anderson was closing his beloved Grapeseed restaurant at 5400 Nottingham (at Macklind), a prime corner in the city’s burgeoning Southampton neighborhood, Anderson said he “doubted it will be vacant for too long.” Right he was.
The building sold exactly a month later to a developer who hoped to land another successful restaurant tenant. Russell Ping, owner of the growing family of Russell’s Cafes, was quick to respond.
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“We’d been looking for a place to do pizza for a long time,” says the chef, whose first job was manning a wood-burning pizza oven. “But the Grapeseed space—with its front and rear patios—had the potential to be more than that, so we didn’t hesitate when it became available.”
Slated to open next spring, the new venture will be called Lola Jean’s Pizza, named after his daughter. It will feature 12-inch Neapolitan-style pizzas with a combination of flours, “so it won’t be a strict, by-the-book Neapolitan,” says Ping.
Nor will it be strictly a pizza parlor. “Ever since I started the bakery cafes, I thought that ice cream would be a logical tie-in, so old fashioned, hand-churned ice cream will be part of the Lola Jean’s theme as well,” he says. “We’ll use bakery recipes to create new ice cream flavors like Lemon Curd with Crumbled Shortbread and a kitschy one called Trash that could have several bakery add-ins. There’s a lot of crossover potential.”
“We wanted to do something a little different,” Ping adds. “Combining pizza and ice cream should tell people that Lola Jean’s is not meant to be an Italian-themed restaurant.”
Ping plans to remove an interior wall to showcase the wood-burning pizza oven. Beyond that, only minor remodeling is required in the 60-seat space, which will feel decidedly different—“more modern and less rustic,” as Ping puts it—than Russell’s on Macklind. It will have lighter, whiter touches, which Ping labels as “West Coast casual.”
On the beverage front, bottled and draft craft beer will be available, as well as bottled wines and (if possible) the same brand of wines on tap, which means glass pours should be very affordable. Ping envisions a pick-up window on the front patio for beer, wine, and possibly ice cream.
The flagship Russell’s Café opened in Fenton in 2006, and a second location followed seven years later, on Macklind. The third location is slated to open in October at 14888 Clayton Road in Chesterfield, a former Saint Louis Bread Co. space.
For the moment, Russell’s third location remains the priority for Ping. “Not to dismiss Lola Jean’s, but it’s the back-burner project,” he says. “It won’t be ready until next spring. Now’s the time to get excited about Chesterfield.”
