For as long as she can remember, Jamie Herman was always trying to start businesses. From car washes to yard sales to even selling gravel from her back alley (“I got into trouble for that one, for some reason,” Herman laughs), a young Herman was committed to the hustle – not because she was trying to make money, but because she loved the process. Now, the former Registered Nurse is channeling that energy into the new Maplewood restaurant, Looking Meadow Café (2500 Sutton), where she serves up delectable vegan coffee, baked goods, and daytime dishes. Here’s what to know about this new plant-based addition to the area’s food scene.
The Menu
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Although the concept began as a coffee-focused food truck—or rather, camper—Herman realized quickly that there was demand for plant-based items beyond beverages. After honing her pastry skills through trial and error, Herman added baked goods, which have now become some of her signature offerings. Items include fluffy biscuits, a variety of muffins, decadent cinnamon rolls, and an array of vegan doughnuts, which have caught quite a buzz around the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, where she began offering them in fall 2021.
Now that her business is finally in a brick-and-mortar space, Herman is excited to expand her menu again, this time to include heartier breakfast and lunch dishes, such as biscuits and gravy and biscuit sandwiches (both made with vegan sausage), as well as a variety of toasts. Popular selections include avocado toast accented with chili oil, greens and everything bagel seasoning, bruschetta toast with a balsamic drizzle, and the popular hazelnut crunch toast, which Herman describes as a sort of vegan version of Nutella finished with granola and vegan marshmallows.
Although Herman anticipated doing more of a breakfast-all-day format, she also serves a limited menu of lunch-focused dishes including salads and the standout offering: a vegan French dip served on garlic cheese bread. Herman gets the plant-based roast beef and au jus from her friend and local plant-based entrepreneur, Amie Simmons, who’s been earning raves for the dish from everyone who tries it. “It’s our most popular item, and I knew it would be because it’s so good,” Herman says. “Even meat eaters love it.”
The Atmosphere
Occupying a light-filled storefront in one of Maplewood’s quaint, tree-lined neighborhoods north of Manchester, the café is an inviting space. A large patio along one side of the building is surrounded by wooden planters filled with greenery and provides ample seating. Inside, the room is painted in a medium green and accented with midcentury modern woodwork along the order counter and artwork from local artists. The café is divided into two rooms, one with window and bistro-table seating and the other with additional tables, as well as couches and chairs.
The Backstory
Although Herman had always felt pulled between culinary arts and nursing, she originally opted to pursue the latter and moved to St. Louis from a small town in central Illinois in 2008 to begin her career as a registered nurse. While she enjoyed her work, she decided to leave the field a few years ago to pursue her license to produce and manufacture all-vegan medical marijuana edibles. She was confident that she would be awarded one: She had a health care background; doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in her court; attorneys working on securing her license; consultants and marketing professionals ready to come on board—and to her dismay, she was denied. “I didn’t even come close to getting one,” Herman says. “I was devastated.”
Following that experience, Herman and some friends briefly pivoted to founding a travel-focused company, but the COVID-19 pandemic turned that plan on its head. So she decided to pursue a mobile food business, settled on a coffee concept, bought a camper, and founded Looking Meadow Coffee in 2020.
Looking Meadow Coffee was successful beyond anything that Herman could have imagined. She gained a loyal following and became a staple at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, where she saw demand for baked goods to accompany her beverages. They were also a tremendous hit, and she found them selling out every week, no matter how many items she’d bring to the market. It seemed like everything was going her way—and then a series of catastrophic setbacks made her wonder whether Looking Meadow would make it.
“In July 2021, my camper got wrecked,” Herman recalls. “I’d only operated for nine months, and the buildout was so hard that I hoped I could find a replacement one already done. Coincidentally, there was one in Kansas City. I went there and picked it up, got home when it was dark, and parked it in front of my house overnight, so I could check it out in the daylight before taking it to where I was going to park it. I was awoken at 7 a.m. the next morning to the sound of a young woman crashing into it and totaling it.”
With two smashed campers and no way to recover financially for the foreseeable future, Hearman took a job with Pizza Head to learn the ins and outs of the business in anticipation of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. After a year working at the South Grand eatery, she found a location for Looking Meadow’s permanent home: the former Stone Spiral Coffee House space on a residential corner in Maplewood. Although the buildout took longer than anticipated, Herman finally welcomed guests into the café on September 30.
“It’s just so surreal to finally have a brick-and-mortar,” Herman says. “After all we’ve been through with this, I’m just so happy.”
