A touch of the Crescent City has opened in St. Louis’ Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Mac B’s Grill & Bar (5800 Southwest), a Cajun-influenced neighborhood eatery, quietly opened late last month in the former 58hundred space. The partners are longtime restaurateur Barry Strange (Stanley’s Cigar Lounge, Hotel Saint Louis, Copia Restaurant & Wine Garden, Red Lion Pub, Mimi’s Café, Culpepper’s) and Jamal Dunn (founder of Praetorian Guard Services).
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The partners met while Strange was managing Stanley’s Cigar Lounge and booking events at Modiste on Washington, a downtown event venue. “We started out discussing opening an event space, which ended up turning into a Cajun-leaning bar and grill with a cigar lounge as a lagniappe,” Strange says. “The 58hundred building was in a great neighborhood, but there were a lot of bar and grill-type places nearby already. We thought that offering New Orleans–style food would set ours apart.”
As for the name? “’Mac’ is Dunn’s nickname,” says Strange. “The B’s part is me.” (And it’s no coincidence that the building was also the former home of Mr. B’s Grill & Bar.) Lunch and dinner are offered daily, plus a jazz brunch on Sundays.
Here’s what to know before you go.
The Atmosphere
On the two-room first floor, the walls have been painted graphite gray, accented by black pendant fixtures, black chairs, and black tablecloths, likely topped with black butcher paper. The wall décor is still in development, though there will likely be tasteful finishes reminiscent of New Orleans that Strange promises will be “more upscale than Mardi Gras—I’d love to get close to the former Bobby’s Creole in Maplewood,” he says. “That was a good look.”
The second floor, outfitted with tufted leather couches and chairs, is home to “Tap That Ash,” a private cigar lounge that’s currently slated for 24 members, according to Strange, who notes that ventilation will not be a problem. “We have enough air handlers up there for almost double the square footage,” he says. “If we need more, we’ll get more.”
Yearly cigar club membership is priced in two tiers: for $250 (including membership and a cigar locker, with guest admission for $15) and for $500 (including membership, a cigar locker, and two guests for free, plus 10 percent off the member’s liquor tab). Day passes are also available to the public for $25.
Mac B’s will seat close to 100 guests: 32 in the dining room, 26 in the bar, and 40 on a fenced, dog-friendly patio in the rear of the building. Cigarette smoking is allowed on the patio; cigar smoking is not.
The Menu
It’s not often that one encounters a bar and grill menu with a heavy Cajun influence, and this one excels in its creativity, courtesy of chef Sabrina Curry, who was a sous chef with food service and hospitality company Delaware North at Busch Stadium prior to joining Mac B’s. We initially thought that her claim of “dishes you won’t find anywhere else in St. Louis” might be a tall tale, but a quick examination of the menu proved otherwise.
The inaugural appetizer menu includes Cajun poutine, fried spicy duck wings, smoked chimichurri wings, crawfish tacos, and wild caught oysters with Cajun garlic butter topped with panko and Parmesan.
Guests can expect bar-and-grill basics as well: Joining a double smashburger with bacon and two cheeses is an Impossible burger, a shrimp burger, and a trio of Cajun po’ boys. “We’re still tweaking it, but as it stands now, the menu mix is 50/50,” says Strange, “American classics versus Cajun.”
Entrée highlights include a Cajun-spiced pork ribeye, Cajun crawfish ravioli, and catfish fillets with crawfish étouffée, rounded out by a 14-ounce ribeye and an 8-ounce baseball-cut wagyu sirloin. The bestseller to date is the alligator gumbo, made with chicken, alligator, and pork andouille sausage, studded with alligator tail meat and garnished with Gulf shrimp. Coming soon is a likely best-seller: lobster-stuffed trout.
Esoteric side dishes include maque choux, hot mixed greens with smoked turkey, and a bowl of gussied-up sweet potato tots that could double as dessert. The plan is for house and Caesar salads to be assembled on a rolling cart. “Having a few items finished table-side will separate us further from your run-of-the-mill bar and grill,” Strange says.
Another distinguishing characteristic is the Sunday jazz brunch. “If you’re leaning into that cuisine, it’s a given—you have to do it, especially here in St. Louis,” says Strange. On the menu are biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, catfish and grits, and pancakes with fresh berries and a whiskey cream sauce. Not to miss are the beignets, five to an order, served with chocolate, caramel, or raspberry sauce.
Curry says she was a music major before cooking became her passion. Her chef journey began by doing private dining on the side, which led to catering jobs and then a sous chef job with food service-and-hospitality company Delaware North at Busch Stadium. Strange met Curry through her catering company, Roxxand Eats, which has been put on pause. “At some point, we may get into catering,” Strange says, “but that’s down the road.”
With Mac B’s being a neighborhood establishment, the partners intend to keep prices affordable, which translates to entrées predominantly priced in the teens to low $20s. “It may sound like common sense, but a neighborhood place can’t price itself out of the neighborhood,” says Strange.
The cocktail menu features five New Orleans–themed standards: a Sazerac, Vieux Carre, French 75, a “not overly sweet” Hurricane, and a Creole Bloody Mary with a glassful of garnishment.
Mac B’s takes a few liberties with its half-dozen classic cocktails, including a Hoodoo Manhattan, made with Redemption rye, Benedictine, Hoodoo liqueur, Averna amaro, and Bordeaux bitters.
The wine list (a dozen reasonably priced offerings by the bottle or glass) all include a food pairing. The roster of bottled beers leans heavily into lagers and light lagers (Busch Light, Natty Light, Bud Light, Stag, Stella Artois, Mich Ultra, Miller Light, Yuengling Light, and Zwickel Light). “I’ve been in this business long enough to know what the big sellers are,” Strange says.
