When longtime friends and St. Louis hospitality industry players Stanley Browne and Frank Romano got the chance to work together again after 15 years apart, they immediately knew exactly what they wanted to create. “I asked Stanley what he thought about doing an Italian restaurant,” Romano recalls, “a modern interpretation of mid-century Italian dining, before food service changed the way Americans ate.”
That idea immediately resonated with Browne. It’s the foundation of the highly anticipated Madrina (101 W. Lockwood), which officially opens on Friday in the former CJ Muggs space in Webster Groves. As Browne and Romano explain, the vision for Madrina is to take diners on a journey to when food at Italian restaurants was truly world-class. Gone are the boneless skinless chicken breasts, canned sauces, and mounds of gooey cheese, replaced with whole Amish chickens served marsala-style, bistecca Fiorentina, and carbonara done the right way.
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“We see what we are doing as timeless,” Romano says. “When you walk in, it feels like a movie scene—a little retro but not like a caricature. We want it to feel classic, like a supper club that’s been here for a long time.”
The Menu
Browne and Romano assembled an all-star team of professionals. They tapped industry veteran Max Crask to head Madrina’s culinary efforts. “We told him what our vision for the food was, and he gave us his interpretation of what that is,” Romano says. “We believe it’s important for a chef to have a creative outlet.”
That vision includes a variety of Italian-inflected appetizers, salads, pastas, and main courses such as wood grilled oysters, carne cruda, beef carpaccio, and a Mayfair salad. Browne and Romano expect the warm ricotta, paired with grilled bread and drizzled with local honey (pictured above), to be one of the restaurant’s most popular appetizers. They also believe their flatbreads, made by placing raw dough onto a wood-assist gas grill and finishing it in a deck pizza oven, will be a signature offering.
They’re particularly excited about Madrina’s house-made pastas, after ordering a special pasta cooker that was custom made in Italy. Specialties include Linguine con Vongole (with fresh clams, garlic, parsley, and olive oil) and ravioli (with ricotta, mascarpone, ricotta, spinach, and a duck egg in butter sauce).
Romano feels a special obligation when it comes to the restaurant’s traditional carbonara, thanks to a conversation with his former boss and Kemoll’s matriarch, Jo Ann Kemoll Berger, who made a point to make sure he was doing things the right way. “I was working lunch at The Parkmoor Drive-In, and Mrs. Kemoll came in and asked me about Madrina,” Romano says. “She asked if we were going to have carbonara. I told her we were, and she said that she recently had the dish at an Italian restaurant, and it was fettuccini alfredo with bacon and peas. She asked me to tell her how we plan on making it, and I told her we will use eggs, Parmigiano Reggiano, guanciale, spaghetti, and a little pasta water. She told me that reminded her of how they used to do it table-side at the Kemoll’s on South Grand.”
Madrina’s beverage program has some serious beverage firepower behind it as well, including beverage director and sommelier Alisha Blackwell-Calvert (pictured at right), who was tasked with bringing to life Browne’s vision for an interesting take on a wine list. “Stanley wanted to offer grapes that people might be familiar with alongside ones that are similar but might be lesser known,” Blackwell-Calvert explains. “The idea is that someone can try them both side by side to compare them, and that way they might be introduced to something new. It was a challenge. I’ve never seen a wine list like that, but I feel like it’s the best work I’ve ever done because I had to be so thoughtful and focused due to the limited space.”
In addition to wine, Madrina boasts an impressive cocktail selection, spearheaded by bar manager Brian Clark, which includes a variety of classic drinks infused with an Italian flare. Spritzes will feature prominently on the list, including a limoncello spritz, which pairs the sweet, lemony Italian spirit with rosemary.
The Atmosphere
Browne and Romano knew that creating the right atmosphere was crucial in setting the tone for Madrina. In that spirit, Romano’s wife, Laura Burns, helped execute the vision for the space, carried out by acclaimed St. Louis designer Helen Lee of Tao + Lee Associates. The aesthetic is a luxe, vintage-inflected scene with exposed brick, dark wood, black-brown paint, and stunning red fabric and upholstery accents.
Madrina’s design team created several distinct areas. The first that guests experience upon walking into the restaurant is the bar and lounge area, which features a white-marble, U-shaped bar with seating for up to 18. A mix of high- and low-top tables provide additional seating space, bringing the total capacity for the bar area to around 60 seats.
Beyond the bar is a transition space with six large, semi-circular booths upholstered in deep-red tufted leather. Browne and Romano describe the space as having a sexy, sophisticated feel that marries the bar’s upbeat energy with the more intimate dining room, which is separated from the booth area by dark-teal velvet curtains and features wooden tables, exposed brick, and a custom mural. Throughout the space, indirect lighting from both individual fixtures on the table as well as upward-facing chandeliers casts a warm glow over the rooms.
The Backstory
As Browne and Romano recently explained, Madrina has been a restaurant roughly 30 years in the making, dating back to the beginning of their friendship, when Romano was a server assistant at Kemoll’s downtown and Browne was the restaurant’s wine sales representative. The pair have held many prominent positions in the St. Louis dining scene since that fateful first meeting, careers that have positioned them to create what they hope will be a wonderful addition to the area’s dining landscape.
“We want this to be a neighborhood restaurant,” Browne says. “We designed the menu, drink and wine list to be so that you can come in and grab a quick bite to eat and a couple glasses of wine and get out at a reasonable price, or you can have bistecca Fiorentina and a nice bottle of Barolo. It’s not narrow—we want a broader reach, so people can come in as they are and have the experience they want.”
