One of the more intriguing restaurants to open this year debuts this month in the Central West End. Mainlander, owner-chef Blake Askew’s 30-seat, prix fixe reinvention of a ’40s-era supper club, features creative versions of mid-century American classics, served family-style. Mainlander offers two dinner seatings, Wednesday through Saturday at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. A select number of reservations are available during this month’s soft opening; reservations for the month of August can be booked now as well. The September menu and reservations will be posted August 1.
The Concept
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For years, Askew had dreamed of opening his own place, with a small staff and a seasonal prix fixe menu that focuses on the experience. He and his partner, Gordon Chen, moved from San Francisco to St. Louis during the pandemic. “St. Louis is a place where you can start a business the old-fashioned way—start small, with minimal investment, and do something that’s a little more organic,” he previously told SLM. “Here, we were able to start Mainlander on our own with minimal savings plus a Small Business loan. That’s the appeal of St. Louis.”
To learn the wants and needs of local dining patrons, he went to work at Bulrush for Rob Connoley and then hosted a series of pop-up events. “After selling out all nine of them, we knew that people in St. Louis were very welcoming and hungry for new things and that the prix fixe, pay-in-advance, no tipping allowed, family-style supper club structure which interested us was something that they too enjoyed,” he says. The goal was to keep in mind “the true meaning of a restaurant… We want our guests to feel restored when they walk out of our door.”
In a release, he adds, “We want our guests to walk in, relax, and enjoy themselves without having to make any choices, then be able to just get up and walk out. No fuss, no muss. This includes pricing our menus so that we can pay our employees a good and fair wage. That’s our job, not yours.”
Previously, Askew said his goal was to keep the prix fixe under $100 per person, which includes everything except beverage pairings. He added that he didn’t want “to even talk about service charges or gratuities. All of that—and whatever that is and means—shouldn’t be part of the discussion. We’re taking care of our employees. Our guests have to trust us on that—end of discussion.”
The Food
Mainlander guests are greeted with a welcome punch (with or without booze), followed by a three-course meal, starting with what Askew calls “a procession of tidbits” (which may include hors d’oeuvres, dim sum, and crudité), a large main course of vegetables and roast, and dessert. The opening menu features crystal dumplings stuffed with a farce of Missouri grown white shrimp and Illinois copi, smoked farmstead duckling with wok-fired local vegetables and chili crisp bearnaise, and baked Alaska with cherries jubilee. (Diners also have the option to choose a vegetarian meal.)
Askew says he wants to use inland fish as much as possible, such as walleye, sunfish, catfish, and trout. “I want to experiment with Asian carp,” he says, “which has recently been rebranded as copi to get more people to eat it, and they should, because trust me, it’s delicious. Just like Trader Vic traveled the world bringing exotic treats to mainlanders, I want to do the same playful thing but turn that inward and use what we have nearby. One of the taglines we played around with was ‘paradise is here.”’
Guests can expect some dishes (“like Wellingtons, maybe beef, maybe pork”) to be carved or finished or sauced tableside. Soups might be poured at the table. “Showmanship like that is a dying art, and it never gets old,” Askew says. Generally speaking, Mainlander’s menu is inspired by mid-century American classics with fun twists and turns based on modern cooking techniques and local ingredients. The inaugural menu features a riff on ambrosia salad, “bratstickers,” a caviar bing, and a version of rumaki made with “traditional French pâté, pancetta instead of bacon, and discs of celeriac instead of water chestnuts.”
As for beverages, coffee, tea, water, and even beer and soda are included with dinner. At the time of booking, guests can pair cocktails, wine, or spirit-free cocktails with their meal. The namesake cocktail, The Mainlander, is a flaming mixture of local rums, lime, and Missouri black walnut that guests of the pop-up series enjoyed. The signature spirit-free cocktail is The Wanderluster, a blend of Missouri stone fruit, coconut, lime, toasted spices, and tea.
“To be able to have the Mainlander experience without eating meat or consuming alcohol, yet not feeling skimped in any way, is something that I think people will appreciate,” Askew says.
The Atmosphere
Asked how he planned to evoke the vibe of a modern supper club, Askew told SLM that curtains on the front windows will slightly obscure a small lounge-style waiting area and tables with tablecloths and candles.
The 26-seat room is lit with ’50s-era globe lights on dimmers. The wallpaper is interpretive, and “to me looks retro and evokes water or maybe the sea on a moonlit night,” Askew says. “You’ll see homey touches and functional, midcentury knickknacks that’ll bring you back to your grandma’s dining room, basement, and rec room.”
The Background
Askew worked for Wolfgang Puck Dining Group on the East Coast before working as sous chef at Dominque Crenn’s three-Michelin-starred Petite Crenn in San Fransisco. Askew then moved to St. Louis with Chen (co-owner and maître d’) to open Mainlander, named after a ’70s-era Polynesian-themed Clayton restaurant.
“As important as my time on the coasts was, I always dreamed of coming back to the Midwest to open my own place,” Askew says in a release. “My grandparents dined and partied in St. Louis’ historic Gaslight District, my great grandfather had a bar and tobacco store in South City, and my great-great grandfather, Frank Goldstein, shook cocktails for fair goers along the promenade at the 1904 World’s Fair in Forest Park. Every chef coming up can tell you they have a restaurant in their mind that they want to open someday. Mainlander is that restaurant for me, and there is no place I’d rather bring it to life than right here in our beautiful city.”
