It’s been an interesting last few days on the fine dining beat in St. Louis... So at the exact time we were on John Carney’s “Restaurant Tuesday” show yesterday discussing the week’s biggest news—the closing of Niche on June 11—Ben Poremba announces that acclaimed chef Ben Grupe (“the most talented and accomplished chef in St. Louis without a kitchen to call his own,” according to Poremba) has, as of June 1, assumed the lead chef duties at two of his restaurants—Elaia (one of the top fine dining spots in town) and Olio (its less formal sister restaurant/wine bar next door).
Grupe's take on a Sunday morning bagel: smoked ruby trout, herbed cream cheese, fresh dill, pickled red onion, shaved fennel, everything bagel, black and white sesame seeds.
Poremba’s assessment of Grupe is legit: because of his stints at private country clubs (Racquet Club Ladue, Old Warson, and Meadowbrook), Grupe may be the most talented yet least known chef in town. That changed about this time last year when Grupe kicked off a handful of pop-up dinners at different venues around town. (Even with the new responsibilities, we've been assured that the acclaimed Ben Grupe Dinner Series will continue.)
In addition, Grupe was named to the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Culinary Olympics team in 2012 and was voted to be team captain this year. This October, Grupe and six other chefs from around the country will compete against 31 international chef teams in Erfurt, Germany for Olympic culinary gold.
And competitive he is. Grupe's goal with Elaia is to "not just elevate it, but make it the best restaurant in St. Louis.” His goal with the pop-ups was to “bring his food to the masses” and Poremba provided him the stage to do that. Grupe notes that change will come slowly to Elaia, however, with “nothing radical until after the Olympics.”
He said that the majority of Elaia’s guests order the 4-course prix fixe dinner and that the more extensive tasting menu will remain in force as well. The chef did hint that in the future, there would be more chef interaction and maybe even some “old school tableside service” (which Vince Bommarito told us was unfortunately on the wane), albeit “with some contemporary spins.”
His assessment of Olio was “a well-oiled machine that requires only minor tweaks.”
Poremba told SLM a few months ago that he'd been looking to scale back his commitments at Elaia and Olio, especially with a second child on the way. The timing couldn’t have been better: Aviv Poremba was born on May 27 and Grupe clocked in last week.
