Deer Creek Café in Ladue quietly changed hands last April. The new owner, 23-year-old Kent McCarty, chose to keep a low profile. “Initially, I feared the regulars might be concerned there was a new owner—especially a guy who looks no older than the baristas,” he says. “At coffee shops, people tend to like what they like and don’t want things to change.”
At Deer Creek Café, not much did change: same coffee (from Goshen Coffee Company), same made-to-order breakfast, same lunch offerings, and the same chocolate chip banana bread (a recipe from prior owner Rick Williams).
On Tuesday, McCarty took possession of Nadoz Café + Catering, located at 12 The Boulevard, across from the Saint Louis Galleria in Richmond Heights.
When he learned of the café’s availability and progress on the $90 million expansion of The Boulevard shops (a.k.a. Boulevard South), he saw an opportunity to get established before construction commences.
“My plans—subject to change—are to update the Deer Creek brand and apply it to the Nadoz location this summer," he says. That will include a name change and some aesthetic adjustments to tie the location to the Ladue flagship.
In 2012, McCarty founded Java Moe’s, a coffee shop in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, his home state. He currently owns three Java Moe’s in Hattiesburg and is on track to open two more there this year. McCarty moved to St. Louis when he acquired the Ladue property, with thoughts to expand the concept here. “I’ve been in the coffee business since high school,” he says. “I wanted to apply what I knew in a new place and had a good friend here who influenced my decision—I wish the story of how I got here was more exciting.”
He added that “coffee shops in Mississippi are just coffee shops, with not much of a food component.” He liked the coziness of Deer Creek, how its food program had evolved, and thought the brand was expandable and transferable to other locations.
The Boulevard–St. Louis spot is the last remaining Nadoz Café location, with all of the cafés previously being owned by Steven Becker. With the transfer, Becker also elected to shutter his catering company, Steven Becker Fine Dining, and focus on restaurant consulting. His new company, Steven Becker Hospitality Consulting, will advise restaurants, hotels, caterers, and banquet houses.
Re the catering component (a significant part of Nadoz' business), McCarty is undecided whether he will continue to operate as Nadoz Catering or change the name to Deer Creek Catering. (We know a guy who could act as consultant…)
