Steve Gontram, a well-respected local chef and restaurateur, has shifted culinary gears—again. The owner of 5 Star Burgers (8125 Maryland) in Clayton and former owner of Harvest in Richmond Heights has opened a wine and cocktail bar in the former Nixta space, at 1621 Tower Grove in Botanical Heights. The restaurant, No Ordinary Rabbit, offers a wide array of reasonably priced, Eastern Mediterranean-focused small plates and shareable dishes. The 60-seat restaurant is open evenings, Tuesday through Saturday nights. Here’s what to know before you go.
The Concept
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The idea of a wine and cocktail bar came to Gontram in a roundabout way. For starters, he thinks the world of longtime 5 Star Burgers general manager David Zitko. “He’s the epitome of grace under fire,” Gontram told SLM, “a steady rudder in a rough sea, just the type of person I’d want to be partners with in anything.”
Zitko, who doubled as bar manager at 5 Star, is a skilled mixologist. “David has fun with cocktails, he has an incredibly inventive hand, and he gets thematic with his creations,” Gontram explains. “So a few seasons ago, he comes up with this entire Monty Python–themed list, including No Ordinary Rabbit, which was part of a famous line in the movie [Monty Python and the Holy Grail]. We thought, What a great name for a bar. Maybe we should do a concept together.”
Knowing that a bar/restaurant combination would cast a wider net, the duo began conceptualizing ideas and scouting locations. When Ben Poremba temporarily closed his three former Botanical Heights restaurants (Elaia, Olio, and Nixta) in late December to relocate, the search narrowed. A lease for the former Nixta space was inked in late February.
“We both love Botanical Heights and wanted to endear ourselves to the surrounding neighborhoods,” Gontram says. “And we thought that opening a neighborhood cocktail and wine bar in the middle of the action would be a great way to do that.”
They enlisted the help of chef Stephen Kovac, an alumnus of Harvest, Nudo House, 5 Star Burgers, Rockwell Beer, and The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis to head up the kitchen.
The Food
No Ordinary Rabbit offers a wide array of Eastern Mediterranean–inspired dishes, with “a little Spanish, some North African, and Southern Italian” thrown in, according to Gontram. Altogether, it’s an unusual mix of dishes with “super bright, colorful, vibrant flavors” that he describes as “electric and eclectic.”
Inspired by his travels through Europe, Gontram currently finds lighter, healthier, sharable food appealing. (“I’ve come a long way from butter and cream,” he quips.) He didn’t see any other local places offering the same variety and depth as No Ordinary Rabbit is offering.
The menu is a categorical mix including Bar Snacks, Spreads and Dips, Sharable Plates, and Desserts. A likely bestseller is the za’atar-spiced fried onion rings, with its gossamer batter reminiscent of the one that Gontram popularized at Harvest. Other Snacks include chorizo-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates; tinned fish with Union Loafers garlic crostini and Taramosalata labneh; and a handful of room-temp offerings, including sardines with piri piri peppers, sweet and spicy smoked salmon, and wild octopus in Spanish olive oil.
Three homemade hummus offerings lead the next category, along with a charred eggplant baba ganoush and stellar muhammara. Accompanying the above is Moroccan fry bread, a warm, tear-apart flatbread that’s so addictive, Gontram predicts guests will travel across town for it alone.
Sharable plates (most priced in the teens and $20s), include spinach-ricotta gnudi with grilled rapini and fennel chicken sausage, as well as Merguez meatballs with citrus labneh and agrodolce. At $32, a pan-seared halibut with caponata and garlic cream is the most expensive item on the menu.
The three-item dessert menu includes cashew baklava cigars, chocolate-espresso budino, and pistachio gooey butter cake.
In describing No Ordinary Rabbit’s menu as “unique to St. Louis,” Gontram notes that “hummus and baba ganoush are served in a very specific type of restaurant. Here, you get all of that, plus seasonality and cheffy twists.”
The Drinks
On the beverage front, Gontram says, “Dave’s expertise is cocktails; mine is wine.” Guests can expect “a whimsical but well-thought-out cocktail program, one that complements the Mediterranean menu but doesn’t tie itself to it.”
Zitko says the cocktail menu at 5 Star is simple and very approachable, while the seasonal lists are a bit more adventurous. “It’s a way for us to have some fun and put what we think are delicious drinks in front of people that want to try something new.”
The same principles apply at No Ordinary Rabbit. “Steve and I agree that the food we serve goes better with brighter flavors,” he says. “I’m even using za’atar, harissa, pomegranate, yuzu, apricot, and Calabrian chilies in some of the drinks.”
They’re also trying to keep the price point per cocktail under $13. “At that point a customer might order a second,” Zitko says. “At $16 or $17, they likely won’t.”
Although Zitko will gladly make a Manhattan or Old Fashioned, his cocktail list includes what he says are “creatives and different classically made classics,” including the Junglebird, Trinidad Sour, Daiquiri, and—because wet martinis are having a moment—a martini served wet or dry and made with Bordiga, a great example of dry vermouth. “The problem with vermouth was that a lot of people were not storing it well,” Zitko says, “and the bottles were low-quality, old, and unused. A high-quality vermouth can be a game-changer in a martini.”
The smallish Mediterranean-leaning wine list includes fewer than 50 bottles, priced at $9 to $16 per glass (with the average being $12) and presented “at proper temperature, in proper glassware, and decanted where appropriate,” Gontram says, “whatever it takes to optimize the wine experience.”
A handful of beers will be offered in bottles but only a few on draft, due to storage limitations. “To be honest, we’re more interested in pouring a rotating red and a white wine on tap,” Gontram says.
The style of service will be similar to 5 Star: a full-service model that Gontram describes as expedient and efficient. “We take care of the service staff,” he says, “and they take care of our guests. We have a ton of regulars who have come to know that and expect it.”
The Layout
The single shotgun-style room seats 60 guests, including the bar, as well as 20 on the front patio. Michelle Krauss, who’s had a hand in the design of all of Gontram’s restaurants (including Harvest, Tejas, and three 5 Star Burger locations), was also tasked with the interior finishes at No Ordinary Rabbit.
“I showed her the logo, and she took it from there,” Gontram explains. “The yellows and grays and the watercolor artist that she found for the prints—it all came together beautifully.”
Kraus concurs. “Between me researching products from designers and Steve finding late-night deals on Etsy,” she quips, “we came up with something very appealing.”
Gontram describes the vibe as “eclectic but casual, leaning toward casual elegance,” a look accomplished with banquette seating, dramatic lighting, subtle pops of color, and thematic wallpaper.
The Background
Gontram grew up in St. Louis and pursued a career in the foreign service before enrolling in the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. After working in a handful of the Bay Area’s most notable restaurants, he moved back to St. Louis and opened Harvest, along with his father and three other partners.
In 2004, Gontram opened Tejas, a higher-end Mexican restaurant in the former Ramon’s Jalapeño space at the corner of Brentwood and Maryland in Clayton, which he sold to an employee two years later.
In 2010, Harvest was sold to then-executive chef Nick Miller. Not long after, Gontram surprised his fine-dining fans by opening 5 Star Burgers in Clayton. He added two more units (in Creve Coeur and Kirkwood), which subsequently closed. (“Bottom line and, in short, I chose two bad locations,” Gontram says.)
He adds that 5 Star’s flagship location is experiencing its best year yet and that he’s not averse to opening another location. In the short term, however, he plans to focus his energy on No Ordinary Rabbit and do what he’s already accomplished several times: bring a new restaurant concept to St. Louis.
