PHOTO BY KEVIN A. ROBERTS
Expect to see lots of cheese and charcuterie during the final days of Oaked, closing in Soulard this weekend.
Another fine dining restaurant in St. Louis will be closing its doors this weekend: Oaked in Soulard will close on Sunday, following an eight-month run.
Oaked was included in the October issue's list of the "Best New Restaurants in St. Louis." It enjoyed popular and critical acclaim. SLM dining critic Dave Lowry called it “aces in terms of overall experience, food, and atmosphere.” The wine list (which Lowry said “could be mistaken for a Gutenberg bible”) included more than 250 varietals and boasted more than 200 selections by the glass (207 at last count) .
The restaurant took up two floors, in the building most recently occupied by Lynch Street Tavern, and offered several seating areas all with different vibes, as well as two patios. The super-private, secluded boîte on the second floor overlooked a larger, tree-shaded, brick expanse on the level below.
Yet the restaurant is closing several months shy of its first anniversary and on the cusp of the busy holiday season. One reason for the unexpected closure is that owners John and Anne Cochran were “emotionally, physically, and financially exhausted,” according to John, who said there were other reasons for the closure, including less-than-sustainable volume during the week.
“If I could roll back time,” he says, “I would have been more aggressive with marketing right from the beginning. We thought we’d get rolling first and get our confidence up before we began soliciting for private events, which a place like ours needs to survive.”
Another hurdle, John says, was that he believes the prices were too high at the outset, which created a general perception that the restaurant was a place for special occasions. The owners later lowered the prices, though he says that adjustment may have been too little and too late.
In addition, when Oaked was conceived, there were eight people involved, which became two couples by the time it opened in February. By mid-May, it was only the Cochrans. “My plan was to work 20 hours a week, mainly in a meet-and-greet capacity,” he says. “I’ve been working 70 hours a week now for quite a while, in all capacities. Both Anne and I are simply out of gas.”
The restaurant will operate for its final three days under a different format. The food will be doled out buffet-style—$20 for all you can eat—to deplete the inventory, but it will include higher-end items, such as beef, lamb, and duck. The food will be presented on the first floor, and guests will be free to mix and mingle inside or out. Cocktails and any inventoried beer will be available as well, at a discount.
Concurrently, bottled wine will be for sale on the second floor, “priced a little over cost,” John says, by the bottle or the case. Wine consumed on site will be subject to a $10 corkage fee. The entire wine cellar—1,000 wines, including 250 varietals—will be for sale between Friday and Sunday. The same goes for the restaurant’s stock of hard liquor (the “Oaked” moniker extended to a substantial dark spirits list as well).
On Friday, Oaked will open from 4 p.m. to midnight, with food served from approximately 6– 10 p.m. On Saturday, the hours will be noon–midnight, with food beginning at 1 p.m. "until it’s gone." On Sunday, the restaurant will be open from noon–10 p.m. to sell off any remaining inventory.
“I want this to be a party,” John says. “We’re closing, but it’s not a funeral.”
