Courtesy Olive + Oak
Olive + Oak will be moving…but not far. Opened four years ago, the popular restaurant is located at 102 W. Lockwood in Webster Groves, next to sister restaurant The Clover and The Bee, which opened in late 2017. This spring, Olive + Oak will move one block west.
From the outset, the restaurant was a blockbuster hit, one that literally touched people’s hearts and also happened to serve excellent food. (See video below.) The name was inspired by Oliver “Ollie” Hinkle and Oakes Ortyl, sons of the owners who both died from congenital heart disease at an early age within months of each other. The restaurant and its successors are owned by Mark and Jenn Hinkle and Greg and Becky Ortyl, along with other investors.
Last December, Olive + Oak published a nebulous post to Instagram, citing “new adventures on the horizon,” accompanied by an image from inside the former Auto Beauty Specialists, a shuttered auto repair shop several hundred feet to the west of the restaurant. Sauce later confirmed that the space would become a much-needed event space for Olive + Oak, because none existed. At the time, co-owner Mark Hinkle teased that he would partner with a local brewpub inside the 21,000-square-foot building and possibly even add a rooftop restaurant.
“Olive + Oak needed an event space—multiple event spaces, really,” Hinkle told SLM recently. “And we always knew there would be a brewpub component—and there should be, since one doesn’t exist in Webster. But when we started compiling the respective needs and wants, moving the restaurant made sense. For one, it will give us the commanding street presence we never had.
“At the current restaurant, we have no room for anything—we are forced into almost daily delivery, which is not ideal. It occurred to us that having more space, with one centralized kitchen, and everyone in the same building was the better way to go.
“There’s always some trepidation, knowing that Olive + Oak has worked—and has worked well—since day one. An old boss of mine told me once that a busy restaurant feeds on itself, and after four years, that’s still happening for us. We’ve been lucky to have been lucky. But a new space will allow us to be a better version of ourselves.
“People need to remember that it’s not just the four walls that make a restaurant,” Hinkle continues. “It’s what gets created within those four walls. There’s no doubt in my mind that vibe will be recreated a few hundred feet down the block. Having done it once, we believe we’ve designed an equally charming 'wow' space, one where the neon heart faces the street instead of being on an inside wall, one that can better service all our needs.”
Photo by Rick Forrestal
The 21,000-square-foot building will house a satellite brewery and 80-seat tasting room for Perennial Artisan Ales, whose main production facility will remain at 8125 Michigan, in the Patch neighborhood. Perennial owners Emily and Phil Wymore are partners with Hinkle and his investment group in the combined business, which will operate under the same liquor license, so guests can walk from one space to the other with a drink without being in violation of the law.
Green Street St. Louis, a developer that worked on Urban Chestnut, CHROMA Lofts, and Rockwell Brewing, is a partner in the building. The designer is John O'Brien of Hammer Out Design. "John saw the big picture when I couldn't," Hinkle admits.
When the decision was made to move Olive + Oak, Hinkle scrapped the plans to add a rooftop restaurant, opting instead for a bank of solar panels. “I’ve always said I don’t like big restaurants or seasonal outdoor spaces,” he says. “So why do two things I never wanted to do? Having an equal-sized restaurant, plus event spaces and an onsite microbrewery, is a big enough task.”
Photo by Rick Forrestal
Even though the building is sprawling, it was important for Hinkle to maintain the size and quaintness of the original location. So while the bar is twice as long—24 seats instead of a dozen—there’s no drink rail in the new space, says Hinkle, "so it’s a wash. The total number of seats is the same.”
Hinkle says the focal points—the picture wall, the dusty blue tufted banquettes, the hearts placed around the restaurant—will be reimagined in the new space. One difference is that in the new restaurant, the banquette will divide bar and restaurant as the drink rail did before.
But the biggest difference, in addition to having an onsite brewpub, will be the event spaces. In one corner of the restaurant is a semi-private, 35-seat space. The main event room—boasting a high, wood-planked ceiling and cream-colored steel joists—seats 225. Above the room is an open mezzanine that overlooks the space.
Rendering courtesy Hammer Out Design
South-facing clerestory windows run the length of the building, an open invitation to showcase the sky and sunset. After dark, the windows can be softly illuminated to match the colors of the event. Access to the room is through a nifty pre-event space on the side of the building, which has its own bank of windows.
Rendering courtesy Hammer Out Design
Rendering courtesy Hammer Out Design
In addition to several 15-seat boardroom spaces, the complex has a 40-seat recessed patio, enclosed on three sides and available to guests from either business. And while the original had sidewalk seating, the new iteration shouldn’t need them, Hinkle reasons.
The new space will have two kitchens, one that’s glass-walled, a la Elmwood, so guests can observe the action without experiencing “the downsides of an open kitchen,” as Hinkle puts it. The secondary kitchen will service the event spaces, as well as any off-site bookings.
"The entire space is amazingly versatile," says Emily Wymore of Perennial, who has known Hinkle since his days as GM at Annie Gunn's. "It's amazing how many requests we get for events at Perennial that we have to turn down. A brewery setting can be a draw in itself. In Webster, the brewing tanks are visible without the guests being in the brewery."
Wymore adds that events can require different style beers, and with 16 beers on tap (four more than at the flagship), those needs can easily be met. The Webster facility will brew beer primarily for onsite consumption, she says, plus sell crowlers to go.
The existing Olive + Oak space will become an as-yet-unnamed sister restaurant, its kitchen led by Mike Risk, the current executive chef at The Clover and the Bee. Clover’s Italian-esque pizza-and-pasta menu leanings will move to the new space along with Risk, while Clover will take on a more unified feel at breakfast, lunch, and dinner—what Hinkle calls “a café-throughout-the-day feel."
“I ask people if they’ve tried Clover for dinner,” he adds, “and they tell me they didn’t know it was even open for dinner, which is funny, because we opened two years ago in December and opened for dinner in January.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Mark Hinkle in 2015
“What Mike does there [at Clover] now is so focused, so spot on,” Hinkle says, echoing what many foodies say is the most unnoticed dinner menu in town. “The new space will provide a more familiar spot—and a far better-equipped kitchen—to showcase his talents. We love that space, too. It will continue to be a special place, for all of us.
“Having two places to train additional staff is a luxury that many restaurants don’t have,” Hinkle observes, so the new Olive + Oak—and the new concept—can both hit the ground running.
Ownership of the prior Olive + Oak space will stay the same, Hinkle reports, while the new space has a few new investors, and chef Jesse Mendica (a two-time James Beard award semifinalist for Best Chef: Midwest) is a partner in all of them.
Regarding an open date, Hinkle says the timeframe will be staggered. Following the closure of Olive + Oak, which could occur in April, “The relocated restaurant will open first, in late April," Hinkle says, "then Perennial, then the event space. The new concept in the old space will follow a few months later."
In addition to street and valet parking, additional spaces are available in a lot across the street, as well as in Straub’s lot (after 5:30 p.m. daily).
“I’m so glad this news is finally out,” Hinkle says. “I’ve known about it for 10 months. It was only the biggest thing happening in my world, and I couldn’t tell anybody. Until recently, the puzzle pieces were still being placed.”
When we half-joked that Hinkle was becoming the Zoë Robinson of Lockwood Avenue, he replied, “I consider being in any conversation with Zoë an honor. If we can keep our places as busy and consistent as she’s kept hers over the years, we’ll be blessed.”
Rendering courtesy Hammer Out Design
