Chef Alec Schingel has officially announced the opening of his first brick-and-mortar venture, Robin Restaurant (7268 Manchester). Evolving from “The Robin Project,” a two-year series of pop-ups and private dinners, Robin is slated to debut Thursday, March 13, in the former Benevolent King space in Maplewood. The restaurant will be open Tuesday through Saturday evenings. The coursed meal experience will take an hour and a half, on average. Here’s what to know before you go.
The Concept
Robin will feature a carefully curated four-course prix fixe menu priced at $75, offering three choices per course. Schingel, a native of Urbana, Illinois, describes the cuisine as an exploration of Midwestern culinary history and culture, highlighting seasonal, sustainable ingredients from local farmers and purveyors. His aim is to provide meals that feel both indulgent and approachable, and feels that the number of courses and price point reflects that. In addition, he says, three courses “lock you into an appetizer, entrée, and dessert, but adding a fourth course allows us to introduce something that may not fit into any of those categories.”
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The addition of a fourth course allows for greater creativity beyond traditional appetizer/entrée/dessert formats. The menu reflects Schingel’s European culinary influences, where great food is served without the formal fine-dining label. He refers to the approach as “fine comfort,” which to him, redefines fine dining as the creation of indulgent-yet-approachable meals in a relaxed setting. “Personally, I prefer small multi-course menus over shared plates,” he says, “which can get cumbersome with all the passing and splitting.”
Schingel emphasizes that Robin is not built around a chef’s personality but rather a great dining experience. “I don’t see myself as building a restaurant for a great chef,” he says. “My goal is to be a chef at a great restaurant. I want guests to take away what they want—whether it’s geeking out on the food or vibing out on the Fleetwood Mac record that’s playing. The experience shouldn’t be just about me. That’s why I didn’t name the restaurant after myself.”
The Menu
The inaugural first course is composed of mushroom cured trout, winter salad, or chicken liver.
The second course includes Dorothy’s Potatoes, sunchokes, and a cheffed-up version of “hotdish,” a single dish casserole with roots in the upper Midwest. Schingel combines puffed wild rice with local mushrooms and alliums in a mushroom cream sauce made with local cream. “The rice hydrates with the soup, and the texture changes as you eat it,” he says, “so the last few bites are more like a risotto.”
Third courses include aged duck breast, pork schnitzel, and cotton candy squash, with leeks, brioche, and squash jus.
Dessert consists of two options: a caramelized rart with black walnut and persimmon, or vacherin, a meringue ice cream cake with lemon verbena and citrus.
A lagniappe, such as a small bite of the chef’s signature gooey butter cake, is served at the end of each meal.
The only other main-menu option is bread service in the form of Porridge Bread & Cultured Butter for $4 per person. Schingel describes porridge bread as “celebrating everything it takes to grow whole wheat in a sustainable way, which involves crop rotation for different grains—like oats, buckwheat, and rice—then making a porridge with those and folding in Calumet flour from Janie’s Mill. It makes for a great story and a delicious, sweet product with a great crumb.” The bread is baked in a small loaf pan and paired with cultured butter, which is creamier and has a richer, more distinct flavor than regular butter.
An optional snack menu, featuring a rotating selection of finger foods, complements the main offerings. “Similar to an antipasti course,” Schingel says, “it can be scaled for sharing or ordered by someone at the bar as a standalone along with a glass of wine. Guests can expect such options as “charcuterie, sungold tomatoes in the early summer, and pickled items like our own giardiniera in the colder months.”
Schingel adds that the menu will be based around the seasons, regardless of the locality where those seasons are defined. “We plan to serve coffee and drinks with lemon and lime, for example,” he says, “and as long as the ingredient can be part of a story that feels authentic—like our take on banana bread—then we’re fine with it. I don’t like hard rules, but the goal is for the main ingredients to be Midwestern seasonal.”
The restaurant will also offer an extensive beverage program, including half a dozen local beers and a small, curated cocktail list (some of them in batch form, along with classic cocktails). Wines will be available by bottle or in an elegant, quarter-liter stoppered carafe (250 ml), offering flexibility for guests who want to sample different varieties. Schingel, a certified Level 2 sommelier, says even bottle-only selections can be poured by the carafe, allowing diners to explore a broader range of wines without committing to a full bottle.
“We will make that happen and then offer the rest of that bottle to other diners in carafe form. The end result is a small wine list with a lot of flexibility.”
The Atmosphere
The 1,400-square-foot space accommodates 36 guests with nine tables, a six-seat bar, and a small open kitchen for an immersive culinary experience. The interior blends warmth and simplicity, retaining the original mirrored wall while updating the banquettes with fresh upholstery. A hutch near the entrance houses artifacts and a working record player.
Seating includes a prime four-person table in one front bay and a flex space with a low table and soft seating in the other, which serves as an extension of the bar.
The furniture, featuring thin-top wooden tables and comfortable railback chairs was designed to evoke a classic Midwestern aesthetic that fits the cuisine. (“My mother would call them American hand-me-down, but they’re new,” Schingel says of the chairs.)
Despite the intimate setting, Robin can accommodate parties of up to eight. “We’ll do our best for larger groups, but with limited space, we have to ensure a balanced experience for all guests,” says Schingel.
The Background
Schingel’s culinary journey spans renowned establishments, including The Chase Park Plaza, Niche, McCready’s, and The MacIntosh in Charleston, South Carolina. He worked at Belgium’s In de Wulf and New York’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where he worked alongside Michael and Tara Gallina before joining them in opening Vicia as chef de cuisine. Later, he became executive chef at Winslow’s Table before launching The Robin Project, which ultimately led to the creation of Robin Restaurant.
Asked which experience shaped him most, Schingel immediately cites In de Wulf. “I got the job through a late-night fanboy email,” he recalls. “Chef Kobe Desramaults was the most talented chef I’ve ever seen. Most chefs have a formulaic pattern to their dishes, but Kobe didn’t think that way. There were duos, reverences, classic dishes, and items served simply in a most austere way that stopped diners in their tracks. He was also incredibly kind. He taught me how to treat people. A lot of what he did, I find myself doing today.”
Robin Restaurant (7268 Manchester) is open Tuesday through Saturday evenings from 5 to 10 p.m. Book a reservation here.
