Rex Hale’s new restaurant, Bakers & Hale, is now open

“It’s local, and it’s personal,” says chef Rex Hale, describing the food and experience at Bakers & Hale, the restaurant that he opened today in Godfrey, Illinois, with chef Kelsi Baker Walden, a longtime friend and co-worker.

The building, now owned by the Baker family, is located just off I-255, a half-hour from the Arch. Most recently, it was home to Cowboy Slim’s Smokehouse & Saloon and before that the Rotten Apple Bar & Grill.

Baker worked for Hale at eight St. Louis restaurants. So when she told him that she’d secured a building and wanted to open a restaurant, “she asked for my help,” says Hale. “I’m not sure she’d have done it if I hadn’t said yes.”

For Hale, a longtime farm-to-table advocate, the scenario was perfect. “There are two acres on one side of the building and four on the other—enough room for chickens, eggs, whatever,” he says. “Our plan is for the restaurant to be as self-sustainable as possible and maybe even do a CSA. With six acres, you can do anything you want.”

The restaurant has three components: an 80-seat bar, a more composed dining room, and a large covered patio. Above the horseshoe-shaped bar is a massive TV, measuring at least 8-by-6 feet. Six other TVs flank the room.  

On the main wall is a mural painted by students from the local Montessori school. Eric and Crystal Stevens, artists and teachers at Ferguson’s EarthDance Farms, where Hale is a board member, oversaw the children’s handiwork. “Crystal had enough sketches to cover the entire building, but doing just one wall is more dramatic,” Hale says.

The wall includes Swiss chard, garlic, a red beet, persimmons, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and artichokes, in honor of Gateway Garlic Farms‘ Mark “Garlic” Brown, a friend of Hale’s who produces the thistle locally. (Almost 100 percent of the country’s artichokes are grown in Castroville, California, the self-proclaimed Artichoke Capital of the World.) On the rear wall are childhood photos of the chefs and their families. On the opposite wall is another series of vegetables, all painted by Baker’s children.

An Alton craftsman made the hammered coppertop host stand. The corrugated tin on the barface came from nearby farms, and a local painter finished the bar top and tables with different textural paint schemes. Look closely and imagine the former lives of the tables, with their Kelly green formica tops and rolled wood edges that were standard issue for years at such places as Houlihan’s and Bennigan’s. Real candles in green-tinted glass sleeves provide a welcome departure from their battery-powered cousins. Look up for a bit of farm whimsy: a collection of old metal tractor seats, courtesy of Baker’s brother, who collects them.

The bar features its own menu at a lesser price point, with no entrées over $16. “We could have gone the burgers, steaks, and sandwiches route for the whole building,” Hale says, “but it wouldn’t have allowed us to utilize the farm and all we can do there. Plus, I wanted people in this area not to have to drive to experience more elevated food.”

So the partners partitioned the space and created a 60-seat dining room, which boasts an a la carte menu and several tasting menus—four courses for $45 or four vegetable courses for $30.

Bar manager Rory Morse echoes his boss’ thoughts: “Rex and Kelsi were after an intimate farm-to-table experience, away from the TVs and bar chatter, just you, your food, your family, and your drink. We all want it to be a more saturated experience.”

“That’s why they built the wall,” adds Hale. “We wanted that experience to be personal.”

The warmer, cozier dining room has lower ceilings, a corner fireplace, and subdued pieces of wall art, including more family photos. The brightly colored tabletops depicting fruits and vegetables (also painted by the Montessori students) are sure to elicit smiles.

Currently, the gardens are producing kale, swiss chard, black beans, and a bounty of tomatoes and summer squash, as well as herbs and flowers for the tables.

To illustrate the chefs’ “seed-to-table” concept, Hale presents a salad with “everything from the garden basically: opal basil, regular basil, tomatoes, baby Zephyr squash, mint flowers, and shiso [an ornamental garnish in the mint family]. “If you pick something right out of the garden and eat it right then, you can definitely taste the difference,” says Hale. “That’s what we’re trying to demonstrate here.”

A crudo of scallops is accompanied by ginger, turmeric, chilies, chamomile flowers, green frill mustard, and dehydrated cherry tomatoes. “Take a just-picked, sweet garden tomato, and then dry it,” Hale says. “The texture is chewy and the flavor is powerful, almost indescribable.” Served on a flecked, cobalt blue plate, the dish is a showstopper.

Another visual masterpiece: the seared scallops, served over “a ragout of the garden,” including corn, squash, green and yellow striped tomatoes, and lemon verbena.

Baby back ribs from Raincrow Ranch are dry-rubbed and smoked, then lightly glazed with barbecue sauce, “all the adornment necessary,” according to Hale. 

A popular, seasonal staple is bi-colored Zephyr squash, which Hale grills and serves with grilled shiitakes, dried tomatoes, and, of course, “a salad from the garden.”

For dessert, a double fudge brownie arrives topped with bourbon pecans, caramel and chocolate sauce, house-churned vanilla ice cream, and berries and/or peaches when available.

Morse has assembled a cocktail program that leans heavily on local produce and spirits. “The food features foodstuffs from local farmers, ranchers, and cheesemakers, and we wanted to do the same with the spirits and the beer,” he says. “More than 75 percent of the spirits are regional.”

On the back bar are local labels, including Pinckney Bend Gin (from New Haven), Stumpy’s Bourbon (from Waterloo, Illinois), J.J. Neukomm (from St. Louis), Few Whiskey (from Chicago), Big O Ginger Liqueur (from St. Genevieve), as well as vodkas from Mastermind (from Pontoon Beach, Illinois), Down East (from Paxton, Illinois), and Bluestem (from Bethalto, Illinois).  Of note are several offerings from J. Rieger and Co., a Kansas City distiller that hired a 40-year veteran distiller from Hendricks Gin.

Morse is an alum of Old Bakery Beer Company, where he was known for beer-based cocktails. Devotees have followed him to Baker’s & Hale, where he says the cocktail program is going well. “Thanks to the craft beer movement, people have opened their minds to craft distills as well,” he says. “A full 90 percent of the beverage orders here are for the locally influenced signature cocktails or for regional beers.”

Six beers are on tap, including Boulevard and “the Chicago guys,” says Morse. “There’s a huge draw around here for Old Bakery’s beers, too, since Godfrey and Alton are like brothers.” More common domestics are also available “because of their mainstream popularity,” he adds.

Wines are all biodynamic or organic, explains Hale, who oversees the wine program. Bottles are kept in separate temperature-controlled coolers, one inside a cabinet made by Baker’s husband, a furniture maker by trade.

Initially, Bakers & Hale will only be open for dinner, 3–10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The next step is to open on Sundays, then for lunch, then for brunch. “As soon as we have the staff for it, we will do it,” Hale promises.

Regarding service, the veteran chef has an interesting take: to hire “genuinely nice people, even though they might screw up from time to time,” he says. “Ninety percent of good service is being cordial and kind. That’s what it’s all about. Most of us go out just to have a good time and not get bent out of shape if somebody forgets a spoon. It happens. Most people will forgive that piece of silverware, but they don’t forget a smile. Greet somebody with a genuine smile, and try. It’s really hard to get angry with that.”

Morse foresees Bakers & Hale being at “the early, early stages of being a very influential and great thing for this community. Alton’s downtown scene is blowing up and will continue to do so, especially after the fall airing of Small Business Revolution’s Season 3 finale, where Alton won the $500,000 prize for Main Street Revival.”

Hale is just as enthused: “During the soft openings, all I’ve heard is how excited people are that we’re doing real food here.”