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Late last month, Rise Coffee House reopened just 15 steps from the coffee house's original location in The Grove. The larger space now includes an open kitchen that serves up breakfast and lunch, as well as an upstairs pastry kitchen.
Owner Aaron Johnson and general manager Mike McKinlay aimed to make the move as smooth as possible, striving to preserve the same sense of community that Rise Coffee House founder Jessie Mueller set out to create when the coffee house first opened in 2013.
“The only real question was how to keep the intimacy of the old space," says McKinlay. "As we change and grow, we don’t want to forget where we came from.”
Regulars of the former location will be happy to find Rise's original mascot: a deer mount looking down on the open kitchen—and depicted in a mural by artist Chelsea Ritter-Soronen (pictured below), whose searing drawings of Syrian refugees earned her a place on SLM's A-List earlier this year. Designer Sarah Doriani helped create the lively first-floor dining room, which hums with conversation, the occasional clack of keyboards, and the rustling of newspapers.
Chef Scott Davis (formerly of Elia, Three Flags, and Brasserie) has created a breakfast and lunch menu that's simple in concept and genius in execution. The menu conveniently identifies vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free offerings. A traditional Egg Sandwich features local eggs scrambled fluffy with cheddar and herbs; carnivores might add crispy, thick-cut bacon from Patchwork Farms. A round herbed egg cake forms the base of a frittata topped with roasted seasonal vegetables and greens, with each element adding to the visual delight, from the thin slices of ribbed acorn squash, cubes of sweet potatoes, and dabs of goat cheese to the mix of greens and herbs.
Choose from two vegetable hashes—one vegan, one vegetarian—topped with an egg (pictured at right), and add a side of toast made from Union Loafers bread. Other items worth consideration: The English Breakfast (baked beans on toast with tomato and an egg), vegetarian-style biscuits and gravy, and two eggs cooked to order with toast. The lunch menu's selections will change, but consider the avocado toast or the beet soup, made with buttermilk and served with Union Loafers light and mild bread.
Perhaps the dish that best exemplifies the thought that Davis puts into each dish, though, is a not-so-simple fruit salad. Each fruit is cut to enhance the look of the dish and the diverse flavors. Pineapple is sliced into thin shingles, strawberries are cut into circles, red grapes are quartered lengthwise, golden kiwi cut in a perfect 1/8-inch dice are sprinkled throughout, and the thinnest slices of dried apricots and julienned bits of fresh mint enhance the dish.
The longtime Coffee for the People program allows customers to purchase a coffee for someone else: Coffee sleeves with message tacked to a bulletin board invite folks to enjoy a coffee when they need it, not just when they can afford it. And be prepared for a few coffee surprises from Johnson and McKinlay, who bring longtime affiliations with fine coffee and coffee shops to the table. “While Sump is the only roaster we're currently carrying,” says Johnson, "we'll occasionally bring in other roasters on the vacuum bar."
Bakers Jackie Price (a recent Saint Louis University graduate) and Sarah Stagg (formerly of Winslow's Home) provide the biscuits, sweets, and baked savories—all made in an upstairs pastry kitchen.
Also upstairs, customers can find a quiet study area and a lively children's play area. The former includes study tables, comfy chairs, and multiple plug-ins; the latter is complete with a fort, toys, and a book corner.
“Where else can you take the kids for a good time and enjoy Sump coffee?” asks regular Alex Donley, who co-owns Gioia’s Deli.
The play area has presented a few challenges, though. "Parents sometimes panic the first time they lose a kid in the playroom," McKinlay says. "There's a closet, accessed from the fort platform. That's where I find them when they disappear."
Inventive children also sometimes create small surprises there. “One night, when I was cleaning up, I found a bunch of blueberry scones stacked into mountains, with toy soldiers crawling over them,” McKinlay says.
But creativity—from both kids and adults—is encouraged at Rise Coffee House, where a roll of butcher paper hanging near the front door displays poems, posted at whim or at will by the Rise crew.
“When you work in a space as small as the original Rise, you learn to get along well," says McKinlay. "We’re artists, poets, philosophers, coffee people... Everyone contributes here.”
Rise Coffee House
4176 Manchester
314-769-9535
Follow Rise on Instagram: @risecoffeestl
Hours: 6:30 a.m.–8 p.m. Mon–Sat; 8 a.m.–7 p.m. Sun.
