Side Project Brewing, one of St. Louis’ most acclaimed craft beer producers, announced a new culinary partnership that befits its celebrated status. The Maplewood brewery has tapped the accomplished Adam Altnether to be its executive chef. As part of his new role, Altnether has created a new menu of elevated classic American fare available inside the brewery, as well as charcuterie boards, which will be served at Side Project’s sister concept, Side Project Cellar.
The new partnership with Altnether allows Side Project Brewing to serve in-house offerings for the first time in its 10-year history. As owner Cory King explains, the move represents the brewery’s acknowledgement that, while people come to Side Project’s brewery to experience its world-class beers, they also see the space as a place to gather and connect with family and friends in a casual, welcoming setting.
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“We are still a brewery, but we want to be family-friendly—people-friendly,” says King. “In the past, breweries became too much like bars here in the U.S., but the next wave of breweries are communal gathering points; they’re more casual than a restaurant but different than a bar.”
Here is what to expect from Side Project Brewing’s new food program.
The Menu
Altnether, whose resume includes several restaurants within Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group, as well as Elmwood and Pizza Champ, designed a menu with elevated takes on classic American pub food.
Offerings include sandwiches such as a fried green tomato BLT; slow-roasted pork shoulder with salsa verde; a spicy chicken sandwich; and a double smashburger with American cheese, caramelized onions, and apple cider dijon aioli known as the Side Project Burger.
Snacks such as house-made sour cream and onion dip and chips, flash-fried soft pretzels with white cheddar sauce made from Side Project beer, an arugula salad, and—as it should be at any respectable brew pub—excellent french fries, which King says are meant to be a universally appealing crowd pleaser.
“I fully trusted Adam when it came to the menu. He knows what we do and is familiar with our beer and loves it,” says King. “The only thing we talked about was that we wanted it to be kid-friendly. Fries were the first thing that he came up with.”
Altnether was also tasked with adding food options at the brewery’s sister bar, the James Beard Award–nominated Side Project Cellar. Because of the bar’s beer, wine, and whiskey tasting room atmosphere, he went with a riff on the quintessential wine bar offerings of cheese and charcuterie and curated the Cellar Charcuterie Board, which includes four types of Italian and Spanish cured meats, Italian and Spanish cheeses, house-made apricot mostarda, and crackers.
The Mobile Kitchen
One of the most unique features of the new food offerings at Side Project Brewing is how they are prepared. Instead of an in-house kitchen, Altnether and his culinary team will be prepping and cooking everything out of a mobile kitchen located on premises. “It’s not a food truck,” emphasizes King. “A food truck is something that you go up to and order from. It’s not that at all. This is a true mobile kitchen because we just didn’t have space inside the brewery to put a kitchen.”
As King explains, the idea for the mobile kitchen, known as Beers & Bites, was borne out of necessity and offered the path of least resistance when it came to getting the food program up and running quickly. Although he and Altnether talked about a kitchen buildout inside the brewery, there was simply no space for it; even if they could find the space, the expense, permitting, and construction timelines made an in-house kitchen space too difficult to put together. The mobile kitchen provided the easiest, quickest, and most cost-effective way to get Altnether’s food to their guests.
“It was Adam’s idea,” says King. “I asked him whether or not he’d mind working out of it, but he was really excited about it. It was such a brilliant idea; it’s the simplest way to open a restaurant on the planet.”
Altnether adds, “With most mobile units, sales taxes are often not paid in the different municipalities they operate in, which can cause problems. Once the City of Maplewood realized that our operation was stationary and that Maplewood would be receiving the additional tax revenue, they approved the idea.”
Altnether says the mobile kitchen provided immediate gratification and an almost-instant menu rollout. “The truck we bought was already equipped,” he says. “We parked it, added a few pieces of equipment, powered it up, and pretty much began serving food.”
Beyond providing food indoors, Altnether sees an opportunity before the brewery’s doors open on certain days. “There’s often a line of people waiting to get in,” he says. “I’d like to be able to offer snacks to them while they’re waiting.”
The Backstory
King came to the brewing world through the fine-dining world, where he met his wife and business partner, Karen. That industry sparked in them a shared passion for beer and wine, and the two traveled the world together visiting wineries and breweries before moving to St. Louis in 2007. Here, Karen got a job in beer sales, while King worked in the wine field until he decided to follow his passion for beer to a brewer gig at Perennial Artisan Ales.
While working at Perennial, King began a personal brewing “side project,” which has grown into one of the most respected breweries in the world since he and Karen formally launched Side Project Brewing in 2013. The brand has a globe-spanning cult following for its world-class barrel-aged beers, which range from rustic saisons, wild ales, and limited-release offerings to more approachable lagers and IPAs. The brewery’s tasting room, which opened in Maplewood in 2016, is a pilgrimage for beer lovers far and wide.
The Kings launched the brewery’s sister concept, Side Project Cellar in 2014, with the vision of creating a space that had the feel of a wine bar while applying that format to beer (curated wines and spirits are also available). Under Karen’s leadership, the Cellar earned a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Bar Program in 2015.
Altnether also comes to Side Project via fine dining. As a high school student, he participated in the Culinary Institute of America’s Career Discovery Program and enrolled as a full-time student in the prestigious school immediately after graduation. After returning to St. Louis, he worked for Niche Food Group, where he became chef de cuisine and a partner in the restaurant group. In 2014, he was named one of Forbes magazine’s “30 Under 30.”
After leaving Niche, Altnether cooked for the St. Louis Cardinals and became a personal chef for one of the players until he departed that position to partner with Chris Kelling (a colleague at Niche Food Group) to create Elmwood, which opened in 2019. The acclaimed Maplewood restaurant saw its time cut short due to the pandemic, which was especially difficult for elevated, dine-in–focused concepts. Kelling and Altnether pivoted to takeout pizzas, which evolved into a pizza-pop-up-turned bona fide restaurant, Pizza Champ, which opened in Maplewood in May 2022 adjacent to Side Project’s satellite location, Shared.
Alhough Altnether and the Kings met when Elmwood opened, their relationship grew into a close friendship, thanks to the Pizza Champ/Shared collaborative arrangement. (The two concepts share the building’s patio; Shared’s guests can order a pie from Pizza Champ to go with their beer and vice-versa.) That will continue with the new Side Project Brewing and Cellar food programs.
“Adam and I just really hit it off,” says King. “We got along really well as two business owners, so for this I brought him in more as a partner than an executive chef. As we look into expanding and opening new locations, we need people like him around us. When it was time for him to figure out his next step in life, it was when we were in the same spot figuring out our next step as a company.”
