Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A traditional lobster boil, a menu item at Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co.
"Pivoting" has been a major buzzword in the restaurant industry this year, with chefs and business owners getting creative to continue serving patrons during the pandemic. In a handful of communities across St. Louis, restaurant patrons have banded together to support the industry with a pivot of their own: neighborhood orders and deliveries from brick-and-mortar dining establishments.
Near the end of April, weeks after St. Louis area restaurants first began shifting operations due to the pandemic, Three Kings Public House owner Derek Deaver received a phone call from Chris Harris, then the regional vice president of finance at Glazer’s Distributors. Harris told Deaver that neighbors had begun coordinating with local food trucks in a safe, socially distanced environment for monthly visits to his Chesterfield subdivision. There was only one problem: Three Kings doesn’t have a food truck.
“So we said, ‘Why don't we drop food off at each one of your houses?’” Deaver recalls. “[Harris] said that was an awesome idea, so he got us thinking about neighborhoods and the best way for brick-and-mortars to visit neighborhoods.”
Harris connected Deaver and his team, including bar manager Tara Byerley, with his neighbors who had organized food truck nights. Three Kings prepared orders for about 50 households during its first visit, Byerley says, which was an overwhelming success. This model appealed to residents, too, who didn’t have to form a queue or leave their homes to enjoy hot, fresh food from a local restaurant.
During the early weeks of the pandemic, Byerley’s focus was on hosting fundraising events for area schools and delivering food to hospitals for frontline workers. After the success of the first delivery in Chesterfield, she took over management of the new initiative, which included mapping out orders by neighborhood to efficiently plan deliveries with her team.
“While [Three Kings] was shut down, that was one of my main focuses: trying to help other people through all of this," Byerley says. "So helping hospitals, schools, and then neighborhoods. There are a lot of families that are still too scared to go out in public, so the delivery system to neighborhoods is great."
From there, Bylerley started emailing other neighborhood associations and community improvement districts to see if they would be interested in ordering meals from Three Kings.
After learning about the events in Harris’ subdivision, Deaver reached out to Christie Schweiss, a longtime friend who lives in the Hi-Pointe/DeMun area.
“Christie is a super go-getter,” Deaver says. “I said, ‘Christie, can you help me out with this where you live?' So Christie organized a Three Kings night. We’ve probably done 12 to 15 neighborhoods throughout this whole process—and Christie has taken this to the next level. Every single Wednesday, she has new restaurants."
Like the monthly series in Chesterfield, Schweiss devised a plan to deliver food in her community. Schweiss dubbed the events Dining-In Wednesdays and has hosted a weekly event with local restaurants, food trucks, and brewpubs since April 29. Schweiss says she specifically chose to host the events on Wednesdays as that’s often a slow day for restaurants.
Schweiss and board member Janet Brundick send out an email to neighborhood residents every Sunday with instructions for the Wednesday dinner. The emails are thoughtful, usually including descriptions of the restaurant, its owners, and menu items, plus a few food photos. On Wednesdays, orders are delivered between 5 and 6:30 p.m.
“My neighbors recommend restaurants, I take their suggestions, and put them on a rolling list, and then I contact the restaurants and find out if they're willing to work with our platform,” Schweiss says. “I'm trying to involve everybody—I want it to be a neighborhood collaborative.”
This dialogue with her neighbors has also led to more diversity and inclusion among the restaurants featured in the series. The collaborative has led to supporting more Black-owned restaurants and restaurants owned by people of color. Since late April, Schweiss says as many as 34 households have participated weekly, adding up to more than 400 orders so far. The series has featured a range of restaurants, including Sultan Mediterranean Restaurant, Sauce on the Side, Krab Kingz, Little Saigon, Adam’s Smokehouse, Poke Munch, Wing Ding Dong (a new ghost kitchen from Dave and Kara Bailey, who live nearby), Sidney Street Cafe, Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co., and many more.
“People are trying so many different new restaurants, and they look forward to it,” Schweiss says. “They'll see me on the street and say, ‘Hey, what's coming up next week?’”
What’s been particularly meaningful, Schweiss says, in addition to supporting local restaurants, is seeing how the series has resonated with her neighbors. For example, a couple next door to Schweiss has used the Wednesday meals as a chance to connect with their adult daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. “Every single week, he places an order,” Schweiss says. “He waits for the food to come, and then he drives it over to them, comes back home, and eats his dinner. It's really sweet.”
Supporting local restaurants is personal for Schweiss, whose brother, Matt Schweiss, owns two eateries in the St. Louis area: Cafe Telegraph in South County and Cafe Smok N Pi in De Soto. The latter opened just two weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the area, forcing her brother to temporarily close the restaurant and pivot operations.
“The whole reason I started this was because I saw how it affected my brother,” Schweiss says, “and I wanted to make sure that the restaurants in my community were being supported.”
That’s what the series has achieved for local restaurant owners. Kevin Nashan, chef-owner of Sidney Street Cafe and Peacemaker, first heard about the weekly dinner series in DeMun from Pi Pizzeria Chris Sommers, who had worked with Schweiss as part of the Dining-In Wednesdays series.
Nashan has since participated in the series with Schweiss, as well as in neighborhoods such as Hillcrest, a community that includes households in both Clayton and the City of St. Louis, and beyond, fielding orders for both of his restaurants.
Some of the gatherings have resembled food truck events, with neighbors picking up orders within a specific timeframe from Nashan’s team at a designated spot in a subdivision, while other orders are delivered by the restaurant staff from door to door.
“It's been a unique way of extending your arm to the customers who really don't want to come out, and you're able to do so in a safe way,” Nashan says. “You’re also able to keep more people employed, so it's a win-win. In a lot of these neighborhoods, you’re able to do them in cul-de-sacs, where 60 or 70 people pick up in a window of 30 to 40 minutes. It's really fun, and it's a little social, too; it breaks up the monotony.”
Nashan says that in recent months, he’s worked with friends and local restaurant owners for various neighborhood dinner series, including Gerard Craft of Niche Food Group, Qui Tran of Nudo House and Mai Lee, and Michael and Tara Gallina of Vicia and Winslow's Table.
The model hasn’t been without its challenges, though, Nashan notes. Much like the restaurants that changed their menus to serve more carryout-friendly fare in March, Nashan says the neighborhood events require care and thought from a chef’s perspective.
“You hope to present a good product because it's hard taking food from the restaurant to some of these places,” Nashan says. “It’s a completely different game and very easy to screw up. Not everything travels well, so a lot of thought must go into it. We want to offer a great product, something that we stand behind, at an affordable price.”
Deaver says a dinner program has also debuted in his neighborhood of Claverach Park, including meals with Three Kings. As thrilled as Deaver has been with the dinners from the standpoint of being a business owner, he’s also enjoyed supporting other local restaurants as a resident and patron, including Nashan’s spots.
“It's been so great for business,” Deaver says. “We have a couple thousand dollars of revenue in our pocket before [the meals are delivered]. And then, on the flip side, all of my neighbors are like, ‘Oh my god. We get Peacemaker delivered.’ Tomorrow night, my neighborhood is hosting a socially distant concert with food from Vicia."
Deaver and Nashan believe this model will be sustainable through the winter as well, perhaps especially for restaurants without patio or outdoor dining service. “I think that as it gets colder, people will use it even more,” Nashan says. “That's my hope. I believe this is a really good tool. I just want to see everybody win and see the customers happy."
Changing seasons may help evolve these dinner events, yet some have already started to expand. Although the idea for Dining-In Wednesdays was originally conceived to support brick-and-mortar restaurants, Schweiss has broadened her series to include a food truck, Havana’s Cuisine, as well as take-and-bake pizzas from The U.R.B. After hosting 20 Dining-In Wednesdays, as well as a socially distanced block party last Saturday, Schweiss hopes the series can act as a model for other neighborhoods to support local restaurants.
“I would love to see other neighborhoods do this,” Schweiss says. “The most important thing is supporting the restaurants. They have always given back to the community, and now it's our time to make sure that we're giving back to them.”
For more information or to book a restaurant night in your neighborhood, Schweiss can be reached at cbaschweiss@gmail.com.
