Several weeks ago, The Main House (500 S. Main) quietly began serving lunch and dinner at the corner of Main and Tompkins streets in historic St. Charles. The restaurant is situated in the 157-year-old building that previously housed Tompkins Riverside, Tompkins by the Rack House, and The Mother-in-Law House.
The new restaurant focuses on “great American food, affordably priced, complemented by a nice selection of bourbons and affordable wines, all offered in an upscale casual environment,” says chef/partner Chip Bates. “It’s a place where a visitor who’s dressed down might be seated next to a deuce on a date, and both parties feel comfortable,” he adds. “One party might be eating burgers and salads, the other, a steak and grilled salmon.”
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
The Menu
With Main Street in St. Charles having a large cross-section of dining patrons, Bates says having a menu that crosses over from casual to finer fare is important, especially when open from lunch to dinner.
Chicken wings and T-ravs share space with sriracha deviled eggs with bacon and a jumbo shrimp cocktail. Guests can opt for a burger, fried chicken sandwich, beef tenderloin medallions, a grilled pork chop, or a hanger steak (cooked sous vide then pan-seared). The burger is a half-pounder, a combination of beef chuck and hanger steak trim, topped with spreadable cheddar cheese.
“Our goal is to keep the menu small and make each dish the best it can be,” says Bates. “The hangar chuck burger is a perfect example.”
Three pasta entrées are also available, including a roasted vegetable primavera in a light tomato sauce and linguine alfredo with blackened chicken.
The dinner menu is an abridged version of the lunch menu, with fewer sandwiches and a few more entrées. Sandwiches are priced in the teens and entrées in the high twenties. On the high end is a $60 grilled Prime strip steak.
“We intend to be flexible, not preachy,” says Bates. “Whether I personally like something or not, we’ll modify the menu according to demand.” (The restaurant recently offered a $50 bone-in filet as a weekend special, for instance, “and sold quite a few, so you never know,” says Bates.)
The best-selling item so far has been the $29 skin-on chicken breast from Buttonwood Farms. It’s pan-roasted with butter and thyme and served over asparagus and long grained rice.
The cocktail list is brief, and there’s a handful of craft draft and bottled beers, as well as an affordable list of glass wines (over half priced $6–$8) and bottled wines (most priced $25–$45). “We have several of the big boys, too, like Caymus, Silver Oak, and Cakebread Chard,” says Bates. He adds that the bourbon program is “a work in progress, an evolution,” and opines that fewer better bourbons may prevail over a back bar full of them.
The Space
Large windows dominate the high-ceilinged main dining room, which was created by tearing out the walls of four adjacent rooms, according to Lost Tables’ Harley Hammerman.
“Since we’re in a historic building on a historic street, the thought was to celebrate the past rather than ignore it or cover it up,” says Bates. Stained wood window trim was added and more of the existing brick was exposed. The focal point of the 80-seat room are handsome tufted oxblood booths, with two in the corners and four pivoting off a center wooden post (which anchored the signature circular salad bar at The Mother-in-Law House).
Above them, black and copper shaded light fixtures mirror the existing pressed copper ceiling, a feature echoed by the adjacent copper topped bar, located just off the main entrance, and especially cozy in that it seats only 12. “During the renovation, we found a framed swath of patriotic eagle and shield wallpaper in the bar area,” Bates says. “We commissioned local artist Zach Smithey to re-create the pattern onto the back wall of the dining room, tying the two areas together.”
In the hallway are Smithey’s interpretations of Mark Twain, as well as Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who helped forge St. Louis’ moniker as “The Gateway to the West.” A walnut archway above the bar subtly drives the theme home.
Bates admits that it was the two-tiered, brick patio that originally lured him in, though. “With Frontier Park and the river in the background, it’s pretty hard to resist,” he says. “It makes you want to sit down and slow down.”
The 80-seat lower level can accommodate 20 to 75 people and can be reserved for private events or used for ancillary seating (if sudden weather changes affect patio dining, for instance). Accessed via a center staircase, the room has stone walls, pinewood beams, Edison bulb lighting, and is equipped with bathrooms, a bar, and a mini-kitchen.
The Backstory
For more than a decade, Bates worked at Café Napoli, which is owned by the Pietoso family. He then temporarily shifted careers, though “selling credit card–processing services wasn’t for me,” he says. “During the pandemic, I began cooking meals and delivering them to senior citizens,” which led to a job at Twin Oaks at Heritage Pointe, a senior living facility in Wentzville owned by the Blattel family, who Bates says are “just great people—like the Pietosos but in a different industry.”
Bates and his family had previously settled in St. Charles County when an ownership opportunity presented itself. “Last December, Kye Pietoso bought the building where Tompkins Riverside had been and asked if I wanted to open a restaurant,” he says. “The closing of Tompkins left a hole in the casual fine dining scene along Main Street. I was more than excited to help fill that niche.”
The Main House is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. Reservations can be made through Open Table.
