The Salted Pig (which had recently been renamed simply, The Pig) will close its doors tonight after 10 month run. After a solid start on a high visibility corner in Frontenac, the restaurant floundered, several of the city’s food scribes weighing in with a solid “meh.”
The menu was billed as “healthy Southern comfort food”—an oxymoron, perhaps—and borne out by the fact that the most popular menu item was The Pig's brined fried chicken.
While some perceived the restaurant incorrectly as “another barbeque joint,” others griped that the price point was too high "for comfort food.”
Co-owner Mike Del Pietro recently overhauled the menu and eliminated many of the smokehouse items, but the damage had already been done. (For the record, Del Pietro has a record of far more hits--Sugo's, Babbo's, Via Vino Enotica,Tavolo V--than misses.)
New restaurants have a short time to win over local diners—something I call the window of acceptance--and nowadays (especially with the proliferation of social media) that window has gotten smaller and smaller. For The Pig, that window closes after service tonight.
In its wake will be a new location of the Shack, one of the four restaurant concepts from og hospitality group (The Tavern, two locations of The Corner Pub & Grill, and most recently, Cucina Pazzo). The original Shack was located at 3818 Laclede in Midtown and in May of last year moved to 13645 Big Bend in Valley Park (right), in the same center as The Tavern and a Corner Pub & Grill.
In the process, the Shack marketed itself as more of a breakfast destination and less of a place for dinner, hence the tagline “breakfast, lunch, (& sometimes) dinner,” which meant evenings were to be reserved for private events only, as the Shack didn't want to compete for dinner business with its sister restaurants.
The Shack was originally conceived as a defensive strategy (to keep other restaurants from competing with those sister restaurants as well) but became a mad success in its own right, offering a menu of Skillets, Plates, Omelets, Sammies, several versions of tacos and Loaded Fries, as well as The Famous Shack'wich, a mountain of meat and hand-cut fries stuffed into French bread.
The positioning for the Shack will be repeated at the Lindbergh and Conway location, for some a corner that’s long been synonymous with breakfast. (Anybody besides me remember Coco’s?)
As soon as negotiations are finalized, which should be early next week, Baldanza and Co. will begin renovating a space that, he says, “really doesn’t need much renovation.” A wall will be built between the bar and dining room, some booths will be added (“because breakfast customers love booths”), as well as new chairs and barstools, but the proliferation of barnwood plays to the look and theme of the Shack. Baldanza said that people familiar with both restaurants say The Pig looks like the Shack (above) right now.
The in-house smoker will become a “commissary smoker,” according to Baldanza. It’s a piece of equipment that “we don’t have and one we need.” Corporate exec chef Steve Caravelli will spearhead the kitchen and since there’s no corporate competition nearby, expect to see a wider menu than at the Valley Park location.
Time frame for completion is 45-60 days...after which point passers-by stopped at the corner of Lindbergh and Conway will be tempted by the irresistible waft of bacon and eggs.
For the record, SLM's impressions of the The Salted Pig were quite positive. Check out the video below. We'll miss that chicken, the blue crab mac and cheese, and one of the best Brussels sprouts dishes in town. Remember the last chance to get a taste is tonight.
