Courtesy of Tompkins Riverside
Tompkins Riverside (500 S. Main), a restaurant in downtown St. Charles that prided itself on a scratch-made seasonal dishes, is closing after a year in business.
Its prior iteration—Tompkins by The Rack House, a sister concept of The Rack House Kitchen Wine Whiskey, located in Cottleville—opened in June 2019 in the former Mother-in-Law House. The chef at both operations was Philip Day, who later left to open the acclaimed Root Food + Wine in Augusta.
We remember summertime evenings on Tompkins’ brick patio, where we were amazed by ingredient combinations that we don’t recall seeing before and explained like we’ve never heard them explained before, presented by chefs Day and Clayton Borage in ways we never expected to see in St. Charles or anywhere else. (And how can you not love a place that gave guests the option to buy a round for the kitchen for a measly $7?)
Courtesy of Tompkins Riverside
Tompkins’ ownership changed about this time last year (along with a name change to Tompkins Riverside), but its “locally sourced, from scratch” mantra remained the same under Borage's tutelage. The restaurant hosted one-off events and wine dinners, as it always did, but there was no indication until this week that the restaurant would be closing. (SLM has reached out for additional details.)
A Facebook post from December 18 stated only that “December 22 and 23 will be our last days open for service. With this, we've got A LOT of wine and liquor we're selling! We will have a HUGE sale on bottles of wine and liquor on December 23rd and 24th! Come by and pick up your last minute Christmas gifts!”
