During uncertain times, the restaurant gods sometimes smile down upon us in random ways. And so it is with Westchester, the new independently owned restaurant in West County that checks off the requisite boxes and then some.
When chef Matt Glickert first befriended owner Bryan Herr at Naked Vine, the erstwhile wine and whiskey lounge in West County, Glickert thought that he could make a few bucks selling gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches outside the business and attract some new wine shop customers in the process. That exercise led to Glickert improving the Vine’s cheese and charcuterie program and the more grandiose plan of opening a restaurant.
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“He had the following, I had the cooking experience, and our other partner found the site,” Glickert says, referring to the space at 127 Chesterfield Towne Center, which previously housed The Hangar Grill and Longstreet Grill.
“Another group had leased it, intending to open a place called Hank’s Kytchen & Thirst Parlor,” explains Herr, “and then COVID hit and they never opened. We were lucky that a lot of the buildout—stainless-steel walled kitchen, epoxied floors, the ADA-approved bathrooms—had already been done by them.”
“The whole project came together serendipitously,” Glickert adds.
Glickert plans to keep the restaurant open from 11 a.m.–11 p.m.” There are no places in the neighborhood to get a late-night meal or nightcap after a meal,” he says. “We would like to fill that niche, to latch onto some of that market.”
The Credentials
Glickert has an impressive resume. After culinary school, he interned at Niche and then ran the original Taste bar after a year. He did a seven-year-stint at Sugarfire Smoke House, opening five locations over time. Prior to that, he worked for acclaimed chef Bill Cardwell at Cardwell’s at the Plaza and BC’s Kitchen; Cardwell taught him “invaluable lessons,” Glickert says, “systems, general practices, strict cleaning policies. With Bill, there’s no option other than perfect.” Joining Glickert in the kitchen is James Schoenbeck, another Cardwell’s alum and Glickert’s sous chef at two Sugarfire locations. “He does all the butchery, my right hand man, for sure,” Glickert says. “We dance around the kitchen and make beautiful food.”
The Menu
Many of Glickert’s menu creations show Cardwellian influences: a split-top Pullman loaf is toasted in duck fat, stuffed with seasoned lump crab, cut into bite-size pieces, and striped with herbed cream. Duck breast (pictured above) is served over parsnip purée and vegetable hash with duck confit and port wine fig sauce. A pan-roasted statler (a.k.a. airline) Buttonwood farm chicken breast with chicken jus (pictured below) shares a plate with potato purée and green beans.
The house salad showcases the bounty of local farmers (a practice that Glickert learned from Cardwell as well), with none better than the organic lettuce mix from Lucky Dog Farms. “It stays crispy and crunchy far longer, just because it’s so fresh,” says Glickert. “Dress other field lettuces, and you end up with a soupy mess. Not this stuff.”
Many of Glickert’s suppliers grow wintertime produce. Tony White of Tony’s Family Farms, for instance, provides tomatoes that taste and smell like summertime year-round. Westchester’s mushrooms, some unusual and unfamiliar, come from O’Fallon, Missouri-based Mushrooms Naturally. Glickert picks up eggs and produce from an Amish farm in Illinois. The oysters are flown in direct from Island Creek Oyster Farm, which services some of the best accounts on the East Coast. (Glickert hopes to source all of the seafood directly from ocean docks.) The signature steak is a dry-aged, bone-in, Saratoga ribeye, “sourced from a company right up the street that does that for us,” Glickert says.
“Now we won’t get geeky telling guests about things like this,” Glickert adds. “Our policy is to offer that information only if someone asks or says something first. But the fact remains that we do source differently—that steak, the lettuce blend, the oysters—nobody else has them.”
Glickert’s composed plate entrées are priced in the $30–$40-plus range. “I want to offer something that’s slightly different and creatively sourced,” he says. “That’s my direction; that’s my M.O.”
The chefs and partners are all sensitive to portion size and choose to err on the side of more. “Cardwell taught us that a long time ago,” Glickert says. “Give people ample amounts of well-prepared food, and they’ll come back. It’s not going to kill us to dole out more mashed potatoes and a few more beans. We don’t want to miss the mark over a dime’s worth of potatoes.”
At lunch, the focus is on simpler fare: sandwiches, soup, some vegetarian items, a fish of the day, as well as a smashburger and a thick-patty burger, salisbury steak, and handmade pasta. Glickert learned how to make the pasta while living in Italy and honed his skills with Gerard Craft at Niche. The bologna is smoked in house before being fried and served sandwich-style. Glickert inherited a small Ole Hickory smoker and plans to cold-smoke shrimp before grilling them. Another Cardwell staple, a midday menu, will be in effect from 2–5 p.m It will include ”soups, salads, lighter items, and the smashburger,” Glickert notes.
The Drink Menu
The wine and cocktail program is every bit as polished as Glickert’s food program. Herr heads up the beverage program and pays special attention to the wine and whiskey offerings: a whopping 20 California cabs, a dozen red blends, the same number of ABC [Anything But Chardonnay] wines, a generous selection of half-bottles, as well as a hefty bourbon selection, though only a handful of scotches.
“I credit Naked Vine with teaching me exactly what this market wants,” Herr says. “New World wines, Napa cabs, pinots, chards, sauv blancs. Syrah can be a tough sell out this way, but we have a few that we will encourage guests to try. We feature Old World white wines, like Kerner and Gavi di Gavi. And we hope to get the Pinot Grigio drinkers drinking Pinot Gris, because in the end, they win. They made a new discovery.”
There’s an extensive by-the-glass wine program (with 30–40 selections) and Herr uses a Coravin to maintain higher-end by-the-glass wines. Interior space is limited, so the wine “cellar” is in the adjoining bay, he says, adding that the space might one day become a speakeasy, event space, or a venue for live music.
The beer selection is more limited: six handles, all craft, with some local. Bell’s Two Hearted Ale “was the No. 1 skew two years in a row at Naked Vine,” Herr notes, “so that one was easy.” Look for a few domestic bottles, including an Anheuser-Busch product or two.
The partners enlisted Ted Kilgore, the city’s premier mixologist, to create a next-level cocktail list, that are named after and take inspiration from famous music venues: Red Rocks contains hibuiscus liqueur and Pamplemousse Rose Grapefruit Liqueur. Whiskey a Go Go has a base of Rittenhouse Rye; and Broken Spoke, named after the Austin, Texas–based honky tonk and dance hall, combines two aged rums with blood orange liqueur, pineapple syrup, and Tiki bitters. On the wall opposite the bar are photos of those venues and then some: Troubador, The Fillmore East, CBGB…
The Atmosphere
The former copper-topped bar had been damaged beyond usability, so the new surface is striated black quartz. Copper remains on the back bar surface, echoing the color on the pressed-tile ceiling. Existing brick cubbies have been painted a deep navy, the same color as the tufted blue pleather used in two focal areas: horseshoe-shaped booths with live-edge walnut tables that are named after the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra. The superstar booths seat six to eight guests each; at capacity, the restaurant seats 60, including the 15 barstools. Hanging acoustical panels—25 of them—were added to diminish the decibels.
The music selection leans toward Americana (think Bottle Rockets and Wilco) but spans far wider, since the partners believe that music should add to the restaurant experience. “Like the photos on the wall, we want it to spark a conversation that people might not otherwise have,” Herr says. “We plan to play everything from Sinatra and Tom Petty to The Grateful Dead.”
The name Westchester made sense in two ways: One of the partners grew up in Westchester County, New York, where a lot of high-end restaurants are located (such as Blue Hill at Stone Barns), so the name carries some weight in that regard. And since the restaurant is located in what could be called “west Chesterfield,” the name especially made sense.
“We don’t want Westchester to be pretentious,” Glickert adds. “We just want people to say, ‘Hey, you been to Westchester yet? Those dudes are serving up some solid food and drink.’“
