Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
“Oh, motherhood’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” my friend promised as she tried to wrest her sweet baby from my arms. “The house is a mess and the kids are always underfoot—
I never get a minute of peace and quiet.” I gave her back her baby. But after a trip to The Nest (10440 German, 314-942-3521, theneststl.com), I am no longer consoled.
Opened in December by Christina McHugh and Colleen Carlton, The Nest is a “stay and play creative café” with high ceilings and insulation under the tables to help keep the noise down. Kids can scamper around the room, play in the indoor forest that adjoins the café, or whoop without anybody wincing. Adults bond at community tables. “St. Louis is isolating; we tend to stay in cliques,” says McHugh. “And parenting is hard.
But it’s easier here.
Practical needs come first: Moms-on-the-fly can grab a lavender scone and a latte at a special quick-service counter. Moms in need of serenity can hand their baby to one of three child-care workers in The Hatchery; go into a soundproofed ivory, pink, and gold room; and open their laptops to work, undisturbed, for hours on end.
I arrive right at the end of a mother-baby massage class more soothing than Valium. It follows a wildly creative art class where resident artist Courtney Tharpe (who even
designed The Nest’s whimsical-but-sophisticated wallpaper) taught toddlers about “Big Color” (free swaths of paint, not just squeezed-crayon stick figures) and cut paper shapes into mosaics. During the classes, a mother whose toddler is in The Hatchery sits in the café painting a watercolor, and a mother whose husband is away in the Middle East pulls a pram close while studying for her master’s degree. “How are you?” McHugh asks. “I’m in heaven,” she replies. “I’m never leaving.”
During lunch, I watch a mother sit across the table from her 3-year-old daughter, who’s looking very grown-up in tights and a dress, as they eat and converse. For kids, The Nest is a technology-free zone, its antique cabinets crammed with games, near an artisan’s wooden slide that started out so fast, McHugh had to adjust the angle. But once she slowed down the slide and glued down the rocks on the forest pathway, the place was as child-safe as could be—and stocked with a diaper genie, powder and lotion, bottle warmers, and a breast-feeding station. <
Head barista Marissa Meier turns beets and ginger into a frothed ruby cocktail you’d never know was healthy. Her Arnold Palmer is a decaf SPORTea with ginseng, fresh lemon, fresh mint, and a bit of raw sugar. Her molasses latte defies description. Nothing here is overly sugary or processed; it’s as natural as possible, and not what executive chef Chris Vomund calls “science food,” imitation this and that, laden with chemicals. He toasts quinoa. He sources fresh mozzarella from Marcoot Jersey Creamery (which uses brown Jersey cows’ buttery milk) and fresh eggs from Cock & Bull Farms, both in Illinois. He’s so thoroughly mastered gluten-free cooking that his waffles are light as air, drizzled with pure maple syrup and served with sage-dredged baked chicken tenders. He poaches eggs in a cheater’s sous-vide cooker, infusing them with herbs and olive oil, and he sneaks greens onto every plate. Listening, I hear a tiny voice at the next table say, “I like ah-roo-guh-luh!”
The Nest’s café and services are open to all, with child care just $10 per child for up to two hours (while the accompanying parent remains in the facility). You can become a member ($24.99 to $149 per month) for a discount on drop-in child care and classes, but the sole members-only activity is the Sunday brunch and open play. Though the facility specifically caters to mothers, I met a doctor who brings in his girls, ages 3 and 4, on his weekday off, and more dads and grandpas show up on the weekends. High tea is served at 3 p.m. in the quiet room, presided over by a British expat. It’s all very civilized. And it makes parenting feel very doable indeed.
