When Michael Gallina was growing up in St. Louis, its dining landscape was fairly conventional—his interest in food came from his grandfather’s culinary experiments. Tara Gallina grew up in South Florida, with a mother from Philly and a father from Ireland and not much culinary inspiration at all. Yet over time, both developed a passion for food.
After stuyding at renowned culinary academies, they each worked with acclaimed culinary experts—Tara with Food Network, Michael with renowned Swiss chef Daniel Humm—before both landing at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in upstate New York, which is famous for integrating fine dining with sustainable farming.
Tara, who began as a host at Blue Hill’s exquisite restaurant and worked her way up to service captain, recalls her first interaction with the chef de cuisine, Michael. “The first time I saw him was in the kitchen,” she says. “It was one of my first shifts hosting, and I was really intimidated. We kind of locked eyes, and I thought, Oh, that’s the chef. Keep your head down, and stay out of the way.”
A few nights later, though, they ended up chatting at the local bar. Two years later, they were married—and eager to start their own restaurant. They already knew they worked well together, their standards and expectations so closely meshed that they moved smoothly into action without a lot of fuss or debate. Theirs was a marriage of opposites: Michael intensely creative with food, Tara running the business side.
Paul Nordmann
They wanted to live near family so they’d have a support system when they started their own. When they visited St. Louis after their wedding, Michael, who had not lived here since he was 22, found a city exploding with possibility. Tara was also pleasantly surprised. “There are great restaurants here,” she observed. “It’s a pretty cool scene.”
That decided it. They lived with his mom while they settled in, holding pop-up dinners just to get their name out there. The dinners were so popular they snowballed into a regular business. But the Gallinas still wanted bricks and mortar. They had learned vegetable-forward cuisine at Blue Hill—the place was famous for it—and now they wanted to try their own version.
“In St. Louis, that was still a new idea,” Tara says. “We wanted to highlight the different farmers we worked with, and we wanted to make a fine-dining restaurant that didn’t feel so stuffy.”
Tucked into the Cortex Innovation Community in the Central West, Vicia began with an à la carte menu, then switched to a tasting menu, then threw away menus altogether in favor of a Farmers Feast, served family-style. “And people love it!” Tara says. “It streamlined things tremendously, and it allows us to waste nothing.”
Vicia has instituted tip sharing, and pay is well above industry average. Servers take wine classes, do research, and make customers feel that their wishes and dietary needs are a pleasure to accommodate. Patrons once puzzled by the very idea of “vegetable-forward” now savor chicken-fried carrots or a delicious falafel made from veggie scraps. The Gallinas, who take wine seriously, have switched to a Coravin system: A needle lets them pour a glass of wine without uncorking the bottle, so diners can order any wine on their list by the glass, maybe try two different wines instead of committing to a bottle.
WE WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT THE DIFFERENT FARMERS WE WORKED WITH, AND WE WANTED TO MAKE A FINE-DINING RESTAURANT THAT DIDN’T FEEL SO STUFFY.
National attention came swiftly to Vicia, with “Best New Restaurant in America” mentions in Esquire, Eater, and Bon Appétit; Outstanding Restaurant in America from the James Beard Foundation; Michael named Best New Chef in America by Food & Wine; a ranking on the San Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurants in the World list. Soon, celebrity chefs and celebs (Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa Etheridge, a stream of well-known musicians and athletes) were eagerly unfolding their napkins.
But the Gallinas do not quit while they are ahead. In 2019, they bought Winslow’s Home (now Winslow’s Table) in University City. They had always loved the idea of an all-day bakery and café, and they had been buying produce from Winslow’s Farm. At first, they stripped the retail, because the place was crammed full. Then they turned the cellar into a shop. “And it’s next to the bakery, so it smells beautiful!” Tara says. “It’s like a little oasis. Wine, specialty foods, locally made skincare, a Thursday night farmers’ market….”
When they learned that longtime St. Louis restaurateur Zoë Robinson was selling her beloved restaurants on picturesque Wydown Boulevard, they snapped up Bar Les Frères, now Bistro La Floraison. (“It means ‘flowering’ in French,” Tara says. “A more feminine vibe, related to agriculture, and with the same initials!”) As the name impllies, the bistro specializes in French fare.
Along the way, the Gallinas also added Aaron Martinez (former executive chef at Vicia, Elaia, and Cinder House) as a business partner and changed the company’s name to Take Root Hospitality—connected to sustainable agriculture and to the roots they are spreading throughout St. Louis. Together, they opened Taqueria Morita on a patch of grass outside Vicia that they had borrowed from Cortex during the pandemic and expanded the concept over time, temporarily shifting the restaurant to Winslow’s Table during the winter months.
“I never dreamed we would open it,” Tara says, “and now we see an opportunity to do more of them around town.”
