I’m starting to like a new trend I’m seeing. St. Louis craft brewers are upping their game when it comes to offering a more robust customer experience. The trend I’m seeing is breweries partnering with crafters of the culinary arts. I first started noticing the ramp up from the idea of a food truck outside a brewery when 4 Hands Brewing Company and Fifth Wheel Catering partnered inside the tap room. Although that partnership has ended, I’m happy to see the idea exploding around town.
From my vantage point, the essence of the partnerships has been that breweries note the need to provide customers with a better experience, but as Tait Russell of Charleville told me, “we didn’t want to get into the restaurant business,” so this all makes perfect sense.
In recent weeks, we’ve written about in-house partnerships between 2nd Shift Brewing and Guerrilla Street Food and Charleville Brewing and Paul & Wendy Hamilton. And now there is another great food and beer pairing announcement.
In a release, Earthbound Beer made it pretty clear.
Earthbound Beer is proud to announce that they have absolutely no idea how to run a restaurant, and Vista Ramen will be operating the food service at the new Earthbound Beer location.
“Chris Bork thinks about food the way we think about beer, and Casey and Jeremy Miller have been instrumental in making Cherokee Street what it is today,” said Stuart Keating, Presiding Comrade of Earthbound Beer. “When Chris approached us about potentially running the kitchen at our new location we nearly peed ourselves with excitement.”
Vista Ramen, which opened on Cherokee Street to immediate critical success in 2016, has been at the forefront of fun, experiential dining in Saint Louis. While Vista has made a name for themselves with excellent ramen, they will operate an entirely new concept at the new Earthbound Beer taproom. The concept’s name and final menu are in development and the restaurant is expected to open in November, with several preview events.
“Chris Bork is a genius, and we couldn’t ask for a better restaurant partner,” says Rebecca Schranz, one of the brewery owners. “Plus, we truly have zero ideas how restaurants work. Trust me, it’s far better this way.” Earthbound Beer expects to open their new 99 seat taproom and production facility located in a 150-year-old brewery stock house on or around September 10th but who even knows anymore.
This fantastic news, as the crafters from both beer and food, find common ground to further make St. Louis an eating and drinking hub. My belly thanks you.
