ST. LOUIS — Two new kitchen concepts are getting ready to delight taste buds at St. Louis’ City Foundry Food Hall.
The Food Hall at City Foundry STL announced Chicken Scratch and Sureste Méxican will open Wednesday, Oct. 20, bringing two more unique menus for St. Louis food fans to sample.
Note: The video above is from Aug. 11 when the Food Hall opened.
Chicken Scratch is a rotisserie chicken kitchen concept from chef Nate Hereford. Customers can get quarter, half or whole chickens that are seasoned with a dry rub and slow cooked in an oven. The menu also places a heavy focus on seasonal sides with a variety of house-made sauces for dipping.
“I’m excited to share the project that I’ve been working on over the past few years,” said Hereford.
He’s no stranger to the St. Louis food scene. Hereford was the executive chef at Gerard Craft’s James Beard Award-winning restaurant Niche. In 2016, he was recruited to work on projects in California. He recently moved back to St. Louis with his wife and business partner.
“One of the big reasons we moved back to St. Louis was to be a part of the tight-knit hospitality community and the amazing creativity happening here — City Foundry seemed like the perfect opportunity,” Hereford said. “My goal with the menu is to create simple but delicious meals and to highlight seasonal ingredients that showcase rotisserie chicken.”
READ MORE: City Foundry STL food hall opens Wednesday
Sureste Méxican will feature flavors from the southeastern coastal region of Mexico, especially the Yucatan Peninsula. One of the highlights on the menu will be cochinita pibil, which is made with a marinated pork that’s roasted overnight in banana leaves. There also will be several tamales and ceviche on the menu.
Chef Alexander Henry plans to continually rotate items “with some changing day-to-day so there will always be something new with each visit,” according to a news release Monday.
“Mexico is a large country with an enormous variety of regional cuisines, many of which are not easily available here,” said Henry, who was a 2018 Eater Young Gun semifinalist and former executive chef of Nixta and Cleveland Heath. “Because of this, I am very excited to bring some of the cuisine of southeastern Mexico to City Foundry STL.”
Henry said the flavors are inspired by what was cooked up in his family’s kitchen in Mérida, Yucatán.
“Most of the dishes that we will be serving are also common fare at market stalls in Yucatán so choosing to open in The Food Hall at City Foundry STL seemed like a natural fit to capture a similar feel,” he said.
Like each kitchen in the food hall, Sureste Méxican and Chicken Scratch will have their own hours. Chicken Scratch plans to open for lunch and dinner, while Sureste Méxican will be open for breakfast and lunch with plans in the future to offer dinner options.
The two new food concepts are the latest to open at City Foundry. You can see the full list of kitchens below and on the Food Hall website.
Lunch and Dinner (Monday & Wednesday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. | Sunday 11:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.)
- The menu at Chicken Scratch is centered around a French Rotisol rotisserie oven, where guests can get quarter, half, or whole birds. The birds are seasoned ahead of time and coated with a dry rub as it cooks in the oven. Guests can also choose from different sandwich selections, a salad option, 4-6 seasonal sides, and a selection of sauces made in-house from the creamy and dreamy Scratch sauce, to the spicy hot sauce, and a twangy horseradish mustard.
Sureste Méxican
Breakfast and Lunch
- Sureste Méxican focuses its menu on food from the Yucatán Peninsula with several staple menu items and rotating selections that change even day-to-day. Guests will be able to choose from several types of tamales, ceviche, and dishes made with tortillas made in-house from locally-sourced corn grown on small area farms.
Lunch and Dinner
- Featuring the flavors of Buenos Aires, Argentina, this kitchen offers ten different empanadas, skirt steak sandwiches, Chorpian sausage, and other beloved Argentinian delights.
Lunch and Dinner
- Chez Ali is an Ivorian Senegalese kitchen serving delicious dishes inspired by the culture of Cote D’lvore & Senegal located in West Africa. Guests can expect uniquely spiced dishes with cabbage, carrots, onions, as well as stews and jollof rice.
Breakfast and Lunch
- This breakfast kitchen offers authentic crepes and delicious breakfast sandwiches, motivated by their motto, “A good day starts with a good breakfast.” Mimosas, sparkling cocktails, Bloody Marys will be introduced later this year, and gourmet coffee drinks can also be found at this eatery.
Lunch and Dinner
- Poke, known for its thick pieces of raw, marinated fish or tofu and tossed over rice with toppings and flavor-packed sauces, is available in build-your-own-bowls or as a sushi burrito. Try menu items such as the Hello Hawaii with Ahi Tuna, Ginger Shrimp, Sweet Chili Mango Salmon, and more.
Lunch and Dinner
- Asian-Mexican fusion, made-to-order. This award-winning concept creates their own house-made Asian marinades and sauces for flavorful tacos, burritos, rice bowls, and more.
Lunch and Dinner
- This new bar is operated by Niche Food Group in partnership with The Food Hall at City Foundry STL and offers an approachable menu featuring classic cocktails, wines by the glass, and over eight local beers at the 28-seat bar.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- Hand-crafted artisan desserts including cheesecake-stuffed cookies, whoopie pies, brownie sandwiches, and a wide selection of other sweet treats.
Lunch and Dinner
- A favorite at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market, the concept from the owners of the popular Whisk: A Sustainable Bakeshop, offers creative and tasty ice pops with unique flavors such as watermelon jalapeño and sweet corn custard as well as classic flavors such as strawberry and apple cobbler - all made from local and seasonal produce.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
- This eatery serves up Liege-style, hand-crafted waffles with sweet and savory flavors, and includes house specialty waffles as well as the opportunity for guests to build their own creations for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.
Lunch and Dinner
- Sub Division Sandwich Co. started as a ghost kitchen during the pandemic, and now will find a permanent home inside The Food Hall at City Foundry. This speciality artisan-crafted sandwich shop utilizes the finest ingredients while also maintaining local sourcing from farms and other vendors.
Lunch and Dinner
- Pan-Indian cuisine with a modern twist, offering a wide variety of small plates and entrees of beloved Indian dishes, including dosas, Bombay sliders, and other eats.