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Short Orders
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How Pastry Chef Shimon Otsuka Learned to Love Sweets Written by CHERYL BAEHR
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Shimon Otsuka has loved to cook ever since he was a little kid growing up in Japan. In fact, he admits that he was so singularly focused on food that he knew he wanted to be a chef by the age of seven. He’d eat and cook anything, but there was one type of food he wholeheartedly disliked — sweets.
“I have these pictures of me as a kid cutting vegetables and making stir-frys wearing an apron and a hat,” Otsuka says. “But I was never big on eating sweets. Actually, I didn’t like them to the point that I would stay away from them as much as possible.”
As the kitchen manager at Nathaniel Reid Bakery (11243 Manchester Road, Kirkwood; 314-858- 1019), one of the top pastry shops in town if not the country, there is no way Otsuka can stay away from sweets. Day in and day out, he is chef-owner Nathaniel Reid’s right-hand man, producing pastries that receive national acclaim and set the standard for what’s possible in the dessert world.
Thankfully for Otsuka — and those who enjoy his handiwork — his thoughts on sweets began to change after receiving a birthday present from his parents when he was in third grade. The gift was a cake-baking cookbook, and Otsuka found himself instantly intrigued by the science behind the processes described in it. He devoured its contents and made every single recipe in the book, fascinated by how little tweaks in temperature, time and ingredients could produce vastly differ
Shimon Otsuka is the kitchen manager at Nathaniel Reid Bakery in Kirkwood. | ANDY PAULISSEN
ent outcomes.
Otsuka also realized that the artistic side of pastry appealed to him. As a kid, he always gravitated toward art, especially sculpture, and found himself constantly seeking inspiration from cakes he saw in display windows. He often scoured the city for the best fruits and other ingredients to make his creations more impressive.
As passionate as he was about cakes, Otsuka was equally interested in baking bread. Every day after school, he’d come home and start the bread-making process, let the dough proof overnight and then get up early in the morning so that his family had fresh-baked bread to start the day. Eventually, he expanded his repertoire to include bagels and got so good at making them that he started his own small bagel business.
“At first, I was giving them away to neighbors and friends, but then they told me I should sell them,” Otsuka recalls. “I’d use the money I made to buy more ingredients and
cookbooks so I could keep teaching myself. I was a weird kid.”
Otsuka was priming himself for a career in the pastry world, and he got his big break in that field when he was just seventeen. A family friend knew of a pastry chef who was opening his own bakeshop and encouraged Otsuka to reach out and see if he could help. Little did Otsuka know the chef was a renowned confectioner and pastry professional who would give Otsuka his first real foray into the industry.
Otsuka’s time with the bakery was short-lived, however, because his father’s career moved the family to Boston. Otsuka did not let that dampen his dreams, however. After graduating from high school, Otsuka immediately set out to find a job in a high-end pastry shop.
When he could not find the right fit, he decided to move back to Japan and work under his former chef. He honed his craft there, dreaming that one day he would open his own pastry shop in the U.S.
Otsuka worked in Japan for five years before accepting that if he wanted to pursue his dream, he would have to take the leap and move back to America. He landed in North Carolina but was searching the entire country for Continued on pg 30
a bakeshop that matched his vision for what he wanted to do. His research centered around places like New York City, San Francisco, Boston and Chicago, but he couldn’t find what he was looking for. Eventually, he came across one of chef Reid’s cakes and was blown away.
“I saw his cake and thought, ‘Wow, this doesn’t look like what you normally see in the United States,’” Otsuka says. “I didn’t know what kind of place it was — it didn’t look like a shop. But it looked so nice I decided to reach out, tell him who I was and what I wanted to do and see if he was hiring.”
Reid wasn’t hiring at the time, but Otsuka didn’t let that deter him. Instead, he packed up his belongings and drove across the country to stage at the bakery, confident that it was the perfect fit for him. His leap of faith paid off; after seeing what a great fit he was for the bakery, Reid decided to hire him.
Otsuka’s experiences working at Nathaniel Reid Bakery have reshaped his vision for what he wants to do in the pastry world.
At first, he thought he would specialize in cakes, but the more he works with laminated pastries, sandwiches, quiche and bread, the more he realizes that he no longer wants to limit himself to one genre.
Instead he wants to fuse everything he has learned over his ten years in the business with his own point of view.
“I’d love to do a mix of everything I’ve learned — modern French and Japanese cakes, candies, jams, chocolates, a whole range,” Otsuka says. “I want to take the things that I like and put them together to formulate my own unique style. I believe people are more adventurous now and are more open to trying new things.”
Otsuka recently took a break from the bakery to share his thoughts on the St. Louis food and drink community, the one thing you’ll never see at his workstation and how, even when he’s off the clock, you’ll still find him in the kitchen.
What is one thing people don’t know about you that you wish they did?
I like cooking more than baking. I enjoy cooking things that I love
to eat, especially things that take time to make. Sous vide is one of my favorite methods to use at home. Putting time and care into what I make is how I get the most satisfaction.
What daily ritual is non-negotiable for you?
My non-negotiable daily ritual is cold brew — I drink cold brew year-round.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
If I could have a superpower, it would teleportation. I could go anywhere I want and be back to work on time.
What is the most positive thing in food, wine or cocktails that you’ve noticed in St. Louis over the past year?
All the new chefs bringing new cuisines to the area; you can get almost any kind of food you want. What is something missing in the local food, wine or cocktail scene that you’d like to see?
I think there are more of these now, but coming from Japan, I would like to see more authentic Asian restaurants.
Who is your St. Louis food crush? Hands down Balkan Treat Box. Not only is the food outstanding, but Loryn and Edo [Nalic] are great people. I would say I go there every chance I get.
Who’s the one person to watch right now in the St. Louis dining scene?
Chef Chris Krzysik at Takashima Records, the Japanese whiskey bar in the Grove.
Which ingredient is most representative of your personality?
That’s a good question. I would have to pick the Japanese citrus yuzu. It’s got a bright, distinct flavor and is growing in popularity in the states.
If you weren’t working in the restaurant business, what would you be doing?
I’ve always had a fascination with art. It’s something that I’ve been drawn to, so I would probably be an architect or some other kind of artist.
Name an ingredient never allowed in your restaurant. Margarine. What is your after-work hangout? You will see me cooking in the kitchen or working out in the gym. What’s your food or beverage guilty pleasure?
Believe it or not, Doritos and Nutter Butter.
What would be your last meal on Earth?
Lobster and scallops, two of my favorite foods. n
The Fattened Caf Pops Up at Earthbound Beer
Written by ELLEN PRINZI
With the recent debut of the Fattened Caf, St. Louisans now have a new local destination for flavorful and authentic Filipino fare.
The pop-up restaurant operates once a month inside Earthbound Beer (2724 Cherokee Street, 314-769-9676). The very limited engagement means planning ahead is imperative to get your hands on the concept’s riffs on Filipino street food. The Fattened Caf’s residency at Earthbound kicked off late last year and you can catch it on the last Friday of every month for the rest of 2020.
What started as a hobby for Los Angeles transplants Darren Young and Charlene Lopez-Young has now blossomed into a delicious side hustle. Lopez-Young, who was born in L.A., moved to the Philippines when she was just two years old and spent most of her childhood there.
“Living there formed a lot of my childhood, and we still visit every couple years,” Lopez-Young says.
Darren Young serves a customer from behind the counter. | COURTESY DARREN YOUNG AND CHARLENE LOPEZ-YOUNG
Her heritage and family recipes inspired the idea for the Fattened Caf, but it’s Young’s love of cooking and experimenting that has made the business an overnight sensation. The husbandand-wife team say that relocating to St. Louis was something of a food culture shock — but one they’ve successfully navigated.
“Coming from L.A., we didn’t know what real Southern barbecue was, or St. Louis-style ribs; my knowledge started and ended at Chili’s baby-back ribs,” Young says with a grin.
Today, Young says he has mastered grilling techniques, smoking meat and perfecting his craft. “I got really into barbecue,” he says, adding that he slowly improved at making Filipino-style ’cue under the watchful eye of his wife.
His cooking became so popular among their friends that people would buy meat and ask Young to prepare it for parties and events. “Our friends would always tell us we needed to sell our food, and before we knew it, our business was born,” Lopez-Young recalls.
The Fattened Caf first came on the St. Louis food scene at the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and through various pop-ups in south city. The couple have always been enthusiastic about pop-ups and hope to continue doing them in addition to their residency at Earthbound.
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At Earthbound, the Fattened Caf usually serves between 200 and 250 plates, and the word is getting out — at the January event, the couple sold out in less than two hours. “We saw Filipinos come from all over St. Louis,” Lopez-Young says.
The menu changes monthly, but the one constant is the barbecued pork on a stick and sides made using recipes from Lopez-Young’s grandmother. These dishes range from pickled papaya and pickled cucumbers to steamed rice with garlic chips, pancit, eggplant salad and salted duck eggs.
In January, the pop-up served chargrilled pork belly marinated in locally made Filipino-style vinegar and vegan eggplant adobo. The menu is both adventurous and familiar, but the couple plan to push the envelope.
“St. Louis is full of adventurous eaters — pig ears and chicken feet don’t scare them. With that openness, we plan to bring more authentic dishes as time goes on,” Lopez-Young says.
The couple are very passionate about south city and Cherokee Street, and if the long lines for their pop-ups are any indication, the feeling is mutual. Besides, as Lopez-Young adds, the setting at Earthbound means that “there’s really great beer to enjoy while they wait.”
“We enjoy the space and the community so much; it makes people feel like they are all in it together,” Lopez-Young says. n
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Noto Pizza
Serves Wood-Fired
Neapolitan Pies in
St. Peters Written by KRISTEN FARRAH
Last year, my entire family grieved the closing of J. Noto Bakery in St. Peters. Located just down the road from my parents’ house, the bakery was one of our favorites spots, and a slight panic set in as we wondered where we would now find flavorful sandwiches or cinnamon rolls the size of my face.
When Kendele Noto Sieve’s dad, Jasper Noto, announced his retirement in 2019, she and her husband, Wayne, were left to decide between running the bakery themselves or creating a home for their pizza trailer. Months later, the bakery closed and reopened as Noto Pizza (5105 Westwood Drive, St. Peters; 636-317-1143), an Italian restaurant dedicated to serving authentic Neapolitan-style pizza and handmade pasta.
Of course, my family was eager to try it out. To our pleasant surprise, my parents had to book our reservation days in advance, as Noto was booked every other night. As a longtime customer of J. Noto, I have to admit that I felt so proud. I loved the original concept and now everyone else in the St. Louis area is loving its new chapter as a swanky slice of Italy. Long before reopening the spot as a pizzeria, Kendele and Wayne spent several vacations touring Italy and the Amalfi Coast, where Neapolitan pizza reigns over all other styles.
“We [took a vacation] about six, seven years ago and kind of fell in love with it,” Kendele says. “We were like, ‘We have to recreate this somehow.’ And that’s when we just started at home.”
The couple began their woodfired pizza experiments with a
Noto co-owner Kendele Noto Sieve recommends the Margherita pie to customers new to Neapolitan-style pizza. | KRISTEN FARRAH
table-top oven at home. Eventually, Kendele says, Wayne’s passion for creating Neapolitan pizza evolved from a hobby into a business. “I love to eat it, but my husband loves to make it,” Kendele says.
After watching online videos, reading Italian cookbooks and lots of trial and error, Wayne opened the Noto pizza trailer in 2017. Kendele helped out when she could, and they both continued to work their full-time jobs as their side business gained momentum.
After hearing my parents rave about how it tasted “just like our pizza in Italy!” I planned a date with my best friend, bought a new dress and made sure to call in my reservation in advance. I luckily found a parking spot among a sea of cars and rushed in just in time for our 6:45 p.m. reservation.
I was taken aback at how the space has been completely renovated and reorganized. Instead of the small coffeehouse with a cottage feel, we stepped inside a sleek atmosphere with rustic accents. At the heart of the restaurant sits the wood-burning oven with “NOTO” spelled out in blue tile. The oven burns as hot as 1,000 degrees, ensuring whichever one of the sixteen pizzas you order is cooked in 90 seconds flat.
“We have some traditional, basic styles that you would see at every pizza restaurant in Italy,” Kendele says. “And then we have some other unique, non-traditional toppings.”
The ’nduja pizza combines the spreadable pork salume with onion jam and fresh mozzarella. Kendele likes how the imported ’nduja adds spice and heat to the pizza. For cus
Noto creates each pizza out of its airy open kitchen. Each pie emerges from the oven with a paperthin center crust surrounded by a billowing ring of outer crust.
tomers who are new to Neapolitan pizza, Kendele recommends trying Noto’s house Margherita pizza.
Pizzas are made in Noto’s airy open kitchen, with each emerging from the oven with a paperthin center crust surrounded by a billowing ring of outer crust. That crust is light and airy and convinced me I could eat the entire personal pizza and still order dessert.
While I only ate half of the pizza, saving the leftovers for lunch the next day was worth being able to eat cannolis the same night. (I did have a 30-minute ride back to my apartment, though, and I can’t say I didn’t sneak a slice as I sped home.)
No longer confined to their pizza trailer, Kendele and Wayne have expanded Noto’s menu into the realm of pasta. They make all their pasta from scratch and love
to experiment with new flavor and noodle combinations. Highlights from the pasta menu include the prosciutto cotto ravioli, one of Noto’s most popular pastas, and the pappardelle with braised beef, tomato ragu and pecorinoromano cheese.
Kendele and Wayne took their most recent trip to Italy in August to do more research for their menu. Many of Noto’s dishes are taken straight from their personal experiences tasting through Italy. “We go to these restaurants or bars and we taste something and we’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’ve got to bring that back here,’” Kendele says.
In order to keep the authenticity of Italy alive at Noto, Kendele and Wayne import all of their olive oil, cheese and pork products. Even the flour for their pizza dough is imported from Italy. Kendele estimates that they import more than 60 percent of Noto’s ingredients. “It’s kind of out of respect for Italy and showing that we’re using their products and trying to replicate what they do over there to be as authentic as we possibly can,” Kendele says.
What they can’t import, they source locally: All of the mushrooms used at Noto are from a farm in O’Fallon, Missouri. Summertime will bring local heirloom tomatoes and herbs for their salads and pasta dishes.
In late February, Noto will be adding weekend brunch service. For now, the pizzeria is open Wednesday through Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m. Kendele says Noto has been pretty packed since its grand opening in January, so reservations are recommended. n
Brennan’s to Relocate 45 Steps Away in the CWE
Written by LIZ MILLER
Brennan’s has a new home in the Central West End — and fans of the longtime neighborhood bar will be happy to learn that it’s only 45 steps away from the original. We here at the Riverfront Times only recently recovered from learning two months ago that Brennan’s would soon relocate from its home of seventeen years. Now comes news that, though not on the same street as the original at 4659 Maryland Avenue, the new spot will be just around the corner at 314-316 North Euclid Avenue.
“I just did the walk. It’s literally 45 steps and 28 seconds from the old location,” Kevin Brennan said in a recent release. “I was walking cautiously, too, due to the slippery conditions from the snow, so imagine if you run!”
Located in the same building as the original, the new location will allow Brennan’s to double the square footage of its ground floor, according to the release, and give Brennan the chance to update the bar’s interior. The release also details plans for a new basement hi-fi bar and lounge and a “refreshed” secondfloor private cigar club. In its new home, Brennan’s plans to offer a new food and bar program as well.
“Though the original Brennan’s space has treated us well over these last seventeen years, the current layout limits our abilities as a bar and restaurant,” Brennan said. “We love the Central West End and wanted to stay in the same building.
The new Brennan’s space will increase square footage in areas that are important to the customer experience and allow us to improve food and drink service.”
Brennan’s first announced plans to relocate from its home of almost seventeen years in a Facebook post published in early December. At the time, Brennan said that the move was due to the expansion of the Saint Louis Chess Club and that he didn’t have a new building identified yet.
“To put it simply, word got around about this big change sooner than we’d hoped,” Brennan’s shared in the Facebook post. “We can’t tell you too much about our plans for the future at this time, but we’re getting ahead of the rumors to let you know the situation.”
Billionaire Rex Sinquefield is the founder, president and chairman of the board for the Saint Louis Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which first opened in the Central West End in 2008 at 4657 Maryland Avenue, just next door to Brennan’s. Since opening
eleven years ago, the Saint Louis Chess Club has already expanded once, relocating the World Chess Hall of Fame from Florida to 4652 Maryland Avenue in 2011. A partner business, Kingside Diner, which is chess-themed, opened next to the Saint Louis Chess Club in 2015. (The diner operates a second location in Clayton.) With Kingside, the grouping of businesses has been dubbed the “Chess Campus,” and now, Brennan’s former home has been added to the board.
The original location will remain open until “at least April 15,” per the release, and the new bar is slated to open in late spring, with the cigar club following soon after.
“We’ll miss the original spot, but we’re excited to show people a new and improved space,” Brennan said. “You have to keep things interesting.”
To learn more about what the new Brennan’s has in store for customers, here are descriptions of the four spaces as detailed in the release: Brennan’s Ground Floor: “Dimly lit and well-appointed, there’s always a good conversation at the new and improved Brennan’s bar, with more comfortable seating and a solid ash wood bar top by Goebel & Co. Furniture. Brennan’s ever-changing, snarky, sometimes irreverent billboard behind the bar will live on.”
The Ground Floor Expansion: “Find your favorite spot to retreat in the new adjacent space. An inviting, comfortable library room designed for cocktails, small plates and more conversation.” The Cigar Club: “We have redesigned our second-floor private cigar club to offer more open space, better amenities and an extensive list of spirits and cigars. We’ll be spinning the best of jazz, blues and bossa nova on vinyl as we’ve done the last nine years.”
The Sneaker Room: “Hidden below and outta sight, your new late-night haunt is here. This hi-fi bar and lounge will offer an eclectic mix of music and cocktails.” n
