CAFE
23
[REVIEW]
Handheld Haute Cuisine ReVoaked Sandwiches places the culinary elegance of the much-missed Oaked restaurant between two slices of bread Written by
CHERYL BAEHR ReVoaked Sandwiches 12 South Euclid Avenue, 314-349-9017. Mon.-Fri. 8 a.m.-4 p.m. (Closed Sundays and Mondays).
T
he first thing you notice when you walk into e oaked andwiches — that is, after the into icating aroma of woodsmoke that permeates the room — is owner tephan edbetter, head down, methodically piecing together sandwiches with the focus you’d see on a fine-dining chef using tweezers to place microgreens on a poached piece of halibut. hough everything below his chin is obscured by the stunning, carved-wood half wall that separates the open line from the small dining room, you can tell by the way edbetter maintains his posture that, though he’s busy, he refuses to rush through a process as seemingly banal as placing sliced pepperoni atop a thin piece of cheese. t’s completely atypical for a fast-casual sandwich shop, even one in the entral est nd. t’s not, however, une pected from edbetter. rior to opening e oaked in ecember of , edbetter was co-chef at the beloved, yet short-lived, aked in oulard, an ambitious, elegant restaurant that sought to set the bar for hospitality in the area. he job was the realization of a dream for edbetter, a young upand-comer who got his start in the industry at a ountry itchen in rural llinois, and he took every opportunity there to apply what
The chicken popper sandwich with shredded chicken, garlic, jalapeños, cream cheese and crispy onions is a must-try offering. | MABEL SUEN he’d learned in culinary school and previous upscale dining gigs. And he was doing it. ogether with his co-chef, arl Hazel, edbetter received serious buzz for his thoughtful dishes and obvious technical abilities. ith a stellar front-of-house team, a beverage program that rivaled any in the city and a beautiful setting, it seemed like the sky was the limit for aked. ntil it wasn’t. After just eight months, aked closed, a shock to anyone who’d ever dined there and certainly a shock to the team, who threw their hearts and souls into creating a special place and lost it all to circumstances beyond their control the owners cited physical, emotional and financial e haustion in their closing announcement . edbetter was crestfallen and unsure of his ne t move until a small storefront with a “ or ease sign in the window caught his eye while on a stroll one morning through the entral est nd. ntrigued, he reached out to Hazel and asked if he’d be interested in chatting about a possible concept that would fit the
Chef-owner Stephan Ledbetter. | MABEL SUEN space. hough ultimately a partnership between the two didn’t pan out, that conversation gave edbetter the push he needed to
riverfronttimes.com
take the leap to lease the storefront, thanks to a random comment Hazel made when he was
SEPTEMBER 15-21, 2021
Continued on pg 24
RIVERFRONT TIMES
23
