STLife

WE WANT TO OFFER
AN ELEVATED DIN-
ING EXPERIENCE
THAT CAN BE
ENJOYED BY
GUESTS IN A NEW
WAY EACH TIME
THEY VISIT.
B
efore moving here, in 2015, native
St. Louisan Michael Gallina and
his wife, Tara, worked at upstate New
York’s acclaimed Blue Hill at Stone
Barns, which presents proteins and vegetables
in new ways. Michael also did a
stint at the similarly forage-focused
Fäviken in Sweden.
Michael recalled his time in Sweden,
harvesting vegetables for that night’s
service. “That’s where I got my first
sense of the concept of ‘vegetableforward,’
where I learned it was possible
to celebrate vegetables in ways I’d never
thought of before,” he said. “Because the
winter was long and rough, we learned
the value of preserving vegetables, pickling
them, aging them in beef fat, curing
and aging meats.”
Stone Barns also off red memorable
lessons. “We worked one day per week
on a farm and the other four in the restaurant,”
Tara recalled. “Visit a deer farm
and watch how the family uses the animal,
right down to making jewelry with
the antlers, and it opens your eyes. We
had research assignments; we learned all
about sustainability. That apprenticeship
was the most transformative moment of
my life. It was utopian there. It felt like
graduate school much more than a job.”
The Gallinas brought what they’d
learned to St. Louis. They believed
locals were ready to embrace the concept—though
it still needed refinin . So
they spent almost a year doing pop-up
dining events. “We were impressed with
how open-minded people were,” Tara
recalled. “We never published a single
menu ahead of time. People were excited
about the surprise element.”
Eventually, after growing anticipation,
they announced plans for their
restaurant, Vicia, in the Cortex Innovation
Community. Designed by Sasha
Malinich (who also designed several of
Craft’s and Nashan’s restaurants), the
Nordic-influen ed atmosphere is composed
of a glass-enclosed kitchen, a stone
bar, bleached-oak tables, and ebonizedblack
ash chairs. As with Blue Hill, the
staff engages with customers and with
the ingredients, from farm to plate,
and the menu changes sometimes
daily. Ingredients are prepared and
presented in unexpected ways,
with a wood fi e being the secret
behind many of the dishes.
And the reception? Bon Appétit,
USA Today, and Esquire named
Vicia one of the nation’s best new
restaurants in 2017. The following
year, Food & Wine declared
Michael one of the country’s best
new chefs. In 2019, he was named a James
Beard Award finalist. “I’m proud of our
team at Vicia and humbled by how supportive
the city, and especially our guests,
have been since we opened,” he said.
Then, last November, the Gallinas
embarked on a new adventure: Winslow’s
Table. Situated inside a former neighborhood
market in University City that
for years housed the beloved Winslow’s
Home, the restaurant is predicated on
feedback from customers of its predecessor
while instilling the DNA of Vicia.
“There’s an identity with our brand in
terms of quality of produce and attention
to detail, the hospitality being a big
part of that,” Tara told SLM in November.
“This was an opportunity that we felt was
once-in-a-lifetime… If we were going to do
one more thing, this made sense.”
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