Blood & Sand, the members-only bar and restaurant venture by area bartenders TJ Vytlacil (pictured) and Adam Frager, is beginning to take shape. The target opening date for the downtown venue, according to Frager, is the first week of September. “They are doing demo right now. That should be finished by Thursday and our general contractor, Mark Robinson, who did Taste and Brasserie, will start renovation on Friday,” said Frager, noting a design feature in the space at 1500 St. Charles St., that he and Vytlacil are excited about. “There will be four columns of vertical green wall behind the bar. The concept allows us to change plants when we want to, to change for seasonality.” (Read more on the unique concept behind Blood & Sand here.)

As first reported by Evan Benn of the Post-Dispatch, Chris Bork was recently hired as Blood & Sand’s executive chef. Bork has worked at Wild Flower and Revival, and he opened The Terrace View prior to heading up the kitchen at The Mud House coffee shop on Cherokee Street.

Frager stated that Bork will likely come aboard some time in early August, which is also when Frager and Vytlacil expect to leave their places of employment, Pi in the Central West End and Demun Oyster Bar, respectively. George Mahe reported last night that chef Steven Caravelli will be Bork’s replacement at The Mud House. That’s in addition to Caravelli’s new role at Entre Events, which we told you about yesterday.

— Photo by Brian Fagnani

When Mia Rosa shuttered in August, Bobby Tessler, the chef de cuisine at the Italian eatery in The Grove, decided it was time to open his own place. Although Tessler has accumulated 15 years of cheffing experience, including time in the kitchens at the now defunct Once Upon a Vine, The Wild Flower in the Central West End and Remy’s Kitchen and Wine Bar in Clayton, he didn’t want to operate a full-service, upscale restaurant. Rather, he decided to focus on one of his favorite comfort foods: chicken wings. Thus, St. Louis Wing Co. was born.

When the chicken wing joint opens at 9816 Manchester Road in Rock Hill, diners will get a taste of wings with creative flavors like coconut curry, kalamata olive and feta, spicy jalapeño and sesame ginger teriyaki. In addition to the dozen sauce varieties for those bone-in and boneless wings, Tessler will serve up such sides as sweet potato fries with Caribbean jerk chili mayo, fried macaroni wedges, cole slaw, baked beans and other wing accompaniments.

Tessler hopes to kick off action at his 40-seat lunch and dinner locale by Super Bowl Sunday, scheduled for Feb. 6.

Chef Josh Roland has joined the CWE’s Wild Flower and will launch a new menu there likely during the first week in April, co-owner Phil Czarnec just told us.

Roland previously developed the menu and cheffed at Jim Edmonds’ Fifteen. Lately, though, he’s been working on projects in Washington, D.C., that involved consulting more than cheffing, Czarnec said. With a chuckle, he added, “And now he’s getting his hands dirty again, so to speak, with the food. He’s extra excited with regard to that because it’s a lot more fun than sitting in front of the computer.”

Roland will emphasize a farm-to-table approach, said Czarnec, highlighting “the local farmers and the smaller butchers that give us the personal attention that we like to give to the guests.”

Roland’s influence will extend across lunch, dinner and brunch at Wild Flower, Czarnec said: “He’ll have touched everything in some way.”

Czarnec paused to reflect on specific dishes on Roland’s first menu. “There’s a beet salad that he’s doing,” he said, “which had the goat cheese and the raisins and the pistachios and the horseradish vinaigrette, three different types of beets … ”

And among Roland’s entrées? “He did a spin on a carbonara that gave it that stickiness that people love about carbonara, that texture,” Czarnec noted, “but he did it with a cauliflower purée. And the pancetta was cut just right, where it’s crispy on the edges but it has just enough tenderness in the center, and then with a poached egg on top of that. That one really rang my bell.”

Finally Czarnec teased, “[Roland] and I are working on the next concept, another place. … That could be as early as two months and as late as four.”