Market Grill had its soft opening last Wednesday, Chris Byington just told us.
Byington – co-owner, general manager, “here all day kinda guy” – described the Soulard newbie at 728 Lafayette Ave. as “a complete full restaurant, full bar, comfort foods and classic cocktails.”
Market Grill hopes to fill a void in that neighborhood. “There’s a lot of places that are just fried food and burgers, and then you have Soulard’s Restaurant and Niche and Franco and those kind of places,” Byington said. “We want to be in the middle. … We have steaks and a fantastic crab cake. We have Berkshire pork chops offered, blackened tuna. But we do have some wraps and sandwiches that are a little higher quality than you can get in a lot of the places in Soulard.”
Regarding opening there just before Mardi Gras, he laughed. “I certainly would’ve liked to have had maybe another week or so [of experience], but we’ll make it happen either way,” Byington said. “I’m willing to give it a run!”
Market Grill is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Saturday. To learn more about the restaurant, call 314.436.7664.
This article appears in Feb 1-28, 2010.