Folks who have followed restaurateur Dave Bailey’s recent business activities will recall that, upon taking over the former City Gourmet space at 920 Olive St., Bailey intended to use part of the space as a commissary kitchen and the remainder as home to a fourth restaurant. The commissary kitchen moved immediately from Webster Groves to the downtown location and was used to prepare baked goods, smoked meats and other foodstuffs for Bailey’s three area restaurants: Baileys’ Chocolate Bar, Rooster and Bridge Tap House & Wine Bar. However, the name and concept of the new restaurant has been kept under wraps – until now. Baileys’ Range, a burger and shake restaurant, will open downtown this summer.
So, why burgers and shakes? Bailey revealed that biannual trips with his father to visit farmers in Illinois and purchase livestock raised “the old fashioned way” left an impression on him. “We would call the beef farmer directly two weeks ahead and ask him to pick us out a cow. When we arrived, the local butcher had prepared the entire cow, along with a whole pig, a whole lamb and several dozen chickens. We would load all of the meat into a trailer and drive straight back to our house where it would take us a couple of hours to unload, sort and freeze all of the meat that we would have for the next six months. … This was how I ate growing up, and that is what I want to bring back to my city,” explained Bailey, who will use only 100 percent Missouri Grass Fed Beef at Baileys’ Range. He also noted that the new restaurant will have a much larger kitchen than most burger eateries, since practically every item – from the ice cream for the shakes to the buns that sandwich the burgers and even the fixing’s inside them – will have been churned, baked or pickled on the premises.
Can’t wait until the doors open to this new downtown spot? You don’t have to. Guests at the Saucy Soirée, held this Sunday at the Four Seasons Hotel, will get to taste house-made ice cream from Baileys’ Range. Get your tickets here.
— Photo by Brian Fagnani
This article appears in June 2011.