Edera Italian Eatery will open in former Scape space this spring

The space that once housed Scape American Bistro at 48 Maryland Plaza will see new life as Edera Italian Eatery. Koplar Properties (which owned Scape for 12 years before it shuttered in 2019) hired James Beard semifinalist and chef Mike Randolph to consult on the project, as reported by St. Louis Magazine. Executive chef Mick Fumo will helm the kitchen at Edera.

“Sam [Koplar] and I have become friends over the past four or five years. I think it was born out of that,” Randolph said of his consulting role. “They wanted to keep that space alive and operate it themselves, so they started looking around. The more we talked about it, the more I think it made sense from both sides. It’s been a fun project to date.”

Randolph, who currently owns Original J’s and Half & Half, is well known for his work with Italian cuisine at now-shuttered Randolfi’s Italian Kitchen and The Good Pie.

Randolph said the menu will be accessible and easy for customers who aren’t familiar with esoteric Italian dishes and ingredients. “We want every customer that walks in to be able to look at the menu and not be confused,” he said. 

The team is still working out the menu’s specifics, but Randolph said people can expect “a very traditional kind of Italian.” He anticipates offering around five antipastos and five salads with a similar number of pizzas and pastas. The menu will also have meat and seafood entrees. 

As for the bar program, Randolph said they’re taking a similarly accessible approach. “The customer that we’re trying to attract is people that live in and work in the Central West End,” he said. “We’re not trying to be super fancy. We don’t want to have to educate the guests. We’re not going to have 24 kinds of amaros and Fernets.”

What they will have, however, is a mix of New and Old World wines, classic cocktails and a number of beers. 

Randolph said Edera Italian Eatery plans to be open for dinner five days a week, though he’s not yet certain which days those will be. Additionally, there will be one brunch service on the weekend. 

Randolph said there’s still a little more work to be done to prepare the space, but they plan to open in the next few months. “We’re looking at April,” he said.

Adam Rothbarth is the staff writer at Sauce Magazine.