When Mike Miller took the executive chef position at Dressel’s Public House three years ago, he faced the challenge of aligning his food with a much-loved public house steeped in decades of tradition, while staying true to his own experimental, from-scratch cooking philosophy. Miller explained how he managed to find that elusive, delicious and very fine line.
“This place has been open for 30 years, so you don’t want to scare away people that come in two or three times a week because they like certain things. You know, we have an amazing rotation of soups. We probably sell just as much soup in the summertime as the winter. People associate this place with good soup. We probably wouldn’t have taken soup away, but that is something we put a lot of emphasis on making exceptional – the little things.
“But it really was flipping over the from-scratch attitude. It was building a really good staff and a respect for the ingredients, and in the process, creating really good food in a pub environment. It took a while to instill a culture in the kitchen, but it was a lot of fun. It’s still a lot of fun.
“We are constantly trying to push on ourselves internally. Right now, my biggest project is making bread in-house. In the back of my pickup truck, there are 16 loaves of bread in dough form that I actually had to take home with me because it requires some series of folds. I couldn’t just leave them unattended. When I dropped my son off to school this morning, they were sliding around. I was worried about them flying out the back, but we got here safe. That’s just one thing. We want people to always be guessing, what are those guys going to do next at Dressel’s?”
419 N. Euclid Ave., St. Louis, 314.361.1060, dresselspublichouse.com
This article appears in April 2014.