Chef Chris Lee has moved into 2639 Cherokee St., where he and partners Sarah and Dan Watts plan to open Sure Lee’s. As first reported by St. Louis Magazine, Lee hopes to open shop in time for the area’s Cinco de Mayo festivities.
Having spent the last year and a half running meal delivery and catering company, Chef’s Table STL, Lee said the time was right to open a brick and mortar that will house both the new restaurant and the existing business.
“This was a way to honor Dan and Sarah’s desire to open a restaurant and to provide a way to pay employees well and give them the job security,” Lee said. “In catering, I’ll have weeks that are booked, and then the next, there’s only one event.”
Lee said they originally discussed opening a barbecue restaurant, but the trio conceded that the market is full of successful restaurants that have already honed the craft. Instead, Sure Lee’s will offer all-day breakfast and lunch options that play on high-end dinner items like a beef bourguignon sandwich with braised short rib meat, portobello mushrooms, bacon and an onion jam. “I’ve been in fine dining for half of my life,” said Lee. “I want to take that experience and put it between two pieces of bread.”
Lee also aims to make good use of the 1940s bread oven in the space that formerly housed Black Bear Bakery. “I want to do it right and bake the quality of bread you’d find in San Francisco,” he said. “Right now, I’m doing a lot of research.”
The space will seat around 50 diners during the day, and Lee plans to host pop-up and collaboration dinners at chef’s tables in the expansive 3,000-square-foot kitchen. He also plans to clear and plant a garden in an existing space behind the building.
This article appears in March 2016.