Get ready for Jack Mac’s cuisine. In an exclusive interview with Sauce, Jack W. MacMurray III, executive chef, GM and partner of Sage Urban American Grill, stated that he is leaving the Soulard restaurant to open his own restaurant and to focus on his food company, Jack Mac’s Distinctive Taste. MacMurray’s final day at Sage will be Feb. 2.
MacMurray stated that his new restaurant – the name is TBD, but expect it to include some form of his nickname, Jack Mac – will focus on seasonal comfort food made from scratch using local, organic ingredients. “That’s how I’ve always been cooking,” stated MacMurray, who reaches the 20-year mark in his culinary career this year and earned the Master Chef title at last year’s Taste of St. Louis festival.
While the chef has not decided on the exact location for the restaurant, he is looking for a space in move-in condition and is considering options closer to his Chesterfield residence. MacMurray hopes to begin serving “Jack Mac’s cuisine” in as early as three months, because “the recipes are proven and the artwork [for the business] is done.”
MacMurray launched his food company, Jack Mack’s Distinctive Taste, last year with a line of spice rubs. He plans to expand the product line with other “comfort accompaniments” like salad dressings, barbecue sauces, pickles, relishes, hot sauce, even honey from his own hive. In addition, he hopes to add sausages – salciccia, chorizo, andouille and breakfast sausages, for starters – to the offering.
MacMurray has always hoped to open his own restaurant and to operate a full-scale food company at some point in his career, but the move from Sage comes a bit earlier than he had expected. “The principal owner [of Sage] wants to go in a different direction. It’s time for me to do my own thing,” he said. Assuming the reins in the kitchen at Sage will be MacMurray’s current sous chef; the two have worked together for the last eight years.
This article appears in January 2011.