{Jeff Orbin}
A longtime face in the restaurant industry has decided to call it quits. Jeff Orbin, business partner of Aaron Teitelbaum and a familiar face at Herbie’s Vintage 72 and Monarch Event Space, is leaving the hospitality world. Teitelbaum is now the sole owner of both spaces.
“I’m going back into the design world. That’s what love to do,” said Orbin, whose background in design includes graphic design, Web, print, interior and brand solutions. “It just got to be that time for me. I wanted to do what I am passionate about.” Orbin said there are currently many opportunities for design and consulting, and he expects to branch out beyond hospitality-related design projects. He will remained based in St. Louis.
Orbin, who created the logo and brand identity for now-defunct Miso on Meramec, said when he partnered with Teitelbaum to launch Monarch, he wanted “to do something different for design” in St. Louis restaurants.
Orbin said he has considered leaving the restaurant business for more than a year. Last week, he and a third partner, Gabe Grossberg, reached a buyout agreement with Teitelbaum. “It was a tough decision,” Orbin said. “Aaron and I are great friends, even before the business, and we will be great friends.”
Teitelbaum agreed that Orbin’s departure was amicable. “It was time for the company to continue growing, but also a time to evaluate where everybody wanted to be,” Teitelbaum said. “Jeff and I have been best friends since we were kids. My passion has been restaurants. Jeff’s was design. He wanted to follow his passions a little bit more.”
Teitelbaum and Herbie’s executive chef Chris Ladley have been busy preparing for the April 1 launch of new menus for both the bistro and the dining room. The bistro menu will be primarily small plates, featuring anything from house-made sausages to cheeses to steak tartare to sliders. On weekends, diners can expect to see a chef at a raw seafood bar making fruits de mer platters.
The new dining room menu will feature upscale French-style cuisine, similar to dishes served at the 1904 World’s Fair. “We’re going to elevate the dining scene in our dining room,” Teitelbaum said. “We think there hasn’t been enough focus on fine dining; we think people are afraid of it.”
– photo by Brian Fagnani
This article appears in Guide to Beer 2014.