{A classic film screening from a recent Movies for Foodies event, hosted by Tenacious Eats at Meyer’s Grove}
Chef Liz Schuster has been a bit preoccupied lately. She recently announced that Tenacious Eats, her unorthodox dining project aimed at foodie cinephiles, will open a permanent home at 4915 Hampton Ave., as reported by St. Louis Magazine. And its this new venture that led her west – way west – to study fry bread on Navajo and Apache reservations in Arizona.
The new location, slated to open in late May, will be as unusual as the Tenacious Eats concept itself, favoring a radical open kitchen layout where patrons will dine close to the action at chefs tables. A new breakfast and lunch menu will be a combination of Schuster’s German-inflected cuisine and new additions drawn from more eclectic sources –which leads us back to fry bread.
Schuster’s pastry chef Steve Schmidt had pushed hard to include the distinctive American Indian fried dough on the new menu, and she acceded on the condition that she learn straight from the source.
“I don’t want to do some crappy knock-off version. I want to know how (the tribes) make it,” she said. On the reservations, Schuster was taught how to handle the dough properly and what lard to use for frying. Authentic fry bread even demands a specific flour: Blue Bird, which Schuster has special-ordered from Colorado. “We’ll be utilizing fry bread for breakfast and lunch,” she said.
She plans to serve breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and brunch on the weekends. Look for a two-egg breakfast salad, blue cornmeal pancake made from hominy and a croque-monsieur (and its croque-madame variant), to name a few.
Weekend dinner service begins in July and will follow Tenacious Eats’ current dinner-with-a-show format that Schuster uses at her Movies for Foodies events at Meyer’s Grove. The weekly event features a themed, prix-fixe menu paired with a classic film screening for diners to take in while tucking in. Schuster, who has a film degree, has sampled widely, screening a variety of cinematic favorites from “Gremlins” to “Chocolat.” An upcoming lineup is devoted to the late Harold Ramis and will screen the comedy classics “Animal House,” “Caddyshack” and others.
Diners can purchase tickets to screenings Friday and Saturday nights at Tenacious Eats, though Schuster intends to continue cook at Meyer’s Grove Thursday evening. “I love being part of it,” Schuster said. “Having them walk in and experience the menu and the film together. I’m damned if I’m going to look like any other restaurant.”
-photo by Molly Rippinger
This article appears in April 2014.