Mike McLaughlin, owner of The Crow’s Nest, is launching another venture. His new business, Substance, will include a restaurant and a catering operation. The executive chef for Substance will be Jaxon Noon, the same chef who worked at McLaughlin’s now defunct Bleeding Deacon when it first opened.
Don’t expect Substance to be a resurrected Bleeding Deacon. Instead, Substance will offer what Noon described as “not a fusion, but a creative common ground between iconic American and rustic European-style meals.” Noon, who returns to St. Louis from Eugene, Ore., where he worked in restaurant kitchens, says dishes that illustrate this concept include fried chicken with roasted potato wedges, elevated with a poached egg, all perched in a chicken Dijon broth. Other examples include a tomato shortcake with rosemary drop biscuits, grape tomato compote and fresh heirloom tomatoes, finished with white pepper creme fraiche and a drizzle of molasses.
Substance, named for the album by postpunk band Joy Division, will launch its catering operations at the end of this month. Since a location is still in the works, Substance will run catering out of the kitchen at The Crow’s Nest. Once negotiations on a restaurant space have been completed, the catering will relocate there and the restaurant will open doors. McLaughlin hopes to see that by year’s end.
This article appears in August 2013.