Step inside Mainlander Supper Club, now open in the Central West End (2024)

What was once a series of dimly-lit, clandestine pop-ups around St. Louis has now found a home in the Central West End: Mainlander, an American supper club, opened its doors this July, intent on giving its guests an experience they won't likely find elsewhere.

Entering the space on Euclid Avenue – situated just around the corner from Brasserie by Niche – has a transportive effect very few restaurants manage to pull off. The space has an instant familiarity to it, as if you’ve stepped into a friend’s dining room rather than one of the most anticipated restaurants of 2023. It's a likely result of chef-owner Blake Askew’s approach to the décor. “We’re very DIY and it shows, and that’s okay,” he says. He and his partner Gordon Chen have filled the space with artifacts from the now-shuttered Way Out Club and their own personal collection. A carved teak globe from Witco (famous for Tiki and teak wood-carved art and furniture, including a piece for the original Mainlander in Clayton) is a focal point. A lamp Askew spent months convincing a friend to sell to him sits atop the bar. Care is woven into every detail.

Mainlander's pop-up phase was Tiki-centric – a theme Askew says he’s modified over time. “We definitely have a little bit of the Tiki thing in our DNA, but we’re not a Tiki bar – we’re not really a bar at all – and we steer clear of that label, because there’s so much going on there,” Askew says. “We leaned into that during the pop-ups, but when it came down to actually opening the restaurant, we wanted to have the freedom to do more than that.”

A glance around the dining area will harken back to the Tiki vibe without resigning itself to it. The dramatic shift from sidewalk to restaurant is also by design and evokes the spirit of Askew’s favorite places in San Francisco, like Smuggler’s Cove and Forbidden Island. “There were like ten of these places there – these old school things," Askew says. "You might go into an alley or an unmarked door that you open and you’re like, ‘Whoa, this is a whole weird little world I never imagined existed here.’”

All these parts come together to form a whimsically comfortable space even first-time guests can relax into. It's intimate in size with just 18 seats (20 if you count the small sofa) and room for a handful more if needed. To the right is a large counter space that houses the bar area, the kitchen line and the pass, all of which overlook the dining area, which immerses diners in the action. Very little happens out of sight: The back kitchen is abbreviated with enough room to house essential equipment and not much more. This allows the entire team to spend the majority of the time interacting with the evening’s diners, spread out over two seatings – at 6 p.m and again at 8:30 p.m. – each night the restaurant is open.

The Backstory

Askew has been in the industry since high school, when he started in fast food. A vocal theater major in college, Askew quickly realized performing wasn’t the path he wanted to take long-term. After years of working front of house, he fell in love with cooking. A chance meeting with Casey Thompson – fresh off her time on Top Chef – led to a stage and immediate hire at Shinsei, where she was executive chef. A five-year stint at Wolfgang Puck in Dallas established his skillset. Time spent at Maybeck’s and Petit Crenn shaped and refined his culinary perspective.

That all came to a screeching halt in 2020: Askew was in New York at the time, tasked with opening a restaurant inside a multi-million dollar hotel in Union Square. He served one dinner – a menu presentation for hotel executives – before the pandemic shuttered the hotel, which remains empty to this day. After taking some time to breathe, Askew and Chen realized they both wanted something different. “We were doing it because we were able and we had the time, but we were searching a little bit,” Askew says. “It reminded me of how much I loved St. Louis, and we started to really look into [moving].”

Askew, who has family in St. Louis and spent time here as a child, also felt St. Louis would be ideal for opening his own restaurant. In San Francisco, there were endless costs and roadblocks: Here, there were opportunities. He and Chen eventually moved to St. Louis, where Askew staged for Ben Poremba before landing at Bulrush for a year. Bulrush owner Rob Connolly lent him the restaurant to get Mainlander pop-ups off the ground, a level of trust Askew notes isn’t as easy to find as people think. “One of the hardest things about doing pop-ups is finding a venue that works and having the cooperation of whoever owns that place," he says. "You see people running successful pop-ups and really getting their name out there by leaning on their friends a lot. I had only been in St. Louis for a year when we started doing the pop-ups … so it was a lot of knocking on doors and blindly going in and saying ‘Hey, I’m this guy you don’t know, and I would love to use your space and your insurance and your liquor license and it’ll be totally fine.'” Thankfully, Askew was able to find that trust in the former West End Grill & Pub space and at Pop’s Blue Moon.

With Mainlander, he says he’d like to pay that forward. “I want to be able to do that for other people,” he says. “Not to get too philosophical about it, but as somebody who’s been in the business for other people for a very long time and started from day one with the idea that I wanted to have my own place someday, the road blocks to that are numerous. And as you go along in this business, there’s so much gatekeeping, and it’s just not structured in a way which makes that available to everyone. It’s not a democratic system.”

The Setup

Although his list of ideas for the space is vast, he’s embracing the first phase as a time to settle into the concept. There are thoughts of offering different experiences in addition to the prix-fixe supper club menu, ideas for how members of his team and others can use the space during daytime hours or nights the supper club isn’t open. Ultimately, it’s about pulling a private concept out into the neighborhood. “I don’t want to be closed off from the neighborhood," Askew says. "I want people to know we’re here and say, ‘There’s always something going on there; we need to get in there,’ rather than, ‘They’re so exclusive.’”

While it is a supper club in name and there are reservations to secure, Askew wants Mainlander to form relationships with the community that extend beyond the evening. “It’s about the feeling that we want to create for people, the level of service that we want to have, and our desire to, over time, be able to personalize an experience," Askew says. "We really want to build relationships with our diners.” He hopes to create an ongoing conversation: a birthday mentioned, an upcoming graduation congratulated and so on. The menu will rotate, and Askew hopes that for guests, it becomes a place to return to often rather than save exclusively for special occasions.

The concept is prix fixe, and guests pay for their meal and optional drink pairings up front during the reservation process. There is no service fee; there is no upselling once you arrive. If you decide wine would be nice, the team will have bottles for that. Change your mind about the co*cktail pairings? You can add them in at dinner. But the idea behind paying ahead is a practical one for both parties: It allows guests to fully immerse themselves in the experience and gives the team a chance to perform their duties without interruption. The goal? A level of hospitality notches above what is typically seen in the industry, performed by a tightly knit staff that is actively present within the space for the duration of the evening.

There is also no tipping, and that isn’t up for discussion, according to Askew. He says he's firm on this for many reasons and views it is a complex and multilayered problem at all levels of the dining industry. “Everybody has opinions about [tipping] and strong feelings about it," Askew says. "... I believe it’s totally out of control, and I’m not alone in that.”

While some food industry workers rely on tips as part of their income, Askew makes a point to pay his employees a living wage himself. Askew is also quick to note that he doesn’t fault other small business owners for being on the tipping system. "I’ve worked within that system; I’ve benefited from that system in some ways as a young waiter, so I get it," Askew says. "But I choose to do [business] a different way because I think it is the right thing to do, and hopefully it works out well and we’ll be a positive influence in some way.”

The care for his team in this regard and others is evident: Chen performs general manager duties most evenings and handles reservations for the restaurant. In return, Askew helps Chen with hisprivate chiropractor practice in Dogtown. Askew refers to Chen as the one with good taste and a willing partner in his decade-long culinary journey. “He came along with me. He spent a lot of time at the restaurants I worked at, trying dishes and helping me and giving opinions," Askew says. "He was the other half of the pop-ups and getting all of this started. I could not have done it without him.” As for the rest of the team, one member will function as Chen’s counterpart on the floor while another will function as Askew’s in the kitchen. One additional person rounds out the five-person operation, who Askew says will be working towards being able to handle all stations with ease.

The Execution

Askew grew up in front of Julia Child: Her book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” was perched atop his mother’s kitchen counter at all times. The era of French cuisine landing on American shores along with a barrage of others formed what you see at Mainlander. “That’s where the whole Tiki thing lives; it’s a made-up fantasy to make you feel like you're experiencing something from faraway lands that gives you an escape from the day to day,” Askew says. The first menus are a result of his own life experience. “This is very personal for me," he adds. "That’s the only way I know how to get this started – as an inward journey.”

Each month, guests will see new, rotating menus, which gives Askew a chance to nail things down in his own space.The menus will gravitate around seasonality – repeat guests may notice little tweaks to dishes depending on what’s available.Askew plans to pull from what he calls his "greatest hits," which source inspiration from all of the places and dishes he’s loved through his years of cooking.

The business is organic on all levels: in design, in food and also in terms of the way the team will work and evolve over time.Askew is building a network of local farmers and vendors like Eat Here STL to supply meat and produce.Eventually, he wants to foster a space that encourages creative equity within his team. “It’s like giving birth to something,” he says.“We’re going to try to nurture [the restaurant] and care for it and love it every day, and hopefully it just starts to take on its own life.”

Mainlander, 8 S. Euclid Ave., Central West End, St. Louis, Missouri,mainlanderstl.com