Sneak Peek: Herbst Eatery & Farm Stand

A little bit of farm and optimism in the city.

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There's a kind of finger-waggling joy when someone buys an old building in their own neighborhood and restores it with love and respect. It's like: oh, that's how this is supposed to happen, build your community FOR your community. Yeah, I'm an optimist, we knew that. 

But so are Jörg and Angie Pierach. In 2019, they bought the building that has quietly been promising HERBST FOOD MARKET for ages while sitting vacant on Raymond in the South St. Anthony Park neighborhood. I like to think of this part of town as a little bit Minneapolis, a little bit St. Paul (you have to make sure you're using the right parking meter app.) In the middle of the two cities, it is weirdly residential AND industrial, managing a small town feel even as more and more condos are being built around it. And the public mural game is strong. Already home to Foxy Falafel, Dual Citizen Brewing, Hackwith Design, and the very under-the-radar Hampden Park Co-op, it's a neighborhood feeling itself. 

The Pierachs have lived in South St. Anthony Park for almost 20 years and decided they wanted to open a neighborhood restaurant they could walk to (RIP Chet's Taverna which they loved long ago). Jörg, who founded Fast Horse agency, is no stranger to the ups and downs of neighborhood eateries: he co-owns Tilia in Linden Hills with Steven Brown. Angie has been a Ramsey Middle School teacher and a stay-at-home mom, this is her first gig as a restaurant owner. Optimists!

Herbst Eatery & Farm Stand is the restaurant they want to eat in. Small, locally focused, simple, high-quality, and farmy. The true inspiration came from a farm stand in the Driftless area near their own hobby farm. "This farm stand is amazing," Jörg told me, "it's full of everything from these small family farms all over the area. You run over, see what ingredients are available, and that's what you're making to eat that day. People gather there, swap news, gossip about each other all while getting the best food this region is growing. I mean butter, lamb, organic vegetables, eggs, so much stuff all year 'round."

In fact, during the "down time" between purchasing the building in 2019 and now, the Herbst team has worked with a few of the local farmers in that area to help them create a cooperative of young farmers now known as The Dover Producers. "Of course we wanted to use their great ingredients at Herbst, but it was more than that. On their own, many of them were struggling to make a living on their farm. They gave up milk during the collapse and we didn't want to see them give up the farm to get logging jobs or something. Bringing them together as a collective makes them stronger, they work together to figure out who's growing what. It's actually one of the most gratifying parts of all of this. They're now working with the Wisconsin Growers Cooperative which already brings produce to our local co-ops, including Hampden Park, so it's easy to get here." The Dover Producers use only organic practices on their farms and are driven to sustainably and ethically raise animals for non-GMO lamb, beef, and pork. 

Executive chef Eric Simpson has been on board for more than a year, which has allowed him to really get to know the farmers from Dover. He's already working with them on planning for future harvests, getting the produce and ingredients he wants to play with on the menu. While Simpson is a relatively new Minnesotan (a transplant by marriage), he's been around a kitchen or two. He did a stint at The Elm in Brooklyn under chef Paul Liebrandt, and with chef Missy Robbins, first at A Voce and then as Chef de Cuisine at Lilia. He's joined in the Herbst kitchen with Chef de Cuisine Ingrid Norgaard, who's worked at Tilia, Petite Leon, and The Ole Store Restaurant in her hometown of Northfield. 

"So there are two things that I would say encompass the big picture of the food we're doing, and that's relationships and sourcing," Simpson said. "Three quarters of the menu right now, I can tell you on a personal basis, who produced the ingredients. The effort in sourcing and building those relationships is one of the core tenets of everything we do. And then, from there, the ingredients are really speaking to which direction we go with it." Simpson noted that the farm community, and the restaurant community on the whole has been welcoming and more hospitable that he was expecting, coming from New York where if you found a great grower you worked hard to keep it a secret. "Actually the hardest thing I'm getting used to, is this version of spring. My brain still works on the Hudson River Valley version of spring and this is ... yeah. There's ice on my driveway and the AC's on." He moved here, so: Optimist!

We got an early look at some of the plates they are working on. Smashed radishes with red pepper vinaigrette, a simple bowl of mushrooms and peas in goats milk, and cauliflower with a burnt eggplant purée all showcased the big, bright flavors that they want to pull from vegetables. Simple, but big. 

A bright green spicy pesto lumache pasta came riddled with lamb sausage, and a pork steak with clams and charred onions was a fresh take. Pork and clams are often paired together in dishes around the world, but rarely seen in unison like this on local menus. Look for such items as blistered snap peas with pecorino, ricotta gnocchi with chanterelle, walleye with piquillo braised kale and anchovy to be on the initial dinner menu. Dinner prices range from $8 to $35.

There is a full bar in the space, and the ladies of Zenksa Glava have been helping with the menus. The wine list aims its love toward small producers and really wants to be fun, approachable, and full of discovery for wine drinkers. The main goal is to work in evolution with the kitchen. Bottles range from $44 to $200, with wines by the glass from $11 to $25.

The cocktail menu really reflects the current state of innovative drinking. There are 15 drinks on the menu living in categories according to their flavor profile: Mineral, Bitter, Funky, Earthy, and Seasonal. Within each category are three versions: full proof, low proof, and no proof. They aren't merely the same drink adjusted for levels of alcohol, but three different but similar mixes meant to evoke the same flavor. In the Earthy collection, above, the full proof has both tequila and mezcal with sumac, the low proof removes the tequila but adds gentian and dry vermouth to the mezcal and sumac, and the no proof brings in sparkling green and lapsang teas to pair with the sumac. Each drink fully stands on its own, but there is a beautiful harmony amongst them. 

So what of this farm stand? The Pierachs have taken over the space next door that was once Succotash Vintage. They have adjoined the buildings and created an alley between them which will act as the main entrance to both. This side space is anything but an afterthought, seeing as the whole endeavor was inspired by a farm stand. They are renovating the space with original shelves from the OG Herbst Food Store, and plan to sell some of the local farm produce featured on the menu, as well as specialty items from local makers, and treats from their own kitchen. "We'll do some bakery and coffee in the morning," Angie told me, "and eventually have some grab-and-go here, but you'll be able to get things like pickles, apple butter, our ice cream sandwiches, and we'll have items like the bowls from Kevin Caufield who lives in the neighborhood and made our plateware. But then in the evening the space could turn into private dining. We can arrange it with tables down the center for another option for groups."

Herbst means autumn in German, the time for harvest, which seemed like a calling to the Pierachs. And the fact that the 1920s building was a grocery and meat market serving the neighborhood for decades feels right, too. They are hoping to open in a few weeks, the first half of May, with dinner service seven days a week. Weekends will eventually offer brunch as well, and there's a nice little outdoor patio with about 40 seats around the back which they hope to use this summer. Look for this to be first-come-first-serve for the 14 seat bar, with reservations and limited walk-in availability for the 65 dining seats. The restaurant will also institute a 21 percent service charge in lieu of tipping.  

Does it all feel so optimistic? Shouldn't every new endeavor? Though it seems to me like this team wears its optimism like a pair of work boots, ready to dig into the dirt. Take THAT you Hudson River Valley spring.