Farmhaus’ Jake Sciales now helms Spencer’s Grill in Kirkwood

A Sauce One To Watch is stepping out on his own. Jake Sciales from the class of 2017 has left his position as head chef at Farmhaus to run the kitchen at Spencer’s Grill at 223 S. Kirkwood Road in Kirkwood. His last day at Farmhaus was Tuesday, June 5.

Sciales, who’s from Kirkwood, has joined forces with childhood friend Alex Campbell, who recently bought the restaurant from his parents. Campbell will handle the business side of things, while Sciales is in charge of the kitchen. This week marks Sciales' official start at Spencer’s.

“I’ve been poking around in the coolers and straightening things out, but this week is the first week I’ll be jumping on the line and doing some lunch specials,” he said.

Sciales and Campbell have been looking for a chance to collaborate.

“We’ve been talking for a while and wanted to try something new and open something, but it’s such a large leap,” Sciales said. “I thought to make the transition easier, I’d jump on at Spencer’s and we’d get the feel for that, and then hopefully down the road open something new, as well.”

Sciales said the Spencer’s Grille name will remain, as will the hours: 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.

Sciales said he doesn’t plan on making any radical changes to the menu initially. “I do want to kind of see what’s going on,” he said. “Right now breakfast is king here, so I’m not trying to mess with too much stuff there. Maybe just try to enhance a thing or two to make it more fresh or make it from scratch, but I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel.”

Lunch, though, might be ripe for bigger changes. “It’s my opportunity to change things up a little bit and maybe do some fresher and funkier things and have fun with some sandwiches and other things,” he said.

Sciales did most of the baking at Farmhaus for the last five years and said eventually he’d like to expand the kitchen and do baking in-house at Spencer’s.

“It’s definitely something that’s close to my heart,” Sciales said. “That’s definitely something that’s on the list, and something that I want to keep rolling with as one of my focuses.”

Matt Sorrell is staff writer at Sauce Magazine.