Beignet All Day opens storefront inside Urban Eats in south St. Louis
Beignet All Day, the popular beignet bakers that you may have seen at your local farmers markets, opened a storefront in the marketplace at Urban Eats, Dutchtown’s shared kitchen and marketplace at 3301 Meramec St., on Feb. 1. A grand opening is slated for Feb. 21, Fat Tuesday, in honor of the restaurant’s New Orleans roots.
First launched in June 2022, Beignet All Day found its niche in offering “a New Orleans treat with a St. Louis twist.” The twist? Savory beignets, such as their black pepper and Parm beignet, which features toasty black pepper and green onion dough topped with red sauce, Parmesan and green onions. Traditional sweet dough serves as the base for sweeter flavors like strawberries and chocolate, apple pie or an amalgamation of toppings of your choosing. Dough is freshly made in-house, often rolled, sliced and fried to-order. If that alone isn’t enough to give patrons a real taste of New Orleans, Beignet All Day also offers chicory coffee, the signature beverage of the Big Easy.
Inspired by the incredible beignets they ate on a recent trip to New Orleans, owner Joe Lamprich and his fiancé Jennie Sloss determined that the French pastries were too good not to share with fellow St. Louisans. “We couldn’t believe there wasn’t a place to get a fresh beignet and chicory coffee in St. Louis, especially since we’re the sister city to New Orleans,” Sloss remarked.
The couple decided to take matters into their own hands, selling almost exclusively at farmers markets and private events until moving into the Urban Eats space at the top of the month. The more permanent space provided room to add New Orleanian touches, such as French café seating for four and a wall of colorful restored shutters to the cozy, roughly 280-square-foot seating area. Additional seating space is available in the larger Urban Eats marketplace. Expanded kitchen space also increases production capabilities, enabling Lamprich and Sloss to dream up new future flavor ideas, such as beignets and gravy, a twist on the classic breakfast dish, and eventually expand into online ordering.
However, despite its increased production capabilities, Sloss noted that Beignet All Day is taking it slow when it comes to growing out its business. “We decided to start small and focus on making sure we produce a high-quality product,” she said. “What’s so nice about that is it opens us up to listening to our customers. We’re doing things like crowdsourcing for ideas on our Facebook page and listening to what our customers like and don’t like. It’ll help us in the long run.”
For now, Beignet All Day will continue to vend at Tower Grove Farmers’ Market and Kirkwood Farmers’ Market. The storefront at Urban Eats is open from 7 a.m. to noon Monday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, with special hours for the grand opening event, which will take place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
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