Chris Anderson — The Inns at St. Albans

Chris Anderson (0:00)

My oldest daughter will tell you that she was the reason that I got a Michelin star.

Lauren Healey (0:04)

Oh yeah? Because that's what she will tell you.

Chris Anderson (0:06)

So she will tell you that because when she was being born, that's when I decided to kind of take culinary, I think a little bit more serious.

Lauren Healey (0:13)

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Hello, welcome to The Sauce Podcast. I'm your host Lauren, and I am here with Chris Anderson, and he is leading the culinary team over at The Inns at St. Albans, which is just west of St. Louis. And Chris, can you just explain to everybody what that concept is?

Chris Anderson (0:55)

Well, it's kind of a multifaceted concept. So you kind of have, like, The Inns at St. Albans is a world-class destination, in kind of my point of view. And it's kind of a little hidden gem, almost like the Secret Garden. You kind of wind through roads, and it kind of opens up into kind of something I think is a little magical, even for St. Louis.

But we're the culinary team that has arrived, and we're hoping to kind of shake things up a little bit and bring to The Inns at St. Albans something special.

Lauren Healey (1:24)

OK, and so it's like a hotel and an event venue, correct?

Chris Anderson (1:28)

Correct. Yes, that's a good way to describe it, I think, overall. But it's kind of like, you know, you got little facets in there as well. So yes, it is a hotel, but you have multi, you know, kind of units there. You have a lodge that's kind of like more like a standardized hotel. You have a chateau. You have cottages.

So you kind of can, you know, create your own destination, if you will.

Lauren Healey (1:52)

OK, and there's a restaurant on property, is that right?

Chris Anderson (1:55)

There is. There's a couple. There's one that's open right now. This is the Head's Store, and it's an old general store that's been there for quite some time. It's got a lot of historic kind of, you know, charm that's in this area. And the Head's Store is like a general store. It's still, but just kind of upgraded. And we have food there as well. But it's more of kind of, you know, your normal kind of run of the mill sandwiches, salads, do a lot of barbecue there.

But we also do dry aged steaks. And we have a whole meat cabinet that we can cut prime tenderloin to whatever size you want. Six ounces, 10 ounces, 24 ounces if you wanted.

Lauren Healey (2:32)

Okay. Yeah. Okay. And then I know that you're working on a renovation at the barn, is that right?

Chris Anderson (2:39)

Yes, it's called the Old Barn Inn. And essentially it used to be the Old Malmaison Restaurant. And we're going to redevelop that in kind of early 2027

Main reason is just kind of do one project at a time and not take on to too much and we're kind of in development stages. But it will have a whole renovation and it will be kind of the world-class cuisine that's kind of coming there. More of like your fine dining destination versus your general place.

Lauren Healey (3:06)

Sure.

Chris Anderson (3:07)

Okay.

Lauren Healey (3:07)

And what's your vision for that restaurant?

Chris Anderson (3:10)

The vision right now is to really bring together, I think, something that's special and kind of, you know, I know that Datra, you know, which is the owner at the Inns at St. Albans, and, you know, she really loves, like, Byteberry Farms. And, you know, there's another one that's out of New York, that's ran by Dan Barbera. That same kind of concept kind of riddles, I think, to what she's trying to kind of accomplish here. And hopefully on the food side, we're trying to bring that. So, you know, for me, I really try to focus heavily on, you know, American cuisine and the seven nations that kind of make us us from German to Italian to Spanish to Native American and kind of bring all that together to showcase kind of what we do well here.

You know, barbecue is a big thing in St. Louis. It's a big thing in North Carolina, where I'm originally from, Texas. But you don't see that really anywhere else in the world. That's really kind of an Americanized thing. And then we've also taken things like paella from Spain and turn it in jambalaya from New Orleans. So we've taken black beans and rice and turned it into red beans and rice. So we have all those cultures that we're trying to kind of make what I think.