Now Open: St. Pierre Steak And Seafood Restaurant
Isaac Becker and Nancy St. Pierre, owners of Bar La Grassa, 112 Eatery and the now former Snack Bar, had a problem to solve.
Despite a loyal core of customers, sales at Snack Bar were lagging on weeknights. And meanwhile, they still had customers mourning the COVID-era closing of another popular restaurant, Burch Steakhouse in Lowry Hill.
Their solution: combine the best of both Burch and Snack Bar while adding some seafood items. And the result is the brand new St. Pierre Steak & Seafood in the space where Snack Bar used to be.
“We super excited,” St. Pierre said at the grand opening March 11th. “We’re actually seeing old regulars from Burch the first night so that’s really awesome.”
The interior is virtually unchanged while the menu now features seven steaks, 20 seafood items and several of the most popular items from Snack Bar’s menu.
“We got to design this space when it opened (as Snack Bar) so it felt fine to just keep it the same,” St. Pierre said. “Everyone tells me it’s more like a steakhouse than it was a snack bar—the coloring in the booths and stuff, so maybe it was just meant to be this.”
It was a very quick turnaround to make the transition. Snack Bar closed March 1st and the new restaurant welcomed its first guests ten days later.
“We had to demolish the pizza ovens, and then we had two new ovens brought in and a char grill,” St. Pierre said.
She said it took some coaxing to have a restaurant named after her. “I got tricked,” she said with a laugh. “Isaac decided to send it to three of our friends that he trusts and told them the whole story of why he wanted my name and then they said yes, that was the right decision. And then they went to convince me.”
St. Pierre Steak & Seafood is in the TractorWorks Building, 800 North Washington Avenue.
By Mike Binkley, North Loop volunteer
