The House Food and Tap in St. Joseph gears up for opening day
The House Food and Tap is opening doors for customers. Here’s a sneak peak inside the new business.
- The House Food and Tap, a new food hall, will open on Tuesday in St. Joseph.
- The food hall features four restaurants: Birdie’s Pizza & Garden Bar, Joetown Smashburger, 98 Hawaiian Grill and Eminent Coffee Roasters.
- Owners Craig and BriAnne Hern hope the food hall will become a community gathering space.
The House Food and Tap will be opening the doors to its new food hall Tuesday.
The food hall recently held a series of soft openings, giving some customers a sneak peak and the four restaurants’ new teams a chance to practice ahead of the big day.
“Watching these teams just shine, it’s been beautiful,” BriAnne Hern, who created The House with her husband Craig Hern, said. “I love our role of just kind of being in the background and supporting them … our hope is it frees up the chefs to do their beautiful artistry.”
Birdie’s Pizza & Garden Bar
Birdie’s Pizza & Garden Bar will be serving up several kinds of pizza, from a lemon ricotta option to its “Fire Bird,” which uses a buffalo chicken on a buffalo ranch sauce. All the pizzas are quickly cooked in the restaurant’s large, bedazzled oven.
The margherita classic pizza features a flavorful red sauce on a thin, Neapolitan-style crust. It is served on a golden tray and is a good size for splitting with a group of about two or three people or one very hungry person.
So far, the team of family friends has enjoyed getting to spend more time together, Chelsea Gauthier, one of the Birdie’s founders, said. The team is also excited about getting to finally bring customers into the space.
“All the hard work and investment you put in prior, and then you come here, you get to serve the people, and that’s the best part,” she said. “Coming out here and serving the community, and seeing everyone enjoy this space has just been super special.”
Joetown Smashburger
Joetown Smashburger’s straightforward menu includes a buildable smash burger and a veggie burger option, as well as fries and milkshakes. Because it is a “smash burger,” the patties are thin, yet flavorful, though customers looking for a more meat-heavy meal can size up to a four-patty burger.
The burger, based on chefs Erin Lucas and Mateo Mackbee’s popular burger at Krewe Restaurant, also features a fluffy bun from Lucas’ Flour & Flower Bakery and a creative twist on toppings. The burgers come with Swiss American cheese, onion and house pickles, which retain a strong cucumber flavor that complements the sandwich.
The final topping is Joetown Smashburger’s secret “special sauce,” which Lucas described as “Mateo in a sauce cup.”
“It’s tangy, it keeps you guessing of what is actually in there, it’s a little stubborn, it’s a little sweet,” she said.
98 Hawaiian Grill
Former Minnesota Vikings player Esera Tuaolo’s spot in the food hall, 98 Hawaiian Grill, offers a menu of unique Hawaiian flavors that stand out from other restaurants in the area. Customers can choose from plate lunches like kalbi ribs and teriyaki beef with sides like rice and macaroni salad, as well as tuna poke bowls.
The pineapple barbecue chicken blends sweet and spicy, with a hint of sweet pineapple coming through the grilled chicken flavors. Its sides of rice, greens and macaroni salad complement the chicken’s bright flavor and offer an additional taste of a typical Hawaiian meal.
Customers can watch workers cook the meat on the grill behind them, making it an engaging experience when waiting for food.
Eminent Coffee Roasters
With an extensive coffee menu from drip coffees, to lattes, matcha and other items, Eminent Coffee Roasters offers something for everyone. It also sells pastries from Flour & Flower Bakery and has a special menu, with items like a Samoa cookie latte, based on the popular Girl Scouts cookie.
The Samoa latte is sweet and comes in both hot and iced options, with caramel, mocha and coconut flavors hitting one’s tase buds. Straws are available if desired, but one can drink from the beverage’s sip-friendly lid.
Baked goods are also available, including cinnamon swirl, chocolate and butter croissants. The croissants are an option to satisfy the sweet tooth, and are easy to pull apart when taking a bite.
Opening days ahead
As The House’s team finishes its final preparations ahead of Tuesday’s opening, Craig Hern said the team is looking forward to the business becoming a “community gathering space.” The food hall has created over 50 new jobs in the area, with many of the positions filled by College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University students.
The bright, open space also features colorful artwork on the wall from St. Joseph artist Mary Bruno. The artwork incorporates community feedback on the food hall project into an art piece to represent the business and the community.
“That’s our hope, we just feel like community is better together, and this is a place, hopefully, where everybody can see themselves represented,” BriAnne Hern said.
The House Food and Tap will be open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at 13 Second Ave. NW, St. Joseph.
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