Brandi Artis describes her restaurant, Simply Delicious (1115 Pine Street, 314-802-7287), as a reflection of her on a plate. If you take the Bougie Breakfast Sammy as a point of reference, this means Artis is a complex, multi-layered delight who brings joy to anyone who encounters her.
The sandwich — a master class of sweet and savory — begins with two butter-soaked slices of griddled sourdough bread that are slathered with fig jam and stacked with slices of thick bacon. Luscious Brie cheese melts over the bacon, and an over-easy egg, when bitten, provides a rich, yolky sauce that gets into every nook and cranny of this daytime masterpiece.
For Artis, the desire to share such deeply personal dishes as the stunning Bougie Breakfast Sandwich has been brewing inside her even before she opened her first St. Louis restaurant, 4 Hens Creole Kitchen. Though she and her wife, Brittany, came to St. Louis in order to open the Creole restaurant inside City Foundry, Artis always knew it was just one of the endeavors they hoped to share with their new hometown. That's how she's been operating her entire culinary career. A Kansas City native, Artis attended the University of Missouri-Columbia to study elementary education and child psychology for two years, then realized it wasn't her path. Food had always been a passion of hers, so she left Mizzou to go to both culinary and bartending schools and worked her way up through kitchens around Kansas City while running her catering business, Simply Delicious.
After several years in the business, Artis left Kansas City and the restaurant industry and moved to Chicago to pursue a career in retail. She worked in that field until a family emergency made her rethink her path. Her and her wife's son was born at 27 weeks and one day, weighing in at only one pound. His health was fragile in the early months of his life, so Artis left her paid job to be a full-time mom and pursued real estate in order to have more flexible hours. It didn't turn out that way; the Chicago real estate market proved to be a high-intensity business that took her away from her family more than she wanted. In need of balance, Artis brought back Simply Delicious, operating out of bars and clubs and taking on catering clients with much success.
Though things were going well with Simply Delicious, the Artises decided to move to St. Louis in order to be closer to family (Artis' family is in Kansas City, while Brittany's parents are in St. Louis). In researching how to make the move work, they came across the City Foundry opportunity, and sketched out a plan for 4 Hens Creole Kitchen with their then-business partners that was based on the popular Creole brunches Artis prepared for her Simply Delicious clients.
4 Hens opened last January to instant acclaim, but that would not satisfy Artis. Still intent on opening another restaurant that would paint a fuller picture of her culinary style, she signed a lease on a downtown building last St. Patrick's Day — Brittany's birthday — and got to work converting the space into Simply Delicious, which opened on August 31 last year.
If you've dined at 4 Hens inside City Foundry, you are already well-versed in Artis' explosive flavors. These proved to be the tip of her culinary-prowess iceberg. Salmon croquettes, served on the breakfast side of the menu alongside eggs, potatoes and toast, are flecked with zesty herbs and bound together by just enough cornmeal to give texture to the otherwise 99 percent salmon fritter. Piquant remoulade sauce, served on the side, provides a sharp counter to the croquette's richness. Paired with a side of her chimichurri, feta and crème-fraîche-covered papas bravas breakfast potatoes, it's a vibrant start to the day.
Croffles, a glorious marriage of a croissant and a waffle, are another successful breakfast offering. Bearing the shape, iron markings and golden exterior texture of a waffle, this outstanding hybrid features a pleasantly yeasty, multilayered interior that captures the essence of a Parisian croissant. As stunning as the main event was, I found myself positively giddy about the accompanying soft-scrambled eggs; so fluffy, custard-like and plated up at the instant they began to set up, these are the Platonic form of what a scrambled egg should be (credit must be given to Elcid Strickland and Eve Hill, the cooks on the line the day of my visit, for their flawless execution).
Artis and her team are equally adept at lunchtime offerings. An appetizer of goat-cheese fritters, the Got Goat, encases the silken cheese in a crispy, seasoned breading; when deep-fried, the goat cheese becomes almost liquidy, yet is somehow still contained by its flaky shell. Hot honey sauce counters the decadence. This same condiment is featured on the It's Hot, Honey, a spicy chicken sandwich that puts all others in the genre to shame. Here, a well-seasoned fried chicken breast is smothered in 4 Hens VooDoo Queen Sauce, a mouthwatering glaze that hits every palate point with spice, tanginess, richness and even a little sweetness. Melted pepper jack cheese covers the chicken, which is then drizzled with hot honey, housemade ranch and outstanding sliced pickles that have the slightest hint of curry.
A riff on surf and turf, Simply Delicious' Bad and Bougie pairs a beautifully seasoned (and flawlessly cooked to medium rare, as requested) beef burger patty with Cajun-seasoned grilled shrimp and zesty remoulade sauce. I was worried this might be over the top but was dazzled by how well the flavors of the beef, shrimp, sauce and those delightful curry-scented pickles interacted. Also surprising was the fact that the burger is not as messy as anticipated. Strickland and Hill put just enough sauce and shrimp on the sandwich for impact without turning the dish into a knife-and-fork endeavor. It's an impressive feat.
Artis shows her artistry on more straightforward dishes, too. The Little Miss Bougie, a salad of shaved brussels sprouts, craisins and orange segments, is accented with sliced almonds and goat cheese, then topped with a perfectly cooked filet of candied salmon (shout out again to Strickland and Hill for nailing that salmon temperature). Cilantro honey vinaigrette adds such a delectable sweet zest I found myself dipping anything I could find in it. Artis' shakshuka is equally vibrant. Drawing on the Lebanese side of her heritage, the chef has concocted a beautiful daytime dish of warmly spiced tomato sauce and herbs; its rustic texture serves as a base for poached eggs, feta cheese and cilantro.
That shakshuka is positively soulful, the sort of dish you taste and understand that the person preparing it has done so not simply to serve a good meal but to give the ones they love a piece of themselves. That Artis has made this approach the entire construct of her restaurant means we get to share in her passion on every single plate — not simply a delicious experience but a privileged one, too.
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