4 Hens Creole Kitchen joins Food Hall at City Foundry lineup

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4 Hens Creole Kitchen has joined the vendor lineup at the Food Hall at City Foundry. The restaurant opens Monday (Jan. 24) at the five-month-old Midtown venue.

4 Hens is a partnership between two married couples, Brandi and Brittany Artis and Brittani Gardner-Evans and Ebony Evans.

“We are a Black, queer restaurant that is women-owned here in St. Louis,” Brandi Artis tells Off the Menu.

Artis is 4 Hens’ executive chef. The Kansas City native first cooked professionally as a teenager at Godfather’s Pizza and later attended both culinary and bartending school. More recently, before relocating to St. Louis with her family, she operated a culinary business in Chicago for 4½ years.

That business was known for its street taco pop-ups in bars and clubs, Artis says, but she also catered larger events such as brunches where she would include Creole-based fare.

At 4 Hens, appetizers on the online menu include fried green tomatoes and the Slapp’n Shrimp (sauteed with Creole spices and sauced with remoulade).

Among the main courses are po’boy sandwiches (andouille, chicken, shrimp or fried green tomato); shrimp and grits with smoked gouda cheese grits and Creole cream sauce; and the Big Easy, fries with mozzarella, Creole cream sauce and your choice of andouille, chicken, shrimp and crawfish.

In lieu of gumbo, Artis offers succotash soup, with okra, tomato, lima beans and corn: “I didn’t want to have gumbo because you do have a lot of Creole restaurants here in St. Louis, and so this is my modern twist on traditional Creole cuisine.”

Chez Ali proves long-anticipated Food Hall at City Foundry worth the wait

Ali Thiam serves a small but appealing selection of Senegalese, Ivorian and Afro-Caribbean fare at his Food Hall kitchen.

Artis and her partners had looked at other commercial spaces before the Food Hall at City Foundry caught their interest.

“I love architecture, and I love industrial design and industrial buildings, and so to be in this type of building, with such history, was something that I was like, ‘Oh, my God … I want in,'” she says.

For all her restaurant and kitchen experience, 4 Hens’ opening this week marks Artis’ debut as a restaurateur.

“This is literally a dream come true,” she says. “And I could not be happier.”