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David Kirkland’s new restaurant, Turn, now open at the .ZACK in Grand Center

Longtime Café Osage executive chef puts a new spin on breakfast and lunch.

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We first thought Turn an odd name for a restaurant—too simple, too ill-defined—but once owner-chef David Kirkland explained the genesis, we realized it was the perfect name for his new restaurant, located on the ground floor of the .ZACK building (3224 Locust in Grand Center). It also lends itself to endless riffs: “Turning tables, turning things on the grill, turn up the heat, turn of the seasons, this place turns me on...” Kirkland says. “The restaurant associations were everywhere.”

Before moving back to St. Louis to head up Café Osage with fellow chef David Guempel, Kirkland was a dance-music DJ in San Francisco for six years. Cooking and music were major interests because “both involve the same motion," he says, "combining one piece with another to create something new.”

At Café Osage, he became known for several jams that he called his “slow jams,” eventually naming them after R&B songs and adding a record graphic to their jars. (Locals might also remember the pancakes, biscuits, bison burgers, and Brie LT’s.) Turn's full-service menu is divided into Side A (seven breakfast items), Side B (eight lunch items), and Liner Notes (six side dishes).

On Side A is the Quinoa Bowl, with spicy greens, ramps, and Ozark Forest mushrooms, topped with over-easy eggs.

Another breakfast offering is the Arepa, two Columbian corn cakes with chorizo (or vegetarian chorizo), chili verde sauce, two kinds of cheddar cheese, sliced avocado, topped with over easy eggs.

On Side B is Kirkland's Chopped Salad, with local red and green leaf lettuce, sunflower seeds, apples, lemon thyme vinaigrette, plus spring vegetables (mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, asparagus, and spring onions) all from local farms.

Also on Side B is the Tortilla Burger, a griddle-cooked patty with white cheddar and hatch chili peppers that's folded into a tortilla, put back on the griddle, and served with a side. (This month's version of the cauliflower bites are served Buffalo- style with homemade ranch sauce. (Prediction: this side dish will become a signature item.)

When Ken and Nancy Kranzberg were looking for a chef's presence in the corner building that the Kransberg Arts Center was developing on Locust Street in Grand Center, they decided to put Kirkland's catering company, David Kirkland Catering, on the ground floor of that space, knowing that a restaurant would likely follow. (Kirkland called the situation “a lucky turn of events.”)

The .ZACK building (named after the Kranzberg’s grandson) is a multi-use arts venue where performing arts organizations can work, collaborate, and perform. The four-story building includes a theater, offices, record shop, Sophie's Artist Lounge & Cocktail Club, and a large private event space (Urban Ballroom) with a panoramic view of the city. The space is also fully carpeted, a break from the bare concrete floor norm, which adds to the civility. At night, the space is available for dinner events and catering. For cocktail and passed-appetizer events, a wall of frosted glass panels swivels opens onto .ZACK’s copper-clad lobby (pictured above).

With a 72-album display along the main wall, Turn fits right into Grand Center's artsy addition. Kirkland calls the wall “a changeable mosaic, an art wall that shows who we are and what we like to listen to.” Kirkland could easily build a turn-themed playlist based on the name, from “Turn, Turn, Turn” to “Turn the Beat Around” to the KISS rocker “Turn on the Night.”

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Photo by Kevin A. Roberts

Turn

3224 Locust, St Louis, Missouri 63103

314-240-5157

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Breakfast/lunch: Tue–Sat: 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.; Sun: 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Dinner: Thu—Sat: 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.