Watercolor by Marilynne Bradley

Redel's

Lee Redel grew up in Vinita Park and graduated from Normandy High School. He worked his way through an undergraduate degree and a master's degree in communications at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville by waiting tables. Then he taught for a time before realizing that food was his true love.

I invented the peanut butter and banana sandwich when I was 8 years old and my mother tried, unsuccessfully, to make me eat bologna, I always worked in restaurants when I was living in Collinsville and going to college. My first real career job was managing a store for Nelson's Landing.

I worked as a part-time bartender at Herbie's, where I met Herb and Adelaide Balaban, and that's how I got the job as front house-manager at Balaban's. I did all the hiring, set up all the parties for Balaban's from '79 to June '85.

Lee Redel (left) at Balaban's, 1979

When Lee Redel left Balaban's, he traveled extensively, wanting to see what types of restaurants existed in the moderately priced category. He saw a restaurant in San Francisco with crayons on the table and drawings on the wall, and watched business people coloring during their lunches. He liked the idea of tables covered in paper; it seemed clean, tidy and European.

I wanted to appeal to little people as well as senior citizens, and I thought drawing would give the little people something to do while mommy and daddy enjoy a drink.

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John Patrick Rice wanted to be an architect.

I wanted to be an architect ever since I was a little kid. But a lot of people don’t end up doing what they set out to do. Life sends you in different directions. I was in the food business to pay my way through college and it just took off.

I got started in the restaurant business at Balaban’s in the ‘80s. I was a maître d’ in the front of the house. That’s where I met Lee Redel, who was the general manager there at the time. I was going to school part time at Washington University and pursuing architecture as my career.

John Rice (right) at Balaban's, early 1980s

While at Balaban's, Rice was approached by Kim Tucci of the Pasta House Company.

He asked me to run his DeBaliviere and Pershing location doing take-out business. I was there for a couple of years working as an independent operator selling carry-out food. I had about 13 guys working for me, including drivers. It was a pretty good business. One day Kim asked me if I wanted to buy that store from him.

While Rice was considering the offer, he was approached by Redel about opening a new restaurant. The two leased Tucci's building at DeBaliviere and Pershing, and in November of 1985 – with fat crayons and paper covered tables – they opened Redel's restaurant in the former Pasta House space.
 

John Rice in front of Redel's
The Times of Skinker DeBaliviere, Nov, 1985
 
Redel's, 310 DeBaliviere
 
Redel's, 310 DeBaliviere

Redel's was busy from the moment it opened its doors; most nights customers had to wait to be seated. It was a fun place, with personality and character.

Rice used his training as an architect to design a look that utilized elements of post-modern and art deco for the new restaurant, including lots of chrome and glass. Rice and Redel contacted local galleries and asked them to hang art on the restaurant's walls on a rotating basis. Eventually, the work of eight artists was displayed at any given time. Rice also began collecting antique radios, which filled Redel's every nook. Rest rooms were called "JOHN'S" in foot-high neon letters.

After a fire in 1993, the restaurant was redecorated. Interior walls were rough-plastered in blues and greens. Adobe pink niches held decorative glass pieces, lit by skylights during the day and track lighting at night.
 

And, of course, there were white paper table coverings with boxes of crayons at each table for doodling or for creating masterpieces to hang on "The Great Wall of Redel’s." The wall at the north end of the L-shaped restaurant was literally layered with crayon art which had been created by neighborhood professional artists and other well-fed customers.
 

Lee Redel and John Rice
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug 30, 1987
 
The Great Wall of Redel’s

Redel and Rice decided to offer both little meals and fine meals. The food was simply prepared, with an unusual seasoning or two that kept customers coming back.

The menu was 1980s eclectic, with something for everyone. Appetizers included pâté, ceviche, fresh vegetables, crab Rangoon, carpaccio, mussels, oysters and a soup of the day.

Salads were à la carte, with a choice of chopped vegetable, Greek, spinach, Caesar or pasta. The chopped vegetable salad was a signature dish; it was a bit like coleslaw, with the addition of cheese for flavor and texture.
 

Redel's Chopped Vegetable Salad

Entrées ranged from pizza to lobster, with stops at fried chicken and prime rib in between. There were fresh seafood items every day, along with barbecued ribs, shrimp or chicken teriyaki, pasta and sirloin steak, either plain or au poivre. There was even Lee Redel's peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat bread, with a bit of honey.

Pizza was made with a very thin crust, with a choice of over two dozen toppings, including pineapple, spinach and artichoke; all of the ingredients were fresh. The fried chicken was tender and juicy, with a crisp, medium crust; the addition of crisp French fried potatoes made for an all-American meal.
 

Redel's Vegetable Pizza

Lee Redel priced menu items in increments of 25 cents, 50 cents or dollars.

I found in traveling that restaurant prices aggravated me. As though the public didn't know that $8.95 actually meant $9. I told myself I would never have 95 cents on my menu.

Dining out is a social occasion for most people. We want Redel's to be an easy place to come to enjoy yourself at moderate prices, with no need to get dressed up.

Lee Redel at Redel's, 1987

St. Louis Post-Dispatch restaurant critic Joe Pollack reviewed Redel's five times over seven and a half years.

A couple of recent visits brought meals that were generally enjoyable, despite some soft spots, and at prices that were on the moderate side. A 50-cent charge for bread and butter is, however, an irritant.

Lee Redel, who used to work at Balaban's, isn't trying to create a great restaurant but a pleasing one that caters to a varying clientele. In that regard, he seems to have come close to success.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan 30, 1986

You may charge that the menu has a yuppie touch, and maybe it does. I don't care for crayons and butcher paper on the table, but it isn't that important; the idea of pineapple on a pizza gives me cold chills, but some people may like it, and as a practicing liberal, I wouldn't get in their way. I just wouldn't order it myself.

St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct 20, 1988

The atmosphere at Redel's is loose and relaxed; service is very good and personnel often make fashion statements with their garb, which gives the establishment a vaguely '60s aura.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mar 20, 1989

When the stress level is high and the rumblings in the pit of the stomach demand comfort and relaxation – in addition to a good dinner – my usual response is to think first about Redel's. There is something about the restaurant at the corner of DeBaliviere and Pershing avenues that puts me in a good frame of mind.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov 15, 1990

Redel's is a restaurant that always has defied easy description. The cuisine is American, as long as we think of pizza, pasta and teriyaki sauce as American. Considering their long and faithful appearance on a variety of menus, I guess we can call them citizens. Fried chicken, barbecued ribs, veal liver, roast prime rib and salmon croquettes (Redel calls them "cakes," as in "vegetable cakes") are about as American as we can get.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jun17, 1993

On January 5, 1993, Redel's was damaged by an early morning fire. Redel and Rice lost 75% of their employees while they rebuilt. They pushed themselves to open within three months, but weren't capable of handling all the customers that arrived when they reopened. The crush continued for weeks. There were 35 new employees and it was difficult to handle the onslaught. Lee Redel knew customers weren't being served as they had in the past.

Reopening after a disaster is not like getting back on a bicycle. It is like opening for the first time. And I do thank the persistent people who continued to return to Redel's, knowing we would get back to normal.

In April of 1994, Rice and Redel opened Colorado, a spinoff restaurant at 3761 Laclede, just off the St Louis University campus. Like Redel's. Colorado emphasized creative recipes and tastes, but there was no overlap in the menus. Rice described the food as trendy modern, leaning toward Southwestern. The emphasis was on health, with less fat, less salt and lots of seafood.

Rice and Redel rotated back and forth between their two restaurants. Each did a little cooking at both places on weekends, while supervising the kitchen staffs and managing the businesses on other days. Colorado closed in April of 2001. Ironically, a Pasta House restaurant moved into the space.

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In early 1997, Mike Faille paid $800,000 to Lee Redel and John Rice for their restaurant; Faille would convert Redel's into another Talayna’s. On the two days after Redel's official May closing, Redel and Rice raised money for AIDS organizations and Food Outreach at the restaurant. Some of the famous crayon drawings were sold for $1000.

There were more spinoffs – Space on the Hill and Red-L Pizza on Clayton Road in Ladue. But Lee Redel and John Rice had captured magic in a bottle with Redel's, and that magic could not be recaptured.


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