In St. Louis, Stone Soup Cottage Will Deliver a Three-Course Dinner to Your Door, White Linens and All

Stone Soup Cottage may be one of the hardest restaurant reservations to nab in the St. Louis area – it can often take months. But now, the acclaimed restaurant will deliver a three-course meal right to your door.

The Cottleville, Missouri, restaurant has closed its dining room during the COVID-19 pandemic, but chef Carl McConnell is still setting out to serve fantastic dinners through Stone Soup’s new delivery program, dubbed Cottage to Carriage. For $150, you can have a three-course meal delivered to your door with a bottle of sommelier-selected wine. To bring the feel of the restaurant into your home, the restaurant will also drop off linens, candles and stemware for your meal and pick them up the next day. The price includes tax and a 20 percent service fee, which goes to the staff.

The current April menu, which runs through May 3, features housemade rolls; asparagus bisque with fresh crab and French gnocchi; smoked duck crêpes with brown butter and arancini; and a caramel flan to finish. Despite the change of venue, seasonality is still the focus. 

According to co-owner Nancy McConnell, the restaurant is running on a skeleton crew to bring its much-desired dishes to the area. Just five people are working on Cottage to Carriage, but she says it’s working. Nancy, for example, is doing the deliveries with some occasional help from her teenage sons, spending around 14 hours a day in her car. But she says that aside from keeping the restaurant alive, they are also helping to support their producers as well as the mom-and-pop linen company that they use. 

“We’re just trying to stay afloat so that we can pay our vendors and we can pay our mortgage and we can pay what employees we have now so that we’re viable when it’s time to open those doors back up,” she says. 

McConnell says that the goal isn’t to turn down anyone for the dinner delivery service, both because it’s helping to keep the lights on and because people are showing how much they appreciate it. She estimates that 98 percent of the pickups she does of the previous night’s stemware and linens include a handwritten thank-you note to the staff.

“We are so appreciative and grateful for everyone for wrapping their arms around this,” McConnell says. “We have a very strong business. We have a thriving business, and we are going to get through this.”

McConnell also wants people to know that if their restaurant can survive, it gives hope to others.

“If we can do it out in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road, that’s never had a to-go box in their life, and can still survive, it gives hope for other small businesses out there that are just putting their heads down and working extreme hours just to make it,” she says. 

The dinners are designed for two, but up to six people can be accommodated per order. Orders can be placed online and will be delivered between 4 and 7pm on the selected day. Delivery is available to St. Charles, as well as St. Louis city and St. Louis County. 

Stone Soup Cottage, 5809 Highway N, Cottleville, Missouri, 636.244.2233, stonesoupcottage.com

https://www.feastmagazine.com/st-louis/article_b16b63ae-72c7-11ea-b0dc-5f95162e3545.html