August 31, 2005
Last Days of August
Truly, as we hear Restaurant August in Clayton is getting ready to close. Chef August Mrozowski, who's had a long run at his joint in Springfield, Illinois, apparently was not successful in transferring a winning formula to the former 12 North (and before that, Café Mira) space. Surely something should thrive in that spot?
UPDATE: Thanks to eagle-eyed reader (and August investor? :) Scott's notes in the comments below, we can tell you that August is alive and serving in Clayton.
UPDATE #2: Per info in Deb Peterson's column today (March 1, 2006), August has finally succumbed and will be taken over again by restaurateur Mike Johnson, of Boogaloo and Barcelona fame.
Doesn't sound like Restaurant August is closing to me. This article was published Sunday, December 25, 2005 in The State Journal Register.
AUGIE’S FRONT BURNER and owner August Mrozowski are saying “welcome back” to chef Jean Carols Briganti (known as JC). Briganti completed additional culinary training at Le Manoir School in Chantilly-Gouvievx, France, 20 miles north of Paris. He finished with the top scores in his class, which consisted of 12 weeks of training with six master chefs from France.
He will be incorporating new dishes and desserts at Augie’s Front Burner and at RESTAURANT AUGUST in Clayton in St. Louis and AUGUST EVENINGS catering company.
Briganti, originally from Venezuela, has been working with Mrozowski for two years.
“I was in Spain visiting my mother, looking on the Internet, and I found this school, which happens to be one of the best schools in Europe,” said Briganti. “In 12 weeks, we did six months worth of work.
“It was all about French cooking, very classical. Every morning we went to school and did everything from cutting vegetables to making stocks and doing meats, mostly lamb, duck and veal. On Fridays, we did pastries. I’ll be incorporating new things at Augie’s, changing things every couple of weeks. We’ll be making everything from scratch.”
Your original post was created back in August 2005 and it's now almost January 2006 and the restaurant is still open and brisk with business.
You really shouldn't post rumors or untrue and unverified information. This only serves to hurt successful businesses. Especially restaurants in an already risky business.
Thanks for the info, Scott: you're right that August is still in Clayton...however, our original info came from the chef himself, so though it ended up being untrue, it wasn't really what you'd call "rumor." Sorry to say that lots of what ends up being the real news starts out as pass-along information! But of course, we'll do our best to keep it accurate!
Did you have a good meal there lately?
Posted by: miss cherry at December 31, 2005 04:01 PM