Edibles & Essentials on Hampton Avenue Is Closing

Chef/owner Matt Borchardt has a higher calling

Feb 8, 2023 at 3:19 pm

Mabel Suen

Matt Borchardt of Edibles & Essentials

Edibles & Essentials (5815 Hampton Avenue) is closing for good in the coming weeks. The beloved St. Louis Hills café and market will close after seven years of making the neighborhood impossibly delicious and drawing in foodies from across the area.

Chef/owner Matt Borchardt announced the closure today on Facebook, writing that it’s a bittersweet moment in his career as he closes one chapter in his life and opens another. Borchardt wrote that he considers “service to others and supporting our community” as his main motivations, and that’s why his next adventure comes as no surprise to regulars who adored him at Edibles & Essentials.

“Later this summer I get to begin that all over again for an organization that is very near and dear to our hearts. I’m happy to announce that in August I will be joining the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Saint Louis as its Executive Chef for the new Ronald McDonald House currently under construction at Chouteau and Tower Grove avenues in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood,” Borchardt wrote on Facebook, “Quietly over the last few years I have been involved in the design and development of the kitchen and meal program that will feed the 70-plus families staying at the new house on a daily basis.”

That’s right, the parents of sick kids will soon be the people who get to enjoy Borchardt’s culinary magic, and we think that's great. Hopefully all of the love that he puts into his food can be of some comfort to them.

For the rest of us, March 3 will be the last day of service at Edibles & Essentials, so plan your entire life around making time to pop in to grab some of those high-end desserts, amazing salads and famous French fries one last time.