While I've been to Sugarfire Smokehouse a couple of times since they first opened five years ago, I've just not thought much about their barbecue like I do other barbecue places around St. Louis. But other people must really like Sugarfire because they now have five locations in the greater St. Louis area and a sixth location out in Washington, MO. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the original Olivette location for Sugarfire.) Since my initial visit to Sugarfire, I've heard from people both via e-mail ([email protected]) and in passing conversation that the burgers they sell at Sugarfire are worth the wait (instead of the cafeteria-style ordering that is done for barbecue). However, earlier this year, I heard that the owners of Sugarfire had opened up a place to showcase their burgers with no barbecue. While we were down spending some down time in St. Louis this past summer, we stopped in to have lunch at the Hi-Pointe Drive In.
I'm just gonna be really lazy here and basically cut-and-paste the background on the owners of Sugarfire Smokehouse and Hi-Pointe Drive In from my original Sugarfire entry -
Chef Mike Johnson started out his career studying at the New England Culinary Institute in Vermont. After graduating from there, he went to Europe to try his hand at cuisines served at restaurants in France, then he moved out to Napa Valley, then down to Los Angeles before settling in at the highly-regarded (and now closed) Charlie Trotter's in Chicago. Johnson then went to work for another celebrity chef, Emeril Lagasse at Emeril's in New Orleans.
Johnson settled in St. Louis and worked at a handful of restaurants before he ended up at Boogaloo as chef/owner serving Caribbean and Creole food. Johnson then sold his share in Boogaloo and went on to Cyrano's in Webster Grove working with Charlie and Carolyn Downs. Johnson eventually became a part-owner in Cyrano's, but he had other ideas for another restaurant.
Johnson decided that he wanted to get into barbecue and he began to travel to New York to learn more about that city's exploding barbecue scene. Eventually, Johnson went down to Georgia to study under legendary pit master Myron Mixon who heads Jack's Old South Barbecue cooking school that takes place once a month over a long weekend at Mixon's home.
With barbecue in his blood, Johnson then found a location in the Olivette area of St. Louis that used to house a former Dickey's Barbecue franchise that had gone out of business. He went out and bought a smoker - the same smoker that Pappy's Smokehouse uses (click here to see my entry on Pappy's). And along with Carolyn Downs who was in charge of making pies, cookies and pastries for the new endeavor, Sugarfire Smokehouse opened in the fall of 2012.
As I said, Johnson and Downs now have six Sugarfire locations (as well as Sugarfire Pie which is right next to the original location on Olivette), but it was the clamoring for their burgers that made them look into opening a burger joint with no barbecue. Their burgers are flat-grilled, and are a blend of grass-fed brisket, chuck and boneless short rib. For sometime, Johnson had his eye on a building that used to be a former Del Taco just off I-64 (or 40 Highway, to the locals) in the Hi-Pointe neighborhood just south and west of Forest Park. (Previous to that, the building had been a drive-in restaurant.) At first, he wanted to put a hot chicken place there, but when a couple hot chicken places opened in St. Louis, he decided to put in an off-shoot of Sugarfire's award winning burgers. Hi-Pointe Drive In opened in early January of this year.
The outside of the building is rather unique and visually striking. Architect Tom Cohen did sort of a reverse contemporary industrial look to the building by using recycled shipping containers on the facade of the building.
We pulled into the parking lot at Hi-Pointe Drive In around 1:30 in the afternoon and promptly found that it was full. We ended up parking on a side street behind the restaurant located at the corner of McCausland and Ethel, very near where Clayton, McCausland, Skinker and Oakland all meet up, and in the shadow of the largest Amoco sign in the world. (see map) There was a nice little patio out front with an arched awning covering it. Up a couple steps next to the patio was a small dining area that was made out of a shipping container.
Inside the restaurant, we found a sort of contemporary industrial decor with wooden high-backed booths and a series of wooden tables and chairs. It wasn't a large place, but it wasn't like people were on top of one another either.
The drill for ordering at Hi Pointe starts at the front counter with the menu on boards above the prep area. The burgers are flat grilled and feature hormone and antibiotic free grass fed-raised and grain-finished beef from Creekstone Farms in Kansas. There's really only one burger on the menu and you can get different toppings on it, but they do have a signature taco burger that was created in conjunction with the Mission Taco Joint in St Louis. For the health conscious, they have a turkey burger and a veggie burger for vegans.
They also have a number of sandwiches to choose from on the menu including a turkey club, a roast beef sandwich, and a hot salami sandwich that featured Genoa salami and soppressata and topped with a spicy giardiniera and an Italian dressing. They also had a handful of salads such as a chef salad, a grilled salmon salad and a Caesar salad. A kids menu is also available at Hi Pointe.
I got a double Swiss cheese and bacon burger with lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles. I got a side of fries to try out with the burger. I knew I wouldn't eat many, but my wife wanted some, too. The burger was served on a grilled potato bun that Hi Pointe gets from Fazio's Bakery located just across Interstate 44 from The Hill in St. Louis. The toppings were all very fresh, the bun was spongy and the burger patties were juicy and delicious. This was, indeed, a very good burger. And it went very well with the City Wide American Pale Ale from the local 4 Hands Brewing Co. they had available from the list of craft beers served at Hi Pointe.
My wife got the single burger with provolone cheese on it. For her side she got the roasted Brussels sprouts, a staple in her diet as of late. She, too, thought the burger at Hi Pointe was very good. She especially liked that they provolone slice was thick and gooey, melted precisely on top of the burger.
The people at Sugarfire Smokehouse saw the potential to focus on their very good burgers and that's how Hi Pointe Drive-In came to be. With a burger/sandwich centric menu and a good selection of craft beers, Hi Pointe has quickly become one of the more popular new spots in St. Louis. We were both very impressed with the burgers we had and my wife was happy that they had roasted Brussels sprouts as a side. About the only negative thing that popped out at us was the somewhat cold and surly attitude we received from the guy we ordered our burgers from. But other than that... There's a lot of good burger places in St. Louis and Hi Pointe is definitely one of the better ones in the area.
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