At Vegan Deli and Butcher, St. Louis' mad scientist of vegan meat rides again
Whether the cevapi or hot salami here is “convincing” is immaterial. These are, simply, good sandwiches. At Vegan Deli and Butcher in Bevo Mill, St. Louis, chef and co-owner Chris Bertke has created a unique dish called vegan cevapi, a dish popular in the neighborhood where many St Louisans have been introduced to. Despite not having previously eaten traditional cevapas, Bertke successfully substitutions the dish for its meaty juiciness and savor. He uses somun bread (sourced from the market next door) with vegan butter to create a meaty, yet not greasy. The restaurant also serves a vegan take on the hot salami sandwich.
Published : a month ago by ian froeb, Ian Froeb in Lifestyle Science
At Vegan Deli and Butcher in Bevo Mill, you can order vegan cevapi in the neighborhood that over the past 30 years has introduced many St. Louisans to actual cevapi — where you can still find the stubby Bosnian beef sausages cradled inside freshly baked somun bread. Vegan Deli’s storefront near the Bevo Mill itself on Gravois Avenue was the original home of the terrific Bosnian restaurant J’s Pitaria.
Is Vegan Deli chef and co-owner Chris Bertke being deliberately provocative? You might think so. Bertke came to veganism through the punk scene, a familiar path. Vegan Deli’s logo, prominently displayed across one of the restaurant’s walls, depicts a cleaver-wielding pig chasing two people under the Gateway Arch.
Try the vegan cevapi, though, and you will understand the dish as a loving homage. I won’t claim the vegan sausages match the flavor and texture of the real thing, let alone improve on it, but they do come closer than I imagined possible, generously spiced and a little springy. The successful substitution is all the more remarkable considering Bertke has never eaten traditional cevapi.
Sausage presents a daunting degree of difficulty for a vegan chef. Whatever type of sausage you hope to replicate, animal fat is the irreplaceable driver of its succulence and savor. Bertke has engineered a clever workaround for Vegan Deli’s cevapi. He slathers the somun bread (sourced from the market next door) with vegan butter. This lends the dish a meaty juiciness without being greasy.
Bertke and co-owner Tamara Odle opened the Bevo Mill edition of Vegan Deli last fall. It operates as a counter-service sandwich shop for both dine-in and takeout orders. Bertke himself works the sandwich line behind the counter. To one side of that counter is a freezer with Bertke’s line of vegan take-and-bake pizzas. If you are planning to visit for a late lunch or early dinner, you should check the restaurant’s social media first to make sure it hasn’t sold out for the day.
Vegan Deli’s popularity isn’t surprising. Bertke had cultivated a following for his vegan fare well before its debut. I first encountered his cooking four years ago at Utah Station, a now-shuttered mostly vegan restaurant in Benton Park. In fact, I was writing my review of Utah Station when the pandemic arrived — a review I never finished.
After Utah Station, Bertke introduced the original brick-and-mortar Vegan Deli and Butcher on the lower level of a St. Charles retail business. That version closed after only six months. Since then, Bertke has staged pop-ups and for roughly two years was the executive chef of the small, national plant-based restaurant chain Native Foods.
In a phone interview, Bertke said he has returned to Vegan Deli following his corporate experience feeling more focused and more experimental, hence the new restaurant’s cevapi. That isn’t Vegan Deli’s only tribute to St. Louis. (Well, that and the murder pig under the Arch.) Bertke also serves a vegan take on the hot salami sandwich. I did separate some of this hot salami from its bread and garnishes to see how it approximates the meat at Gioia’s Deli and elsewhere on the Hill — like the cevapi, the warm spicing was in the ballpark; the texture wasn’t tender — but mainly I enjoyed this as a sandwich, on crusty-cushy bread with the sharp bite of pepperoncini and giardiniera.
This speaks to the challenge of an omnivore critiquing a vegan restaurant. I came of age as a food writer in the pork-drunk Aughts — murder pig is coming for me — and while I’ve grown to appreciate and enjoy vegan cooking, I’m not Vegan Deli’s primary audience. Whether the cevapi or hot salami here is “convincing” is immaterial.
Or consider the lobster roll, served chilled in the style of Maine on a toasted bun. Bertke has never eaten seafood in his life. (“Ever,” he said. “Ever. Never. Not once.”) For his imitation lobster, he has used hearts of palm and more recently artichoke hearts. He dresses this creamy lobster salad with paprika and green onions, a combination that evokes Old Bay and other seafood-boil seasonings. If the lobster’s texture doesn’t squeak as the true meat does, its buttery flavor still might prompt a little squeal of delight.
Topics: Food & Drink