Half & Half -- the Clayton breakfast-and-lunch spot that The Good Pie's Mike Randolph opened this summer -- posted this tweet last week that piqued Off the Menu's curiosity:
"Im looking for a chef for a mexican rest, if you or anyone you know may be interested please let me know...everything from scratch."
We caught up with Randolph this afternoon, and he spelled it out for us: Starting early next year, Half & Half will offer Mexican food for dinner.
The new restaurant-within-a-restaurant will be called Medianoche, which in Spanish means "midnight" (and is the name of a popular Cuban roast-pork sandwich), but Randolph is taking a more figurative translation of "half at night."
"The idea is in line with everything else I've done," Randolph says. "I've always loved pizza, and I wanted to do pizza my own way, so I opened The Good Pie. I've always loved breakfast and lunch, so I opened Half & Half to do my take on that food.
"Hands down, my two favorite types of food are Mexican and Vietnamese -- and there's no way I'm opening a Vietnamese place," he says with a laugh.
As his tweet suggested, Randolph is looking for a chef who shares his "vision for and appreciation of regional Mexican cuisine." His plan is to keep Half & Half's current atmosphere and hours (7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun.), but allow for it to be completely retooled into its alter-ego -- Medianoche -- nightly for dinner.
"I want it to look and feel like a different restaurant at dinner," Randolph says. "The idea is for someone to be able to come in for breakfast at 9 a.m., then come back for tacos at 9 p.m. and not feel like they're in the same place."
In terms of menu items, Randolph says he hopes to have appetizers priced from $2-$9, including tableside guacamole served in a molcajete, chilled avocado soup with poached shrimp and cilantro; street tacos like "de cabeza" (from beef heads), lamb barbacoa and pork carnitas that will run about $8-$10 for three; and entrees from $12-$16 like pork chops, sweetbreads and red snapper.
Desserts might include Oaxacan Mexican chocolate ice cream, churros and sweet-corn flan. Look for homemade margaritas and a beer list that will encompass both American craft brews and traditional Mexican lagers.
Half & Half (and the forthcoming Medianoche) is located at 8135 Maryland Avenue in Clayton.
Evan S. Benn is the assistant editor of Go! magazine. He also writes about beer and food, and he is author of the 2011 Post-Dispatch book "Brew in the Lou: St. Louis' Beer Culture - Past, Present and Future," available here. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
