Written by Jordan Michelman.
We focused on handmade goodness last month here at La Marzocco, and there’s no shortage of great American cafes that pride themselves on taking a handmade approach to everything they do. From syrups and baked goods to elaborate lunch programs and utterly seasonal signature drinks, there’s something profoundly pleasurable about this approach to building a cafe menu.
LM USA team member Chad Little is super connected to the coffee scene in St. Louis, and when I asked him to recommend a couple of cool cafes to check out doing things the small batch way, he didn’t hesitate to point me toward Fiddlehead Fern, located in the Shaw neighborhood of STL. Owner Darcy Heine is a lifelong resident of this part of the city, and she’s got serious coffee chops, having worked previously for seminal St. Louis roaster Kaldi’s Coffee, as well as the very well-regarded Georgia company PERC Coffee. She launched Fiddlehead in 2017 with a vision and a mission—and today, they’re embodying the very best of a homemade ethos in the cafe space, with a Modbar system along for the ride.
To learn more, I spoke with Darcy from her home in St. Louis.
Hi Darcy, thanks for chatting with me! I was excited to learn about your business on the recommendation of Chad Little from La Marzocco—and I’ve since gone down the rabbit hole looking at all your gorgeous food and drinks on Instagram. As an introduction for a reader who might not be familiar with Fiddlehead Fern, tell us about what you do there.
Fiddlehead is a women-owned and operated café in St. Louis, Missouri. It opened in 2017, with the simple concept of being a neighborhood coffee shop and gathering place, while thoughtfully incorporating local ingredients and handmade items in a space where women’s voices and opportunities in the world of coffee are elevated.
The idea of “handmade” seems like it’s at the core of everything you do — tell me a little bit more about what that means in terms of your food program, your drinks program, and your approach to running a cafe.
Everything we do at the café is a reflection of our love for our community, and to us, this is shown in the attention we put into using quality ingredients and making almost everything from scratch.
We use beans from PERC Coffee out of Savannah, Georgia, a local farm for our dairy, and we make all our syrups and some alternative milks in-house. Our homemade syrups have also been a fundamental part of elevating our cocktail menu. Our juices are made in-house from fresh produce and nothing more. Our bakery includes croissants, cookies, cakes, and scones, among other items, that our bakery team works hard to build and implement with consistency. Some favorites include the Pistachio Croissant and our Sweet Potato Ube Cookie.
Our full menu offers open-faced toasts, using bread from a nearby sourdough bakery, salads with greens from a local hydroponic farm, housemade vegan dressings, and soups that we make every day from scratch.
What’s something that you do at Fiddlehead that is especially challenging and time-consuming to hand-make?
We don’t do this every day because it’s really tricky, but when the season (and humidity levels) work, we make vegan macarons with a Swiss meringue made from the aquafaba from a can of chickpeas.
What’s something you do at Fiddlehead that is especially gratifying or that you’re really proud of?
One thing that we take a lot of pride in is our commitment to sustainability, especially in the ways we incorporate using less waste. Juicing in-house gives us some really unique opportunities. Our housemade Ginger syrup is made using the pulp after we juice our Wellness Shots, which has been an ingredient in some of my all-time favorite menu items– our Cranberry Ginger Lime Nitro Coldbrew and the Sun Goddess golden latté.
I love how in tune with seasons and microseasons your programs are—what’s your favorite season at the cafe?
My favorite season at the café is probably Spring, when our farmers have a variety of fresh produce to choose from; when our local beekeeper pulls her first batch of honey for the season; when our garden starts thriving and everyone is enjoying our outdoor space.
Please give me a quick rundown of the coffee-making equipment you use at the cafe—what gear are you using for all that handmade goodness?
We use the Modbar for our espresso, steam, and pour-over brewing system. The Modbar’s minimalist design allows our team to have more personal interactions with our guests and to build better connections. Guests frequently ask about the pour-over tap, especially, and it allows our baristas to share coffee knowledge while our guests are able to watch.
We love the Mahlkonig E65 GBW for our espresso grinders, and we’ve outfitted them with a Puqpress to automate tamping. We also replaced our knock box with a QuinSpin portafilter cleaner to reduce noise in our space. I think all of these choices have helped speed up our bar flow and allowed us to focus our attention on customer service and more complex coffee training.
Can you share a little more about your corner of St. Louis, where the cafe is located? What are some other fun things to do in your neighborhood that we should check out?
Fiddlehead is located in the Shaw Neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It was built on the site of a long abandoned gas station, a total eyesore in a beautiful, historic area. Knowing what the property once was, we take a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished on our corner.
The cafe is just a few blocks from a couple popular St. Louis landmarks: Tower Grove Park, a massive urban park that hosts a very popular farmers’ market every Saturday and a variety of fairs and festivals throughout the year; and the Missouri Botanical Garden, the second largest botanical garden in North America. Fiddlehead gets its name and a lot of other inspiration from our nearby park and the Missouri Botanical Garden.
We have a variety of small businesses right in our neighborhood, including a few bars, a bakery, a sandwich shop, a burger joint, a vegan restaurant, a flower shop, a yoga studio, and an event space– and our area is always growing.
Visit Fiddlehead Fern Café’s website and follow them on Instagram.
