Photo by Lacee Watkins
Located in Kirkwood, Pullman Yards has quickly become a destination for the arts, with exhibits and events ranging from Van Gogh: the immersive Experience and Imagine Picasso to Pullman Pops orchestra concerts. Starting this summer, chef Chris Hughes, previously of St. Cecilia, Ecco, and White Oak Kitchen & Cocktails, hopes Pullman Yards will become a dining destination, too.
Hughes is helping developer Adam Rosenfelt and his wife, Maureen Meulen, open Homage, an intimate Spanish tapas restaurant in a former laundry service building on Rogers Street near the train tracks. The corner spot is intended to pay homage—hence the name—to the history of the building by keeping its character on full display.
“The all-brick building has so much personality and charm to it that you don’t want to mess with it too much,” Hughes says. “Windows on four walls bright in a lot of natural light.”
Photo by Lacee Watkins
Unlike Dailies and Sides, the “chef’s market” restaurant Hughes also operates at Pullman Yards, Homage will offer dinner only and concentrate on table service. “It’s more refined,” he says. “We want restaurants on par with the attractions here.”
The menu will be seafood-driven with vegetable-forward dishes. Offerings will be limited to about 12 items—such as mussels and octopus—plus dessert. Though there will be cocktails, the beverage program will highlight wines from Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, and Estonia.
The Homage space will seat 28 people, plus six more at the bar. There will be two patios, one of which will be covered and heated for all-weather dining.
“It’ll have a bit of a railcar feel to it,” Hughes says. “We may put old luggage racks on the wall to hang plants or use them as part of the back bar.”
