It was during extended trips to Florence, Italy, that native St. Louisan Katie Lee found her passion for the delicious. “My mom ran the study abroad program for the Washington University Arts department, so I spent time there with her when I was in my early 20s,” Lee says. “Each region takes pride in a certain dish or ingredient, and I love that everything is fresh and made from only a few ingredients. It’s beautifully balanced.”
Lee, who is a self-taught cook, has brought this philosophy to St. Louis through two restaurants, first Katie’s Pizzeria in Clayton, which she opened in 2008 with her father, Tom Lee, followed by a more recent venture, Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria in Rock Hill, which she opened with new husband Ted Collier late last year. The split with her father was amicable, Lee says. “We get along even better now,” she says. “The good thing about opening the restaurant with my father when I was so young was that I had his support, and I was able to build the brand to the point that it was well-known enough for me to raise money and open my own restaurant.”
Success in the restaurant business is something of a Lee family tradition: Lee’s aunt, restaurateur Zoe Robinson, owns several local establishments, including I Fratellini, Bar Les Freres and Bobo Noodlehouse. “Everyone in my family is an entrepreneur,” Lee explains. “Starting our own businesses is just what we did.”
Always wanting to follow in her aunt’s footsteps, Lee, who started working in restaurants as a teenager and wrote her first business plan for a restaurant when she was 20, never even considered not working in the restaurant industry. “It’s all I’ve done, and all I’ve ever wanted to do,” she says.
But Lee’s professional career is attributable to more than family history: She also simply loves food. “I kind of have an obsession with food, learning about it and reading about it,” she says.
To raise funds for the Rock Hill restaurant, Lee and Collier ran a Kickstarter campaign that exceeded their $40,000 fundraising goal. “We needed money, and I thought it would be a great way to raise awareness of the restaurant,” Lee says. Donors were rewarded with gift certificates or parties valued at equal or greater than their pledged support, she notes.
It was always a given that everything at Katie’s Pizza & Pasta would be homemade, Lee says. “We make everything in-house, including pizza dough, pastas, desserts and sauces,” she says. “We also have a big vegetable garden on our patio that provides some of our produce.” And she’s worked hard to make the restaurant’s ambience as pleasing as the menu of pizzas, pastas, salads and burratas. Pastas hang to dry, a living green wall provides fresh herbs, and the kitchen with a wood-burning oven is open to the dining room, she explains.
Next, Lee hopes to sell her pastas and sauces in retail stores. “There’s a Lucky’s Market going in across the street from our restaurant, so the goal is to sell some of our pastas there,” she says.
[katie’s artichoke salad]
6 whole artichoke hearts
4 spears of asparagus
1/4 c. shelled pistachios
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper
Crumbled goat cheese
Balsamic vinaigrette
Spring mix
>> Heat olive oil. Pan-fry six whole artichoke hearts and begin roasting the asparagus, adding dashes of kosher salt and black pepper. While the artichoke hearts and asparagus continue to cook, make a bed of spring mix in a bowl.
>> Once the asparagus and artichokes are roasted to perfection, place on top of spring mix, along with crumbled goat cheese and shelled pistachios. For a final touch, add a drizzling of balsamic vinaigrette.
Photos: Bill Barrett
