Gerard Craft got his first job washing dishes at a Salt Lake City pool hall named Fat's Bar & Grill. This is the job that got him hooked on restaurant life. Craft went on to cook at Bistro Toujours in Park City, UT, at the Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station, NJ and at Château Marmont in Los Angeles before he decided to open his own restaurant in St. Louis, a Midwestern city he had never visited. Th...

Gerard Craft got his first job washing dishes at a Salt Lake City pool hall named Fat's Bar & Grill. This is the job that got him hooked on restaurant life. Craft went on to cook at Bistro Toujours in Park City, UT, at the Ryland Inn in Whitehouse Station, NJ and at Château Marmont in Los Angeles before he decided to open his own restaurant in St. Louis, a Midwestern city he had never visited. The 25-year-old Craft got backing from his parents and brother and bought a boarded-up building in the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis. He opened niche in the fall of 2005. In 2008, he was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef. The following year, he became a James Beard Best Chef-Midwest finalist. That same year, Craft extended the niche brand by opening Taste by niche, a modern speakeasy, and Brasserie by niche, a classic French eatery. The restaurants source their menus through relationships with more than 100 area farmers.