Eventually, people will want to eat. And if your craft brewery doesn’t have its own kitchen and sell food onsite, your guests will go somewhere else to find it,
About three years since opening in downtown Huntsville, Rocket Republic finally has food together. Not only is there a kitchen going, it’s run by Huntsville’s hottest restaurateurs right now: Stephanie Mell and Matt Mell, the married couple behind ventures like Purveyor, Catacomb 435 and Sea Salt, among others.
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The Mells’ new venture at Rocket Republic is called Famous Eleanors. There, in a space formerly housing beer fermenters, just off the brewery’s charming patio, they’ll serve what Stephanie Mell calls “elevated pub food.” Their soft opening is Friday and Saturday. Famous Eleanors’ hours of operation will be 4 – 9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 – 10 p.m. Thursday, 4 p.m. to midnight Friday and 12 p.m. to midnight Saturday.
What does that mean, exactly? Bar food, but, as the kids say, leveled up. For example, chicken tenders battered in blue-corn tortilla. A burger topped with applewood-smoked bacon, fried green tomato and pimento cheese, served with truffle fries. Taco salad with black beans, roasted corn and more, housed in a house-made tortilla bowl. Corn dogs incased in waffle batter. Most items are in the $10 to $17 range, moderate for the Huntsville market amid the currently bonkers food inflation.
Famous Eleanors’ head chef is Kevin Wynne. Wynne says at Eleanors, “They’re gonna give me a lot of freedom to really play with the menu. So it’s gonna be fun to see how we can elevate stuff that a lot of people do and just make it ours.” That’s done by doing the details bespoke. For example, Wynne makes his own mustard. Their ketchup, tweaked with Asian chili paste. Sauerkraut and pickles are made in-house too. The onion rings and fish & chips are battered with Rocket Republic beer.
“On the patio of a brewery,” Wynne says, “we’re gonna put out some really good food.” Asked about his culinary influences, he cites Wylie Dufresne and Anthony Bourdain. “Anybody doing stuff that’s not normal. Anybody that’s going above and beyond.”
A 1996 Huntsville High grad, Wynne spent 20 years or so working in Destin, Florida, including at The Black Pearl, a restaurant where he was both chef and general manager. “Destin is a great place to live. But I was always wanting to come back to Huntsville,” Wynne says,” with all the stuff that I’ve learned over the years. I’m ecstatic. I love being here.” Most recently, he was at Mezza Luna, the now defunct Jones Valley-area Mediterranean/Italian eatery.
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It’s a coup for Rocket Republic, now owned by Warren Ward, to team-up with the Mells. They first connected years ago when Ward joined the wine club at Mell-owned Church Street Wine Shoppe, which then stocked Rocket Republic beers. “I love the way they do business,” Ward says. “And it just made a really good fit for us. They’re very creative souls”
Bringing Famous Eleanors to Rocket Republic is also advantageous to the Mells. The kitchen is larger than at their other properties and they’ll be doing all their catering out of there. “Our catering business has gone through the roof,” Stephanie Mell says, “and was putting too much stress on the restaurants that we currently have. So we were looking for catering kitchen space and this opened up. We’re super excited to partner with Rocket Republic.”
In addition to catering, Famous Eleanors kitchen will be where pastries are made for all properties in the Mells’ so-called Church Street Family. To do so, they’ve brought in pastry chef Indhira Gratereaux from Las Vegas. “She (Gratereaux) was working at the Bellagio (Hotel & Casino) prior to coming to Huntsville,” Stephanie says.
Stephanie, who’s from New York, comes up with the names for all the Mells’ restaurants. This one has a cool story behind it. Matt’s beloved great grandmother was Eleanor Kenny, who was a nurse in New Jersey. Doing some googling of Eleanors, Stephanie noticed there were a number who were accomplished, including late first-lady Eleanor Roosevelt, NASA seamstress Eleanor Foraker and astronomer Eleanor F. Helin.
Just as there’s a Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s a Mell Culinary Universe. And Famous Eleanors makes it eight ventures for the Mells. “I don’t perceive me doing another restaurant and I’ve got to use this name,” Stephanie says. Hence, Famous Eleanors.
Walking up to the front of Rocket Republic downtown, Famous Eleanors is on the far end of the patio. You order from a window (and for now, until that’s finished, through a door), or by using a QR code found on tables on the patio or inside at the bar. You get pinged when your food’s ready to be picked up. You pay electronically too. Through the app Toast TakeOut, you can order and pay for takeout. Your Eleanors food bill will be separate from your Rocket Republic drink bill.
Rocket Republic was founded in Madison in 2012. In 2019, they opened their downtown Huntsville location, address 617 Meridian St. N. and near long-running watering hole Furniture Factory. Just in time for the pandemic.
Rocket recently shuttered their Madison taproom. They’re also winding down production at there and looking for a new production space. The brewery is currently between head brewers. Rocket’s flagship beers include a Mach One IPA, Astronut Brown Ale, Vapor Trail Cream Ale and Six Iron Pilsner. The downtown Huntsville location boasts 32 taps, including “guest taps” featuring brews from out-of-state breweries.
Ward, whose background is in real estate and as an entrepreneur, first bought in as a minority owner in 2016. He became a full owner in 2020. A 1985 Lee High School graduate, Ward grew up skateboarding. Decades later, the vibrant Huntsville-area brewing scene reminded him of how the skate industry was in the ‘80s. “Hey, this is a cool little vibe,” he recalls thinking. He wanted in.
Early on at Rocket downtown, they tried serving food out of a rented food trailer. But the food didn’t connect, and that didn’t work out. Rocket downtown shut-down in December, and has only been open a few times since, mostly for private parties.
Ward says they’d hoped to reopen sooner. But getting the kitchen situated, as well as (for the first time) bringing on liquor and wine at Rocket, took longer than expected. According to Ward, the rebooted downtown location’s staff will number around 10 for now.
Live music is coming back to Rocket downtown too. The taproom is outfitted with a cool cozy moon-themed stage. Out on the patio, they’re doing a sun-themed motif. And 7 p.m. Saturday they’ll host an album release party by 40 Watt Moon, a Memphis rock band inspired by groups like Big Star and The Replacements. There’s no cover.
After some ups and downs, it appears Rocket downtown may have things in place. The drinks, the space, the music, the food. Which is what you need to be competitive in the Huntsville brewery scene, where cornerstones like Yellowhammer and Straight to Ale have offered all that stuff for years. “We want people to have everything they need,” Ward says, “right here.”
rocketrepublicbrewing.com/huntsville, churchstreetfamily.com/restaurants/famous-eleanors
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