Meet Logan Ely | Chef / Owner at Lucky Accomplice and Press in St. Louis

We had the good fortune of connecting with Logan Ely and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Logan, have you ever found yourself in a spot where you had to decide whether to give up or keep going? How did you make the choice?
I think this is a question that every entrepreneur will have to ask themselves at one point or another in their career. It’s a very personal and nuanced question and one that I seem to be asking myself a lot lately. For entrepreneurs and especially restaurant owners, the ebb and flow to business and life can be drastic and it can be easy to lose sight of what success means, but I also think that success can also evolve and change as your journey unfolds.

It is based on a lot of things, but I think 2 big things are this; What does success mean to you, and can you objectively see your vision or goal becoming a reality and what is that vision or goal going to cost.

I think that right now we have an amazing team and have 2 great restaurants that offer a lot to the neighborhood, city and our guest. Since COVID things have been difficult without a doubt. Surviving shutdowns and restrictions, the economy, the ups and downs of staffing have taken their toll, but at the end of the day, I keep going because I think we have something special to offer the guest and it’s something I believe in and am willing to pay the price to keep that alive…. for now.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am really excited our newest restaurant, Press.

We have been open about a year and a half, and it certainly has not been easy. The idea has grown and evolved over time, but also, largely stayed the same.

The main focus, at least in the beginning was to make stuffed and smashed pizzas, which we coined, smash pizza. What we did was push out 2 pieces of pizza dough, fill one with a bunch of ingredients (think fontina cheese and Italian sausage), and then sandwich the 2 pieces together and crimp the sides, (think, a huge pizza ravioli). We then took the stuffed pizza and cooked it in a panini press from top and bottom, essentially smashing it. When it was cooked and nice and crispy on top and bottom, we took it out, cut it, and top it with a bunch of other ingredients.

It wasn’t really a pizza, it wasn’t a calzone, it wasn’t really anything that people had made before. It’s a brand-new thing, that we made up! A smash pizza that was stuffed!

I though, and still think it’s something really unique and special and great, and I think that someday there will be press restaurants, serving smash pizza in a town near you. But when we opened, people didn’t get it.

It’s hard to explain, it doesn’t have a name that people can relate to, and they weren’t easy to make. Our first few nights of service the dining room filled with smoke because filling was coming out of the dough and going everywhere, they took a while to make, the toppings fell off the second you lifted a slice up, it was not good. To open a restaurant, it takes a lot of money, time and effort, and to open something featuring a product that nobody had ever made and that was not properly tested…. was not a great idea.

After many months, and lots of changes, we ended up with something really great and unique and something that I am really proud of, our stuffed pizzas are really something to try!

We also evolved into more of a pizza and pasta restaurant and added a lot to the menu. We’ve grown a lot, and in a relatively short period of time matured a lot as a business and group, but it wasn’t easy.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take them to Vicia and Balkan Treat Box for food. Maybe a soccer game at City Park

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The range of people that have helped, inspired me and had a hand in whatever success that I may enjoy is wide. It would be impossible to narrow that down to anyone particular person.

Past chefs I have worked for. People I have worked with, guests I have served and currently serve. People that have worked FOR me, family, friends, there are so many people that have helped, and I don’t take that granted for a minute.

But there was a recent conversation I had that comes to mind…

Kevin Nashan is a well-known and respected chef in St. Louis. I have never worked for or with Kevin and wouldn’t say that I am particularly close with him, but I think we both know each other well enough to be buds. Kevin has owned restaurants and been in the industry a bit longer than I and holds a great deal of wisdom and experience when it comes down to it.

Chef and I met for coffee, I think I had reached out, maybe to pick his brain on some things that my businesses were going through and just the industry at large and in a way was beating around the bush looking for some advice. After a couple cappuccinos and a lot of conversation he said something pretty simple that held more guidance and wisdom than I think he knew at the time and was what I really needed to hear, ….”just cook”. To the ‘laymen’ or the ‘uninitiated’, those couple of words may not hold a lot of meaning, or really even make sense. But I think that for me, and probably many like me, a cook that happen to own businesses and all the things and responsibilities that come along with that, I think that was exactly what I needed to hear.

Just cook….

Website: www.theluckyaccomplice.com // www.press-stl.com

Instagram: @theluckyaccomplice // @press_stl