Living > Special Features
Josh Allen of Companion
Homegrown Success Story
Friday, January 25, 2008 9:59 AM CST
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| Companion co-owners Josh Allen and his sister Jodi Allen Gordon, who recently opened a new location in Ladue at 9781 Clayton Road, show off some of their creations. Photo by Jason Mueller |
Youthful as he may look, Josh Allen is no newcomer to the food industry. The owner of Companion, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary this year, grew up learning about food around the dinner table. His family owned Allen Foods, a regional food distributor that services hotels, restaurants, educational institutions and long-term care facilities in St. Louis, Kansas City and Southern Illinois. But as steeped in local food history as he is, Allen’s ideas about food, its place in the economy and in the community, are as fresh and exciting as his organic Parisien artisanal bread.
Allen learned about the great European bread tradition while living in San Francisco in the early ‘90s, training as a triathlete by day and looking for night jobs. He worked in several restaurants and then took a job as a bread baker at Whole Foods. “I think once you start baking, you either love it or hate it,” Allen says. “For some reason, it really struck my fancy.”
With the market tight in San Francisco, starting a bakery there wasn’t advisable, so Allen moved home and opened one in St. Louis in 1993. Having grown up in the food business, he says, “It didn’t seem like too much of a stretch. I slowly built our business and product line over time, from six breads up. We had a vision of making simple, European-style bread with simple ingredients.” As he got started, Allen felt supported by a blossoming community of microproducers, including Kaldi’s and Schlafly’s.
“As a customer had a need for a new product, we figured out how to make it,” he says. “When a chef said he needed a nice hamburger bun, we made one. We came up with the products through trial and error, working with restaurateurs.” Companion opened a dine-in cafe in Clayton in 2001, and today, the bakery supplies 100 restaurants, as well as Schnucks and Dierbergs.
Companion, named one of the top 10 artisan bakeries in the U.S. last year by USA Today, features a pastry line also designed originally for the wholesale business. Though some of the treats, like the bouchons and the tea breads, might seem a little fancier than ordinary baked goods, they are “nothing different than what you can find in the bakeries of Europe and New York,” says Allen. “The pursuit of a great croissant is something that still keeps us occupied.” His own favorite Companion food? The oatmeal: “As simple as oatmeal is, we do a really nice job with it,” he says.
Companion remains committed to supporting the ‘Saint Louis Originals’ restaurants and other local producers. That commitment extends to the company milling its flour in North St. Louis and a coffee roaster in Edwardsville who sells Fair Trade, organically produced beans. But, “St. Louis is a hard place to get local foods in the winter, so the commitment to buying from local purveyors and working with local packaging is as far-reaching as we can take it. We still have strawberries in the cafe in January that weren’t grown in St. Louis. There’s a balance,” he says.
That balancing act plays a part in Companion’s survival, as more chain eateries open stores around town. “Some of those places will do $20 to $30 million”that’s money coming out of Clayton,” Allen notes. “I think that forces us to do a better job. We have to provide a service level and product level that’s different and more unique than those chains to survive. But as more and more of those have come here, it’s become a bigger challenge.”
The rewards of being in the business are many. Allen is proud that he and sister Jodi Allen Gordon, co-owner of Companion, provide jobs for 100 families in St. Louis. He also believes that as the country becomes more connected electronically, there’s a greater need for face-to-face contact, and Companion, true to its name, is providing a valuable spot for just that by cultivating the atmosphere of a friendly gathering place.
Make that three places: two new branches have opened recently, one in the Central West End (4651 Maryland Ave.), where dinner items will be served, and one in Ladue (9781 Clayton Road). “Our goal is to make sure our customers have a great experience at any of our locations. We’ve been thrilled with the response in both new neighborhoods,” Allen beams. St. Louisans are equally excited to be partaking in Allen’s gourmet food in true neighborhood spots.
Allen learned about the great European bread tradition while living in San Francisco in the early ‘90s, training as a triathlete by day and looking for night jobs. He worked in several restaurants and then took a job as a bread baker at Whole Foods. “I think once you start baking, you either love it or hate it,” Allen says. “For some reason, it really struck my fancy.”
With the market tight in San Francisco, starting a bakery there wasn’t advisable, so Allen moved home and opened one in St. Louis in 1993. Having grown up in the food business, he says, “It didn’t seem like too much of a stretch. I slowly built our business and product line over time, from six breads up. We had a vision of making simple, European-style bread with simple ingredients.” As he got started, Allen felt supported by a blossoming community of microproducers, including Kaldi’s and Schlafly’s.
“As a customer had a need for a new product, we figured out how to make it,” he says. “When a chef said he needed a nice hamburger bun, we made one. We came up with the products through trial and error, working with restaurateurs.” Companion opened a dine-in cafe in Clayton in 2001, and today, the bakery supplies 100 restaurants, as well as Schnucks and Dierbergs.
Companion, named one of the top 10 artisan bakeries in the U.S. last year by USA Today, features a pastry line also designed originally for the wholesale business. Though some of the treats, like the bouchons and the tea breads, might seem a little fancier than ordinary baked goods, they are “nothing different than what you can find in the bakeries of Europe and New York,” says Allen. “The pursuit of a great croissant is something that still keeps us occupied.” His own favorite Companion food? The oatmeal: “As simple as oatmeal is, we do a really nice job with it,” he says.
Companion remains committed to supporting the ‘Saint Louis Originals’ restaurants and other local producers. That commitment extends to the company milling its flour in North St. Louis and a coffee roaster in Edwardsville who sells Fair Trade, organically produced beans. But, “St. Louis is a hard place to get local foods in the winter, so the commitment to buying from local purveyors and working with local packaging is as far-reaching as we can take it. We still have strawberries in the cafe in January that weren’t grown in St. Louis. There’s a balance,” he says.
That balancing act plays a part in Companion’s survival, as more chain eateries open stores around town. “Some of those places will do $20 to $30 million”that’s money coming out of Clayton,” Allen notes. “I think that forces us to do a better job. We have to provide a service level and product level that’s different and more unique than those chains to survive. But as more and more of those have come here, it’s become a bigger challenge.”
The rewards of being in the business are many. Allen is proud that he and sister Jodi Allen Gordon, co-owner of Companion, provide jobs for 100 families in St. Louis. He also believes that as the country becomes more connected electronically, there’s a greater need for face-to-face contact, and Companion, true to its name, is providing a valuable spot for just that by cultivating the atmosphere of a friendly gathering place.
Make that three places: two new branches have opened recently, one in the Central West End (4651 Maryland Ave.), where dinner items will be served, and one in Ladue (9781 Clayton Road). “Our goal is to make sure our customers have a great experience at any of our locations. We’ve been thrilled with the response in both new neighborhoods,” Allen beams. St. Louisans are equally excited to be partaking in Allen’s gourmet food in true neighborhood spots.
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