Press
These Are the 2019 James Beard Award Semifinalists
Food & Wine Magazine – February 27, 2019
James Beard Award season is officially in full swing. On Wednesday morning, the James Beard Foundation announced its eagerly anticipated list of semifinalists for the Restaurant and Chef categories. The news comes just days after the foundation announced the results of their efforts to increase transparency and inclusivity in the judging process.
The 10 best new St. Louis restaurants of 2016
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – January 5, 2017
I just went to Olive + Oak’s website and tried to book a table for two at 7 p.m. on a Saturday in late March, which date will be about 14 months after the Webster Groves restaurant opened.
Olive + Oak launches another concept at the former Webster Groves Bookshop
St. Louis Magazine – January 4, 2017
Sometime last year, the fast-casual restaurant trend in St. Louis officially became a movement. Now, Olive + Oak—the best new restaurant of 2016 on many critic’s lists (including ours)—is planning to take the fast-casual plunge.
St. Louis’ 10 Best New Restaurants of 2016
River Front Times – December 28, 2016
If you take a bird’s eye view of the last few years, St. Louis’ food scene has been all about perfecting various culinary genres. There was barbecue, fried chicken and Neapolitan pizza — and 2016 was no different with its emphatic embrace of ramen.
St. Louis’ Best New Restaurants of 2016
Feast Magazine – December 23, 2016
Here, we name the year’s best new restaurants that opened in St. Louis between January 2016 and January 2017. Each of these vibrant and diverse spots is pushing boundaries and expanding the local food community, and collectively helping drive the industry forward.
Restaurateurs not only share a business, but the loss of sons
Fox 2 News – November 22, 2016
Some St. Louis food critics are calling it the year’s best new restaurant. But when you hear the story behind Olive & Oak you realize it’s not just the food that makes it extraordinary.
A Shared Tragedy Brings Two Families Together, Sparks Founding of Olive + Oak
St. Louis Magazine – September 27, 2016
After the Ortyls and Hinkles lost children to congenital heart defects, they sought solace in each other and eventually embarked on a joint business venture.
St. Louis restaurant honors sons lost to congenital heart disease
American Heart Association News – August 19, 2016
A shared loss cemented a friendship and began a business partnership for Mark Hinkle and Greg Ortyl, the owners of St. Louis-area Olive + Oak. The restaurant pays tribute to their late sons, Oliver and Oakes, and raises awareness and funds for congenital heart defects.
Best New Restaurant: Olive + Oak
Feast Magazine – July 29, 2016
Mark Hinkle and Greg Ortyl first connected through tragedy: Both of their young sons passed away due to congenital heart defects, and they each founded organizations to fund research for the birth defect. In January, they opened Olive + Oak in Webster Groves, Missouri, with a menu focused on fresh seafood and seasonally inspired fare.
OLIVE + OAK
The Newlywed Chefs – July 13, 2016
By now, if you live in St. Louis, you’ve heard of Olive + Oak. You might have even tried getting a reservation, surprised that the next opening for a table for two on a Saturday at 6:00pm is eight weeks away.
St. Louis restaurants get awards for wine (Photos)
St. Louis Business Journal – July 13, 2016
St. Louis-area restaurants racked up 17 awards in this year’s Wine Spectator magazine Restaurant Awards. The awards focus on restaurants whose wine lists offer a variety of selections, are appropriate to the restaurant’s cuisine and appeal to a wide range of wine lovers, according to the magazine.
Dream Team: 5 Restaurant Pros
St. Louis Magazine – June 16, 2016
When former Annie Gunn’s general manager Mark Hinkle decided to open Olive + Oak, the longtime Annie Gunn’s executive sous-chef was his first choice to run the kitchen. Mendica’s realizations of old-school standards and elevated comfort food classics are precisely what Hinkle envisioned.
Olive + Oak fills Webster Groves with a joyful noise
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – May 19, 2016
You hear it as soon as you step inside Olive + Oak. The sound, while loud, isn’t the leaf-blower roar of the busy modern restaurant. It’s a hum of happiness from every table — rising in excitement as dishes arrive, dipping into blissful eating, then rising higher still in exclamations of delight, that you have to try this — threaded together into a symphonic rush.
Review: Olive + Oak Is on Track to Be This Year’s Best New Restaurant
River Front Times – May 11, 2016
The well-heeled passersby probably had some choice looks for me as I sat on Olive + Oak’s Old Webster patio, gnawing every last morsel of a cowboy rib eye bone with my bare hands like it was a backyard barbecue. I didn’t notice. To say I have never been more enraptured by a piece of steak is not an understatement.
Dinner & A Show: Olive + Oak
Ladue News – April 21, 2016
Though Webster Groves has been home to some of the gems of the St. Louis food scene for a while now, it’s still under the radar to many foodie types. Olive + Oak, one of the latest eateries to open here, may finally put this municipality on the local culinary map along with so many others around town.
Hit List: March 2016
Sauce Magazine – March 1, 2016
Webster Groves residents have been waiting for this restaurant – the time it takes to get a table makes that clear. Step up to the bar while you wait and order the No. 36 for a sweet-tart, herbal treat with Yellow Chartreuse, Amaro Nonino, lemon and cardamom.
Jesse Mendica and Mark Hinkle Branch Out at Olive + Oak
Feast Magazine – February 26, 2016
For Jesse Mendica, it all started with a bumper sticker. The bumper sticker simply read, “Do something that scares you every day.” As executive sous chef at Annie Gunn’s in Chesterfield, Missouri, for more than a decade, plus another six years spent cooking in its kitchen, the notoriously picky eater was deep into her “year of yes.” During that 12 months, she was slowly accepting that foods like mayonnaise, tartare and oysters weren’t going to kill her.
The 5 Hottest Dining Spots in St. Louis This March
St. Louis Magazine – February 18, 2016
Former Annie Gunn’s general manager Mark Hinkle takes a slightly different tack in his inaugural restaurant. Customers can spend a lot but probably won’t. Offerings include pot pie, prime rib, and an attractively priced 200-bottle wine list. oliveandoakstl.com.
First Bite: Olive + Oak
St. Louis Magazine – February 18, 2016
What sounds like the badge of a trendy restaurant—two somewhat related words joined by a plus sign—has far deeper roots. Olive + Oak is a memorial to the two owners’ sons (Ollie and Oakes), who died in infancy of the same disease.
Hearts On Our Minds
Town and Style Magazine – February 16, 2016
“There is a very special, unspoken bond between grieving mothers,” Jenn Hinkle says of her friendship with Becky Ortyl. Hinkle and Ortyl are the respective founders of the Ollie Hinkle and Mighty Oakes heart foundations. Both had sons who died of a congenital heart defect (CHD) before age 2.
New restaurant Olive+Oak named after boys who died from congenital heart defects
KSDK – February 9, 2016
Olive+Oak is located at 102 West Lockwood Avenue in Webster Groves. You can give them a call at 314-736-1370 or visit them online at OliveandOak. Olive+Oak has an ongoing commitment to partnering with the Mighty Oakes Heart Foundation, Ollie Hinkle Heart Foundation and the Children’s Heart Foundation.
Sneak Peek: Five Reasons To Love Olive + Oak in Webster Groves
St. Louis Magazine – January 25, 2016
Olive + Oak is slated to open this weekend in Old Webster at 102 W. Lockwood. We like this place a lot, already, for the following reasons:
The 10 Most Anticipated Restaurants in St. Louis for 2016
St. Louis Magazine – December 19, 2015
When we first started jotting notes on this subject several months ago, we admit that we weren’t all that excited, considering 2016 was not shaping up as well as the last half of 2015.
Hot Seat: Mark Hinkle
St. Louis Magazine – December 18, 2015
Mark Hinkle will open a restaurant—his first—in Webster Groves this month. His partner is Greg Ortyl, with whom the former GM of Annie Gunn’s shares a common bond: both had sons born with congenital heart defects and both died at a young age.
The 10 Hottest New Restaurants in St. Louis
Eater – December 8, 2015
Olive + Oak opened in January in the picturesque Old Webster section of suburb Webster Groves, and it remains one of the most sought-after reservations in town, with prime tables booked weeks in advance. Executive chef Jesse Mendica serves a lengthy menu of contemporary American fare, with an emphasis on seafood (stuffed clams with lardo, blue-crab gratin with Calabrian chiles) and steaks.
Mark Hinkle of Annie Gunn’s to Open olive + oak in Webster Groves
St. Louis Magazine – June 1, 2015
“It’s been on my agenda for a long time,” says Annie Gunn’s manager Mark Hinkle, referring to opening a restaurant of his own.
The Scoop: New American eatery Olive & Oak to open in Webster Groves historic building
Sauce Magazine – May 22, 2015
Olive & Oak, founded by Annie Gunn’s veteran Mark Hinkle and business partner Greg Ortyl, will soon open in a century-old former boutique at 102 W. Lockwood Ave in Webster Groves.