County of restaurant: Franklin County
Location of restaurant: Springfield Rd & Pine St., Gerald
Phone: 573-764-2224
"Four years ago, Jeannie Parker and her sister were traveling from the Branson area to Jefferson City, and decided to drive through Gerald, Missouri, (population 1,375) to visit their old family mill – which they had never seen before.
'"I walked in the mill and I was just so overwhelmed by it, I felt at home. It’s really hard to explain," she recalls. She and her husband ended up buying the property, and began renovations. Soon after, they opened Bistro at the Mill.
"The mill, originally a flour mill, was built by Parker's grandfather, Peter Helling, and her great-grandfather, Gustave Helling, in 1901; he married her grandfather in 1903 and built their home on the property. When he retired in the late 1930s, his youngest son, Parker's uncle Benny, took over and operated the Gerald Roller Mill as a feed mill until he retired and sold it in the 1970s.
'"I never, ever thought I would be in Gerald, running a restaurant in my grandfather's flour mill," Parker says with a chuckle. "That was never on the horizon, never on the radar, not a longtime dream. I just absolutely fell in love with it, and thought, wouldn't it be great if this were in the family again, if we could fix it up, take care of it, preserve it for another 100 years? Things just worked out, and we decided to do a fun, different, eclectic restaurant for the area."
"The restaurant is run by Parker and her husband, with their son Andrew working as kitchen manager alongside a small staff. The menu is somewhat inspired by Parker's travels across Europe as a child: You can grab gyros with housemade tzatziki, stuffed grape leaves, a German-style Reuben or Italian beef.
'"We didn't want your typical hamburgers and fries; we wanted something different [to] give people in the area some options," she says. Popular items include the chicken-bacon ranch wrap, the spicy Firehouse Gyro and housemade baked goods for dessert.
"Parker says the community has been incredibly welcoming, and customers come in from Union, Sullivan, Rolla, Jefferson City, Washington and St. Louis. There is even a St. Charles motorcycle group that organizes a ride every few months to come out and have lunch at Bistro at the Mill.
"The Parkers would eventually like to expand the business into the rest of the property; there is a side building that they have a few ideas for. They're currently renovating the upper level of the mill for use as a private event space for meetings, banquets, receptions and more.
"Once the Beaufort extension of the Rock Island Trail is completed, which will run "right in front of our front door" Parker hopes that will bring in new business. "We would like to get Gerald up and going again, and [have] much more commerce in the town," she says. "We're hoping that the trail will do that. So that's kind of the long-range [goal] – building around that."
"For now, though, Parker says the family and their team is focused on taking care of customers.
""The way everything fell into place, we feel like this is where we’re supposed to be," she says. "This is sent from God for us to take care of."
"Bistro at the Mill, 315 S. Pine St., Gerald, Missouri, 573.764.2224, facebook.com/bistroatthemill " < a href="https://www.feastmagazine.com/the-feed/mid-missouri_news/article_a64fb01a-815b-11e8-8d5a-0b33e18cccf5.html"> Feast Magazine, by Nancy Stiles, July 11, 2018