Gegi’s Bistro open in Tate Pumphouse

by Carol Crump
Monday, February 8, 2010 5:08 PM MST

Gegi Scott has been in Casper almost six years. In that time, her first name has become synonymous with some of the finest dining available locally.

Her latest venture, along with partners Darren and Karie Herbst, is Gegi’s Bistro, located in the renovated Tate Pumphouse at 1775 W. First St., next to the North Platte River on the Platte River Parkway.

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Food is a passion for Gegi, who said she “thinks food” from the time she wakes to when she goes to bed. During her growing-up years in the small town of Marbach, Germany, located outside of Stuttgart, food was really important to her relatives and her parents who had lived through the food shortages during World War II. Everything the family ate was made from scratch and her mother shopped for food every day. Both grandmothers had huge gardens and Gegi remembers picking apples and grapes, pickling vegetables and baking bread.

Meals were eaten together, at 7-7:30 p.m. “Food was treasured,” she said.

Gegi, the childhood nickname for her German name Gerhild, is a degreed art teacher, who had worked as a counselor with the chronically mentally ill for many years. A brief marriage to the son of an American lieutenant colonel she met at a friend’s house brought her to the U.S. She stayed when the marriage ended, even though her parents wanted her to come home. Her three grown sons, who live in Denver, Colo., along with Gegi’s former second husband, were born in the U.S.

Her art and counseling careers combined helped the new career she chose at 45, she said. When she was hired by a catering company as a server and found out she wasn’t allowed in the kitchen, she signed up for the European-style apprenticeship program that turned her into an American Culinary federation-certified chef.

“It was like being in the military,” she said of the $7.25-an-hour apprenticeship that required working for a chef and taking classes at the same time.

Making move to Casper

Gegi moved to Casper to live in a smaller community where she wouldn’t have to commute three hours to get to work. She was hired by the Casper Country Club, started doing catering on her own, and then moved on to become executive chef at the downtown 303 restaurant when it opened. Herbst, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York state whom she had known in Denver as a chef who worked in hotels and private dinner clubs, was also working at 303 as general manager.

Three years ago, Gegi and the Herbst husband and wife team decided they knew each other well enough to open their own catering business and restaurant, Gegi’s, in the downtown Atrium Plaza. The financial foundation of the business was one small micro loan for basic kitchen equipment from the Wyoming Women’s Business Center. There were no other investors or financial backers, Gegi said. “We knew if we wanted something, we worked for it,” by doing an extra Easter brunch or catering job. “We do it the hard and stubborn way.”

The years at the Atrium location were “good to us,” Gegi said, giving the new partners an opportunity to build the business the way they wanted, and make a lot of friends and a “wonderful following.”

The move to the Tate Pumphouse was made at the urging of some of Gegi’s customers and Angela Emery, the Platte River Parkway director. Although Gegi was reluctant at first because of the size of the space, “it just fell in place and it’s absolutely wonderful,” she said. In the three weeks, since the new Gegi’s Bistro has been open, there already have been weekend nights that were sold out.

Accommodating customers

The new, larger location n with its larger and more efficient kitchen n allows Gegi’s to serve more people, to have staff in addition to Karie, and to be open more consistently than when Gegi and Herbst were juggling a catering and a restaurant operation. “Now we run the restaurant first,” she said.

The food remains the same, with everything made from scratch, the hard way, Gegi said. Herbst makes all of the stock, demi glaces, sauces and marinaras. Gegi is the “closet pastry chef” who uses only locally produced farm fresh eggs for desserts like Napoleons and a flourless chocolate cake n perfect for chocoholics or those allergic to gluten. The two chefs come up with the menu by combining ideas and flavors, and often both will make part of a dish.

Gegi’s Bistro has a core menu with specials that will change seasonally. Winter’s black bean chili and French onion soup will be replaced with something lighter for spring. Fresh fish selections from Hawaii like ahi tuna, scallops and candy-striped marlin are on the menu several days a week. Whatever fish the local fishermen catch on any given day are washed in sea water, packed and FedExed to Casper the same day. “It smells like the ocean,” Gegi said.

The menu includes lean Wyoming lamb from the Barlow Ranch in Gillette in the customers’ favorite gyros and beef tenderloin with a Bleu cheese topping. Gegi’s German heritage is included in international menu items like pierogis with homemade sauerkraut and braised cabbage, and the Dauphinoise scalloped-style potatoes are “fit for a king,” Gegi said.

The restaurant’s eclectic menu features familiar foods like salads, crab cakes and fish tacos, and international specialties such as chicken mufango, an African dish. Gegi’s will begin offering evening international dinner nights after Valentine’s Day.

Gegi’s Bistro is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Customers are welcome at any time during the day or evening and will be seated and served even at closing time.

“We’ll stay as long as people stay,” Gegi said. Reservations are accepted, although usually only necessary on weekends. For information, call 234-9796.

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