With apologies to Charles, an interesting preamble to our
meal at Stone Soup Cottage with FOJTE and wife:
We have some good friends who now dwell on the left coast, however he
was originally from St. Louis, and worked at McDonnell. They recently planned a brief trip from that
other coast to the STL area and consulted the Feeder as to what restaurants
they might visit (discerning palates, interested in fine dining). I suggested Tony’s and Stone Soup Cottage
(which wasn’t in existence when I left here in ‘96). So they made reservations at both, and then
their schedule changed such that they had to choose between the two. They ended up selecting Tony’s and their
experience there (on that particular evening) was not exactly what I hoped for
(the hazard of recommendations). Anyway,
they have yet to get to SSC, hopefully they can on a future visit.
After finally personally experiencing SSC (have not been to
Tony’s for years) and faced with a similar dilemma, it would be a choice not based
on quality of food, but rather what type of experience you want. Tony’s is a classic old world formal
restaurant with teams of tuxedoed front and back waiters, classic (Italian)
dishes arrive at the table with silver domes, and “voila” unveiling type of
thing. Stone Soup, on the other hand is
a new age (sorry), modern, restaurant featuring discerning multi courses, all
Prix Fixe with no “side” menu. It
changes monthly, all locally sourced if possible, etc.
So, with high expectations we arrived at the Stone Soup Cottleville,
which is indeed a cottage, some 30 miles west of St. Louis in a lovely wooded
setting.
After weeks of sweltering weather, our dining evening started
with a rain shower so FOJTE ferried us to the front door
The restaurant is fashioned from an old 1930’s barn, and is
a lovely quiet rural setting. There are
two main dining spaces, one room with two tops
and the other room with tables for larger parties which has
an exposed brick wall from the place’s previous existence
We were seated at a corner table near a window which looked
out on the trees and flowers
And while setting does not a meal make, it certainly
displayed a sense of care for the meal and the diner
Utensils set with utmost precision
Dessert spoons formed part of the center piece, and there
were clever little crystal devices to keep knife blades from the cloth
And all of this before even considering food (first we dine with
the eyes). We sat and chatted while the
rest of the tables filled, and when all were in place (within minutes of the
single seating time of 6:30) a server approached the table and asked if we’d
care for a beverage before starting dinner.
Yes, indeed. Both ladies had a
sparkling Grenache garnished with fresh raspberries (as memory serves) and FOJTE
had a (classic) Negroni. And lest I be
accused of being mindlessly gushing praise of everything (pretty much
warranted), the only gins available were the holy trinity and Hendrick’s. Since everybody was there for the food, a
limited bar might be warranted. It did result in a very nice drink however.
An Amuse Bouche arrived shortly after the drinks did, a
great bit of pork belly topped with a dab of sweet berry coulis.
One of the nice things of the evening was that besides settling
on what drink you wished before the meal, the only “decisions” to be made were:
if you did or did not want the wine flights (highly recommended by the Feeder);
and maybe, or maybe not, finishing off the meal with a cappuccino. No waffling whether you wanted the fish or poultry,
salad and dressings, and so forth. Set
back and let your plate arrive from the kitchen. And while we’re on that subject, by and
large, Chef Carl accompanied dishes from the kitchen and explained each one to
each table. Busy man.
Which leads us around to the food. As you might have noted in the table image
above, there were two cards at each place setting: one for food, and the other
for the wine pairings.
Each described each of the seven courses and description of
the wine that would accompany them. I
don’t expect you to read it, but here’s a more eye friendly (at the price of
fuzziness) sample of the Zucchini Blossom fifth course:
And, okay I will forgive them the winespeak, but the
detailed descriptions of the provenance of each are nice to have.
There is no sense to go through the dinner course by course,
each was delivered to the table at the correct temperature and degree of
doneness (where applicable) with no stray drips of sauce, nor smears of same,
perfectly positioned on the plate. After
the food arrived, the wine was poured (at a respectable level, I might add) with
a brief description, leaving those more interested to read the one on the
card.
Each course was delicious and I thought the (third course
of) Halibut en Papillote
once again two dimensional images of three dimensional items belies the beauty of the dish
rivaled the same preparation with Sea Bass we had on
one of our barge cruises in France which I place as one of the(sorry) “best” dishes
I’ve ever experienced.
On the way out Chef Carl thanked us for coming (FOJTE is nearly a regular) and gave MFO a hug and
a cookbook. So while there are many wonderful dining
options in St. Louis (including the venerable Tony’s) I can pretty much
guarantee you would never regret visiting Stone Soup Cottage
For which you better damn well be
DFD
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