What a Day!!

Our journey continues, again a little behind time wise, but duties with MFO's mom have cut into "blog time" so we'll jump back to a great dining day we had in St. Louis...

Another benefit of larger cities (like St. Louis, for instance) is that they have lots of restaurants to choose from, and many options in price, cuisine, etc. In Sauce magazine (a must for any STL foodie) I kept reading about Niche and so in planning our trip we made arrangement to try Niche with a couple of friends on the eve of Christmas Eve. So Thursday turned out to be a big culinary day.

We had a scheduled meeting with our “financial guy” on Thursday to make sure the old retirement coffers weren’t being depleted faster than I am, and it just so happened that it ended around lunch time. He suggested continuing on to lunch, a great idea. We had “done lunch” before, and had a couple of good meals at the nearby Il Bel Lago so we thought trying someplace else would be good. He asked if we had ever been to "I Fratellini" in Clayton. We had not - so we set out for there. Turns out it is on Wydown, right across the street from my old barbershop (Ted’s then John’s) near Hanley Road. We arrived before our friend, found the place and entered to be greeted by a very friendly lady. When we replied negatively to a question about a reservation, she cheerily said “no matter, you get the last unspoken for table!” and led us to a very nice four top along the wall. The place is a storefront, rather small, maybe 12 tables and a cozy bar. The space is walled by unadorned brick, undoubtedly original. Tables were marble with place mats, very simple and nice. Turns out our friend knew a bit about the place, it’s been there a couple of years, and was founded by a group of brothers, hence the name. I he told us that it is at least “run” by Zoe (I forget her surname) of Café Zoe another lauded Clayton restaurant many years ago. In fact, she was the friendly lady that greeted us at the door. And, once again, a fine meal was accompanied by a knowledgeable person working the floor continually checking and watching. That’s what she did..

Anyway, we were seated by her to await our friend. Almost as soon as our seats hit theirs, a young man appeared with a bottle of water (with no label, probably tap, just in a clear bottle). That presaged an almost fanatical passion about keeping those glasses full. Sip fill, sip, fill, sip fill. It was not intrusive and done very discretely and just kind of fun to watch. Our server arrived and asked if we would like a drink while waiting and gave us the wine list. There were surprisingly few by the glass, but certainly enough to satisfy any wish. MFO selected an Italian white, and I had a chardonnay. Our friend soon arrived and asked if there were Pinot Noir by the glass (there wasn’t on the wine list). The reply was “I think I do have one” and sure enough one eventually appeared. Another feature of a good restaurant, the servers aren’t kids working after high school. Efficient and quiet, things just happen when they should. The service remained good throughout the meal.. “may I clear?”; “would you like to take that with you?”.

As to the food—As you might guess it’s Italian. The luncheon menu contained a lot of pastas, some entrée items, and there were a couple of off menu selections as well. Our friend recommended that we try a Bruscetta for the table to start, which we did. That proved to be an excellent suggestion as six slices of very nice bread (that big city thing again), arrived with three different toppings: excellent chicken pate with shaved parmesan; cannellini beans and garlic; and roasted tomatoes and the usual herbs. All were very good. For main courses we had tagliatelle, I had my sucker dish of risotto with butternut squash and roasted chicken, and MFO chose a daily special of a grilled shrimp salad. Meanwhile, the glasses remained full, Zoe checked from near and far, and as I said it was a wonderful lunch with great service and conversation. You St. Louis dwellers, put it on your must do list.

Which would also apply to Niche, where we went for dinner with our friends. We started the evening with a glass of wine and great cheese at their lovely carriage house beautifully decorated for the holidays. Then a convoluted GPS aided (thanks, Droid) journey to the near south side to Niche on Sydney street, just west of I55. Due to the navigation we arrived just short of their “15 minute” policy (later than that, your table vanishes and good luck). You enter the restaurant with a stand in front of you, and some tables to the left and more to the right. Kind of a sleek bistro affair, and yes, there were those brown paper squares on the table. For the life of me, I NEVER will like that. I don’t care how traditional it is, I just don’t see the point. Anyway, we were led through that room, past the window to the “open kitchen” and lo and behold there was another room with two rows of tables along the walls. Also sparsely but tastefully decorated. We were approached by our server (which sort of rotated through the evening), and asked about anything to drink. MFO and had a glass of a sparkling Mirabelle Rose which was quite fruity and tasty. Our server returned and explained about the menu, a combination of prix fixe and a la carte, split into “snacks” a few of amuse bouche kind of things, then “first things first” (7 choices), “on to bigger things” (also 7 options), and “sweets” (only 6!). There is also some “to share” things which amount to sides. The choices in the categories are interesting, with things on first things such as crispy octopus and foie gras banh mi, the bigger things include such items as: “Troutdale Farms Trout with butternut squash, bacon, Brussels sprouts, cacao ribs, and mulled wine”; and “Amish chicken – popcorn farratto, gewürztraminer, prunes, and chervil”.

There is the option to “choose three” from the courses for $40. If you add up the individual choices, you reach that figure pretty quickly so it’s a very good deal. Since my friend and I share a liking for anchovies, we ordered a “snack” of white anchovies on toast with smoked paprika. Neither of the wives shared the taste, so we had two to ourselves while we considered the menu options. They came out perfectly formed little anchovies resting on a rectangle of toast with the paprika providing a bed. They were salty and briny. How can somebody not like that? Anyway, we all finally settled on the “three-fer” option, I took the starter of Vitello Tonnato (three ways), “Golden Tile fish” for the main course and a Liquid Chocolate cake with peppermint bark ice cream. Our friends did starters of salad and pappardelle, both chose the trout, and chocolate cake and a blood orange tart for the “Sweet”. MFO also did the pappardelle, then the Amish Chicken, and the blood orange tart. I chose a bottle of a Nicholson Dijon Clone Chardonnay for the table..

While all of those look good on the menu, they were even better on the plate. Everything was nicely presented.I’ll spare you the course by course replay, but for instance the Trout came not as your usual flat filet, but instead the fish was filleted then reassembled to resemble a section of trout (both sides) and placed at the top of the plate with strips of probably pureed golden squash, then a wave of the shaved sprouts, and then the rich mulled wine sauce. Rave reviews. My tile fish was delicious with the skin crispy brown over the pearly fish. Everything tasted as it should, which sounds dumb, but it did. As I always say a mark of a good restaurant is that each ingredient can stand alone. It did.

One thing that they did has long been on my “wish list”. When the course was served, the server described the dish, ingredient by ingredient saving that “what the heck is this stuff?” problem when your order arrives. Kudos for them on that. I wish more places would follow suit. A great touch. At the end, the manager stopped by the table to ask if we enjoyed everything. We did.

So there’s a couple of places that STL readers should seek out. I don’t think you can miss..

Do you think we were not

DFD?

Next we headed toward the Great White North of Wisconsin.. it is..