Offal Watch
In my continuing quest, offal was spotted at Niche last night.
On menu they have pork cheeks pan fried with what I would describe as a peach puree. I forget the exact description, but they’d taken the cheek, made a patty out of it, breaded it and pan fried it, and then served it with the puree and some greens. Ellie liked it more then I did. I thought the fry flavor overwhelmed the pork cheek a bit, but still, it’s nice to see cheeks, and it was good, just not my favorite cheek dish ever.
Better still, Gerard was running a pig ear terrine as a special which consisted of smoked pig ears laid into a terrine and then alternated layers of smoked scallop potato mousse and more of the meat from the big ear. It was served with some tossed greens and a garlic aioli. It was delicious, and I have to say, the pig ear didn’t have the texture I’d have expected. More then anything, it was soft and kind of gelatinous. It was totally unoffensive, though I still couldn’t get Ellie to eat it.
Embarrassingly, our server, Deah, had commented that “I knew if anyone would order it, it would be you” or something to that effect, so I guess I’m a pretty known commodity at Niche.
So I’d like to take a moment to say that, offal aside, it’s really nice to see the staff at Niche really hitting their stride. Ellie and I always joke that Gerard has the Quik Trip philosophy to the restaurant business because they’ve slowly weened people into their food as apposed to pulling out a pig ear day one and telling people they were stupid if they didn’t like it. They seem, always, to be concerned with pleasing everyone at least on some level and this is, to me, the mark of a truly great restaurateur. Starting modestly and affordably, they’ve continuously brought in better ingredients and gradually raised prices all while somehow managing to tread a fine line between the less adventurous diner and those who will eat just about anything.
I admit, it’s a weird analogy, but when Quik Trip opened I remember people saying they’d never make it without car washes. They started out undercutting pricing a little to get people into their stores, and once people did go in, they saw how much cleaner and friendlier the places were. Once they got people in, they were then able to get the prices to what they should have been in the first place.
Niche has done a similar thing. First, there’s the obvious bread and salad situation (carwashes). Then there’s the pricing. We ate there the second day they were open, and at the time you could get three courses for $30. This was changed to $35 somewhere along the way, and for quite some time, this is how things remained. They briefly flirted with offering two sizes of most items on the menu over the summer, but now, (and from what I gather the menu was just changed) they have settled into a more standard menu, with only a few selections still being a part of the 3 for $35 options. At no point were you ever unfairly charged, however. In fact, there were times when I felt I was cheating them with some of the things I ate.
Obviously, I have a strong bias towards Gerard, Matthew, and their crew, so perhaps any praise I give them should be taken with a grain of salt. I’d certainly overlook faults here more then any other place else in the city. The thing is, I can’t remember them faltering. There are things I haven’t cared for entirely, but even the worst dish I’ve eaten at Niche is still better then most of the food at other restaurants in St. Louis. If you haven’t been, you really owe it to yourself to give it a shot. I’m not the only one that considers it some of the best St. Louis has to offer, and we can’t all be wrong.
Oh, and make sure you save room for dessert.
