Still Plugging Away
Apr 28, 2009 St. Louis, missouri, restaurants
It can be a nerve-racking thing dining in a place you used to work. Sometimes it can be a rewarding experience and you’re left realizing why you worked there in the first place. Other times, you’re left wondering why you worked there in the first place. Had it been this bad when you were there?
I have had both experiences but, at Harvest, I’ve had a lot more of the good ones in the decade since I worked there, than the bad ones. Most recently I dined at the bar on my way home from the Maplewood Farmers’ Market and, along with a very good pork loin, I had a dish solidly worth stopping in for: House Cured Pastrami and Smoked Tagliatelli, English Peas, Poached Missouri Farm Egg, Roasted Garlic Cream.
Ultimately, it’s a pretty classic flavor combination–though traditionally you’d see bacon, which makes the corniness of the chewy pastrami, and the tagliatelli’s hint of smoke, an interesting change. And it is sheer, fatty, bliss as you crack the egg and watch its bright orange yolk ooze into every crevice of the mounded tagliatelli not already filled with rich garlic cream. Outdone only by the truly stunning first bite as the flavors dance in your mouth–salty pastrami, rich egg, sweet pea. And more than that, it is seasoned right! SOMETHING PRACTICALLY ALL THE FOOD YOU’LL EVER EAT AT HARVEST WILL BE, AND SOMETHING YOU CAN’T SAY ABOUT MOST PLACES.
It was great to see them continuing to fire away after more than a decade. Long before the Crafts, Gallianos and Nashans arrived in St. Louis, Harvest was the place to work and the only place in town with the balls to serve something like foie gras on the regular, everyday, menu. These days, even with its institution-like status to consistently give St. Louis diners what they want, it’s a restaurant I feel people overlook all too easily in search of the latest thing. And that’s a shame because they’re still delivering the same reasonably priced kicked-up comfort food they always have.
As a tidbit–because I don’t think most people know how pastrami is made: it is corned beef that is smoked.
Tags: Harvest, Steve Gontram
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April 29th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
My mouth is watering even though I would never order something with garlic cream! I keep wanting to go there, keep trying to get there, keep calling to try to get a table and keep failing. After 8 years being back here in St. Louis, I have still never made it. I must change this…soon.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Harvest has offered some ridiculous mid-week wine deals here and there since HW 40 construction and during the economic downturn. Something to keep an eye out for.
February 27th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
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