stlbites.com Recipe Exclusive
If you’ve not been paying attention, with three trips in nine days, and probably a dozen so far this year, stlbites has much love for Erato on Main and their entire staff.
But as much as we like the staff it’s Kevin Wilmann’s daily changing menu of whatever looks freshest that keep us addictively trekking back for more; today though we’ll be talking about the one menu that doesn’t change daily.
Doubling as the restaurant’s pastry chef we’ve basically memorized Sous Chef Jon Olson’s dessert menu as he keeps it small almost always having the staples of a chocolate cake with basil ice cream and carrot cake with goat cheese icing.
Mostly this is the result of their kitchen being about the size of my closet. Still, he’s been trying to mix it up recently, and over the weekend served a lemon curd with blackberry tea foam (with I believe preserved lemon rind). The blackberry foam was a subtle flavor to compliment the tartness of the lemon, and while it did need a bit more textural crunch, when asked how he made the curd, he was happy to oblige by sharing the recipe.
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Tags: dessert, Edwardsville, Erato on Main, Jon Olson, Jonathan Olson, Kevin Willmann, Sauce Magazine
Oh where, oh where is the Katie’s Pizzeria website?
Mar 6, 2008 menus, restaurants
I commented on this briefly before, and I’d always meant to write a post about it in more detail, but now I don’t have to because Ann Lemmons took care of it in her commentary on restaurant websites on KWMU.
These days, restaurants need web sites. Fewer people are reading newspapers and magazines, but diners need to get their information from somewhere. Especially for younger people, that “somewhere” is usually the internet.
Lots of restaurants have web sites. The good ones can be very informative. The others, well, they can provoke frustration, and do more harm than good. Restaurateurs need to think about what potential customers need to know.
Enter the newest offender: Katie’s Pizzeria.
Everyone’s talking about it; theres’s a nice write up in Sauce; but try as I might, I can not find a website for this restaurant.
Lucky for you I scanned the menu.
As for my brief thoughts on Katie’s as I obviously went there…
I was there during the day so I can’t comment on the movies everyone seems to mention, but the atmosphere was nice and laid back.
I really dig their bar of mixed wood strips which reminds me of an ambitious 8th grade shop class project. Along with the other unstained and quickly built counters and shelves the restaurant has a definite shabby chic sort of vibe, but the ceiling lamps, which are sort of a 60s mod style, help tip the scales a little more towards chic.
Prosciutto Sliced Apple and Brie pizza is the only one I’ve tried so far so I can’t really comment in detail about the food. The crust is sort of a free-form flat bread style pizza and it is thin–though not St. Louis thin. Mine was slightly crisp and it appeared some where cooked a bit more than mine which probably resulted in a still more crunch.
I’ve never had brie on pizza and it should have been an obvious choice because it melts so well and resulted in a nice creaminess. Being the dominant flavor, however, I did wish for a little more salty prosciutto and tart apple to cut through the brie as it was a bit on the cheesy-weezy side of things.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it though, I just felt like it was missing something that would have taken it from being a really good pizza to a really great one. Arugula maybe?
I’m looking forward to sampling the rest of their pies in the coming months, and although I didn’t take any pictures other than the one out front, here is one Katie’s review at Respublica, and a second at St. Louis Eats and Drinks. Both have pictures.
Dining in the Future
Mar 2, 2008 general food
There is a fantastic article in this month’s Sauce Magazine about a Chef’s Round table discussion with Catherine Neville and five prominent restaurateurs in various stages of their St. Louis careers–two old-timers (Bill Cardwell, Zoë Robinson), one mid-timer (Jim Fiala), and two relative new comers (Larry Forgione, Gerard Craft).
Everyone should definitely read it. It’s very interesting and many of the topics discussed could warrant entire round table discussions of their own. I for one wish I could personally speak to Larry Forgione as his opinions were very close to my own although he certainly arrived at his with considerably more blood, sweat, and tears than I ever did.
One thing specifically is that Forgione told a story about someone once telling him that people in St. Louis have a rotation of five or six places they always go. When a new place opens they’ll go and try it, but unless they “provide for them something that one of the other five or six restaurants in the loop doesn’t provide…” you’re not going back.
If they do provide something new “then one of those restaurants will be dismissed from the loop and you’ll join the loop.”
I agree with this completely, and I do it myself, but I think the reason is more complex than the printed discussion let on.
Many of the most knowledgeable diners in St. Louis that consistently frequent a limited number of restaurants are doing so because of the small subset of establishments they can go and receive the kind of food they’re wanting to eat–food that in some way touches them and challenges their palate rather than just being the same old good-but-ho-hum fare many restaurants serve.
As a result, they do frequent the same places, and in so doing these places begin to recognize them and treat them as part of some sort of extended family. That only furthers to enhance a restaurants membership in their circle because they become not just the people cooking and serving their food, but also, while perhaps not friends outright, people they care about on some level.
In my own experience I know when the chefs of the restaurants we frequent are having children, or their spouses are sick, or they’re going out of town on vacation. I know this because I’ve struck up friendships with them as they made it a point to recognize my wife and me as frequent diners and to thank us for it.
It’s sort of a Cheers mentality when you think about it because people like to go places where everyone knows their name. It was not something we personally sought out, it was just something that seemed to happen as an extension of their quality of service, but it made these restaurants more than just a place for us to eat, and as a result a place we wanted to spend our money to show our support.
All five chefs on the round table have this in their restaurants to a degree and it was enlightening to hear what they had to say on a number of subjects. Surprisingly, even on some of St. Louis diner’s nastiest opinions, they for the most part actually agree with us–except of course for that blogging thing.
People always say they want to know what went wrong right then and there so they can fix it, and while I think that’s a nice thing to say, I don’t think it’s true. Bill Cardwell (whom I admire greatly and frequent his restaurant for lunch because of its longstanding consistency) believes you “don’t have a way to respond to it” when someone online writes something bad about you. But is that really any different than a printed publication?
A restaurant should be treating everyone that dines there as a restaurant critic. One out of almost 3 million people shouldn’t be receiving some sort of preferential treatment if someone finds out who they are. If a mistake happens, nobody should be trying to slip one in on the one-time-diner, they should recognize the mistake and correct it promptly themselves rather than crossing their fingers that someone won’t go out and say something negative.
Everyone makes mistakes that’s true, and it’s the restaurants with true class that recognize many themselves and promptly rectify them without assistance from the diner.
The restaurant industry is like a competition with the diner being the judge. If you’re doing your big swan dive in the Olympics and you belly flop, there’s no do-over, that’s it, you’ve lost.
Even when a restaurant makes a mistake that goes unnoticed, and a diner points it out to allow them to rectify it, the do-over is never as good as a first attempt gone right.
When you’re dining with five other people and your food comes out overcooked and you send it back, now you’re left sitting their watching five other people eat their food while you sit with nothing. Then, when your food re-arrives, at some point your companions are awarded their own turn in watching you eat your food with nothing to do. That’s a terrible situation for everyone involved, and that’s why many people just eat what was delivered to them without complaint.
Danny Meyer once said something to the effect that asking “is everything okay?” is a loaded question for a server to ask. The inference is that it’s not okay and the server is bracing themselves for the response. Few diners are going to respond to that with anything but “yes” to avoid the conflict that question entails, and he proposed that the more appropriate question would be “is there anything else I can get for you?”
I’ve always liked that point, as it gives a patron an easier open with which to address an issue. Danny Meyer understands this, and that’s why he wrote the book on service. His restaurants are the high-point in hospitality because he understands that the majority of people within his restaurant’s walls on a given weekend are not frequent diners but one-shots with which you only get one chance.
So to those in the industry that do not care for what the internet has brought to the dining landscape understand this: the internet is the wave of the future, and the number of bloggers and forum posters is only going to increase exponentially in the coming years.
Certainly many of them do it anonymously and to be vindictive, and to that I have nothing kind to say. I agree completely that this is unfair and wrong, and that’s why restaurateurs hate bloggers and online forums. It’s become increasingly easier for people to spread bad stories. What used to be phone calls and meetings has now become the click of a single button, and with that click thousands of people can be notified of a bad experience instantly.
However, many of these posts are made from the core of the dining public-the people with the potential to put the most money into a restaurant’s pockets. Restaurateurs can choose to consistently complain about the people who do so, or they can choose to embrace it and become a part of it. It is two-way street and I am surprised more restaurants don’t take full advantage of the exposure the internet can offer them.
It was my forum that was mentioned in the article and I know that everyone is thrilled when the chef-members post as they always have a deeper insight into certain things that might be discussed. Furthermore, it serves to put a more personal face on a restaurant, and in the information age we now find ourselves in, people want to know as much about everything as possible.
That’s why these online negative reviews can be so detrimental. When someone is going out for that one special night they can now get online and find a wealth of information to assist in narrowing down their search for the perfect place-the one where everything will go wonderfully and they will enjoy a superb meal.
The days of taking a chance are behind us, and restaurants can either choose to take these reviews as constructive criticism and learn from them, or if they believe it to be unjust, there is a way to respond and we call it email–or in the case of forums joining and posting a well-constructed response.
And remember if you don’t agree with anything I’ve said here, I have had my name on this website since day one because I owe it to anyone I might say something about–good or bad–a means with which to respond to me. I respect that fact and I hope when Gerard Craft was speaking of good and bad bloggers I was one that he would put soundly into the good pool.
I believe I am.
Tags: Bill Cardwell, Gerard Craft, Jim Fiala, Larry Forgione, Sauce Magazine, Zoë Robinson
Harvest Festival Tomorrow
Oct 13, 2007 beer, events, farmers' markets, general food, restaurants, sustainable agriculture
- WHAT: Sixth Annual Harvest Festival
- WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- WHERE: Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Mo. (just off I-44 at exit #253)
- COST: $5 adults, $4 seniors 65 and older; $3 for Garden members
- SPONSORS: Presented by Sauce Magazine and Schlafly Beer. Sponsors are the Shaw Nature, Reserve, Bank of Washington, Washington Missourian, Mount Pleasant Winery, KDHX 88.1 FM, and KWMU 90.7 FM.
- INFO: (636) 451-3512; www.harvestfeststl.com
And as for the why, sure Mike tried to entice you with beer, but there are other reasons to go to the Harvest Festival tomorrow, and I didn’t even have to come up with my own list:
Five good reasons to visit Shaw Nature Reserve’s Harvest Festival(ST. LOUIS): Here are five great reasons to drive out to the Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit for the Harvest Festival on Sunday, Oct. 14 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.:
Harvest Festival admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors age 65 and older, and $3 for Garden members. Children age 12 and under are free. Proceeds from the event benefit the Shaw Nature Reserve. Pets and outside beverages are not allowed. You may bring a cooler to store your fresh produce purchases. Carpooling is recommended since parking space is limited. The sixth annual Harvest Festival is presented by Sauce Magazine and Schlafly Beer. Sponsors are the Shaw Nature Reserve, Bank of Washington, Washington Missourian, Mount Pleasant Winery, KDHX 88.1 FM, and KWMU 90.7 FM. |
Tags: Sauce Magazine
Who is the Star at Starrs’?
Sep 7, 2007 general food
The Gourmet Guro tips his hat favorably to Starrs’ this month over on saucemagazine.com, but he did fail to mention who was cooking the delicious food.
I just wanted to take a moment to point out that it’s James Dean Gill. I worked with James at Harvest for about a year in 1999 while he was the daytime Sous Chef. He’s a great cook, an even better guy, and I’m glad to see he’s doing well.
Check out the article, and if you happen to dine there, let us know how it is.
Also, here’s a Sauce Byte from early August. I’m surprised they didn’t mention James in the review as they obviously knew.
After 14 years of hosting private dinners in Starrs’ private dining room, Bud Starr has opened the space to the public. Starr and chef James Gill collaborate in the kitchen, producing an American menu that offers diners everything from burgers to filet mignon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. “We’re just trying to be a good, reasonable value restaurant,” Starr said. The wine list is extensive, to say the least: Diners purchase one of the 1,200 selections available in the wine shop and enjoy it with their meal.
Tags: Sauce Magazine
