Diner Review VII: Spencer's Grill

Diner Review
Spencers Grill
Kirkwood
On Kirkwood Road (Lindbergh for non-residents)

So...it is a local favorite and it is close to home but sometimes I wonder about Spencers Grill. Not open on Sundays. (which considering it’s location it should be) Sits right in the middle of one of our better suburbs. Still it is a pretty great place. Nice menu with all the fixings... good long counter with the appropriate stools, three or four VERY old and uncomfortable wooden booths. Small parking lot in back and regulars can walk in through the back.... the rest of us go in the front. It has a long straight counter with about 8 stools and then has four booths along the window on the left. The booths were apparently made by hand a long tiime ago and are made to fit the space rather then provide any dining comfort. The padding on them, such as it was, it torn and almost gone. They are made of wood and are too small providing much unwanted bumping of knees, especially when your breakfast companion is a 50 year old man.

There is a decent amount of cigarette smoke. The waitresses are always pleasant and they take pretty good care of you. The crowd is pretty considtently male and middle class and a tie is not really out of place but a golf shirt is certainly fine. People are there early and they open at 6.

The food is good.Their hashbrowns are standouts. Very greasy and always formed into the appropriate patty. They tend to be pressed thin which thems a crispiness which is unexpected and delightful. The eggs are once again...fine and unremarkable and cooked to order. The sausage patties are smallish but have good flavor and the gravy is thick and creamy though a little bland for this reviewer. The bland gravy is over bland, thick biscuits which although filling were not particularly satisfying. What makes Spencers unique in our area is that they serve Scrapple. Our friends at Wikipedia tell us:

Scrapple is a savory mush in which cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, are simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then formed into a loaf. Small scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

Who would eat this shit? Maybe John Meyers but he is from eastern Pennsylvania so probably not. Seriously....how does a bunch of stuff that sounds like it was dropped on the floor constitute breakfast? Remember this Diner Reviewer has a goat like stomach and absolutely no sensability regarding taste or anything else. I cannot stomach what I have seen of this. Although I am happy to mix the ingradients on my plate into something that looks like it was recently puked up, the idea of someone serving me a “plate of puke” is slightly (maybe tremendously) more distasteful.

Spencers makes itself a top quality choice and one of the only ones west of Lindbergh...barely. No jukebox. No calendars on the wall but still 8 Slingers on a 10 scale. They also get points for having their own web site. Very new millenium for an old world breakfast.

http://www.spencersgrill.com/