Diner Review: The Three Monkeys

Three Monkeys









There is something that always piques my curiosity when new places open up and are obviously bar/restaurants but they chose to also serve breakfast. I understand the logic of having a physical plant, open for lunch and dinner that you might as well get some revenue during breakfast rather then just be closed but historically the model does not work. Having been, in a past life, in that trade and having been lectured about how a really “nice” place can never serve breakfast AND charge $30.00 for an entree and have a good bar business at night... I get piqued.

So a few months ago I stopped by for cocktails at The Three Monkeys on Morganford. this is that area of Morganford just south of Tower Grove Park where several plays have tried to turn it into:

The New Gaslight Square
The New Loop
The New Lacledes Landing (ugh! What a bad idea that would be)
The New Maplewood
etc...

It could be kind of a cool little strip but other then the faux cool “Tin Can” and the Verona and Stella Blues there is very little really going on here and the 7-11 right across the street can attest to same. All that having been said The Three Monkeys is cool looking. It has a very tasteful exterior and inside is all dark woods and a big long bar. Think of the front room at Annie Gunns, deduct an average of about a 500k in net worth for each one of the patron and add a person or two who is not white (something rarely seen in the Chesterfield Valley) and you get the idea. For cocktails it was more then pleasant but i saw they had breakfast.

Breakfast is of course the great test of any kitchen and there are a lot of disconnects with three monkeys cool bar interior and it’s menu which seems to have a totally disconnected tropical theme. At 6:45 on a Saturday morning (they open at 6 for breakfast) I stumbled in remarkably un-hungover (legal term.. hungover is also now referred to as Spezioed) and checked it out. It is pleasantly dark inside but that is not a good thing for breakfast. You need light in order to read the paper. You need light to see what might be moving in your hash browns. But i can live with dark. It has it’s place. There are numerous tables...2, 4 and 6 tops but they all have these annoying, hard, not quite bar stools to sit on. They are not as high as bar stools but have the same design and are not comfortably short, like school chairs, so depending on your leg length they are at best... awkward.

I eschewed the tables and sat at the beautiful bar and was promptly served by a pleasant, pretty, pregnant (that is a lot of alliteration for me) bartendress/waitress. There is another dichotomy. Which is she. She is standing behind a bar in front of a full rack of booze and she is taking a breakfast order. But i digress. She was very pleasant and the service was good. there were three or four tables with people and at least one table of “regulars”. The regulars were also a little disconcerting because there were women at the table. As we all know from our reading women do not go out for breakfast. Strippers on their way home eat breakfast but that is substantially different then a middle aged lady, waking up and heading out with her husband to sit and eat breakfast at 6:30. it is once again... disconnected.

Checking out the menu I saw it was average in size but contained all the basics but everything once again had the annoying tropical theme:

The Amazon: French Toast
The Islander: Biscuits and Gravy
Lava: Belgian Waffle
Cyclone: Eggs, Pancake and Sausage
Congo...

You get it. To put it kindly, in breakfast parlance such themes are... lacking a better term...gay.
I ordered the biscuits and gravy along with a side of sausage and hash browns. The iced tea was good and fresh brewed. The hash browns were shredded (as God indicated they should be), the sausage patties were thin and large, reminiscent of Steak n Shakes old patties. The biscuits were thick dry and home made and probably would have been tasty on their own. The gravy was the only problem as it had more in common (and appeared to be) a mushroom sauce then sausage gravy. Closer inspection revealed that the mushrooms were indeed pieces of gravy but it was thin, separated easily and was too sweet and unsavory to really cut the mustard.

Still, your diner bravely muddled through. Over all it was not bad and the ambience of the place is soothing and it seems like it might be a nice place to hide for a few months until the bar either closes or realizes that breakfast is a losing opportunity. In the mean time I strongly recommend it as a breakfast experience. Bring someone to talk to.
Their Web Site (what kind of Diner would have a web site?) http://www.3monkeysstl.com/