Soooo...what is the best steak house in St. Louis? Mortons? Ruth’s Chris? Flemings? 801 Chophouse? Prime 1000? J. Gilberts? Annie Gunns? Certainly they all have much to offer but for lunch? For 20 Bucks for a steak, salad, potatoes and...TEXAS TOAST! There is only one choice and it is the obvious choice. The Best Steak House!
So there are those in my little silo that eschew meat consumption. I have always insisted on eating meat at every meal. The evidence is monumental and incontrovertable that this diet is not good for you and my gut is likely living proof but the science says avoid meat. I politely disagree and am hitting and age where I can look and see that I would have missed a lot of good food and lot of pleasure and if that has been the cost for meat… well it has been a price worth paying. But meat cannot be good for you. It tastes too good. Let’s not even discuss the ethics of consuming piece of one of God’s creatures. I generally agree with the Reverend Horton Heat.
Midtown and Grand Center and the SLU campus have certainly been brought back by Father Biondi, the resurgent FOX, KWMU, KDHX, Channel Nine, Jazz St. Louis and for God’s sake Pappy’s and now Southern. Many good things but there is only one place that has been doing the work at Midtown, day after day since 1964. Three years after I was born! One of the Kennedys (one of the better ones anyway) was still alive when they opened. 52 years! More!
This place is awesome. Their peak time according to Google (Google knows all) is 3:00 in the afternoon. They are only open from 10-9 so you cannot count on them for late night elegant dining or really elegance of any kind but what you can find is a unique steak and chicken cafeteria experience. There is normally street parking on Grand with a meter and if not there is surely parking within one block.
So…. You walk in and go through the line. Normally when you are about 10 people away from the counter the man grilling the meet calls for your order. Your choices are steak, chicken, hamburger and shrimp in several different forms. I think I normally go for the 12 oz sirloin but they also offer rib eye. I have never tried the burgers or the chicken or the shrimp but I think on my next trip that there is a steak and shrimp option. The shrimp is of course as God intended...fried.
Each meal comes with a salad, baked potato and Texas toast. They will fry some potatoes on the griddle for you and normally have a mess of them sitting on the counter and they will of course cut up onions in them and melt some cheese on them… because that is the way you like it. But the baked potatoes look pretty good too. The salad is a parsimonious affair of iceberg head lettuce with a tomato slice. When you reach the counter you can chose Italian, Russian or 1000 Island dressing. By the time you have made it past the salad dressing your meat should be cooked and you check out.
Their drink selection is my only real complaint. No brewed iced tea, only fountain drinks and fountain tea so bring your own or opt for bottle water because… fountain soda is really just carbonated cancer. That might be editorializing a little. I think the price is about 12 bucks so with a dew bucks in the tip jar it is a $15.00 dollar lunch and it looks like this.
Now this is not my wife’s idea of a food steakk. I like the taste fat gives meat but don't enjoy a lot of gnawing so you need to put the steak knife to work. Most of the regulars get their steaks well done but I cannot cotton to that and so go medium rare and the steak is nothing if not delightful. A healthy dose of salt and pepper and it is a really nice break from your regular lunch.
The clientele are eclectic and delightful and generally pull me out of my bubble of Clayton professional people. I always feel like I am the one who has never been there as the crowded place seems full of regulars. There is an older man and woman who walk table to table clearing trays and picking up glasses. You will need to set aside 45 minutes to an hour for the lunch but take a break from your usual affair and treat yourself to a quick steak served by nice people. Fresh cooked food, pretty fast. It is not Ruth’s Chris, or Morton's and for that I think midtown can be grateful. You also get change back for your $20.00 which will not get you a salad at any of those places mentioned. Bring a friend!
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