The Best Steak House: The Diner Review

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQynViAF6Ds

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!

http://www.beststeakstl.com

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!

Sugar Fire: The Diner Review

Soooo...occasionally something new happens that is really outstanding on the St. Louis food scene. We see pretty many new places and we see many places that suck.  Many places that don't last.  But occasionally there is a gift and occasionally it is discovered by Kevin. Naturally the fact that Kevin discovered it is a reason to dislike and disdain since he loads all of recommendations with pretense but occasionally he finds a place that just absolutely kills it and this is the case with Sugar Fire.

By this time, if you have the misfortune of reading this you know that I am not a cheerleader.  Even when I gush I find something to criticize in some petty, meaningless and annoying way.  Alas, I come not to bury Sugar Fire but to praise the shit out of it.  I am so sick of Bar-B-Q places in this town.  I love Lester's, I love Pappys and I love Bogarts. They are all relatively new and they have upped the game in this town but how many shitty Bar-B-Q places have I tolerated in the past 5 years. Every place is extolled. Every place is revoltionary.  Every place ultimately disappoints.  The three mentioned above are exceptions.  They are well run and have high quality control.  They both have the same faux exclusive rule that they only cook so much each day and when they are out, they are OUT!  It annoys me.

So Kevin said “Sugar Fire”.  I asked “where”?  He told me it was on Olive at Price in a strip mall and i was incredulous and then I remembered that Dickeys was formerly there.  Dickeys is classic mass market, crappy BBQ.  Nothing wrong with it, nothing right with it.  It is generic and inoffensive with hot sauces to mask banality of the product.  I love good BBQ sauce but it is there to complement good meat, not to makle up for lack excellence.  So I gave it a try by myself one Saturday after a grumpy visit to the licence bureau.  I had the misfortune of wearing an orange shirt and it looks ALOT like a mug shot with me wearing an orange St. Louis County Jail jumpsuit.  
I have now been to Sugar Fire 5 times.  This is not out of an obligation to do a diligent job.  I like passing judgment on a place with one trip.  No, it is because I keep having to go back, again and again and again because it is SO DAMN GOOD!  The first time I had the brisket.  I do not love brisket.  It is bland, often dry and without sauce can often be inedible. Sugar Fire’s brisket is a symphony for the mouth.  Nice charring but nothing dry.  I have no idea what they rub or season it with or how they cook it so moist but it is without fault.  They serve them on a thin roll that is somewhat like a kaisar roll but excellent for the sandwich.  The next time I went back and I had...brisket. I think they have 5 types of sauce.  I don’t like carolina, I don’t like vinnegar, I don’t like horseradish but they have them all.  They also have three normal BBQ sauces and I found them all very good.  The third time I went I had a brisket philly cheese steak.  It had carmelized red onions on it on a nice french loaf.  It too was unstoppable.  The next time... I had the brisket.  Today I finally branched out and got the burger which was touted to me with cheese and house smoked bacon.  When you order the pull a 3rd pound of ground sirloin out and throw it on the griddle. Takes about 4 minutes.  It too was perfect and bacon was flavorful but is a little chewy for the sandwich.  (See, I always find something to bitch about...but that is it!)

So they put out good meat. they also advertise excellent smoked salmon and pulled pork which I will eventually get to.  I also tried their chicken biscuit which is smoked chicken which is then breaded and fied and put on a biscuit.  I took it home and put it in the fridge and that was a mistake as it seemed kind of baseball like.  next time I will try it fresh.

So all the good meat entrees make it interesting. Very interesting.  But what makes it awesome and a must go are the sides.  They have excellent fresh fries lightly seasoned which I have gotten every time but as we all know, anyone can do that.  What makes them different is that they have specials every day  (Brisket Philly Cheese Steak, fried bone in pork chop etc...).  There are great but what is really, really great are the other sides beside the fries.  theyu are always changing and they have greens (I don’t eat them but authentic people love em).  They always have a couple types of slaw (yawn again) but then they will sometimes have fresh cornbread doctored up, I have gotten garlic cheese grits and today I had green chili cheese pork which was like a little bowl of soup.  The sides change every day.  They are always creative. They always have 5 or 6 and it makes a meal a delectable treat.

They brew their own tea.  Regular and white trash sweet.  They have a soft drink dispenser you hit first but you can also pick up some odd bottles of soda as well as... wait for it.... BEER!  They have fresh cookines and also a wide array of deserts which i will likely never get to.  Bottom line... I cannot say enough good things about this place.  If I could get a franchise I would do it tomorrow.  One of these downtown, one in Chesterfield and one in Webster Kirkwood. I do not know how they do the quality control.  All the guys making the food seem to love what they do and seem to love making people, talking about the food with the patrons and giving the place a good vibe.  The location is a little inauthentic (whatever that means) and the parking lot at Price and Olive is a tragedy of stupidity but those are small prices to pay.

Go there.  Eat.  Come back and thank me and by extension, thank Kevin.

http://sugarfiresmokehouse.com/

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Diner Review: Original Fried Pie Company

Sooooo....according to the Rolling Stones “You can’t always get what you want”... but if you want a fried pie, I got the place.  As you are aware your intrepid diner is always on the lookout for high quality, out of the ordinary dining experiences.  These take me far and wide in the service of the fine dining public, but I cannot complain... I do it out of love.

Recently I had the occasion to dine with afine Lutheran Pastor on a run to Springfield Missouri and we ate ate Super Smokers in Eureka Missouri.  That of course is a well established location and needs no props from The Diner Review.  More importantly I spied while in Eureka The Original Fried Pie Company.  I have a fairly deep passion for fried pies.  Normally served as “pastys” and done poorly like most Irish food (they really know how to boil their meat) but when done properly, there is nothing more tasty than a pasty.  

It is hard to find a quality reason to travel out to Eureka.  Something about proximity to 6 Flags, Times Beach, the Legends and other disasters.  Before I go too far this is a chain.  Not a very good chain or a very expensive chain (you can get a franchise for 25k).  There are pieces that are missing.  They have the dreaded Lipton Iced tea System which like the hated North peak System claims to be fresh brewed when actually it is a mix run through tubes behind the bins.  This is insidious because they make it look like it is a reular urn which they fill with fresh product, but it is actually a fountain system that when you open the top of the urn reveals a lot of plastic tubes mixing undrinkable product.  Also, the decor is not much and you eat out of wax paper lined basket (but I like that).

http://www.theoriginalfriedpieshop.com/Locations.html

it is at best a non-pretentious place with a cement floor.  The counter has the pie making area and deep friers directly behind the counter and in plain site (“In Sight It Must be Right”... could Steak n’ Shake be wrong?)  The menu contains a number of different meat pies and then they also have a number of cheese, cream and fruit desert pies.  A combo can be purchased for about 7 bucks with one of each and a drink.

We arrived at about 7 on a Saturday and there was one table there.  We were able to take it in and placed our order with a very pleasant, solicitous young lady who explained the menu and how all the pies were made and also that they were all fried in peanut oil in case we had any allergies or “what not”.  I ordered a “comfort pie” which was a light cheese sauce and polish sausage and a blackberry desert pie with some icing on it.  Sandy got a chicken and vegetable pie (which was similar to the traditional “pot pie”.  She got a cherry pie for desert.  

We ordered and got our drinks.  I think it is a Pepsi/Dr. Pepper place and engaged some small talk with the night manager.  I asked if they were doing well and he said very well.  They had opened last fall and did box car business during the Six Flags season but survived the winter and they were now “killing it” again.  That was good to hear.  The place was clean and non descript and we were anxious to taste the product which came up after about 5 minutes.  Since there was no one else there we asked to have the desert pies put in later.  Our pies were fresh, hot and delicious.  Arguably they could have had a little more meat but it was plenty to eat all by itself.  The desert pies were filled with fruit filling rather than fresh fruit which was a little bit of a bummer and they gave you a little cup of icing to pour over the hot pie.  Though i was hesitant the result was decadent and excellent.  We gobbled them up with our plastic knives and forks.

This place is not a destination for great food.  It is really good and it is off beat and worth a trip just to do something a little different.  And that is what summer is all about.

Diner Review: Mi Ranchito

Sooooo.... As I have previously stated there are a great number of Mexican places that have opened in the last few years. Lots of good tacos and burritos and carnitas and asada and what not. Great tacos served on corn tortillas with a little cilantro and some lime. When the tortillas are warm and the carnitas is good it is more than a little bit of heaven. They have sprung up all over place. It is a treasure. I keep my eyes peeled and when a place pops up I like to check it out and the more off the beaten path, the better. Last year I touted El Ranchito in Fairmont City and it should not be confused with this impostor called Ml Ranchito.

So this place has been getting good reviews and there has been a lot of talk. It is on Kingsland just north of Olive and about 5 blocks south of Delmar. It is in the end of a crappy little strip mall and when I went on a recent day for lunch it was easy to get a table at 11:45 and it was a waiting line by noon. People seem to love the place and I had a table by the door and people just kept rolling in. it is hugely popular as a lunch destination right now.

The chips and salsa were reasonably good. Nothing too special. The sauce was read and clumpy with onions but not too hot. 4 kinds of hot sauce on the table to spice it up. Chips were clearly not the standard store bought chips and they crunched in a way that was not displeasing.

The menu was a disappointment looking to me like a slightly more authentic Casa Gallardo. Your meat choices for the tacos were “chicken” or “beef” rather than all the different delicacies that I have grown accustomed to. There was no beef tongue. There was no goat. There was no “asada”. I mean there has to be 4 different kinds of pork at El Ranchito in Pontoon Beach. But still, there were a ton of people there and quite a few cops (they know where to eat) and so it was with great anticipation that I ordered the carnitas plate.

While I would not classify it as a disappointment, the meat itself was great, the rest of the plate was uninspiring yellow rice and some lettuce with tomato pieces in it. I had to ask for some lime wedges. Then I unrolled the aluminum foil I was doubly disappointed to see flour tortillas. How does that happen? I know I am no expert about Mexican food, or tacos, or the law, or marriage or...well obviously anything... but FLOUR tortillas? Really? Still as I said, the meat was good and and it was acceptable but I want JOY from my food.

The iced tea was brewed. The bill was not too expensive but I just cannot recommend the place. It has no personality, an uninteresting location and a quality of food only slightly higher than chain Mexican restaurants. And flour tortillas? Blech! 6 Slingers on the ten scale.

here is their web site but it is down or at least was today. That says about all you need to know.

http://www.mi-ranchitostl.com/

Diner Review: The Hearth Room

Soooo.... In my exhausting, never ending march to cover EVERY breakfast place in St. Louis I am constantly roving the city, eyes peeled in strip malls, shopping centers, basements filled with the undead as I cruise through some time desolate streets at all hours of the day or night, occasionally I come upon something new or at least new to me. Such was the case last week when I ventured out to west county to visit my parents. West County as you all know is a bastion of people who have all centered their lives around “getting a lot more house for their money” and betting that the public schools are better out there. If nothing else I believe they better quality drugs. But I digress. the point is that west county is a soul less bastion of shopping, and national chain food. I know Kirkwood and indeed parts of the City were once pasture but ALL of west county is paved over farmland and the way we have done it for the last 30 years...depresses me. Wow, I digressed again.

The Hearth Room Cafe is in the “Lamp n Lantern Plaza”. The name was quaint when it first was built in the 70s. It was on the corner of Woodsmill and Clayton and sat a little awkwardly behind a building with a 7-11 (now a Pasta House) and a car wash and a bank. There once was a supermarket there, a Kroger I think. When my parents had a spot of financial trouble we moved to Village Green Apartments which are just west of the center and I would tromp through it frequently on my way to buy comic books and 32 oz bottles of Sprite and Nacho cheese Doritos. Good days. My parents moved several times since then but now live in Chesterfield and so I was driving by the shopping center when I saw a sign over the steps of tiered Lamp n Lantern for “The Hearth Room”. I drove around the center and could not find it because you cannot park in front of it. Instead it lies in a “charming” court of shops, 30 yards from any parking. What a great idea. That morning I had already eaten so I did not make the trek.

Still, I vowed to come back and I did so this morning, braving the cold in order to walk the long way from a parking space to the “cafe”. As I walked in I saw a small darkened room of tables on the right. To the left there was a a large, charmless, kind of formal and dimly lit room. Their was indeed a large hearth and hearty gas fired blaze was going, throwing off no heat and even less light on a room that lacked any charm. I stood there for a minute till a waitress finally came out of the kitchen and advised I could “sit anywhere I want”. There were perhaps a dozen people eating there which I found encouraging but the average age was about 65 and at least two patrons had walkers parked around their tables. Still, old people know their breakfasts and I am never one to snub food that is easily chewed.

The menu was unremarkable and seemed to feature omlettes and pancakes and breakfast sandwiches. The waitress was pleasant and attentive. The iced tea....BREWED! And it was good tea, fresh in a place where clearly I was the only one drinking it. I ordered my standard meal of ½ order of biscuits and gravy, side of sausage and...(gasp) the dreaded “breakfast potato”. Frequent readers (all three of you) seem sometimes amused and almost always saddened by my obsession with the humble potato but nothing sends shivers down my spine like the menu item called the “breakfast potato”. WTF is a “breakfast potato”? Is it a particular cut of a potato? I guess I should be grateful because they are giving me a heads up that they do not have real “hash browns” which as we have discussed should always be shredded and skillet fried to perfection. But your reviewer bravely ordered them anyway and considered the venerable St. Louis Post Dispatch and read about Newt Gingich’s bold attempt at an open marriage with his current (totally uncreepy, not crazy eyed or plastic haired) wife Calista and his former wife...after she was diagnosed with MS, who of course replaced the first wife (diagnosed with cancer). What a hoot. Also, Romney appears to not have his tax returns ready for release. I did look around at the Hearth Room patrons, several of whom were speaking loudly to their hearing impaired companions. There was classical music playing and despite my enjoyment of the iced tea and my paper I was annoyed by the decor, the pretensions and I think just by breakfasting in west county.

My meal was pleasantly surprising. the gravy was a little thin but full of sausage pieces although it was topped with some green seasoning which might or might not have been parsley and while suitable for dinner, was inappropriate for breakfast food, especially biscuits and gravy. Similarly on my plate was an orange twist as garnish. Garnish is wrong at breakfast. there...I said it. It is (and if this gets too technical for you I apologize but I am of course a professional need to use the proper vernacular) stupid. The sausage was really good though. properly cooked. A little savory, no spice. I like big flat patties that are more like thin hamburgers. The potatoes were a disappointment but were very edible. the biscuits similarly were appropriately baked and added nice texture with the gravy and when i mixed it all up together it was more than adequate. I think it cost $9.00 with the tip.

Bottom line. Nothing special. Take your mom there, or your dad. Nothing homey, nothing charming and food did not wow. Ambiance sucked and you have to walk a long way from your car. I predict they are out of business by summer (the location is just a bad idea, especially for old people who need to walk in their walkers) and so if you want to give it a try i would get out there now.

6 ½ Slingers On The Ten Scale

Diner Review: PW Pizza

Soooooo....PW Pizza.... I really, really like it. I was turned onto it by an awful...awful lawyer who is an aggressive food snob and degenerate prick. I like ahim a great deal. He also turned me on to Mi Ranchito in Fairmont City. PW Pizza is on the first floor of Vin Du Cet. I would like to tell you all about it and how I was the first one there but I have never dined or drank there so screw that. But PW....I have been there a half dozen times now. It is pretty far east on Cheteau but not as far east as Ralson.

It is tricked out woody place with a nice little trendy spice shop, wine shop, cheese shop (useless) and a small bar (pleasant) as you come in. There are normally friendly people at the hostess station and if you get there by 11:30 you can always get a seat for lunch and if your ater be prepared to wait or sit at the bar. They have a nice selection of beers that can make any stay at the bar more enjoyable....even at lunch...even =when you have a client meeting....even when your going to going to court to argue against your client getting the death penalty at 1:00. I normally drink Grisedick Brothers there but that is just me.

Start with a salad. All of them are good. Very fresh and interesting. But then get what you are there for which is either pizza or calzone. I am currently higher on the pizza than the the calzone but the calzone is excellent too. My problem is that they use the buffalo mozzerella rather than good old fashioned processed mozzerella like God intended. But the crust is perfect. The sauce is generally very good and their red sauce just has a little...itty bitty bit of heat. They are good and slightly bigger than your head.

Normally I would hate a place like this. It says shit on the menu like:
“Crusts available in Original, Honey Wheat or Gluten Free
Vegan – daiya cheese substitute available”.
I don’t even know what that means. Get original. It is awesome. They have all kinds of items and they are all fresh. I have been extremely boring and generally get sausage and pepperoni. It is really good. Also, they only serve pizza in 12” pies and they serve two but I like to try and eat one by muself because I am after all a gross pig. I am generally of a mind right now that it is the best pizza in St. Louis. They are doing everything right currently and it is kind of a fun destination. perhaps one of you can get to Vin Du Set and tell me what that is all about. But you would have to likely get a job first and move out of your parent basement. Here is the link:

http://pwpizza.com/our_menu

Saturday...In The Bar... Bogarts and iTap (International Tap House)

Soooooo.... often I find myself at loose ends on a Saturday afternoon. I work in the morning when I am in town. Generally this is due to a lack of imagination and a general lack of motivation on my part. This makes me sad. There are many fun and wonderful things to do and eat in the Lou. I bitch about living here a lot but... God help me...I really like it here. Yesterday my wife was hosting another wedding shower for another of the innumerable children of our friends who are betrothed. Fortunately it was being held at someone elses house but there was still lots of set up, slicing of fruit, brewing of tea, lacy things and all thing imasculine and to be avoided.

I had considered making another run to Tienda Ranchito with the father of the groom and the poor lost soul whose wife was actually hosting the party. it is a festive thing to do because it calls for going to another State and not going to gamble or go to topless bars. This generally adds to self esteem. For one reason or another it seemed likje a reach so I suggested Bar B Que and specifically suggested either Pappy’s or Bogarts. Pappys has become an institution but Bogarts burst on the scene in the last year. They are related somehow in management or former management or ownership or something. Details, as is often the case, elude me.

So we all drove in to Soulard. Now I love Soulard. Lots of good bars, some decent food, too damn much blues music that all sounds the same but it is an area with character and history. It is kind of cool. I always explain to out of towners that when you lose your license on your 3rd DWI, you move to Soulard so you can walk to bars...and catch public transportation. It is really the only option unless you are going to stop drinking, or go to jail. But I digress. Bogarts is on the south west corner of Soulard Farmers Market on Lafayette.

There is always a line but this should not intimidate unless it is really cold. We walked in and there was a guy standing there handing out these brilliant...BRILLIANT chicken wings that were smoked and seasoned. We immediately started looking on the menu for them when we were informed that they “were not available” because they just did not have enough room in the smoker to make it a menu item. Shit. But we chatted up the guy and asked if they had beer and that is when the brilliance started. He said, “No but you can order a carryoiut and take it down to iTap or you can call in and we will deliver down there.” BRILLIANT!

Bogarts Menu: http://bogartssmokehouse.com/menu/

We grabbed a carryout menu and walked the 30 yards to iTap and settled in at the bar. iTap, The International Tap House, is one of those places that have 62,000 beers and tap and over 2 million different bottled beers. Once agin, I could not give a shit because I drink (in order of preference) Busch, Stag and Pabst. I am not proud of this. I do like good beer but obviously putting good beer in front of me is kind of a “pearls before swine” proposition. We settled into the bar and dialed up or order and they said “ten minutes and you can walk straight to the counter and not wait in line”. Despite all the beer selections we ordered some Schlafly Kolsch and a Boulevard Pale Ale (because they have a cheaper price for Missouri Beers when Missouri is playing) and we settled in to watch some Missouri texas football along with a little Michigan State.

Tap House Website: http://www.internationaltaphouse.com/

We walked down and got the food. One guy got a pulled pork sandwich and the other and I both got the ½ slab of ribs with an order of meat. They gave us a selection of sauces abd we chowed down. The iTap at the bar has three sweet large flat screens which makes it easier for an old guy like me. They also have a few tables and some couchy, loungy areas. I think they only serve beer. I did not see anyone smoking but I have stopped paying attention. The ribs were absolutely unstoppable. I had always gone pulled pork before but the ½ slab was meaty and perfect with great smoke and a little spice. When ribs are good, they are always “the best ribs ever” and these were THE BEST RIBS EVER! They really were good. Moist and plenty of meat. I did not even get to my pulled pork or any of the sides because the ribs were so much. I ate it today for lunch.

I really do have to recommend this as a great way to watch football and eat ribs. It is definitely a boy thing. I guess girls could be allowed but with beer, football and ribs wouldn’t that be kind of stupid? That is all for now, I am too good to you people.

Cafe' Osage: A Diner Review Sort Of....

Soooo.... it is always a pleasure to find a new place to have breakfast. Even if it is (with all respect to Johnny Chico) a little gay. It was with some trepidation that my dining companion Sal requested that we go to a place called Bowood Farms http://www.bowoodfarms.com/ which is more specifically when dining, Cafe Osage. he gave me the address of the place and I had no ability to picture it. 4605 Olive in the city...where the hell was that. But on a recent Saturday morning I made the sojourn and finally pulled up in front of the place which is about two blocks east of Euclid. It is also about 5 blocks west of the Old Gaslight Square http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslight_Square,_St._Louis . If you do not know about Gaslight Square it was kind of the equivalent of perhaps the Loop area, but probably a lot cooler. But anyway, I digress.

It is a very interesting part of town and the Bowood Farms people have located their, nursery, landscaping business, their plant data base and all of their knowledge and urban hipness in what was an abandoned manufacturing business.

A locavore dream. It is a cool place but at 7:30 on a Saturday morning it is a little disorienting. You walk into their indoor nursery through a big wooden door and then on your left is their little gem of a restaurant, the Cafe’ Osage. It is a big, open (and in February in the Lou) cold room. High ceilings and big windows give you great light . It is a really nice room with some big booths and nice table seating and a little bar area.

The menu is a little to frou frou but what I sampled was good. In fact very good. http://www.bowoodfarms.com/_ccLib/attachments/pages/Osage+Breakfast+Menu10-21-09.pdf . Unfortunately they were out of their biscuits and gravy but I did sample some of their Nueske Bacon and a very fresh English muffin while Sal had their Osage Corned Beef Hash with poached egg that looked pretty awesome and awfully fresh. The iced tea was top notch. The absence of hash browns was obviously concerning but is made up for with black beans and rice and cheese grits.... but those are for another time. The service was attentive without being annoying and over all I would say this is a great place for breakfast with your wife, girlfriend, daughter or mom and without knowing more I would guess that they do an awesome mimosa and bloody mary. It stinks to me of a mother day location for a great brunch where everyone, including me can be very happy. This is definitely a destination location to tuck away and save for the right moment.

Lets give it 7 slingers on a 10 scale but there is nothing Diner like about it.

Diner Review: Mama Josephines, The Best Comfort Food In The City!

Sooooo it has come to my attention...again...pointed out by no less eminent a critic then Johnny Chico that I have been filing to Diner or even dining reviews which is of course my purpose for blogging. Instead I have been "bloviating" about politics, the budget, Lutherans, The Giving tree and CD Reviews. Wasting your time... and mine. All we really give a shit about is food. Am I right? Of course I am right.

Recently on of the Diner reviews friends, the inimitable Kevin Donaldson read a review of a place called Mama Josephines in the RFT. http://www.riverfronttimes.com/slideshow/mama-josephines-southern-home-cookin-at-its-best-30411679/. I do not spend enough time pursing the RFT reviews on line but Donaldson has an empty and vacuous life and as such he is a veritable fount of useless information. I cultivate people like this and it holds me in good stead.

So he told me about Mama Josephines, and I read the review and wow... it seemed like a perfect place. It is located on Shaw several blocks east of the Botanical Gardens. it is not a perfect neighborhood and it is very close to the highway. Still it is a neighborhood that is struggling to make a come back. It was a little bit of a chilly day and Donaldson brought his partner who will remain nameless (primarily due to the fact that he arrived in a KIA). I was late and called in my apologies and asked what was on the menu and Donaldson hooked me up directly with the proprietor. Mary spoke with a nice Louisiana drawl and was charming and when she told me that they had home made chicken fried steak. I arrived as the food arrived and it was succulent. When you get chicken fried steak in the Lou we often end up with frozen patties and even more obscenely they are often dropped in a deep frier. This was perfectly hand breaded around a perfect piece of meat. The white cream gravy was also home made and perfect with some fries. It was awesome. They also brew their own iced tea.

Mary served the three of us as we sat outside (which will probably be out of the question now that it is November. My compatriots had the fried chicken which was awesome and they came with sides like green beans and mashed potatoes and corn bread. I also had the corn bread and it was the only minor disappointment being a little dry. It was the only thing I had or sampled that did not make me think that it was made especially for me while I waited. They also had the chicken and dumplings which had a nice broth and huge soft dumplings that made a perfect paste of chicken, pasta and broth. It really was perfect. The whole meal was almost unstoppably perfect so. They offered a great deal of home made deserts as well. I felt like I had to come back and so I did and I had the fried chicken this time and my guest had the chicken fried steak. They were both perfect again.

When mary was waiting on us she told the charming story of being raised in the restaurant business and then her parents not allowing her to pursue "the life" but she got to an age and just wanted to do this, for herself, for her mother and, well, for all of us. Donaldson mentioned to me that the food is under priced and I agree with him. I am concerned the place is not going to be open long despite the fabulous food and the charming owner. I need to get back there to try their Philly Cheese Steak, their fish, their pulled pork, their angus burger and everything else on menu. I would STRONGLY suggest you join me. Remember, eating at chain restaurants is a crime against St. Louis. The next thing you know you will confusing Mc Rib for food.

http://www.mamajosephines.com/Menu.html