Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.

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The Best Chicken Fingers. Ever.

It's early 2014 and I've just arrived back in the U.S.  I haven't eaten fried chicken in at least 4 years. I've convinced myself that not only do I not need it, but I don't even like it that much. Then, at my mom's request, I join my family for Josh Galliano's fried chicken night at The Libertine. Like an alcoholic having his first sip of whiskey in years, I'm overtaken by the urge to keep eating. I nearly polish off my half bird, and then continue to go every month for almost a year. Some people aren't a fan of the heavier breading that Galliano used (in favor of something lighter, like what you'll find at Southern now), but I love it. The more crunch, the better. Since his chicken nights were only once a month and I was jonesing for chicken—and this was before the fried chicken boom of 2015—I had to return to an old favorite: Sportsman's Park. Their chicken "strips" are, from what I can tell, full chicken breasts, pounded out and fried. A much manlier cut than the puny tenders. I'm a man, not a toddler!

Last summer, Galliano left Libertine and so ended his fried chicken nights. Desperate, I started scrounging around the internet for his recipe. Like Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci code, I started putting together the pieces. First came a Weekend Project: Fried Chicken Dinner post from Sauce Magazine. Then came a Food & Wine recipe. Neither looked quite right, though. There were differences between them. I began prodding his former cooks and ultimately discovered Galliano's recipe is a combination of the two, which you'll find below.

Yes, this is a long process for chicken strips. But it's worth it, especially if you're a chicken finger lover like me. They taste almost exactly like Galliano's MIA chicken. Hell, you could go crazy and change it into a chicken nugget recipe. Whatever you choose to do, you'll thank me for helping to crack The Galliano Code.

Josh Galliano's Fried Chicken

Josh Galliano's Fried Chicken

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Chicken Fingers

SERVES: 4-6 SERVINGS | ACTIVE: 25 MIN | TOTAL: 6+ HOURS

INGREDIENTS

CREOLE SPICE MIX, COURTESY OF JOSH GALLIANO/FOOD & WINE

4-6 large chicken breasts, halved lengthwise
6 c water
10 bags black tea (English Breakfast)
1/4 c salt
2 T sugar
2 12-oz bottles Louisiana hot sauce (Crystal)
Tabasco
2 c buttermilk
4 sprigs thyme
2 eggs
2 c AP flour
2 c cornmeal
1/4 c cornstarch
canola oil

METHOD

Sweet Tea Brine

Add water, sugar, salt, thyme, 1 bottle of Louisiana hot sauce, a few Tabasco drops, and 2 tablespoons of creole spice mix to a pot. Stir and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off stove, add tea bags and let sit for 10 minutes. Remove tea bags and let cool (unless you enjoy half poached chicken strips).

Once cool, add the chicken and put in the fridge for 2-4 hours.

Buttermilk Soak

Add the buttermilk, second bottle of Louisiana hot sauce, eggs, and 3 tablespoons of creole spice mix to a bowl. Mix together. Add chicken, then set in fridge. Allow to sit for 4 hours or overnight.

Breading

Preheat the oven to 170F. Begin heating 1.5 inches of oil in a deep pot to 350F.

Mix flour, cornmeal, cornstarch, and remaining creole spice mix (about 1/2 a cup) well in a baking pan or plate. Remove the chicken strips from the buttermilk and shake off the excess liquid, then dredge in the breading mix.

Once the oil has reached 350F, put in chicken, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. The temperature will drop—keep it close to 300F. Cook the 3-4 minutes, then flip and cook for another 3-4. Remove and place on a baking rack so they can drain. If not eating immediately, place the rack in the oven.

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Spencer Spencer

Dave and Tony's

With my newfound freedom, I now have the time to go all over St. Louis at lunch time - with that, I'll be posting some shorter lunch pieces. To kick things off, I visited Dave & Tony's Premium Burger Joint in Creve Coeur. As the name implies, burgers are their thing: you can either pick one of their pre-designed burgers, or fill out a sheet at the counter for a custom one. The range of options is hefty. You could craft a healthy salad with grilled chicken and a garden's worth of veggies, or you could get a extra large steakburger on a pretzel bun with cheese, onion rings, a fried egg, bacon, french fries, and steak butter. I keep meaning to ask them what the most ultimate (read: fattening) burger someone has ordered is - I bet I'd be impressed, but also disgusted.

The restaurant is family friendly, so it's got something for everyone: soups, hot dogs, chicken fingers, nachos. And since you may be stuck bringing your demon kids with you, take advantage of the beer and wine they have.

I typically get the Asian Salad wrap with grilled chicken, a healthier choice that allows me to go eat The Peacemaker's po'boys. It's mixed greens, sprouts, red onion, carrots, avocado, crispy wontons, and a sesame soy dressing. Get the dressing on the side if you don't enjoy a soggy wrap.

Their burgers are damn good for $6.99, especially considering they make pretty much everything in-house. This monstrosity below was the daily special, the Brewhouse Burger. A juicy medium burger topped with crispy onion, smokey bacon, jalapenos, stout mustard, and a cheddar spread, all on a pretzel roll. Eating that meant at least one less day in my life, I think, but it was worth it.

Asian Salad Wrap at Dave & Tony's

Asian Salad Wrap at Dave & Tony's

Burger at Dave & Tony's

Burger at Dave & Tony's

Dave & Tony's is a solid option for a quick meal that won't break the bank, nor leave you disappointed. The business crowd crushes the restaurant during weekday lunches, but week nights and weekends are typically a good choice for a meal with the whole family.

Dave & Tony's

12766 Olive Blvd

Creve Coeur, MO 63141

(314) 439-5100

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Spencer Spencer

Priyaa

You could poke my eyes out and deafen me, then wheel me into almost any Indian restaurant in town and I could order without seeing the menu or letting anyone read it to me. One chicken korma! One saag paneer! Tikka masala, please. It seems like they're all your typical North Indian restaurant serving the same dishes with nearly the same quality and taste levels.

That's not to say the food is bad - it isn't - it's just that there is no range in quality or choices.  India is huge. Go on Wikipedia and you'll see 37 types of regional Indian cuisines listed. Give me some Goan seafood dishes with their Portuguese influence. It's just like Japanese restaurants in the US: there's more to Japan's cuisine than ramen and sushi.

After eating lunch at the forgettable Chihuahua's Mexican at 270 and Dorsett, I noticed Priyaa Indian at the corner of the strip mall and got to Googling. South Indian dishes! Two days later, I was there.

Interior at Priyaa Indian

Interior at Priyaa Indian

I love South Indian food; there was a hawker stand I went to weekly in Singapore that served up an enormous dosa with rainbow of sides for something like $6. South Indian food is typically spicier and contains more tamarind and coconut to replace the dairy often seen in the north (paneer, cream), which is a-ok with me.

As I tout my love of the South, I order a Punjab (North Indian) entree: the Chole Bhatura. Our waitress told us it was one of her favorites and not something seen at most other restaurants in town, so we went with it. This was one delicious, spicy bowl of chickpea curry. It looks like your typical American chili, but the flavors - cinnamon, fennel, cardamom, turmeric - let you know you're not in Kansas anymore.

The dish is served with three giant bhatura, a puffed fried bread.

I let me stomach dictate my photos of the rava masala dosa. I knew they weren't great shots, but the smell was so tempting, I couldn't resist. I had to start eating.

For the unaware, a dosa is basically a gigantic crepe that is filled with a thick vegetable curry (if it has masala in the name), then folded or rolled. The rava (semolina flour) masala dosa's batter contains onions, peppers, and all sorts of spices, making every bite a flavor-filled one. It's crispy, it's comically large, and I devoured it. I went in with low expectations, but after tasting how spot on the dosa was, I wanted to try every type they make.

Chickpea Stew at Priyaa Indian

Chickpea Stew at Priyaa Indian

Dosa at Priyaa Indian

Dosa at Priyaa Indian

Tandoori Chicken at Priyaa Indian

Tandoori Chicken at Priyaa Indian

We had expected all of the entrees to come at the same time, but the tandoori chicken came 10-15 minutes after everything else. By that time, we'd gone through the entire dosa (see below) and most of the chickpea curry - there wasn't much room left for chicken. And, as if a dosa and the bhatura bread weren't enough, the chicken came with naan (see below again). Suffering from Celiac? Don't come here.

The chicken was standard: charred and juicy. It was good, but not an item that I'd return to Priyaa for specifically.

I wish Priyaa had more South Indian dishes on their menu, but I understand that they probably aren't their money makers - yet. If you enjoy Indian spices and want to try something different, head over and get some dosas to share. Or, better yet, get one dosa and one of their Thali, something like a sampler platter.

What's your favorite Indian restaurant in St. Louis?

Priyaa Indian Cuisine

1910 McKelvey Rd

Maryland Heights, MO 63043

314-542-6148

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Spencer Spencer

Five Bistro

Five Bistro has closed.

I'd never given much thought about chef Anthony Devoti's Five Bistro before seeing it ranked at #11 on Ian Froeb's The 100 Best Restaurants in St. Louis list. It's a place I haven't heard much about since returning here and based on its location on The Hill, I made an assumption that it was just another Italian restaurant (i.e., boring 'classic' Italian food). It turns out that it's a new American bistro with a menu that changes daily based on what's in season and available from local farmers, so I was pretty far off on that one. It has a very neighborhood-restaurant vibe to it, if that makes sense. It's the kind of restaurant that floats between being good for a casual dinner or something fancier, like a date or anniversary. It's probably a little too bright and friendly to meet a Tinder 'date' at, though.

Interior at Five Bistro

Interior at Five Bistro

The menu reflects the neighborhood feeling. Starters lie mostly in the pasta family, with gnocchi, tagliatelle, and risotto serving as bases, along with a soup, a salad and a charcuterie board (which I did not have, but I have heard is stellar). Looking at both current and past menus, what's noticeable to me is that their dishes all sound like a restaurant version of what you would make at home. It's comfort food, in that sense.

After going through the menu and placing our orders, our waitress - who was friendly, attentive, and great with recommending and describing dishes - brought us a small amuse-bouche of Goat Cheese and Salmon over a crostini.

We tried two cocktails: the Hot & Dirty and the Ginger Daiquiri. The Hot & Dirty reminded me of something I made in college when my friends and I thought we were mixologists.

The ginger daiquiri was delicious with Diplomático añejo dark rum, The Big O ginger liqueur, fresh lime, raw sugar, Bittermans boston bittahs. I'm not sure you'd ever see Don Draper drinking it, but I liked it. 

Salmon Amuse Bouche at Five Bistro

Salmon Amuse Bouche at Five Bistro

Cocktails at Five Bistro

Cocktails at Five Bistro

The soup du jour - that sounds good, I'll have that - was butternut squash mixed with a J.T. Gelineau oyster mushroom salad and creme fraiche. We all agreed that even though the amount of mushroom in the dish was relatively small, the flavor was just as potent as the squash itself.

Butternut Squash Soup at Five Bistro

Butternut Squash Soup at Five Bistro

Salmon Crudo at Five Bistro

Salmon Crudo at Five Bistro

An off the menu special for the evening was a salmon tartare with aioli and crackers. A simple dish that let the salmon shine.

Just looking at this next picture is making me hungry. Chef Devoti's spring onion gnocchi with housecured lardo, ozark morels, ramps, olive oil, black pepper, and Beehive Cheese's honey-rubbed Seahive was the best dish of the night. I would return solely for this dish.

This is early spring Missouri on a plate. If someone told me to take one dish from The Hill that represented spring and the area it came from, it would be this. Pillowy soft gnocchi, the light smoke of the lardo, and the smooth cheese all served to push the subtle flavors of the ramps and morels to the top.

Morel Gnocchi at Five Bistro

Morel Gnocchi at Five Bistro

Pork Loin at Five Bistro

Pork Loin at Five Bistro

Before I even tried the Benne's Farm hickory roasted pork loin, I took a big forkful of the creamy polenta and gravy alone.  Something amazing happens when you take any sort of corn-based 'porridge' and mix it with a meat gravy. The pork itself was cooked well, accompanied by hen of the woods mushrooms, spring onions, and a herb butter. Oh baby.

Roasted Pork Loin at Five Bistro

Roasted Pork Loin at Five Bistro

Roasted Chicken at Five Bistro

Roasted Chicken at Five Bistro

Halibut at Five Bistro

Halibut at Five Bistro

The Benne's Farm chicken breast is an example of what I said before about this being a restaurant quality version of what you make at home. Substitute your dried out skinless chicken breast and Trader Joes bag o' vegetables for a perfectly cooked and seasoned chicken breast, local squash, spinach, sweet potatoes, and you've got this. Our last entree was Halibutfrom Neah Bay, Washington, served over sorrel, rutabaga, red new potatoes, fiddlehead ferns, and topped with a ramp and lime vinaigrette. I thought it could have used a little more "umph" - I didn't have a gravy and polenta reaction. I have no pictures of our dessert due to a camera issue, but we tried their Apple Sorbet and cherry/pistachio biscotti, as well as their Peanut crunch ice cream bombe, served with peanut brittle, creme anglaise, and candied peanuts. Both were good, one was better. Can you guess which? Hint: it's the one with all the sugar and cream.

We all enjoyed our meal at Five Bistro, and if we lived nearby, it's probably somewhere we'd eat at fairly frequently. While my palate trends toward modern and ethnic foods, I have a lot of respect for chef Devoti for his focus on taking local produce and crafting well cooked meals out of them. We could use more restaurants with that kind of dedication around town.

Five Bistro

5100 Daggett Ave

St. Louis, MO 63110

(314) 773-5553

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Spencer Spencer

Olio

It's blasphemous to say, but I am a Jew who doesn't really care for Jewish delis. I'm never going to finish that 3 lb pastrami sandwich, I've never cared for latkes, and I like eating matzah ball soup about once a year. When I'm looking for some food that speaks to my Jewish soul, I go to Olio, sister restaurant to the upscale Elaia. Olio's menu has recently been revamped, but remains similar to what it's always been. Dishes are separated into Pantry, Antipasti, Eggplant, Bruschette, Sandwiches, Salads, Pizza, and Plates (available after 5pm). I think of it as tapas restaurant, ordering a number of dishes for the table to share. Olio also has a nice selection of wines, beers, and liquors. As spring and summer approach, my mood has become increasingly beach-focus, so I went with the Jungle Bird. It's a mix of dark rum, Campari, lime, and pineapple. It went down fast and easy.

Cocktails at Olio

Cocktails at Olio

Cocktail at Olio

Cocktail at Olio

Picking from the 36 menu items proved to be more difficult than expected. How many dips do we get? How many salads? Do you want a pizza? Should we just go upstairs and get the full tasting menu at Elaia? As we debated, we decided that the "Deluxe" Hummus was a good first choice. Their creamy hummus is mixed with pine nuts, almonds, smoked paprika - then topped with braised lamb neck.

I wish I had the vision to put braised meat into my hummus in college. Things would have been so different.

Deluxe Hummus at Olio

Deluxe Hummus at Olio

Lamb Hummus at Olio

Lamb Hummus at Olio

My favorite thing at Olio has always been their Baba Ghanoush. Charred eggplant is mashed and mixed with Lebanese tahini, wheatberries, kefir, and chives. There are so many layers of subtle flavors with this thing, I don't even know where to begin. It's somewhere between nutty and smokey, but the word I'd use to describe it and so many other of Olio's dishes is just "fresh".

Baba Ganoush at Olio

Baba Ganoush at Olio

I would never have thought to order their "Famous" Egg Salad myself, as egg salad has always been one of those dishes that's borderline disgusting to me, but sometime last year Ben insisted that I try it. The old Jewish man in my soul fell in love. There's something about the combination of the egg, chives, lemon zest (key ingredient) and anchovies that just leave me wanting more. Next time I visit, I may order it to go just so I can have it for breakfast.

Speaking of old man food, the Smoked Whitefish Salad probably also falls into that category. There's a smoked whitefish trifecta of dishes in town now - this salad, Old Standard's fried coquettes, and Publico's tacos - and I love them all. This particular plate is sort of like your deli's smoked salmon/lox/sable plate with toast, onions, capers, and chives, just better.

Egg Salad at Olio

Egg Salad at Olio

Whitefish Salad at Olio

Whitefish Salad at Olio

The Zucchini Carpaccio is what I feel like very healthy Californians eat for breakfast everyday. Thin strips of zucchini are topped with preserved lemons, parmigiano, and every herb that exists. It's light, it's healthy, and it shows that you can create a delicious dish using simple ingredients (well, you probably can't, but a chef can).

Zucchini Carpaccio at Olio

Zucchini Carpaccio at Olio

By the time the Roasted Beet Salad and Cornish Hen arrived at the table, we were stuffed. We persevered with a few bites of each, but the rest was taken home and eaten for the following day's lunch. The beet salad reminded me a lot of the one from Taste, but the addition of buckwheat and dill gave it a more earthy, nutty flavor.

The cornish hen was probably the most disappointing dish of the evening for me. Its flavors were much more subdued than the rest that we'd had- it didn't taste much different than your typical roasted chicken with roasted vegetables home-cooked meal. Next time I go, I'll skip that and go for a pizza or sandwich instead.

Beets at Olio

Beets at Olio

Chicken at Olio

Chicken at Olio

Olio

1634 Tower Grove Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63110

314.932.1088

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Spencer Spencer

Brasserie by Niche

Interior at Brasserie Niche

Interior at Brasserie Niche

Maybe I'm lying to myself when I say I don't like French food. Every time I eat at Brasserie by Niche, I end up with enough food to choke a horse. As usual, it was packed on the Friday I went.

Centerpiece at Brasserie Niche

Centerpiece at Brasserie Niche

Bread at Brasserie Niche

Bread at Brasserie Niche

I was feeling particularly indecisive that night, so rather than make any tough decisions, I just got it all. First up were the classic Burgundy Escargot, swimming in little pools of herbs, garlic, and butter. Thinking with my tongue and not with my brain, I dove straight into these bad boys. There go the taste buds - these things were still hot as hell! Not one to be defeated by stupid little snails, our table still managed to decimate these.

Hidden away to the right are the gougeres, little poofs of cheese bread. I stand by my previous statement that Gerard Craft is the master of cheese breads.

Organ meats - liver in particular - are typically not my favorite due to their minerally flavor. However, if you think wayyyy back to my first Niche post, you'll see that I raved about a play on Peanut Butter & Jelly using chicken terrine. The Brasserie Chicken Liver Terrine is that terrine! I didn't even know! That ramekin left the table clean as a whistle.

Escargot at Brasserie Niche

Escargot at Brasserie Niche

Chicken Liver Mousse at Brasserie Niche

Chicken Liver Mousse at Brasserie Niche

Steak Tartare at Brasserie Niche

Steak Tartare at Brasserie Niche

Now onto our fourth appetizer (stop judging!), the Steak Tartare. We finished this baby off, too. The meat had a good amount of capers mixed in, giving it a nice salty punch.

Full yet? We weren't. It's entree time!

To share, we got the Moules a la Normande, mussels cooked in a broth with country ham, cider, leeks, garlic, and creme fraiche. I wasn't keen on ordering these (mussels are mussels are mussels, right?), but lo and behold, these are now my favorite mussels in town. They're smokey from the ham and sweet from the cider, giving them a different flavor profile than most places. I drank that broth like it was soup.

My main was...vegetarian? Yep, I went meatless. I picked the MASSIVE Roasted Vegetable Tart. Lentils, cauliflower puree, caramelized onions, and all sorts of other veggies were piled high and cooked spectacularly.  This was my dish of the night. The different vegetables and cooking styles gave it all sorts of textures and a deep, complex flavor.

Mussels at Brasserie Niche

Mussels at Brasserie Niche

Roasted Vegetable Tart at Brasserie Niche

Roasted Vegetable Tart at Brasserie Niche

Veggie Tart at Brasserie Niche

Veggie Tart at Brasserie Niche

This is not a great shot, but it's just there to reiterate that Brasserie's roasted chicken is great.

The final entree was the Trout with fingerling potatoes, lemon, brown butter, capers, and parsley. It's a solid, healthy dish.

Roasted Chicken at Brasserie Niche

Roasted Chicken at Brasserie Niche

Trout at Brasserie Niche

Trout at Brasserie Niche

Floating Island at Brasserie Niche

Floating Island at Brasserie Niche

At this point in the evening, it felt like death was near. Clothing was tighter. Breathing was labored. I was sweating butter. I thought the evening's eating marathon was over, but Brasserie's great manager, Jen, and chef Nick Blue disagreed. Out came a chocolate mousse and the floating island. A few bites in and I passed out on the table.

Another successful meal at Brasserie completed.

Brasserie by Niche

4580 Laclede Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63108

314.454.0600

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Spencer Spencer

Gobble Stop Smokehouse

I've written about Gobble Stop Smokehouse before, a family-owner BBQ restaurant in Creve Coeur specializing in poultry, but I wasn't happy with my photo of their turkey ribs. At least that's the excuse I'll use. I don't have much to add to my last post - this place has the best smoked poultry in town. My go-to are always the turkey ribs; they're smokey, they're juicy, they're meaty. Look at them compared to the corn on the cob below. Big.

If I'm not getting the turkey ribs, I'm probably getting the turkey tenderloin sandwich. Sliced smoked turkey tenderloin is piled high on a warm pretzel roll with portobello mushrooms, onions, and some provolone cheese. You must get this with their signature mustard BBQ sauce. Same goes for the turkey ribs. It has a unique and exceptional flavor. I've taken home extra before and used it on meatloaf and as a glaze on salmon.

A new addition to the menu is sliced turkey breast, something that has become a staple fridge item at home. The only competitor I've found that can rival its flavor and juiciness is the turkey from Truffles Butchery.

My only complaint about Gobble Stop's menu are the sides. If they can take those to the next level like they've done with poultry, they're golden.

Gobble Stop Smokehouse

1227 Castillon Arcade Plaza

Creve Coeur, MO 63141

314.878.5586

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Spencer Spencer

The Shaved Duck

In 2008, two very different men opened two very different BBQ restaurants in St. Louis, and both have been wildly successful. Smoked meat guru Mike Emerson opened the doors to Pappy's, a national treasure, and inspired many to open their own small, casual BBQ restaurants  around town.

Not long after, Ally Nisbet, owner of The Scottish Arms, opened the doors to The Shaved Duck, an upscale-casual restaurant and bar off Pestalozzi Street. Both have made their way on to TV, with Pappy's hosting Adam Richman of Man Vs. Food and The Shaved Duck getting a visit from human hedgehog, Guy Fieri. The combination of good food and small screen fame means these restaurants have another thing in common: a wait.

We arrived at about 6:15 on a Friday. After our 30ish minute sojourn at the bar, we were seated and promptly delivered bacon fat popcorn with pulled pork house rub and white cheddar. This > boring dinner rolls.

This was my first trip to The Shaved Duck (recommended, once again, by Chouquette's Patrick Devine) so I decided to go fully fatty. Our first starter was something I rarely eat anymore: fries. I was waffling back and forth about getting these, so our waitress gave us a "small" sampler. But these aren't ordinary fries...

These are SMOTHERED fries. They make a gooey cheese sauce, one of mankind's greatest inventions, toss in pulled pork, then smother those fries with it. Summary: cheese sauce, fries, pulled pork. That literally can't be bad.

Popcorn at The Shaved Duck

Popcorn at The Shaved Duck

Fries at The Shaved Duck

Fries at The Shaved Duck

Smothered Fries at The Shaved Duck

Smothered Fries at The Shaved Duck

Their smoked chicken wings came highly recommended, so we had to get some of those.  Not wanting to over do it, we went with a half pound. They were fairly large as far as wings go with a nice smoky taste and good seasoning. I do think Gobblestop's are better, but these were solid. I also enjoyed their mango-habenero BBQ sauce, whose flavor profile I haven't had before in a sauce, I don't think.

These are burnt ends, which are just like little bombs of brisket. It's hard for me to critique BBQ. In my head, it usually falls into one of three categories - bad, good, great - with the good section having the widest range. Most burnt ends taste similar, as they're just the tough odds and ends of brisket cooked for a lonnnnnng time. These fall under the "good" category for me.

Chicken Wings at The Shaved Duck

Chicken Wings at The Shaved Duck

Burnt Ends at The Shaved Duck

Burnt Ends at The Shaved Duck

If a menu offers buttermilk cornbread as a side, I will get it 9 times out of 10. This one had a much more prominent corn taste than my mom's recipe, which I enjoyed. It was served in an extremely hot skillet with a side of honey butter, which makes it just that much more difficult to resist. I definitely recommend this. If I was forced to pick 3 of the starters we got, I'd replace either the burnt ends or wings with this.

No, we did not eat an entire whole chicken. We knocked out probably a quarter of their whole smoked & roasted chicken then took the rest home for some weekday lunches. The flavors were similar to the wings. What I was hoping for was a smoky taste with juicy meat and that's exactly what we got.

I'm not a big meatloaf fan (even the name turns me off, like sour cream), but the smoked meatloaf was probably my favorite dish of the evening. It was moist, smoky and meaty, plus it came with a root beer glaze. There's not much more you can ask for in a dish called 'smoked meatloaf'. I traded half of my entree (below) to get half of this one.

Cornbread at The Shaved Duck

Cornbread at The Shaved Duck

Chicken at The Shaved Duck

Chicken at The Shaved Duck

Meatloaf at The Shaved Duck

Meatloaf at The Shaved Duck

Considering the restaurant is called The Shaved Duck, I had to give their slow smoked duck a go. As with the meatloaf and chicken, the meat was juicy. The taste of overcooked, dry duck makes my toes curl and I become irrationally angry. The thin layer of skin was deliciously crisp, but I think it was the cherry-juniper jam that made the dish a stand-out. What I liked about both of these last two entrees is that they weren't typical BBQ fare, but they still had that smoky BBQ flair.

Duck at The Shaved Duck

Duck at The Shaved Duck

As if all this meat and BBQ sauce wasn't enough, we also were persuaded to try the gooey butter brownie. Put a good gooey butter cake and a good brownie together and what do you get? Diabetes! And a good dessert.

Brownie at The Shaved Duck

Brownie at The Shaved Duck

It's worth your time and the calories to take a trip to The Shaved Duck. Aim for a weekday evening or early on the weekend to avoid the wait.

The Shaved Duck

2900 Virginia Avenue

St.Louis, MO 63118

314.776.1407

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