Stuff to eat. Mostly around St. Louis.
brassWELL
What’s not to like about brassWELL? Gerard Craft took Brasserie’s Cinq à Sept happy hour menu and chef Joe Landis, put them in a light blue shipping container, and dropped them off at Rockwell Beer.
Now, Wednesday through Sunday, you can go to one of St. Louis’ newest breweries and drink freshly brewed beer while eating burgers, fries, and soft serve. What a life. It does get crazy crowded on the weekends, so keep that in mind—especially if you have kids in tow. Things should get a little less hectic once their huge patio is useable, but it’s winter and it’s gross out, so you’re stuck in the dining room.
The menu has its staples—beef burger, fries, chicken sandwich, veggie burger, beer brat—but you can expect specials and variations weekly, depending on what Joe is feeling. Scroll down for a menu breakdown.
Joe Landis
burger lover, chef
Double Brasswell burger
onions, American cheese, pickles, dijonnaise
This is why you’re here. Brasserie’s famous burger, offered as a single, double, or bigger, if you’re an animal. It’s the perfect diner burger, and I love it.
The fries are the same ones you know and love from Brasserie and Taste, and they have a pump filled with aioli.
Fried chicken sandwich
arugula, Crystal aioli
Veggie burger
arugula, Crystal aioli
Beer brat
sauerkraut, whole grain mustard
corndog
corn, dog
This is on the kids menu, but I refused to be shamed for eating it. It gives Peacemaker a run for its corndog money.
soft serve
Flavors change weekly, but I’ve never met a soft serve I didn’t like.
Beignets
Brasserie’s brunch beignets made their way to Brasswell, too. They’re served with whatever dipping sauce Joe feels like making—this lemon curd will be hard to top, though.
Mac's Local Eats
I’ve been hesitant to share anything with you fine people about Mac’s Local Eats because, frankly, I don’t want you there.
To be clear, I’m writing this because I need you to go to support it and the bar that houses it, Tamm Avenue Grill, because I alone cannot cover their rent—but I’d really rather you stay away. I want to keep this gem hidden. I am Gollum, it is my precious. You are Frodo (or, more likely, the annoying Samwise Gamgee).
Like all human beings with fine taste and a zest for life, I am particularly fond of the ultra-smashed patty that one finds at establishments like Carl’s Drive-In and literally nowhere else. However, I am not a patient man, and with only 16 seats and a following 50 years in the making, getting a seat at Carl’s can be difficult. I am also afraid of the women who work there; I’m still recovering from the glare I received when I made the foolish mistake of asking for my check before they were ready to give it to me.
Contrary to the name of this website, I am not much of a drinker, which has kept me out of Tamm Avenue Grill for years. I was told by a chef friend that Tamm was a place for cooks to get ‘Tammered’ after their shift and, frankly, was not my kind of place. He was right.
Perhaps it was due to my notable absence in the bar, but the decision was made to remodel Tamm just under a year ago by co-owner Bob Brazell (Byrd & Barrel), and with that came the addition of a kitchen: Mac’s Local Eats.
There’s seating in the bar area, as well as a more family-friendly side room.
Mac’s is literally a hole in the wall of Tamm.
Chris “Mac” McKenzie has been known in the St. Louis food world for years thanks to his CSA, Mac’s Local Buys. If Mac signs off on something, I trust that it’s high quality.
The Mac’s menu changes a bit week to week, but two things remain constant: the smashed burgers and the fries. And, honestly, these smashed burgers are far better than one would expect or need in a Dogtown dive bar. Here comes a bold, controversial statement: I like the burgers at Mac’s more than the burgers at Carl’s.
Don’t @ me. Mac is dry-aging entire cows and making the patties out of them. Let that sink it. That is insanity.
There’s always a beef burger (obviously), pork burger, and veggie burger. I personally have not had the veggie patty yet, but all reports so far are that it gets an A+. The beef and pork are just perfection, plus they’re crispy AF.
My favorites so far:
The Pimento: two beef patties. Pimento cheese. Fried green tomato. Bread and butter pickles.
The Dirty Sancho: two pork patties. Pepper jack cheese. Shaved onions. Pickled jalapenos. Chipotle-garlic aioli.
The Captain: It’s just a normal cheeseburger, except for the fact that it’s four patties tall.
The patties are only 2 oz each, so plan accordingly. If you’re feeling hungry, I’d do a double cheeseburger, then a double of of one of the specialty burgers.
You’re also going to want an order of their fries—and if you really want the full experience, you’re going to get them as ‘Rip fries’ (tossed with Red Hot Riplets seasoning) and a side of their bacon onion dip.
So there. I’ve revealed my secret to you. Mac’s Local Eats is a treasure that will forever change your burger eating in St. Louis. Now go, and make sure to report back what you think.
The Captain
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
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
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
Chicken 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
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
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.
2900 Virginia Avenue
St.Louis, MO 63118
314.776.1407