St. Louis Eats and Drinks

Niche

Benton Park, the neighborhood between Jefferson avenue and I-55, just south of Gravois, is turning into quite a restaurant zone. Niche, the newest spot, has joined Frazer’s, Yemanja Brasil, the Sidney Street Café and Venice Café (perhaps not quite a restaurant but certainly a destination) in an area that makes a visitor feel as though he’s discovered one of those insiders-secret areas tourists never hear about.

Niche started hot, with a lot of buzz. However, much traffic has continued, and it has remained busy. We strongly suggest reservations, even if it means calling at 6 o’clock to see if they’ll have a table at 8. Tucked into an old storefront, the interior feels very New Yorkish with its buttercream-colored walls and spare art work. Even though chef Gerard Craft and pasty chef Mathew Rice have New York experience, they’ve skipped the New York restaurant rule that says thou shalt cram more people into a dining room than anyone could imagine, so there is sufficient space between tables. They’ve also installed that wonderful staple of Parisian bistro dining, the long mirror above the banquette wall that lets those facing the wall see what’s happening elsewhere. There’s a fair amount of what seem to be business dinners going on, which always lend a slight air of gravitas to the house, but ties are mostly loosened and the overall atmosphere feels upscale casual.

And the food? Modern American, with a nice interest in the kind of menu items not found all over town. We saw ramps, salsify and fava beans, for instance, on a recent visit, always something to raise the spirits of those who, like us, are put to sleep by the zucchini-carrot-broccoli routine.

There are two sets of first courses. "To Nosh On" is what might be considered bar snacks, including a wonderful dish of white anchovies with toast and a savory tomato jam that makes our mouths water just writing about it. The other, under the heading "First Things First," offers salads, soup and other options. A recent chilled beet soup, one of the first gastronomic signs of the warm weather, wasn’t the standard shocking-pink puree. Rather, it cradled pastel-colored baby beets in a lovely dill and buttermilk broth, tart and lively around the sweet, tender vegetable. Watercress salad wore some of the white anchovies, shards of parmesan cheese, a few grape tomatoes and a nicely tart dressing, a fine piece of work, although the watercress was less pungent than we expected. Chicken liver terrine, smooth and delicate, was a work of art, thoughtfully seasoned and altogether worthy.

The main course options are relatively brief, six in the menu’s current incarnation. A roasted trout is accompanied by "English peas", that old southern phrase that distinguishes green peas from black-eyed peas, crowder peas and other variants, a little mint, and a rhubarb sauce. The ramps appear with a steak and some potato puree. We tried pasta that paired fresh pappardelle, thinly rolled but not at all overcooked, with several kinds of mushrooms, onion slivers, those fava beans, bright green, full-flavored and not at all mushy, with a drift of pecorino cheese. The result was excellent, the sort of dish in which one never misses meat.

The meat on the table came from a dish titled "pork 2 ways," Missouri pork in the form of a slice from a tenderloin and a piece of pork belly. Both were sauced with pan juices punched up with sherry vinegar and a little amber bock beer, and showed just how one meat can change its taste in two different cuts. The lean loin, certainly nicely tender, gave the sauce more room to play. The pork belly—well, remember, pork belly is essentially a large slab of uncured bacon, striping fat and lean across it. Here, the sauce was merely an adjunct to the rich meat, picking up some glory as it came along for the ride. The sweet-savory notes in the sauce worked well with both. Sides included polenta with a little truffle oil, a little spinach, which had been hit too hard with the salt, and some salsify. Salsify is a root vegetable, long and slender and white, that’s sometimes known as oyster plant. Its mild flavor is said to resemble oysters, but that’s a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, it was quite happy playing with the buttery juices from the spinach, and we enjoyed it.

Dessert at Niche, thanks to Rice, happily rises to the level of the rest of the food. The only thing close to any of the cliched local favorites is the liquid chocolate cake, which rises above cliche with its house-made B-52 ice cream .We point out that the ice cream is named after the drink with Kahlua, Bailey’s and Grand Marnier, not the band - or the bomber. The remainder are items like a creme fraiche panna cotta, served in a soup bowl that the waiter fills, from a small pitcher, with a rhubarb-lemongrass soup. The panna cotta was particularly rich, the soup, pink from the rhubarb and heavily redolent of the lemongrass, a tart contrast. After considering a roasted banana semifreddo with butterscotch glazed bananas, we went for a pineapple upside down cake with pina colada sherbet. We asked for a pitcher of the hot fudge sauce on the side, although we would have done the same with the banana dessert. Chocolate with either fruit is an outstanding combo, although pineapple is certainly less common. The cake was a single-serving round, the classic yellow sponge cake under the tart fruit, caramelized with butter and sugar. Unlike many of its clan, the cake itself was very tender. The sherbet was a fine contrast, full of flavor. And the hot fudge sauce? Occasionally gilding the lily is just the thing, and this was one of those times.

And as an additional incentive, desserts (and the bar) are available on Friday and Saturday nights until 1:30 a.m.

The wine list is modest, with some excellent touches and a nice world-wide range of providers. There are enough by-the-glass options, and some fine, moderately priced bottles of splendid accompaniments to the meal.

We were very happy with the service, light-hearted without being silly, and extremely knowledgeable. We were also happy that Niche offers a prix fixe of three courses for $30, an excellent buy. Servings are not, by St. Louis standards, immense, but more and more we’re thinking that’s a good thing -- just like Niche.

Niche

1831 Sidney St.

314-773-7755

www.nichestlouis.com

Dinner Tues.-Sat.

Credit cards: All major

Wheelchair access: Poor

Entrees: $22-$30

Clos Pegase: Wine and Art

To a high-wire walker in a circus, balance equals life.

To a winemaker, or a wine drinker, balance is almost as important. It is a fine line that sets excellent wine apart from ordinary, and it is present in many areas when one thinks about the pleasure of wine. The balance between alcohol and acidity is a major point. When right, the wine’s flavor and fruitiness are matched perfectly with citric acid from the grapes, and the alcohol and tannin are present, but not dominant.

Of course, balance is important in many aspects of life, and Jan Shrem, who has spent much of his life searching for the perfect equation, smiles happily over the thought that his ambition, to blend a happy and successful life of fine wine and classic art at his Clos Pegase estate, is visible in the galleries, cellars and tasting rooms of the winery near Calistoga in the Napa Valley. The winery is named for Pegasus, the mythological Grecian winged horse, in whose earthly footprints the first grapevines took root. Shrem’s latest art acquision, a bronze, 17^th-century Florence fountain, has been installed in a picnic area, and Shrem beams while he discusses its beauty. Typical of the Italian Renaissance, it features 18 figures of nymphs and satyrs, gods and goddesses, all bathed and glowing from the glistening water that cascades over them.

As if he were a St. Louisan, Shrem’s collection also includes works by Richard Serra and Henry Moore.

Shrem, slight and dark-haired, his eyes bright and his enthusiasm high, was in St. Louis recently for a couple of wine dinners and some sales work on his new releases, but he stopped for a tasting at the Wine Merchant one morning. I toured his remarkable winery about a decade ago, a pleasant visit to an architectural gem designed by the renowned Michael Graves, who won a competition sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for the commission. At that time, I thought the art was far more impressive than the wine, which was satisfactory but not equal to Napa’s top producers.

Things have changed, however.

Shrem had six of his new releases open for tasting; five will retail under $40 while the sixth, a 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon with the proprietary name of Hommage will be twice as expensive. All were quite worthy.

The 75-year-old Shrem earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Utah in 1952, then enrolled at UCLA for graduate study in international law. A vacation in Japan, however, yanked him off the scholastic track. Intrigued by Japanese culture and art, Shrem established a book publishing business, first importing American technical books, later translating and publishing them in Japanese. In 1960, he opened an art gallery and hired a young Japanese woman and artist, Mitsuko, whom he later married.

Expanding his universe, Shrem sold the company in 1968, moved to Italy, returned to the publishing business but also began adding to his art collection. Two years later, they moved to France, forming a partnership with the publishing house of Glorier and continuing to expand their art collection.

But through these years in France and Italy, Shrem’s interest in wine grew along with everything else, and in 1980 he stopped publishing and enrolled at the University of Bordeaux to study enology"I talked to everyone I met about wine," he recalled, "and all the advice indicated that California was the place to grow the grapes. And they also told me about Andre Tchelistcheff as the man to help me make wine.

"I went to Northern California, I met Andre, I bought the first property that has become Clos Pegase and we began."

The French-born Tchelistcheff can easily be called the father of the second phase of the California wine industry, turning it from post-Prohibition adequacy to the higher standards held by European winemakers. Tchelistcheff worked for many California wineries, consulted with many others, gave free advice to still more. His stamp remains, more than 75 years after his 1938 Georges de la Tour Cabernet Sauvignon for Beaulieu Vineyards was Callifornia’s first great wine and a dozen years since his death in 1994 at the age of 92.

Tchelistcheff made the first Clos Pegase wines in 1985. Shrem expanded the winery with the nearby Palisades Vineyard, planted with cabernet sauvignon grapes, and in 1989 purchased 365 acres in the Carneros region, adjacent to San Pablo Bay on the southern edge of the Napa Valley. Most of the Pegase grapes – more cab, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, merlot and others – come from the land named Mitsuko’s Vineyard, after Mrs. Shrem, and an adjoining area known as Graveyard Hill.

Clos Pegase produces about 40,000 cases a year, and Shrem notes that he sells just about all of it. He is not interested in expansion, however, with excess grapes being sold to other Napa wineries.

The 2004 Chardonnay and the ‘03 Hommage, a proprietary wine which also is 100 percent from Carneros chardonnay grapes, are excellent, with the latter showing more depth from its extra time in French oak. Unlike many California wineries, Winemaker Shaun Richardson uses only oak for fermentation and aging, resulting in a style much like that of the French white Burgundies. The wood softens the wine a little, keeping it from the sharp, acidic edginess of many California Chardonnays. At the same time, Richardson keeps the wine under good control, avoiding big, buttery softness.

The Merlot, from 2004, is outstanding, the classic Bordeaux variety comprising 95 percent of the wine, the rest split between petit verdot and cabernet franc grapes, adding a touch of hardness and some darker color. The wine is soft, flavorful and nicely rounded, with excellent balance.

The ‘04 Pinot Noir, also from Carneros, is good, but lacks the spark of the other Clos Pegase red wines.

Any shortage here is more than covered by the two Cabernet Sauvignons. Both are from 2002 and are 100 percent cabernet grape, but the blend comes from the vineyards where the grapes are grown. The ‘02 Napa Cab is 76 percent from Calistoga, in the northern part of the valley (71 from the Palisades vineyard, 5 from the home vineyard) and 24 percent from Mitsuko’s Vineyard in the Carneros region. The ‘01 Hommage, or reserve, is 85 percent from Palisades, 15 percent from Mitsuko. While both wines have superior flavor and color, with depth and balance, they are not quite ready for drinking. More aging will improve both, a year or so for the ‘02, maybe twice that long for the ‘01, whose flavor remains tight and concentrated, though with hints of greatness down the road.

--Joe

Chicken Liver Nirvana

One Christmas Eve a few years back in Singapore, we had lunch at Banana Leaf Curry House, located in the neighborhood called Little India. It was an incredible meal, in part due to our first taste of chicken liver curry. Now, we know not everyone is a chicken liver fancier, and that’s fine by us. But for those few who both love chicken livers and Indian food, we have a find to share with you.

Out of a small, inexpensive box comes what may be the Indian version of Hamburger Helper. Shan is a company that makes many similar items, spice mixes to speed up preparation of things like kebabs and biryanis, curries and tandoori. The Liver Curry Mix caught our eye, and it’s now a permanent fixture in our kitchen cabinet.

Although the recipe on the back calls for a full cup of oil, ghee or butter, Ann cuts it waaay back to about 3 tablespoons. The results are pungent from the fenugreek in the spice mixture, and quite, quite spicy on the heat meter. (The hesitant may want to use half a packet, perhaps less.) There’s even a recipe on the back to use the seasoning with some already-cooked lentils.

We found it at Global Foods, always a treasure trove of interesting stuff, for about $1. This may not be the version from the Banana Leaf Curry House, but it’s awfully good.

Shan Liver Curry Mix

Global Foods Market

421 N. Kirkwood Rd., Kirkwood,

314-835-1112

From the Pestalozzi Street Crowd

Anheuser-Busch seems determined to create any and all possible alcoholic beverages, and their operation sometimes boggles the mind of an ordinary drinker. I didn’t get involved with the efforts of A-B until I was a Mizzou freshman lo, those many years ago. I got to Columbia with a mass of World War II veterans, and they guzzled enough beer that bartenders tended to overlook a fresh-faced kid who talked funny.

I was familiar with the New York beers of the era – Piel’s, the light beer of Broadway fame; Rheingold, sponsor of an annual beauty contest; Schaefer, Trommer’s and others – but the St. Louis beers brought new flavors and rowdy laughter from out-of-towners over something called Griesedieck.

In those days, when St. Louis product also included Hyde Park, Falstaff, Stag and others, Anheuser-Busch made Budweiser. Now it makes so many products, of so many flavors, that it seems to be competing with itself at every turn.

I like beer that tastes like beer, on the hoppy side like many of the European lagers. I don’t like it sweet, or so loaded with alcohol that it burns the throat. I like some of the lighter beers made with wheat, like the Hefeweisen from Schlafly, and every once in a while, it seems right to relax over a rich, hearty dark beer, maybe a stout, or a porter.

But last week I was faced with a variety of beers, each served in a glass of a specific shape, from Champagne flutes to snifters and red wine glasses. I was reminded of a long-ago trip to Belgium, where beer is extremely popular. Each brewery has a glass of specific size and shape glass for its beer, usually with a trade mark or a logo, and it’s up to the publican to provide.

And an A-B salesman told me that glasses were to be a new marketing tool for beer. Fancy glasses that supposedly made the beer taste better. There’s something to that story, by the way. Riedel, an Austrian firm, makes beautiful, expensive wine glasses in a dazzling variety of shapes and styles. The Riedel folk claim that wine tastes different, and better, in glasses of different shape, that aromas are released better and are more enticing, that flavor has more roundness and a longer finish. I’ve found they are often right. Besides, the experience of drinking from an elegant glass with a thin, delicate stem can enhance the evening.

That’s one of the new marketing tools from the folks down on Pestalozzi Street. We had four beers at dinner (I’ll call them beer for the sake of the discussion and not for total accuracy. One was an energy drink, "B to the E," arriving in a 16-ounce can. It’s on the market here, a beverage bolstered with caffeine, and guarana, a tropical berry that contains caffeine and ginseng. Recommended to make the drinker able to leap tall buildings with a single bound. It was served with tuna carpaccio, but its flavor of blackberries and raspberries made it far too sweet for my palate.

I can’t swear to the energy effect, but I recently read of a survey that pointed out its drinkers often have so much energy they don’t realize they’re impaired.

Next up was something called "Wild Blue," a beer that is 8 percent alcohol and flavored with blueberries. My major problem with it is that it does not look like beer. It looks like old-fashioned sparkling Burgundy or the more recent Australian sparkling Shiraz, which have a definite red hue. Not as sweet as the B-to-the-E, it did have overtones of blueberry flavor, but did not match with a salad with a vinaigrette dressing. Actually, oil-and-vinegar dressings don’t go well with wine, either, though a light, crisp white with mineral overtones, like a Chenin Blanc or one of its Loire Valley associates can work with a dressing made in a lighter style.

Grolsch, a Dutch beer with a snap-on top now in the A-B family, has been around St. Louis for years. I like its European maltiness, bright flavor and good body. Unfortunately, the beer did not arrive on time, but the substitute, Michelob Amber Bock, was a pleasant match with a beef and veal roulade, with a prosciutto and spinach filling.

And then there was Spykes, which had been available for sampling during a pre-dinner cocktail hour, and which came to the tables for dessert, accompanied by Bare Knuckle Stout. It arrived in four different colors and flavors, packaged in small, delicate bottles – almost like perfume bottles – that hold about an ounce and a half. It’s not a beer; A-B describes it as a malt-based spirit with 12 percent alcohol (like wine).

Spykes are made in chocolate, melon, citrus and mango flavors, with an initial alcoholic sharpness in the latter three. The chocolate, which everyone seemed to like best, had a nice peppery back-taste, like Mexican chocolate or good mole sauce, and it also had added caffeine, ginseng and guarana. A splash in the creme brulee that was the dessert course went very nicely, and a splash in the stout was okay, but nothing special. Just more combined flavors. A-B notes, "It mixes well with beer, adding alcohol, caffeine and unique flavor. It can also be chilled and served as a shooter."

Spykes is not generally available in St. Louis, or almost anywhere else, for that matter. Right now, it’s in a test-market stage, available in that ultimately sophisticated city of Grand Rapids, Mich. Knowing A-B, all legalities in terms of licenses for higher-alcohol sales and distribution have been cleared for distributors and sellers. Drinkers have to be 21.

--Joe

Panama City, FL

Have you ever noticed that good breakfast places are a lot harder to find than spots that serve tasty lunches or dinners? Folks are always tickled to talk about newest three-star joint they visited in Lyon, or share a favorite hole-in-the wall near St. Louis University, but more times than not, a query about breakfast is met with evasion or a long and ultimately fruitless silence.

Our woman-on-the-scene in Panama City, Florida,, Ann’s youngest, apparently had quite a job coming up with just the right place for our recent visit. You’d think anywhere as geared to visitors and snowbirds as the self-styled Emerald Coast is would be brimming with possibilities. But Jennifer managed to score, and score big, when the chips - or eggs, in this case - were down.

Bayou Joe’s is near the small-town-feeling downtown of Panama City, and is indeed located on a bayou. On, not near, or even next to. A wide covered porch that’s walled in clear plastic when it’s not absolutely balmy faces the water and gets a generous helping of morning sun. To be perfectly honest, it’s almost a shack; if you’re looking for elegant decor, this isn’t your place.

But the combination of caffeine rush and the bliss of warm sun for someone who’s coming out of the damp gloom of late winter in the Midwest is utterly glorious. And the coffee is good, too. (The inside dining room has probably nursed more than one hangover in the cool quiet.)

The headliner on the menu is an omelet stuffed with grouper and shrimp. The luxurious results would have felt at home by the pool of a swank Beverly Hills hotel. The creamy filling was full of flavor, and the whole indulgent thing was perfect vacation fare. Another entree, "garbage potatoes" are a sort of potato du jour, fried potatoes with whatever the cook decides will work well with them. Onions are a given; on this visit, there were eggs, sweet peppers, cheese and a few mushrooms in the large serving, tasty and worthwhile.

After we got home, we discovered that Bayou Joe’s is known in the pleasure boat-gypsy community for trashburgers, hamburgers done, like the potatoes with whatever it strikes the cook to throw on them. A little too cutesy on the names, but the breakfast was too good not to visit again next time.

Bayou Joe’s, 112 East 3^rd Court, Panama City, FL

850-763-6442

In addition, in Panama City Beach, a visit to Billy’s Oyster Bar, a spot long popular with locals, shows an unassuming spot that surely jumps during the high tourist season. The food, including local oysters, is simply prepared seafood, mostly broiled or fried. The beverage of choice is beer, of course. Reliable and reasonably priced.

Billy’s Oyster Bar, 3000 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach, FL

850-235-2349