St. Louis Eats and Drinks

Cakespeare: Bard + Birthday

It's the big 450 for William Shakespeare, and in honor of that occasion, the Victoria & Albert asked people to bake him a cake. Herewith a collection of them, via the Telegraph. More tweeted under the hashtag #Cakespeare.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/william-shakespeare/10782067/Cakespeare-in-pictures-Shakespeares-birthday-bake-off.html

 

Easter Chocolate

I know. Easter is tomorrow. But we couldn't get this out until late yesterday for technical reasons, and what I found is mouthwatering. Plus, the photos are fun. Look here.

 

Cod Squad 2014: Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox

It's a mild challenge to locate Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church. But think of it as an Easter egg hunt and begin at I-44 and Jefferson Avenue. (Further directions at the bottom of this report.)

The churchyard - and there is no other word for it than that evocative, old-fashioned one -  is lovely and tranquil, especially considering it's the heart of the city and near the interstate. The stroll through it to get to the fish fry, which is in a hall next to the church, even though brief, is a good respite from a Friday of activity for most of us.

That hall, known as the Four Seas, has considerably more elan than the usual gymnasium, and it becomes part of the fun. There's a greeting at the door, and the buffet line at the far end of the room.

Interestingly, there are clear hints of New Orleans in some of the offerings. Catfish, shrimp or tilapia, the latter either baked or fried, and either shrimp creole or shrimp etouffe are the entrees, and I regret the etouffe was not on the rotation the afternoon I visited. The basic sides are fries, cole slaw and rice, but there are others, which might include red beans and rice, spaghetti, onion rings caesar salad, roasted potatoes, or a bean or barley-vegetable soup. So some things beyond the expected, clearly.

The catfish was among the best I've tried at the fish fries, a generous serving that was crisp, well-seasoned and not at all greasy, erasing almost all the itch for etouffe. Cole slaw, too, was above average, an oil-and-vinegar dressing with a little extra sparkle. Alas, the red beans and rice weren't ready yet, so I opted for the bean soup. This was the only miss of the meal - extremely bland and not nearly hot enough. The serving of slaw, however, and the large catfish fillet were sufficient, and the meal not only includes a beverage but dessert, including the Serbian options of baklava and palacinka, crepes filled with Nutella or jam.

The palacinka - mine had strawberry jam - was tender, a nice contrast of the slightly chewy crepe and a little texture from the strawberries, and hit the right spot between light and substantial. And for those who have adult beverages in mind, yes, there's a bar, too, and a bartender. Great retro-ish music when I was there, Sinatra, Bobby Darin, et al, and sports on the bar t.v. All darn close to perfect.

Turning east off Jefferson, Geyer actually seems to go through the parking lot of Randall's Wines & Spirits, and Allen is the southern edge of that block. Take either of them two blocks to Serbian Drive; Holy Trinity is at the corner of Geyer and Serbian Drive.

 

Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church

1910 Serbian Drive

314-776-3263

www.serbianchurchstlouis.org

Fridays in Lent (including Good Friday) 4.30-7.30 p.m.

New York City: Eisenberg's

Some kids fantasized about Hollywood. I fantasized about New York. Blame the movies. Forget the palm trees, give me yellow taxicabs and Gershwin's brass as background music.

And, being a reader, I read about New York. Voraciously. Somewhere in all those years, with decades between visits, I learned about Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop. When I began to visit the city with some regularity, I saw it from Fifth Avenue buses, although I was usually busier looking at the Flatiron Building across the street. But I never got there.

Eisenberg's began in 1929. It's not a legend, like, say Barney Greengrass. But it may be even more evocative. A long, narrow room, a counter and a few tables in the rear dining room, it feels like something out of a 1947 black and white movie. And the menu is uber-New York. Here you have your egg cream, your knockwurst, , your cream cheese and chopped olive sandwich. Whitefish salad, meet grilled cheese with bacon. "Individual can sardines", say hello to peanut butter and jelly. Cold borscht, hot matzo ball soup and manhattan clam chowder, the latter only on Friday. Got the idea? By St. Louis standards, this is a pretty big menu for such a small spot. Not in the Big Apple. (Maybe they should rename it the Big Pastrami?)

As it turned out, I wasn't too late to appreciate Eisenberg's. It was a breakfast visit on a weekday, with a fair amount of carryout business going on but plenty of room at the counter to watch the cooks at work. Coat hooks on the wall behind the counter stools, purse hooks under the counter, the latter always a sign of someone paying attention. Cholula hot sauce with the ketchup and what I suspect were fluorescent bulbs in light fixtures were about the only reminders of the contemporary era.

Better coffee than I would have expected, stronger and not sour, meaning the coffee makers get properly scoured. I watched them toss fresh mushrooms on the grill for an omelet and pondered my morning food. I ended up with one of my favorites, salami and eggs.  Very properly offered the choice of scrambled or flat, I went with flat, the version I first encountered. The salty, peppery salami seasons the eggs perfectly, and it's one of the great unsung dishes of the city's traditional cuisine. I was surprised to see grits offered, but it was a little too much cognitive dissonance; besides, this calls for potatoes. What Eisenberg's designates "home fries" isn't what most of us would expect. Potatoes, onions, a few bits of sweet pepper, fried in such large quantities the potatoes cook before many of them brown, the whole seasoned with what I suspect is generous amounts of paprika to give the characteristic ruddy color. I've only ever seen this at New York-influenced delis and sandwich shops, and despite what may be an off-putting color, they're very tasty. And the Cholula was a good match when sprinkled here and there. Instead of toast, I went for a bialy, another item seldom found hereabouts. Flatter than a bagel and sprinkled with onion on top, they're less chewy than an authentic New York bagel, and lack the hole in the middle. Read about them here. Toasted and buttered, it finished things off nicely, although I did consider an egg cream to go.

While it's not exactly in the middle of Tourist Central in New York, this is an easy walking city, and if you walk from the Empire State Building to the Union Square Greenmarket, a spot all food-lovers should go, http://www.grownyc.org/greenmarket/manhattan-union-square , this is a good spot to stop, or to have a pre-market breakfast. The service is pleasant, and the watching and listening to the locals is good fun. And the prices are good, too.

 

Eisenberg's Sandiwch Shop

174 Fifth Avenue (22nd and 23rd Sts.)

212-675-5096

www.eisenbergsnyc.com

Breakfast and Lunch daily, Dinner nightly but early closing on Sat. and Sun.

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Difficult

Smoking: No

Entrees: $8-$11

Cabaret

Baseball teams win pennants when many players have what's termed "career years" - when their abilities peak. And so it is with Stray Dog Theatre's "Cabaret", when a number of actors we've watched for some time give peak performances.

The idea of casting a woman as the Emcee is a striking one, but the context of prewar Berlin has to be considered. The outre' was In, or at least fairly safe. And thus we have Lavonne Byers', whose throaty voice fits in perfectly. It's a whole new interpretation of the character, whose lasciviousness is mixed with a little humor, giving depth to the portrayal. Hers is a memorable performance.

Sally Bowles, too, played by Paula Stoff Dean, is different. Dean's Sally lacks any sense of the waif at all. She's a Noel Coward character, brittle and charming and determined, a flapper in her dress but a precursor of Margaret Thatcher in her iron will. (And the dresses, from costume designer Alexandra Scibetta Quigley, are divine - watch how one with a petal skirt moves.)

Perhaps her force is why Cliff is so wan. Or perhaps she sees him, played by Paul Cereghino, as easily manipulated. Cereghino sings well in his single number, a duet with Sally, "Perfectly Marvelous", but even his eruption into anger lacks vitality.

Among the supporting cast, Michael Brightman, whose chameleon-izing abilities are becoming increasingly apparent to local theater-goers, smoothly glides along going from amiable Ernst on the train to a frightening symbol of what's in the very near future. Deborah Sharn, as the woman with plenty of "brothers", almost glows as what could easily be a cliched figure. Herr Schultz, the nearby fruiterer, is Ken Haller. Schultz, in his twilight years and seemingly post-stroke, strikes a blow for love, physical and emotional, among both the elderly and the disabled. Haller's carefully restrained warmth fits perfectly.

Music? One sometimes forgets just how good this score is, and there's a real and very good small orchestra above the stage. The girls and boys of the Kit Kat Klub work well together, and it's nice that the women show an appropriate range of physical size, unlike many bigger-budget versions of this. Zaftig wasn't unusual in this time and place, and indeed was appreciated.

An excellent rendition of this classic. This weekend is sold out; hurry to get tickets for this coming week's performances.

 

Cabaret

Stray Dog Theatre

www.StrayDogTheatre.org

Tower Grove Abbey

2336 Tennessee Ave.

Wed.-Sat. through April 19

Flashback: Top Of the Riverfront

It's been a busy year for closings, and here's one that holds lots of memories for certain generations:

 

http://www.stlmag.com/St-Louis-Magazine/April-2014/Memory-Lane-Top-of-the-Riverfront/

Once

If you think musicals are all alike, go see "Once". At the Fox through April 20, it manages to refresh our thinking about their format and music. It's loosely based on a true story about a Dublin musician and a Czech woman he met - the story became a movie in 2006. The show's music, which was written by the man, Glen Hansard, and the woman, Marketa Irglova, is remarkable, a hybrid of traditional Irish harmonies and modern popular style. But it's the format that's equally notable. There's no orchestra. Everyone on stage plays an instrument, everyone dances and almost everyone has a speaking part.

Stuart Ward plays the main character, identified only as Guy, and Girl is Dani de Waal. They work well together, the chemistry apparent even without a great deal of physical contact, and his voice, in particular, owns the music. But it's hard not to let the eye wander to the rest of the crew, a collection of distinctive faces and physical types, enhanced by costumes.

Raymond Bokhour, playing Da and the mandolin, looks like someone out of The Godfather - and that's not being derisive, it really works here. Reza, Claire Wellin, a violinist who does a mean turn as a club dancer, is again perfect, between face, hair, and clothing (and great musicianship). But it's Baruska, Girl's mother, who mostly plays a concertina, that I kept watching. Face, hair - perfect - but knitters take note: I'm sure it's not a sweater she's wearing, too hot onstage for that, but it looks like one, and the pattern is mesmerizing.

Not all these folks are dancers, it's clear, but the movement, changing the stage around, hopping on the bar of the primary set (O'Connell's, anyone?), is beautifully done, not described as choreography but from movement director Steven Hoggett.

And since it's a bar, the bar is open on stage before the play begins and during intermission, or the interval, as they'd call it in Dublin. Audience members can go up some stairs to the stage, have a drink, hang about a little, and head for their seats, each stairway monitored by Fox staff. This makes things considerably more informal than usual during those times; music begins about ten minutes before the show actually starts, making it even more pub-like, to the point where some of the audience almost had to be dragged into their seats. (And kudos to an usher who politely put the kibosh on cell phone usage at that point.)

No wonder this show won a Tony. It's darn near hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-the-neck good.

 

Once

through April 20

Fox Theatre

www.fabulousfox.com

Gamlin Whiskey House

 It's madness, madness, I tell you, to expect a quiet dinner in a restauant with the word "whiskey" in its name. Coming from the Gamlin brothers (of Sub Zero Vodka Bar, and the same rule of thumb applies there), it's a fair bet that at Gamlin Whiskey House, the meat will be tasty, the cocktails strong, and the crowd young and enthusiastic. Early on a Saturday night at the corner of Euclid and Maryland, the crowd was perhaps not quite as young as at Sub Zero, but the rest of the bet would still be on.

A large patio is preparing to go into action, probably almost doubling the seating capacity of the house. Meanwhile, the bar, with some tables, a long hallway against the Euclid windows, and a dining room await. It's dark at night, friends tell me, but that's almost too common in new restaurants to even mention. Unfortunately. Surely there's a rheostat that could be dropped after, say, 9.30 at night in these places? Lots of bar action stretching out along the hall as the evening progresses.

With that warning, it was, indeed, a good meal. Not much of a by-the-glass wine list, no surprise, but generously poured cocktails, including a fine classic whiskey sour. The shareable bread board brought a small baguette, some good focaccia and what the menu calls beer bread. I'm accustomed to beer bead referring to a "quick bread", one whose lift comes from baking powder, not yeast, but this was indeed a yeast bread, a small boule. Three breads - so the house gives guests their choice of three among the six butters available. Bleu cheese butter, a coarse mustard butter which also included honey, and roasted bone marrow butter were what we chose. As much as I like sweet-hot, honey mustard has never been among my favorites, and this was indeed sweet, but the crushed mustard seeds added a nice texture. The cheese was good, and the roasted bone marrow was the sort of indulgence that leaves the adjective "rich" as an understatement. Wonderful stuff, a generous first course between two people.

For the first time in decades, I had the same thing as the person with whom I was dining. We both succumbed to the ribeye steak, described as a 16-ounce "Cajun 'char crust'".  What arrived was meat that had merely been rubbed with a light round of seaosning that added up to just a little bit of heat, just fine, nothing overwhelming. The steak itself was very flavorful, cooked to the requested medium-rare, which it achieved despite being less than an inch thick. Darn near perfect overall, and the blog of bleu cheese butter atop it was really unnecessary, a pleasant visual gesture, but the meat was fine as it was.

And then there were the sides. The steak comes with a white cheddar potato gratin, and it's hard to imagine a more classic version of this, creamy with some paper-thin onion adding to the fun, the potatoes tender but not falling apart. It's a great take on one of the old-line classic comfort dishes. Mashed potatoes are still a little lumpy, carefully seasoned, and, well, almost as good as the gratin. We also succumbed to the creamed spinach and wild mushroom dish. Interestingly, on one level the dish was a "fail" - it was too delicate to stand up to the vigorous seasoning of the meat and potatoes. The juices from the spinach and mushrooms mixed with cream to produce a very wet mixture, seemingly unthickened. Pieces of Parmesan cheese rested atop it. But re-tasting after the palate had cleared, it was quite delicious, real shiitake mushrooms amping things up, and the juices, sopped up with the last of the bread, quite nice. It went home to go into a nice fritatta. Worthwhile with other dishes, or as a vegetarian entree, for an alternative to the vegetarian pot pie.

Interesting desserts - our choice was pumpkin doughnuts, fried to order and tossed in cinnamon sugar, coming with a tres leches sauce, which was pleasant and creamy but the doughnuts were sufficiently moist that they didn't need it.

Great service even as things began to get much busier. Valet parking for $4, and weekends in this neighborhood, unless the parking gods are with you, plan on using that service. Happy hour, late night menu (and happy hour prices late night early in the week), and a general encouragement of good times.

 

Gamlin Whiskey House

236 N. Euclid Ave.

314-875-9500

www.gamlinwhiskeyhouse.com

Lunch and Dinner daily, Brunch Sun.

Credit cards: Yes

Wheelchair access: Fair

Smoking: No (including patio)

Entrees: $15-$35