Chefs dish on their specials
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
With a booming nightlife strip, a new ballpark coming into play, Riverfront renovation plans and well over a half billion dollars in residential development, Downtown is definitely on the upswing.
That’s news that eateries are sinking their teeth into. Twenty downtown restaurants will serve up some of their most appetizing dishes during the first-ever Downtown Restaurant Week, August 22 through August 27.
The weeklong sampling, presented by Downtown St. Louis Partnership, will serve up three-course dinners for a fixed price of $25 per person, plus tip and tax. The promotion also offers specific red and white Beringer wines at $5 per glass.
“The recent development of so many fine restaurants, coupled with the many fine ones we already have, has drawn the kind of attention throughout the metropolitan area that we’ve been seeking to make people aware of what’s going on Downtown,” said Downtown St. Louis Partnership president and CEO Jim Cloar.
“When you have a special occasion like Downtown Restaurant Week it draws the extra attention that helps to get more people talking about Downtown.”
Demetrius Lovette, a chef at Kitchen K at 1000 Washington Ave., said the tasting will be a great food experience.
“There’s a good mix of restaurants Downtown,” Lovette said. “It isn’t necessarily something that you will find in other cities around the world, but for St. Louis I think it’s top of the line.”
While Kitchen K doesn’t yet know what which of its versatile delicacies it will serve up, Lovette’s favorite is a salmon dish smothered with curry paste and wrapped in rice paper.
Hugh Johnny Cartlidge, longtime chef of the popular, 20-years-strong Mike Shannon’s Steak and Seafood, is also proud of his salmon. It’s a steamed filet served with oriental noodle and ponzu sauce (soysauce base, ginger and garlic). The dish will show up on the restaurant’s Downtown Restaurant Week menu.
The main entrée, another Cartlidge special, is the Mixed Grill. That’s a 4-ounce beef filet, 4-ounce chicken breast and serving of seafood encircling mashed potatoes topped with sauce and fried onion strings.
Then there’s the pasta, Yorkshire Pudding or popover, made with eggs, milk and flour. They’ll also have a low-cal dish.
Appetizers will be Mediterranean mussels with a tomato-based sauce (pesto), fried calamari (squid) and crab cake.
Mike Shannon’s is best-known for its 21-day dry aged steak, though it offers about eight other specialty steaks, from filets and New York strip steak to porterhouse, cowboy and prime slow-roasted steak.
“In the restaurant industry you don’t stay in one place for long,” said Cartlidge, who has spent eight years at the Mike Shannon’s Steak and Seafood. “But they have made it worth my while.”
Cartlidge said that the owner, Mike Shannon, the former Cardinals baseball player and popular radio announcer, is a great guy who lets him do a lot of decision making.
According to Cartlidge, the restaurant will relocate in January to the former Mark Twain Bank building, closer to the new Cardinals ballpark.
Madelyn Shepherd, a chef at Lombardo’s Trattoria (inside the Drury Union Station Hotel), said Lombardo’s hasn’t completed its menu for the Downtown Restaurant Week, but she’s sure that their toasted ravioli will be on there.
This isn’t your ordinary toasted ravioli, according to Shepherd. It’s handmade with fresh dough, while others are usually frozen.
Another one of Shepherd’s favorites is their deep-fried spinach topped with fresh romano cheese.
Shepherd, who travels to Europe just to taste food, says she is pleased with the variety of restaurants that Downtown can boast. Come taste for yourself.
