The trend of serious restaurants located in hotel dining rooms has not roiled the waters of St. Louis dining very much. Part of this may be the persistent reluctance of suburban customers to come downtown. No suburban hotels, to our recollection, have seriously promoted their restaurants as a destination for locals. And part of it may also be St. Louis’ provincial attitude about walking, which means that people will walk farther for an athletic event than they will for a fine dinner. (Come to think of it, this may prove St. Louisans care nothing for the odds on a satisfying outcome.)
We, however, like to think we aren’t easily distracted from our love of the dish. In the case of one of St. Louis’ newest hotel restaurants, we were amply rewarded for a run downtown one evening about a half hour after the first pitch at Busch Stadium.
400 Olive is in the lobby of the Hilton St. Louis Downtown, tucked back in one corner, although its capacity is larger than it appears at first glance. The hotel is in the old Merchants Laclede Bank building, and the two vault doors open onto the lobby, the handsome workings of the mechanisms warranting their display. While the atmosphere is pleasant, and the furnishings inviting, someone needs to work on the lighting for the restaurant. It is the one serious drawback, displaying the impersonal tone of an underlit classroom in an old university. The service staff is young, smiling, and perhaps not deeply experienced, but well-schooled in what they ought to know and do. The result may not be deep sophistication, but it’s warm and hospitable, just the thing for a weary traveler. And despite some good reviews in the local press, the night we were there, all the diners seemed to be out-of-towners. Lunch, on another visit, was more of a mixture.
The star of the first courses is what’s described as corn bread with shrimp and sorghum butter. It turns out to be two pancakes of cornbread batter with corn kernels and chunks of shrimp, a dollop of the sweet-spicy butter and a generous garnish of a succotash made with fresh corn and edamame. The sweet corn and savory succotash and a spicy grilled shrimp atop the dish all add up to a great balance of flavors, an innovative dish that is utterly charming. Tortilla soup, a staple on California menus almost never found hereabouts, is a tomato-and-chicken broth with the cumin-esque spicing one might expect, with strips of corn tortilla used as an ingredient. The resident smoked fish aficionado was pleased with a cheesecake made of smoked Missouri trout and garnished with a warm sweet-sour relish of capers and red onion.
There’s a list of steaks and chops at the head of the entree section of the menu, but this kitchen clearly sends out signals that it likes to be challenged, and it’s the rest of the entree section that drew us. For instance, a maple glazed pork chop, smoked and brined, sat on a bed of a dried fruit chutney. Chunky pieces of fruit simmered in tangy, intriguing spices like cardamom and pepper were a great counterpoint to the maple sweetness. The side dish was a baked sweet potato, perfectly cooked. The butter and brown sugar provided were unnecessary, given how well the creamy orange flesh went with both the chop and the chutney. An outstanding dish.
Also exciting was the kitchen’s take on lasagna, made without pasta, as it turned out. Thin slices of eggplant stand in for the pasta dough, which is layered with a thick tomato sauce and goat cheese. The combination is excellent, the seasoning assertive, and the whole thing a real pleasure, the sort of dish in which non-vegetarians won’t miss the meat.
The wine list is satisfactory, but a little short on by-the-glass offerings. A hotel that caters to travelers will often have solo diners, happy to have a couple of glasses accompany dinner, but not wishing to order a full bottle. A glass of Petite Sirah from Bogle, a northern California winemaker, was an excellent value at a modest price, providing balance and richness to stand up to either dish, though it was more successful with the tangy tomato sauce.
Desserts are pleasant, but don’t reach the heights of the first two courses. Bread pudding is made from house-made cinnamon rolls and other breakfast pastry, an excellent idea. It’s moist rather than dense, and served with raspberry sauce, a good rendition of the classic, but not ingenious. A fruit tart of peaches and wild blackberries over the traditional custard filling was lovely, although its shortbread-style crust was rolled a little too thick, making for difficult eating. Coffee is served in individual French press pots, a good idea, too.
The food here is too good to leave to outsiders. Let’s hope it catches on fast enough that Hilton doesn’t decide it’s not worth the effort.
400 Olive
Hilton St. Louis Downtown
400 Olive
314-554-7098