Ever wonder what happens to Gotta-Go-There restaurants when things calm down?
Sometimes it’s better not to know, but sometimes it can be extremely interesting. Hard to believe that 15, once spelled F15teen, has been around since 2007. Restaurants in the neighborhood just west of downtown seem to come and go like–well, like professional athletes. But 15, a steakhouse unlike most steakhouses, has remained. Some furor over the upstairs Club 15 has calmed down, the patio with its firepit remains, and the visitors keep coming.
Many of them seemed to be from out of town the night of our weekend visit, but it was busy enough that reservations were a good idea — in fact, they couldn’t accommodate us at the time we originally requested. The pleasant room isn’t remarkably plush, and we’ll leave it you, dear reader, to decide whether a restaurant that charges $29 for a New York strip steak should have a formal feeling. Dress was casual when we were there, a style usually preferred by younger diners, though we were among a wide variety of age groups. Service was pleasant and expert.
The menu is certainly not traditional steakhouse, so appetizers include things like chicken wings, spinach dip and tortellini filled with creamed corn. We went with one traditional and one modern first course. The wedge salad was smaller than most, which was okay with us; they’re usually macho-sized and if one eats all of it, there’s less than optimal room for a main course. It wasn’t drowned in its traditional blue cheese dressing that included some separate crumbles, the little tomatoes were surprisingly sweet, and instead of crunchy bread croutons, it was dotted with cubes of crisply fried bacon, smoky, chewy and downright wonderful.
A portabella pizza was definitely modern. We’re not talking pizza with portabella mushrooms. No, this was the large cap of a portabella that had been marinated and grilled, then topped with a chunky tomato sauce and some mozzarella cheese and run under the grill once more. The tangy tomato sauce really brought the mushroom and the cheese together, and made us realize crust can be superfluous. This was not (quite) pizza, but it certainly was delicious.
When it came to main courses, we bypassed things like pan roasted chicken, two different kinds of pasta, trout and salmon, and went for: The Beef. A hanger steak, a special that day, displayed that big-flavor, faintly gamey taste that marks the hanger, a boon to the beefaholic. Nice and tender, perfectly cooked to the requested medium rare. The New York strip steak weighed 12 ounces. We were surprised that it arrived already sliced, but we knew it would be accompanied by what the menu called horseradish creamed corn. The corn had been spooned over the slices, and a little tomato-bacon relish rode alongside. We got no appreciable horseradish, and while the beef was good, there’s no particularly remarkable harmony between it and the corn. In fact, the beef was so good that we only fully appreciated it the next day when leftovers of both the ribeye and strip got more concentrated attention and we appreciated their tenderness and succulent flavor. One of us got the itch for sweet potato fries, but found them unremarkable.
The wine list is on the expensive side, but is heavy on excellent red wines, the kind that go so well with beef.
Chef Andrew Shrensker used to be a pastry chef, so the house tradition of unusual desserts persists delciously. We had what was, in effect, a mini-bombe, mousse flavored with Bailey’s Irish Cream and espresso covered with dark bittersweet chocolate ganache, carefully put together, yummy on the tongue. The atmosphere remains athletic, with several television sets over the bar and framed baseball jerseys on the wall. There can be a thin line between a sports bar and a steakhouse, but 15 remains solidly on the steakhouse side, an attraction that Downtown St. Louis badly needs.
15
1900 Locust St.
314-588-8899
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Fair
Smoking: No
Entrees: $14-$30
