Just where is Coffman, Missouri? Well, look between Farmington and Ste. Genevieve on a state road that runs almost parallel to State Highway 32. Ann can say firmly that there's never been a restaurant there before; a hundred years ago, her grandmother was a little girl playing in the valley that spreads out from the tasting room and restaurant at Chaumette Winery and Vineyards. It appears, however, that the community now has a fine opportunityto make up for diners' lost time, even if not at wide-spot-in-the-road prices.
The Grapevine Grill is the proper name of the restaurant at Chaumette, and the kitchen is headed up by Adam Lambay, who's cooked at a number of solid St. Louis restaurants like Portabella, Cafe Mira and India's Rasoi. The main public building of the winery (whose post office address is Ste. Genevieve) is centered around a great room that includes the tasting room, shop and restaurant, so the feeling is casual rather than formal. And service, a frequent a frequent bugaboo of non-metropolitan dining, seems to hit the sweet spot, affable but knowledgeable, a little more personally than one usually sees in cities, but not overwhelming. Wine, of course, comes from the surrounding vineyards.
At dinner, after much musing (eggplant fries with lemon-horseradish cream? a tomato-roquefort tart?), we kicked things off with bacon-wrapped cantaloupe. And receiving a large, delicious kick is the word; two skewers of dead-ripe melon laced with strips of bacon from a local purveyor and grilled. The bacon flavor penetrated the melon to its core, bringing a whole new set of tastes. And on the plate was a caramelized garlic marmalade, sweet-sour and rich. What Gran would have called "light bread" (as opposed to cornbread) was homemade, and while it was delightfully tasty, it also served to wipe the last bit of the outstanding marmalade, which carried the flavor of garlic and the entire idea of marmalade to a new level. The Chardonel-poached shrimp was nice, sitting in a cocktail glass atop a tangle of cucumber of onion and shreds in a tangy vinaigrette, quite mild from the knockout melon.
We've grown very fond of short ribs and the ones we tried were excellent, well-trimmed and gently braised until they almost fell apart, arriving in what the menu called a Norton barbecue sauce, although it won't seem barbecue-y to St. Louisans. Tomato, yes, and quiet spices, but the meat juices had permeated the sauce to completely that it was about beef more than anything else. The polenta on which it rode was stunning, pebbly from roasted corn kernels, flecks from a handful of mixed herbs and cooked with the grain, absolutely irresistible.
And then there was the tandoori-style chicken. Three pieces, not the ruddy red that's normally associated with a tandoori oven, but certainly with the traditional flavor, was served with basmati rice seasoned with cilantro, chopped tomatoes and cucumber seasoned with cumin, and a drizzle of raita, the yogurt sauce. And the naan, a traditional Indian flatbread, handmade in the kitchen and grilled, gave extra flavor and a nice variable texture, from chewy to crisp,that added to the fun. We've always said tandoori was a good introduction to Indian food, and this, while mild, was tasty and should convert the uninitiated.
From the dessert menu, a generous serving of peach and almond cobbler was not quite cooked through, but that might have been the result of deeply juicy seasonal peaches. But a blackberry shortcake made with slices of sponge cake was marvellous, almost a blackberry sandwich, beautified with a generous dollop of softly whipped cream.
If the weather is benign, weekend breakfast on the front porch of the building (which, like nearly everything at the winery, is built in the French Colonial style of old Ste. Genevieve), looking out on a bucolic valley and slightly rolling hills that almost call to mind some scenes in the West of England, is a blissful place to spend part of a morning. The breakfast menu is, in a word, exciting, with plenty of options on both the sweet and savory sides. This is country breakfast gone haute – blueberry pancakes flew by, and Ann, casually, drifted by the table to ogle three plate-sized cakes that left their recipient openmouthed. (But not, we noted, for very long.) The egg breakfasts involve three eggs, at the insistence of much of the kitchen, whose attitude is that three is the norm. (We settled for two, to leave more room for other things.)
Three of our four eggs were properly cooked; a fourth had gone past the sunny-side up to cooked hard, but more of last night's bread arrived as toast, along with orange marmalade. But the star of the table was a double pork chop brined in Chardonel, perfect and mosit. What the menu terms an herb mayonnaise was drizzled over it, but it wasn't goopy and stiff, just a light, saucy hit that, along with shards of crisp bacon doubled the pleasure. On the other plate, that bacon, plus some local sausagesnuggled up to the eggs. Good coffee and a very respectable mimosa handled the beverage side of things.
Definitely a spot that's worth a drive, but we do suggest reservations, if only to assure oneself that their schedule hasn't changed. The website has good directions.
Grapevine Grill
Chaumete Vineyards and Winery
4345 State Rte WW, Ste Genevieve
573-747-1000
Lunch Wed.-Sun, Dinner Thurs.-Sat., Breakfast Sat.-Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: No
Entrees (dinner): $16-$26