Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers, sprawl on chairs outside the entrance to Gulf Shores Restaurant & Grill. Cultural icons for an entire generation, their faces slightly battered (although come to think of it, that's probably the way they'd really look anyway), they're the welcoming committee. It's a laid-back touch in this polite, bustling part of suburbia.You may even have a chance to hang out with Jake and Elwood if lunch hour is particularly busy, like we did the other day. (And those boys do have some stories to tell.)
I've done lunch and brunch at the Gulf Shores, and was happy with both. Weekday lunch was hopping, even early in the week, and there's live music every day. So the atmosphere is energetic, although not quite to the point where conversation is impossible. Despite the presence of those eminent Chicagoans, the focus of the menu is seafood, primarily but not exclusively done in southern style, especially Cajun and Creole. The menu is almost frighteningly large, but there are beef and chicken options.
Still, it would be a shame to pass up something like the blue crab melt. Crab salad sprawls casually on a split and toasted hoagie roll, the whole thing topped with cheese and run under the grill to heat things and melt the cheese. Remarkably, dazzlingly crabby, it's a sure antidote to all those crab dishes around town (primarily crab cakes) that taste nothing lilke the crustacean.
And then there was the muffuletta. That's the other traditional New Orleans sandwich. Unlike the po' boy, the round, layered sandwich of mortadella, salami, ham, provolone and mozzarella topped with a chopped and seasoned olive salad, can be served hot or cold. Gulf Shores toasts theirs, adding crunch to the creamy-salty-chewy experience. Harry Parker, the owner, tells me they're making their own olive salad – my only complaint with this excellent sandwich is that they could have drained off more of the olive oil that marinates the olives and other vegetables in the salad. Plenty of choices for sides to sub for the fries, at the diner's discretion; hush puppies were good, fresh and un-greasy, but the dirty rice, that spicy carb that is laced with ground meat and vegetables, was wonderful. (Home cooks note: Dirthy rice makes a fine poultry stuffing, especially since it's already cooked.
From the brunch menu, Bananas Foster french toast satisfies, the toast itself not deeply sweet, the better to showcase the Foster sauce, brown sugar and rum and perhaps some creme de banane as well. A generous amount of bananas, also key to the success of such a dish, waited with a little whipped cream. It was a good contrast to an order of shrimp and grits. For those unaccustomed to grits, let us just say: Polenta. Same thing. Here we have carefully cooked shrimp with bits of spicy andouille sausage, tomato and the holy trinity of Creole cooking, onion, pepper and celery. There was more in there, there had to be more, the flavor was remarkably well-rounded and savory without any real spicy hotness except when a piece of andouille jumped on the fork. One could have added hot sauce, but it really did quite well as it arrived. A corn muffin was the side.
The dessert list is deeply Southern, pecan pie, peach cobbler and other temptations. But it was very important to check the house's bona fides with beignets and see how they flew. And these are close, very close, to Cafe du Monde, one of the motherhouses of beignets in the French Market. Hot from the fryer, a mountain of powdered sugar sifted atop them, and shareable, it was nostalgia personified.
Amiable service, a little more leisurely during brunch, but that's pretty appropriate, a long list of drinks and lots of specials both for drinks and food. And an atmosphere that isn't French Quarter – but it sure could be in Metarie, a major suburb of New Orleans.
Gulf Shores Restaurant & Grill
12528 Olive Blvd., Creve Coeur
314-878-3306
www.gulfshorestrestaurantandgrill.com
Lunch and Dinner daily, Brunch Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: No
Dinner entrees: $12-$2