If you're waiting for lunch in an old gas station, and they put down a linen napkin and a Laguiole knife as part of your place, it should raise hopes that the food ought to be pretty darn fine. Okay, cynics might say it's a predictor of pretentiousness. But that's way not the case at Olio, Ben Poremba's ying to his Elaia's yang, Elais being just behind and above Olio.
This is a beautiful place. Elaia is dark and its decor seems very simple, but Olio with its huge west and south windows allows guests to appreciate its aesthetics far more. The old, beat up tile, the wild light fixture, the interesting chairs – the whole look is deeply contemporary without being spare.
It's essentially, a bar, one with an excellent wine list and an extensive array of aperitifs and liqueurs. And its food is noshing food, small plates, sharable platters and sandwiches.
When I ordered the chickpea, edamame and octopus salad, I didn't realize quite how much it had been written about locally. It deserves the ink. It really is much more about the vegetables than the tender bits of cephalopod. And while the chickpeas aren't overcooked and the edamame glisten, even more fascinating is the dressing, a drizzle of olive oil, brilliant in color and flavor, and seasoned yogurt, tart and mysterious. I wonder if perhaps Poremba hasn't punched it up a bit with some zataar, the Middle Eastern spice mixture, or perhaps just some sumac, one of zataar's usual ingredients, to make it tarter yet. Wonderful stuff.
This is – at this writing – a menu with both a tartine and a bruschetta on it, the latter varying each day. The tartines, inch-thick slices of fresh baguette, are crowned with Grandma's egg salad. Very different from most egg salads around, here they're minced finely and bound with something beyond mayonnaise. Poremba says it's onions browned and pureed. It's mild and soft, slightly sweet abd very comfort food-y, but with the optional marinated white anchovy on top, the added vinegar and salt changed things considerably and brought it into a definitely adult realm.
Sunday brunch, despite the online menu, is mostly lunch-y stuff, sandwiches (including a tempting roast pork left over from Saturday's roast of the day) and such. But a few morning-food choices are evident. The bacon produced by Poremba's Salame Beddu is available, rustic-looking and satisfying. And shakshuka, the eggs-in-tomato-sauce dish found around the Southern half of the Mediterranean coast, is a frequent offering. The kitchen's take on biscuits and gravy, another item that apparently varies from week to week was lamb sausage gravy over slices of baguette, all topped with a pair of very gently poached eggs. The gravy, pink-y orange from the seasoning of the sausage, cumin and red pepper, was savory and rich, a light tracery of that same green olive oil more for the eye than the palate. The dish's solitary flaw was that it was on a cold plate that had chilled everything but the eggs down to room temperature.
Staff here ranges from knowledgeable to vigorously charming. One young hostess was on the phone more than ten minutes with someone who was really unfamiliar with the restaurant and unsure of whether it was the right choice for the evening's meal. No eye rolls, no silent sighs, frequent pleasant repetitions of what she'd explained earlier, reading some of the menu to the person on the other end. Service above and beyond.
No reservations at Olio, outdoor seating as the weather allows, and that fine wine list.
Olio
1634 Tower Grove Ave.
314-932-1088
Lunch and Dinner daily, Brunch Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Good
Smoking: No
Bar menu:$6-$18