Pat’s, across from Turtle Park and, beyond the mess that used to be Highway 40, the Zoo, has been a fixture in the Dogtown neighborhood for years, going back to its life when it was known as McDermott’s. It’s an old-style St. Louis corner bar, with an interior that could serve as a setting for a film set any time in the last 50 years if you discount the flat-screen tvs. Dim and, yes, smoky, it nevertheless supports a steady base of regular customers, many from the neighborhood, and semi-regulars, the folks who drop by every couple of years so they can say they always go there. There’s a full bar, of course, and waitresses who seem to have been there or at a similar place forever. Service can start a little slowly when crowded, but food generally arrives pretty rapidly, even in the height of softball season, when half the teams in Forest Park seem to drop by for a cold one and some post-game analysis. While the menu is broader than many bars (nine salads, for instance), most folks go to places like this for fare that is definitely filling. We certainly do, and our hearty-eating Viking kinfolks bleat for a return visit every time they come to town. On our last visit, we tried something new, the grilled hot wings. These are among the best in town, large and meaty, with the grill crisping up the skin here and there but avoiding the error of overcooking. They’re medium-hottish, with more heat available as a condiment if a palate calls for it, but these are just about perfect if one wants more chicken flavor and less heat. Onions are available as rings or strings. The rings have their partisans, but we prefer the strings which are more lightly breaded, allowing for more onion flavor per munch. Yes, they’re greasy. We still devour them. And that brings us to the deep fryer—the equipment, that is, not the cook. Joe Finn, the owner of Pat’s, has bought a new gizmo (pardon the tech-speak) that he and the inventors say allow him to cook at a lower temperature without increasing grease absorption and slowing the breakdown of cooking oil into free radicals, those atoms and groups of atoms that are theorized to help cause aging in the body. Supposedly, it also helps the environment, saves energy and is good to its parents. We can’t attest to that, but we did try several items cooked in a fryer using these ionic spheres (that’s what they’re called) and one that didn’t. We could not tell the difference in flavor or texture. The lower-temp fries were slightly paler (see photo below), but that oil was newer, which always means less browning. He’s using the gizmo, which is called Frylow, and says he’s had no customer comment on changes in the food.
The big reason those fryers are so busy is chicken. Pat’s is known for its fried chicken, which is tasty (and not greasy), but we home in on the chicken livers. Huge livers with crunchy breading, even an appetizer serving is main-course sized, arriving with buttered toast and a cup of what’s basically a seafood sauce, tomato and horseradish. We also found frog legs, crisply breaded but fall-apart tender, the flavor only faintly fish-like, but the flesh not too different from that of fish. Only the hamburger fell short, being unremarkable.
But that shortcoming is covered by the large bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich and the classic country favorite of chicken-fried steak, swimming in white gravy.
Pat’s makes its own potato chips these days, too, and they’re first rate, with that balance of mostly-crisp-with-a-few-chewy-ones that make you know they didn’t come from a bag. Fries are dusted with a coating that leaves them crisp and greaseless. And the vinegar-based cole slaw is sharp and tangy.
And we must note that the menu refers to “the best cake in the world,” which varies from day to day. Sometimes that cake’s a pie, since it comes from the ovens of Sugaree, the splendid neighborhood bakery that is growing into pie baking lately. A piece of blackberry pie was just the ticket, even cold from the fridge.
Pat’s Bar and Grill
6400 Oakland Ave.
314-647-6533
Lunch Mon.-Sat, Dinner nightly, Brunch Sun.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Fair
Smoking: Yes
Entrees: $9-$13
