The Scottish Arms bar staff proved to us that Real Men Wear Kilts. Now the kitchen is demonstrating that Real Men eat quiche, too, and quite happily.
We never thought we’d be gurgling with delight about quiche, which at best we always have seen as just an okay thing and at worst…oh, you don’t want to know. But the just-west-of-Grand Center restaurant and pub has put its own stamp on it, available at Sunday brunch and an absolutely don’t-miss item. The dark, cozy spot, a little better lit on the white-tablecloth dining room side, has plenty of regulars, occasionally getting vocal over a soccer or rugby match, since one or another always seems to be running on the television sets in the bar. On the plus side, the sound remains at reasonable levels, low enough to carry on our own conversation.
We’ve written before about the hearty oatmeal pancakes, a perfect match for the warm maple syrup served alongside. There’s a fruit compote du jour or marmalade available for an extra charge, but to our taste, they’re superfluous. The house is curing its own bacon now, and the slices, thick and meaty, arrive looking almost like long strips of ham, the cure mild and pleasant. The bacon, cooked a little more crisply, also stars in the BELT sandwich, bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato on toast with a spicy aoli, adding up to a swell combination, with the aioli providing just enough bite. It’s a little gooey from the eggs, but leaning over your plate to eat is no sacrifice when the sandwich is this winning. The runny-yolk-ophobes can ask for the eggs to be hard-cooked, of course.
A platter called the Highland Hangover (Ann offers a nod in the direction of her late, great friend, the ex-cop from Glasgow, who took the biggest exam of his life in said condition) offers a collection of nibbling-type things that are just right for absorbing the whisky of the previous evening or bloody Marys from the make-it-yourself bar at the front window. A Scotch egg, a standard bar snack in the UK, is a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat and deep fried. Sausage rolls offer sausages far meatier than their authentic Caledonian counterparts, nice and juicy, wrapped in flaky, tender pastry. And forfar bridies, called baby bridies here, are another recipe from the land of lochs and glens. Basically, it’s a small turnover filled with chopped beef, spiced up with a little onion and, we suspect, some dry mustard. Very munchable. Add to that a generous rosette of smoked salmon and some crostini and you have ballast enough to get through a busy Sunday. The same sausage and bacon are part of the very authentic English breakfast, with egg, grilled tomato, toast and beans, except that it arrives warmer than most we’ve had overseas.
And then the quiche. The size of a large slab of cheesecake, fully two inches high, the flavors vary from week to week, but the creamy, delicate texture seems to be a constant, a fine mixture of just the right proportion of egg to liquid and the right time and temperature in the oven. Even the crust, which is puff pastry, an imaginative touch we applaud, is remarkable. Craveable quiche: Who would have thought it?
Pleasant, easy-going service, and an overall sense of leisure permeate things here. It’s a gastropub in the best, most unpretentious sense of the word.
The Scottish Arms
8 S. Sarah Ave.
314-535-0551
http://wwwlthescottisharms.com
Brunch Sun. 10a.m.-2p.m.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Satisfactory
Smoking: Yes
Entrees (Brunch): $8-$14
