A seriously mixed bag: A dinner for one at Zia's on The Hill. Some friends had spoken highly of it, and on a Saturday night (no reservations on Saturday, by the way), I set out early. And found a parking place, too. A good sign, I thought. And a nod in the direction of Hill residents who generally maintain considerable patience with the throngs of street parkers, especially on weekends.
A 45-minute wait, said the one of the hostesses after carefully counting the number of tables ahead of me. The uncommonly clement weather made it easy to wait outside – the bar is large, certainly, but close to a dozen people were killing time on the sidewalk and it seemed like a good idea. Dress ranged from teenagers en route to what must have been their homecoming dance to t-shirts from marathons run a decade ago. A number of multigenerational family groups arrived, helping Granddad with the steps.
And at almost exactly 45 minutes, I was paged. Several dining rooms, all jumping, obviously. A quick offer from a busboy for some water, and a welcome from a waitress who recited the specials with prices. A woman on her way out stopped another server to particularly thank her "for everything".
Not surprisingly, the bread is the old Hill standard, the "Italian" bread that's topped with sesame seeds. Seasoned olive oil and a shaker of grated cheese allow for mix-it-yourself in the provided saucer, and the oil was quite good, with pepper and oregano. I kicked things off with their calimari in a spicy sauce. I assumed this was going to be alla diavolo, the squid in a peppery tomato sauce. Nope. What arrived was deep-fried calimari in, essentially, a relatively mild buffalo sauce. Extraordinarily tender calimari, the breading beginning to soften in the sauce, which still had a spiciness to it but not so much that it overwhelmed.
A house salad comes with the non-pasta entrees. The soup bowl for it had been chilled, the greens were fresh, and the cheese a mixture of provel and mozzarella. There had been no offer of salad dressing options, I realized; Zia's bottled dressing is sold retail.
This is a sweet dressing. I know St. Louis loves that stuff. I don't. The salad wasn't overdressed, and met all the other expectations. But like lots of other "house dressings" in town, it had sugar in it. (What do diabetics who choose to avoid sugar entirely do?)
Veal at an Italian restaurant: A no-brainer. Veal Soto, described as being sauced with white wine and lemon with mushrooms, fresh garlic and black pepper, a style also offered with chicken and beef, was a shocker. Shades of gray and beige, the meat had slid to the end of the dish before it arrived. There was clearly wine in the sauce, but despite bits of garlic that were still crunchy, that was about the only discernible flavor in it, certainly no black pepper. Any evidence of salt was obscured by the wine. The meat had a strange consistency, as though one of those pounding mallets with teeth had carefully gone over every inch of it. On the other hand, the pasta shells were hot and al dente, a tomato sauce sweet and sharp, nicely done indeed.
Yes, one visit, one person. Very pleasant service on a busy night, the hot food was hot and the cold food was cold. But avoid that veal.
Zia's
5256 Wilson Ave
314-776-0020
Lunch and Dinner Mon.-Sat.
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Poor
Smoking: No
Entrees: $10-$26