Review: Seasons St. Louis in Chesterfield

Strip malls don’t exactly shout coolness when it comes to fine-dining venues. Nor do they inspire diners’ curiosity to check out new restaurants. There’s one spot in Chesterfield’s Forum Center that’s seen several good restaurants come and go. First there was the Saleem’s-owned Simon’s Café. Then Peppertini’s Grill and Piano Bar. Now two young chefs, Josh Striplin and Benjamin McNabb (who’s not even old enough to drink legally), have opened Seasons St. Louis, billing it a “French-American bistro” devoted to seasonal local ingredients, simple preparations and inspired cooking.

It’s not a bad space, with a bar to the left as you enter and the dining room to the right. There’s a small stage in the front corner of the room left over from Peppertini’s, though being greeted by solo piano versions of Styx’s Sailing and Journey’s Open Arms didn’t set the stage for a good first impression. Neither did the décor of tufted, scalloped booths and framed floral prints that, when combined with the pianist’s version of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, had all the charm of a “classy” reception hall or, as one dining companion noted, a hotel lobby from the mid-’90s.

But looks can be deceiving. Because the interior decorating belies what comes out of the kitchen.

These two Young Turks, both trained at L’École Culinaire, can cook. Rather than true French dishes, the “French-American” moniker refers to the French cooking style of using stocks and sauces, which the duo does to accentuate classic American fare. Like the deeply concentrated sauce marchand de vin that bathed the 10-ounce Missouri grass-fed strip steak on the spring menu (the summer menu is now in place); its buttery, red wine richness gave the beef a full-bodied, satiny finish. The presentation was also superb, with five grilled asparagus spears fanned out underneath a mound of roasted fingerling potatoes. Ditto for the farm-raised chicken with morel pan sauce accompanied by Parisian gnocchi mixed with fresh spring peas and crispy pancetta. I don’t know what made the gnocchi “Parisian,” but they were flash fried to a delicious puffiness, more like little gnocchi poppers. The plump airline cut breast had been marinated, sautéed to juicy perfection, and doused with a reduction of white wine, butter and bits of morel mushrooms.

Halibut, lightly dusted, pan-roasted, topped with microgreens and again beautifully presented, suffered from a tad too much pan roasting. Accompanying the fish was house-made tagliatelle tossed with wilted baby spinach and braised baby artichoke hearts. A drizzle of beurre noisette (a gently browned butter sauce) surrounded the fish, again emphasizing Striplin and McNabb’s French techniques. Pork-lovers will praise the grilled pork chop, a thick, boneless cut of local pedigreed pig grilled slightly pink – as it should be – accompanied by a creamy potato puréed and garnished with pork jus and sweet pea coulis.

More of those sweet English peas showed up the spring pea soup, a light mélange of puréed peas with pancetta and fennel fronds and topped with a Parmesan emulsion. Standout appetizers included asparagus and morel risotto and chicken rillettes. The former will be out of season by the time you read this; the latter consists of three dollops of pâté-like shredded confit mixed with quatre-épices (a classic French mixture of pepper, cloves, nutmeg and ginger), cognac and thyme. It’s served with toast points, onion confiture, Dijon mustard and tiny cornichons. Salads are expectedly fresh given the abundance of local greens, but it was the roasted beet salad that enraptured my palate: roasted, chilled and diced local beets served next to tender greens mixed with toasted hazelnuts and shaved fennel and tossed lightly with a bit of tarragon-hazelnut vinaigrette. Garnishing the plate were two dollops of emulsified beet foam.

Given the locavore emphasis, the menu needs to promote the restaurant’s pride in local farms by informing diners where ingredients come from, something most locally conscious restaurants already do. Or at least inform the servers, who were clueless and almost surprised by our inquires into the origins of our food. And while service was capable and eager, it lacked the necessary sophistication and knowledge, especially in wine service.

Desserts are all house-made, as we learned when our server presented us the dessert menu midway into our entrées. Strawberry shortcake consisted of almond shortcake, macerated berries and vanilla bean ice cream, though the almond flavor was so subtle as to be nonexistent. Standing in for blueberry pie one evening was a three-layer square of chocolate cake interspersed with fudgy layers, encircled with a necklace of chocolate-berry coulis and topped with whipped cream.

Real food and locally trained chefs focused on locally sourced ingredients, in Chesterfield? Yes, looks can be indeed deceiving.

For sommelier Glenn Bardgett’s review of Seasons St. Louis’ wine list, visit the reviews section of www.saucemagazine.com.

NEW AND NOTABLE
Don’t-Miss Dish: The summer menu is now in full swing, but the spring menu’s roasted beet salad and grilled pork chop were excellent.
Vibe: Those wanting to converse more than listen to the live music should request a table in the back of the restaurant. Décor is more hotel lobby than contemporary restaurant.
Entrée Prices: $16 to $33
Where: Seasons St. Louis, 79 Forum Center, Chesterfield, 314.469.2210
When: Tue. to Sat. – 5 to 10 p.m.