Review: The Schlafly Tap Room in St. Louis

The warning bell rang loud and clear, somewhere between my shoulder blades, as the server brought utensils to the table, placed them carefully around the plate. A steak knife, serrated edges gleaming wickedly in the overhead lights, sat in its correct position.

A steak knife? Why? The guru had ordered meat loaf, which came with mashed potatoes and a side of braised red cabbage with apples.

And now for the really bad news. The knife was necessary. Really necessary.

It was as great a shock as to have received flat beer at the tasting room of the city's other brewery.

The Schlafly Tap Room, its name simplified by its customers through the 14 years since it opened as the St. Louis Brewery and Tap Room, has been a consistent favorite of the Guru since its earliest days. After all, starting with a wide variety of fresh, tasty beers and ales, continuing to a menu of outstanding bar food -- the best fish and chips in town, fine chili, a very good hamburger (either beef or turkey), the great smoked liverwurst from G&W Sausage in South St. Louis -- and concluding with a superior sweet like sticky toffee pudding, which Mrs. Guru calls one of the three best desserts in the city.

The dining room, with high ceilings and rough wood, paying homage to its former existence as a printing plant, is big and open, and the tall windows provide superior light. Service is brisk and efficient, and prices are generally modest, made even better by large portions, an imaginative menu and some outstanding extra touches, like that G&W smoked liverwurst, so good it can almost pass as pate, or the spicy ketchup that makes a perfect accompaniment to excellent, crisp, well-drained French fries.

In some respects, it's unfair to describe the Tap Room food as "bar food." Executive Chef Scot Smelser's preparations are many notches above the usual style, but the surroundings and the informality define the fare. Fish and chips (actually fish and French fries because the English in England say "chips" for french fries and "crisps" for potato chips) are glorious, my favorite among those I've eaten in St. Louis. The flaky, white, Icelandic cod is in a wheat ale-heightened batter, cooked to the perfect point, drained splendidly and served piping hot. The result is a delight, and both the tartar sauce and the spicy ketchup make the dish even better. G&W smoked liverwurst, made in the company's small, spotless plant-retail outlet at 4828 Parker Ave., just east of Kingshighway, is smooth and creamy and smoky, all at the same time, and perfectly peppered and spiced. Served on marble rye (both dark and light), with pickled onions and cole slaw, it's one of the great sandwiches. I'd add a slice of Bermuda onion to the sandwich, and then just revel in the flavors.

Tap Room chili is made with white beans and chicken, but the spicing is exceptional and the overall effect is lighter and with less fat than chili with red beans and red meat. First time is somewhat of a shock, but it's easy to get used to.

Steamed mussels from Whidby Island, Wash., have a sauce of garlic, shallots, parsley and butter, and though the mussels are listed as an appetizer, there are enough for a lunch, or for two people to share before indulging in something else, or even several something elses. The mussels are fat and flavorful, and a variety of good breads make dunking even more of a pleasure.

And speaking of shellfish, the Tap Room will have its annual oyster fest March 7-8, with thousands of oysters (40,000 last year) making the ultimate sacrifice for St. Louis lovers of the succulent bivalve.

And that's another good thing about the Tap Room; fine breads, English muffins, brioche (either wheat or white), John Dough (the Tap Room's description of a sourdough-type crusty roll used for sausages or hot sandwiches), focaccia, French-style Beaucaire, biscuits and others.

Care and imagination have gone into the menu in terms of mixing and matching breads and what goes on them, and side dishes, too, like the classic English Branston pickle, with the Ploughman's Lunch, roasted garlic with the Camembert cheese plate, goat cheese ("chevre" in French) melted for a Welsh Rarebit, tomato and sprouts to accompany a turkey sandwich, the superlative taste and texture combinations in a salmon BLT. The hamburger is good, and so is the turkey version, though the latter is cooked well done. Beef stew, topped with excellent biscuits, is another winner.

Good mango chutney accompanies a nicely spiced chicken korma, with chicken and vegetables served atop jasmine rice in a curry sauce. The bratwurst is outstanding, and the lover of wurst also can have lamb sausage and roasted peppers, or andouille sausage with linguine. On the other end of the spectrum are many vegetarian dishes, including a portabella mushroom on a sandwich or leading a pasta sauce, vegetable sandwiches, a "veggie burger" and several salads.

So what happened to the meat loaf?

Overcooking probably contributed to the toughness, but in addition, it was a very dense meat loaf, packed extremely tightly and without much additional flavor. Perhaps, too much handling, as in a pie crust, made it tough. And to me, meat loaf needs more flavor than just beef – spicing, or herbs, or mushrooms, or something. This one had some tomato sauce. In addition, the mashed potatoes were the epitome of ordinary. Best thing about the dish was the braised red cabbage and apples.

Three desserts show up on the Tap Room menu. The Sticky Toffee Pudding, a glamorous dish, starts with a dense cake (in Scotland, cake is called "pudding"), topped with rich, warm caramel sauce and heavy lashings of whipped cream. Hints of dates, nutmeg and other flavors peer through, and the result is near perfection. The portion is plenty large enough for two people. Bread pudding is good, but not up to the STP and Spotted Dick (the English term for plain pudding is "dick,") is a cake (see the Scottish translations above) and "spotted" means a good serving of raisins. It's okay, but not special, and ranks third among the Tap Room regular desserts.

A new brewery and bottling line for Schlafly products is under construction in Maplewood, with an April opening scheduled for the Schlafly Bottle Works. Beer and ale come first, with a restaurant opening aimed at autumn. In the meantime, however, there will be a grill for outdoor cooking and serving, and Smelser aims at some ribs, burgers and kebabs of various types, along with dirty rice, mashed potatoes, Asian slaw, pies and the like. When the full kitchen and restaurant open, there will be a pizza oven and, perhaps, new and improved meat loaf.