Review: Pomme Café & Wine Bar

You may be surprised to learn that when I first started the 8-to-5 professional grind, lunch was my favorite meal of the day. Back then I worked in Clayton – and later Chicago – and my midday fare had variety and value. I could go to many of the best restaurants and sample their menu for a fraction of what it would cost only a few hours later. By late morning each day, I would be infused with an anticipatory energy that would propel me toward the workday halftime, where untold culinary treasures lay in wait. Would it be duck pizza, braised pork belly sandwich (best sandwich ever!), burger with sautéed foie gras on top or a nice veal piccata? You just never knew … well, you knew it probably wouldn’t be the foie gras burger as any kind of liver is a tough sell to staff accountants just out of college.

All this changed the day I took a job located in a local culinary wasteland. Lunch no longer satiates my soul; it merely provides the necessary sustenance to get through the rest of the day. The anticipation and excitement are gone. I am a prisoner in a metaphorical cell and the bland toasted sub exiting the teeny slot of the oven is my plate of stale bread being slid through the bars.

Then recently, I was unexpectedly granted a furlough to return to the lunches of my past. As I sat in the cozy interior at Pomme Café & Wine Bar in Clayton and pondered just how gutsy they must be to serve all three meals seven days a week with a menu that tops out at $11, a feeling of contentment washed over me. Starting with a plate of pâtés, terrines and accompaniments, I would certainly not miss the normal pedestrian fare. A hint of salt in the thick, chunky country pork desired the ripe tomatoes and spicy mustard as a complement, while the strong flavors of mustard, onions and tart cornichons contrasted the rich, slightly nutty flavor of the duck terrine with pork and almonds and the rich, nearly sweet liver pâté ached for the roasted apple.

To complete the meal, which I would never find anywhere near my office, I called on the interesting Brandade Tartine: multigrain bread served open face, topped with creamy, fluffy mashed potatoes infused with aromatic dill and a mild, faintly garlicky pounded salt-cod mixture with capers providing crunchy pockets of salt.

Dinner service offered a nice treat by retaining the same dishes, prices and all, including the best bargain on the menu, a basket of house-made chips for $2. It wasn’t a huge basket, but they were perfectly salted and there wasn’t a soggy or overcooked chip to be found.

Caramelized onions, ripe tomatoes and an appropriately sharp feta complemented the smooth texture and fine equilibrium between the garlic and salt of the hummus. Sweet and thoughtfully acidic vinaigrette, meanwhile, brought cucumber, apples, walnuts and butter lettuce into excellent harmony.

Substituted for drawn butter, a mildly spicy cocktail sauce flattered the sweet crab legs (served chilled and halved lengthwise) while a deliciously puckering tartar sauce muddled everything up and seemed paired with the wrong dish. One stern look was all it took to break the magic spell that kept the tender, juicy meat on a handful of mini ribs. A sauce of ketchup, vinegar, onions and a touch of Worcestershire held an afterthought of heat but brought solid acidic and sweet notes to the ribs.

The grilled cheese, though, received a vote of no confidence from the table. A significant amount of Gruyère was melted between two slices of sourdough, but the bread wasn’t crunchy and there was absolutely no sign that it had been grilled – weird. To the rescue, though, came a supple brisket with sweetness imbued by caramelized onions and mustard that tweaked the spot behind where your jaw hinges.

By now, most of you know my feelings for bacon, so it should definitely not surprise you that I have a soft spot for good BLTs. If you are a fan, I highly, HIGHLY recommend you try Pomme’s Farmers’ Market BLT on sourdough while it is still tomato season. The tomatoes easily gave up their juice, tender lettuce soaked it up like vinaigrette, delovely mayonnaise sealed the bread and kept it crunchy, whilst bacon did as bacon does and just made everything better.

The wine list is nicely approachable and covers a broad range with most selections being in the $25 to $60 range, with a good BTG selection. However, since “wine bar” is part of the name, at the moment I am writing this, the list seemed a little short and the staff didn’t seem to quite have a handle on fielding pairing questions.

All this and it serves breakfast, too?!? It is nice to have something to do when your baby wakes you up at 5:30 on Saturday morning. The menu is largely vegetarian and centered on fruit and baked goods. An English muffin was an excellent carrying case for ripe tomatoes with cream cheese and basil, and the oatmeal with raisins and apples (cooked perfectly, just like the third bear’s porridge) was a sweet mélange.

Satiated at last. Will all of this get me through the dog days of summer? Let’s hope so. Otherwise, I’ll have to start buying a lot more from my company’s vendors in Clayton on the off chance that they’ll send us a bunch of Pomme’s flaky, tender, chewy, buttery, wonderful and light-as-air croissants during the holidays, you know, as a thank you for all the business we gave them. It’s so diabolical, it just might work.