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Take in the City Scene at Top of the Riverfront
• by Ann Lemons - Photo by Emily Lowery
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Now that the spring brunching season is in full swing, with its piles of visitors for the holidays, graduations and weddings, thoughts turn to festive entertaining, especially for out-of-towners. One of the St. Louis perennials is the Top of the Riverfront in the Millennium Hotel. Yes, yes, of course, the clichés about the better the view, the less attention is paid to the food – we’ve heard ‘em all. But a recent visit found quite a bit to smile about.
Of course, just stepping off the elevator and seeing the view is enough to create a smile. It’s fun, let’s face it. While a brunch-time visit lacks quite the drama of dinner (which should be judiciously timed at dusk so as to get some daylight and some night lights, too), it makes up for it with details. Between the construction of the new stadium – and quite a view one gets of that –
and the river traffic, always interesting, it’s like no other show in town.
This is a brunch that aims more towards lunch than breakfast, but the first thing that struck me was a coat check and a piano player, new elements of luxury for the room. Orange juice and sparkling wine, together in a mimosa or separately, flowed frequently. And the coffee was more than adequate if not quite as strong as I’d personally prefer. Service was nothing short of amiable.
Head directly for the cold seafood selection, with excellent mussels and fine smoked shrimp and trout. Oysters seemed a tad tired, though. Salads are more of a perfunctory gesture than a feature: two kinds of greens with dressings on the side and a rather uninspired pasta salad.
The chafing dishes hold some surprises. Eggs Benedict, that mainstay of brunches, turn out far above average, with tender English muffins, thin slices of ham rather than Canadian bacon, softly poached eggs and lashings of a mild French-style hollandaise. A drift of cayenne pepper across the top serves as garnish and a nice zing; all I added was a little salt. A crustless quiche was an honorable dish, the eggs nicely creamy, the filling studded with mushrooms and spinach to charm
all comers. Lovely little loin lamb chops had a light green peppercorn sauce, and even though they weren’t pink in the middle, the flavor was great and the meat properly tender.
Linguini with seafood and fire-roasted tomatoes held up quite well and would have been worth a second round if we’d been able to handle one. Even the turkey and cornbread dressing was a
reasonable choice.
Of the breakfast dishes, sausage was flavorful, and potatoes were new potatoes with a reasonable amount of seasoning. Breads didn’t do well – bagels were stale, croissants were soggy and biscuits had very tough bottoms, although the accompanying gravy, while very thin, was nicely peppery.
Several cheesecakes anchored the dessert table, and a selection of bite-sized pastries like éclairs were enticing. Blueberry crumb cake, moist and rich, lolled in slices waiting for the last cup of coffee. But the star was a miniature baba au rhum, a traditional French pastry consisting of a sweet cake in the shape of a ring that is drenched in a rum syrup. The center of the cake was filled with cream, the rum wasn’t overwhelming, and it was a nice, slightly gooey end to the meal.
Is this brunch worth $34.95 for adults? It might not be if it were on the ground level. But there’s certainly added value in the revolving view, and when you think of it as being an entertainment fee, things come into proportion.
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