Most St. Louisans have driven by the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac, tucked between Highway 40 and Plaza Frontenac, a thousand times. Maybe they’ve even gone to meetings there. But who knew that a surprisingly good brunch awaits, especially for those who lean to the breakfast side of the meal?
There must be some people who knew, certainly. Many customers are clearly long-time regulars, greeted by servers who are up-to-date on their family news. Newcomers are sometimes greeted with offers to toast English muffins or grill the prime rib cut if it’s too rare for their tastes. Nearby, a woman dining alone was treated warmly, something that still happens too infrequently.
The house offers a special juice every week, along with the usual choices, something like the strawberry-orange we had, which was thick with good strawberry flavor. Nicely tart Mimosas are part of the brunch, and they were offered rather than having to be inquired after.
On the breakfast side of the buffet, the eggs Benedict appear too perfect – upright yolks, a generous strewing of garnish. Aside from the near-inevitable Styrofoam muffin, they were great – two thin slices of Canadian bacon being easier to manage than one thicker one, perfectly cooked eggs and a hollandaise sauce that had a nice sharpness to it. Corned beef hash looks like the canned stuff but seems to have been thoughtfully reseasoned. And sausage gravy has neither the consistency nor the taste of wallpaper paste. This is the last place in town I would have expected to find an exciting sausage gravy, but there it was, grinning at me from a silver
chafing dish.
Among the traditional breakfast meats, bacon, thick sliced and neither burnt nor underdone, stands up to the steamy environment well. Link sausages beat out some patties that weren’t up to snuff. The fresh fruit selection seems particularly ripe and sweet. The cheese-striped grits are bland and no, that’s not a redundancy. I’ve had some fine ones, although not in St. Louis. Blintzes are large and tasty, the crêpe-like wrapper more tender than most. And the nova is high-quality material, although the bagels can use the proffered toasting.
There is no perfect answer to the problem of crisp baked goods being kept both hot and crisp. But the worst of all worlds is a chafing dish kept warm by hot, yea, boiling water. I wish the scones here, a nice idea, could have been saved from sogginess. And the salmon en croûte, which was quite good aside from its limp pastry crust, suffers an insult.
On that side of the buffet, too, was a first: thin slices of osso buco in a wonderful morel sauce. Nearby sat duck in orange sauce, tasty, although one breast was a tad tough. On another visit, though, the chafing dishes had three variations of chicken among their choices: a stir-fry, some oven barbecued wings and a baked chicken. A marinated artichoke salad with feta cheese was quite satisfying and so was a pasta salad with cheese.
Breakfast-y style pastries are sometimes set out in a separate area from the desserts, and other times not, depending on something I never figured out. But the best sweets are to be found in the breakfast section. Keep a particular eye out for a flat poppy-seeded selection that almost resembles a pizza. Even for the nonfancier of poppy seeds, that one’s a winner.
The atmosphere here is particularly unrushed, and it’s also possible to order from the standard breakfast menu.
This article appears in March 2024.
