Review: Balaban’s Wine Cellar and Tapas Bar in Chesterfield

Back in the heyday of Balaban’s, my grad school roommate would often come home from his job as the restaurant’s maître d’ full of stories about all the beautiful people he sat, most of them holding court along the open-air café windows looking out onto Euclid Avenue in the fashionable Central West End. I think he sat Liza Minnelli once. Or was it Lorna Luft? It was one of those Garland girls, I’m sure.

Since then, the history of Balaban’s is a bit convoluted: Chef Steve McIntyre and Tom Flynn bought out Herb Balaban in 1986; McIntyre left for a few years, only to return after Flynn drowned while on vacation in 2000. In 2006, McIntyre sold to Brendan Marsden and Harlee Sorkin, who closed the restaurant in early 2008. Aaron Teitelbaum and Jeff Orbin of Monarch bought the restaurant later that year, reopening it as Herbie’s Vintage 72, the name a homage to both the man and the year of the eponymous bistro’s birth.

All this is to say that McIntyre and business partner Brian Underwood’s resurrection of Balaban’s in Chesterfield should be judged on its own merits. This time around, McIntyre, Underwood and executive chef Kevin Sthair, who, like McIntyre, cooked at the old Balaban’s, took a decidedly different approach: shrink many of Balaban’s signature dishes into smaller versions, focus the rest of the menu on “tapas small plates” (whatever that means), toss in a few flatbreads and desserts and, voilà, you’ve got yourself a French-Spanish-type bistro in an old Talbots-store-then-Hollywood Video in a Dierbergs center. Add a wine shop, wine bar, gourmet food to-go deli and gift shop all integrated in one space, and you have one-stop shopping.

McIntyre also wisely held onto the restaurant’s original recipes and deep inventory of vintage wines. About a third of the new space is dedicated to selling wine, from the new and unfamiliar to that extensive 4,000-bottle library of small allocation wines. It’s a good spot to hang out while waiting for a table; Balaban’s doesn’t take reservations after 6 p.m. And good news for diners in the adjoining 50-seat dining section and bar: You can mosey through the wine section and purchase a bottle at retail price plus an $8 corkage fee.

To its credit, the new Balaban’s team doesn’t try to re-enact the old Balaban’s feel, impossible to do anyway in a huge shopping area. There’s no chef statue outside, and the place is (thankfully) smoke-free, although the prints of old French liqueur ads elicit a smile of recognition. But there is a “classic Balaban’s small plates” section of the menu, where a couple of trusty 30-plus-year-old dishes show up. The beef Wellington has been downsized to a less intimidating 4-ounce portion and served en croûte. Where the pastry crust was expectably golden and flaky, the distracting liver pâté in the underlying layer of mushroom duxelles overpowered the dish. The accompanying side of green beans, cubed butternut squash and brussels sprouts was fine, although the crunchy sprouts could have benefited from a bit more braising time. The chilled bisque was as creamy and silky as ever and felt like a taste of early spring on a cold winter night.

The hearts of palm salad and smoked trout pancake also trigger knowing grins. The former – even if too vinegary and overdressed – was a beautifully presented plate of fresh greens and roasted pine nuts topped with fat ribbons of Manchego cheese and a strip of fried pancetta, all punctuated with orange segments for a citrusy punch. The latter was a savory quarter-inch-thick corn-laced grilled cake piled high with smoked trout and accented with horseradish, chopped chives and onions. The flaky and moist barbecue salmon, with its Asian-style dry rub, came off as fishy.

The other half of the menu is composed of “tapas small plates,” a redundant rubric meant to distinguish them from the classic dishes. These are essentially scaled-down entrées, which is a good thing; a couple or three small plates make for a satisfying, not stuffing, meal. A trio of plump, perfectly seared sea scallops arrived sizzling, crisscrossed with asparagus spears, topped with lettuce slaw and drizzled with a celeriac sauce studded with cubes of pancetta. Pair it with the portabella eggplant stack, an extravagant mountain of tomato confit, breaded eggplant, spinach and red peppers sandwiched between two huge grilled caps. Or soup, like the sage-y, tomato-y white-bean soup of the day swimming with more pancetta. That hearts of palm salad pairs well with a superb thin and crispy flatbread, like the carne picada with roasted peppers, fennel sausage, pepperoni and red onion; a perfect light meal.

Bigger, meatier appetites will crave either the applewood bacon-wrapped pork loin or grilled tenderloin. The four-ounce portion of Berkshire pork, nicely grilled and sliced, came nestled in a purée of sweet potato, but the small cube of Gorgonzola on top overwhelmed the dish, its pungent flavor drowning out the gentle port wine reduction sauce. The similar-sized tenderloin is good bistro fare, sauced with a veal reduction, topped with sautéed wild mushrooms and frites with Parmesan gnocchi sharing the plate.

Balaban’s out west is no doubt a good option for locals. But come morel season, we’ll be back for our favorite classic dish, morel pasta. Just for old times’ sake.

NEW AND NOTABLE
Don’t-Miss Dish: Smoked trout pancake, carne picada flatbread, hearts of palm salad
Vibe: Located in an outbuilding in the Dierbergs Market Place, so don’t expect Central West End views, but inside is comfy enough.
Entrée Prices: $7 to $20
Where: Balaban’s Wine Cellar and Tapas Bar, 1772 Clarkson Road, Chesterfield, 636.449.6700
When: Tue. to Thu. – 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fri. and Sat. –
10 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sun. – 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.