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Review: Saint Louis Cellars Food & Wine
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The first thing you notice when you walk into the new St. Louis Cellars Food & Wine is the visual juxtaposition of the old building with a new contemporary vocation. Once a nondescript commercial brick building along the quiet stretch of Big Bend between Manchester and Highway 40, Jennifer Williams and her closet cartel have preserved the best parts of the structure and reinvented the rest for our modern eyes. The blinding shine of the polished concrete floor illuminates the exposed brick, expansive ceilings, well-organized fixturing and open stainless-steel kitchen.
The space doesn't just look good, it's functional, too. The attention to customer experience and interaction with the merchandise and food is not surprising; not only does Williams make some of the smartest closets around, but St. Louis Cellars and now Food & Wine are characterized by an accessible and elegant simplicity. Whereas St. Louis Cellars carries bottles of wine that are $20 and less, the new Food & Wine space presents "The Splurge": a selection of pricier varieties, though none are as extravagant as you would find in a typical wine shop. In addition, the well-merchandised area offers an assortment of cookbooks, kitchen-themed gifts and picnic paraphernalia.
What about the food? The menu is a step above many fast casual restaurants in terms of quality and price. Food & Wine offers a selection of salads, sandwiches, paninis and flatbreads in addition to an assortment of to-go items in the refrigerated case that you can buy by the pound. The prepared foods were sophisticated and well-variegated to please any picky palate: enormous chicken breasts, flank steak, crab cakes, carrots and couscous salad are just a few items in the offering. The food here would be excellent picnic fare for the Whitaker Music Festival or the Shakespeare Festival.
I needed a lunch on the run, so I ordered the small Farmhouse Salad ($3.99) and the Cubano Panini ($6.99) to go. After I ordered, I shopped around and watched Chef Greg Maggi make my sandwich. The salad was composed of mixed greens, ribbons of carrots, chunks of tomatoes, diced cucumber, feta cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. It wasn't a huge portion, but the quality of ingredients were outstanding, and I'll pony up for a moderately-sized salad made of good ingredients over a big bowl of bagged lettuce any day.
I'm picky about Cuban sandwiches and Chef Maggi didn't disappoint: the layers of pork tenderloin and ham topped with Swiss cheese and sliced dill on the crispy-pressed bread were delicious. Warm, cheesy and gooey, the sandwich had just the right ratio of pickles to pork, and the bread was toasted just right. The panini-style preparation was a worthwhile derivation of the traditional unlined pressed sandwich. Served with a bag of chips, the sandwich was a meal in itself. That brings me to my only critique of the menu: since many of us are trying to watch our waistlines (and wallets), St. Louis Cellars Food & Wine may want to consider including a "half and half" option on the menu so customers can get a smaller sandwich with a small salad while forgoing the chips.
St. Louis Cellars Food & Wine has revived an old space to share simple, high-quality food in a casual atmosphere. It's well worth a visit.
Saint Louis Cellars Food & Wine, 2650 South Big Bend Boulevard, Maplewood, MO 63143 314/880-9000 www.saintlouiscellars.com
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