An explanation of ME, 101

As a new introduction to these next 100 posts, I'd like to talk a bit about myself, my experiences and my rating system.

I'm 32 years old, possess a certificate in Catering, a B.S. in Holistic Nutrition with a concentration in Herbalism and a B.A. in Literature and Language Arts with a minor in Computer Science and Business Administration.  I went to college for 6 & 1/2 years because I was undecided for so much of it.  It also was because for 4 of those years, my adviser changed each year: the first became the Dean of students, the next was promoted elsewhere and the other two left the college.  I feel as though if I had an adviser that stayed long enough to know me, I could have made better choices.  However, had I not stayed as long as I did, I would not have met my wife, so it was all okay.

I've always enjoyed cooking and when I was younger, my brothers and I were often sent, one at a time, to 'help' my grandmother at her house, prepare family meals. I was always amazed at how one person could make so many people happy, just be food.  So many of my fondest memories of passed away loved ones have been related to food and with food prepared in similar manners it does give me a moment in which I feel like I have been transported back in time to those moments.

I used to work for an all-you-can-eat buffet called Old Country Buffet/Home Town Buffet.  It was when I was thrown on the cook's line that I started to enjoy the cooking and the control and freedom that I had while back there, no supervisors and just me following the recipes to create good food. People and fellow employees always make fun of the food and in some cases the cooking habits of some of the cooks, but it most cases, as was the case of at least the Lindbergh location, the food was healthy and clean.  While there cooking, I was also fulfilling my requirement as the Dining Room Supervisor and learning how food was supposed to be prepared and taste.  After 8 & 1/2 years of working in this environment, I think I know how a restaurant should operate.

If you combine my work experience with my catering certificate, that composed of no less than 40 hours of coursework, it brings together a shape and scope of what is needed and how food should be prepared.  I know how food should be prepared and how long it takes to be prepared. I know that if I order a chicken strip and fries basket for my son at a restaurant that it shouldn't take longer than 6 or 7 minutes.  When I order one and it takes 30 minutes to an hour, then something is wrong.

Now, what makes for 5 stars?

 0/5 is the kind of food that is so bad that I spit it out.  This often happens if the food is too salty or even served with an edible garnish that isn't prepared properly. Undercooked chicken or vegetables are placed in this category as well.


1/5 is the food that is edible but still not good.  It is the food that you take a single bite and think to yourself that you would not, unless under gunpoint, take a second bite.
2/5 is the food that is okay.  This is food that is not even good, but just mediocre. This level also applies to food that is very, very normal.  The standard burger and fries, for example, where it is just okay, belongs in this level.
3/5 is the food that is good.  You are willing to have multiple bites to try and may even eat all of it. This is also the level of foods that are not what they say, so if a restaurant calls a dish a stew and it is a good mix of ingredients but isn't really a stew, then it would be here.  This is my basic starting point as I have the expectation that all food is good.
4/5 is if the food is really good.  This is the food that is good enough that you are happy with it and will recommend it to others.  The food is cooked properly, hot and tasty.  It is above what you had expected as well.  If you had ordered a bacon burger and someone had placed the bacon inside of the burger, it would have been a new enough concept to fit into this category and not be considered the normal standard burger.

5/5 applies to the best.  This rating does change as I haven't eaten in every restaurant on the planet so it may fluctuate.  I have eaten great Lebanese food in Beirut, for example. So, if a restaurant in St. Louis claims to have the best Lebanese food and it doesn't, or doesn't even have anything similar or like the real food, then it would not get this level of stars.  If the restaurant had food that was very similar to the real country and tasted just like the food there, then it could be considered a 5/5.  This is also food that integrates something new. If you were eating a bowl of some noodles with a simple broth and vegetables and the noodles were hand made, the broth just got off the stove from 8 hours of cooking and the vegetables were earlier in the ground right outside, then it would likely classify as a 5/5, as long as it still tasted good. 



My biggest pet peeves:

1.  Food takes too long
The longest it has taken for me to get food after ordering was 1 hour.  I have been to a restaurant, ordered food and it took over an hour for the food to come.  If it was the waiter's fault that the order was not put in for 40 minutes, it is not my nor the customer's fault.
2.  Waiter never comes back
My wife and I are always cursed that the waiter may give us great service and as soon as we are given are final plates, they disappear. We sometimes have to either flag the waiter down or ask another employee to gather the bill so we can pay and leave.  That last bit of service, does weigh into the final tip.
3.  No one greets me
It should be a standard that if you enter a restaurant in which an entree' costs more than $20 someone from the cooking or management staff should greet you.  After all, you are spending your money to keep their salaries or their wage intact.  Some of the restaurants that have received 5 stars from me, have had someone greet me from start to finish and talk to me. Instead of the kind that greet you upon entry and then you never hear from them again.

I feel as though I cannot be bought or sold. I take the review of a restaurant very seriously as I want people to have the same experience, if it is good, as I have had. I am just like you in that if someone asks you what is a good place for dinner, you tell them your favorite place or a place where you have had a good time.  You may also tell them the places to avoid.  I do the same thing.  I know that if I have a good time (good food and good service) at a location and I talk about how good it was, someone else may try it out.  I am technically bringing new customers in with free publicity. The same however, goes for if the location is bad or rated poorly as if I think a place is downright awful, it may stop people from going there.  Skills are not inherited. If your family owns a restaurant, it does not mean that you have instant knowledge of how a restaurant should be run and how food should be done.  I have an issue dealing or even talking with people who say 'my father owns so and so and it has been in business for over 20 years, which is why I opened my restaurant'.  I want to say to them, 'your restaurant sucks' and leave it at that.  My father works as a credit manager for some St. Louis owned corporations, does this mean that I could start a finance company and demand instant success and fame, because of his past and his professional resume'? Not everyone is cut out to be a chef or not everyone is cut out to be a restaurant owner.

The horse before the cart

I am like every other German American guy in St. Louis, in that I love pork, beer and sausage. It is something that gets into your genes when you live within the St. Louis area. Almost everyone has seen or eaten some sort of sausage or pork product at almost every BBQ or family event. Beer makes the world go around and when what is probably the largest North American brewery is in your hometown, then beer is definitely part of your life.

Just this past Saturday, I attended a meal at a not so well known spot in St. Louis, called The Stable. This location would be classified as historic as it was the same stable that housed the draft horses that pulled Lemp Fallstaff beer around town, as the Lemp Brewery is right across the street. This was my first time hearing of and going to the Stable and I was very happy that I did. The inside has a high ceiling, plenty of ceiling and a host that will great you immediately and sit you rather quickly. They have smaller 2-top tables for dates and can even make larger tables for 20 or more. The restaurant is decorated with some simple things from the time, like the ol'fashioned chandeliers that resemble wagon wheels, hanging from the ceiling and many things hanging on the wall from the time period. The bar is made from a huge wooden mantle piece and there are two small rooms adjacent to each other that have a distillery for making their own alcohol and beers.

I sat down and was prepared to carefully peruse the menu until something caught my eye: basket of bacon. It was a Starter and it was $5.95 and it was a basket of bacon. How sweet does that sound? Had the food gods noticed my love for food pork and have delivered sacred mana bacon from heaven? What better can you get for a lover of pork products than bacon? Without thinking and acting as if through divine inspiration, I ordered that starter, along with one of their home brewed Marzens. After a few minutes, the basket arrived. The bacon was perfectly cooked for the way I like it. It wasn't too crispy, but still a bit soft and flimsy, perfectly done. It was set in a small basket, lined with some wax paper and the 8 strips were arranged in set a way that the grease would run down and collect in a pool in the bottom of the basket. The bacon, tasted like bacon: no maple syrup, no pepper, no spiciness, no smoked anything, just bacony goodness in a perfect multi-note dish of all bacon. Mmmmmmm..... an easy 4 stars out of 5 for all bacon.

I then received the butternut squash ravioli with a white bean ragout and it arrived shortly after the bacon. The ravioli were perfectly cooked with a filling that was almost too sweet for a savory dish. Unless that was their evil plan. I wonder if it was their plan to pair the sweetness of the pasta with the savoriness of the stew, underneath. With white beans and shaved vegetables it was in a nice salty broth that pulled the whole thing together. Don't get me wrong that the ravioli were very delicious but I just wasn't sure that it went perfectly well with what it was sitting on. 3 1/2 stars out of 5 for me.

The last dish I had was the Cajun sandwich, which was a hoagie roll with andouille, shrimp, a sauce with a side of pasta salad. The pasta salad was your normal cold pasta salad, that I am always a fan of but it was the sausage in the sandwich that was notable. Much like Anton Ego, I almost dropped everything I was holding when I tasted the sausage in that sandwich. It instantly teleported me to a camping trip from my childhood when my father would gather sausage from a meat market and bring it and cook it over an open fire, in the woods. The flavors reminded me exactly of that childhood meal and I could almost feel everything melt around me and transport me directly to that same wooded area, sitting in front of that fire and eating that sausage. I was in shock at the perfect balance of flavors and spices a thought for a brief moment that it wasn't real. It worked perfectly with the sauce, cheese, shrimp and bread as everything came together to fulfil a taste that was almost, no... better than the basket of bacon. Whereas I normally try to train my palette for as many things as I can to help distinguish between foods for my star ratings, this sandwich gets my top score of a 5 out of 5.

For anyone looking for a nice night out with some great food that is in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend the Stable. along with their 24 beers on tap and their 50 bottles that they house as well, it is a perfect beer lovers place, if you are not into sausage or bacon.