Bad restaurant with NO responsibility

How many shows have you watched, where the restaurant owners complain that they are losing money and think that it might have to do with the service?  Everything from Restaurant Impossible to Mystery Diners to others, shows and whole organizations spend time to help failing restaurants.  Most restaurant owners are so passionate about their cause, that they do not wish to end it.  Unless you are in St. Louis where restaurant owners have no care about their food or service and will do anything to make a buck, like this guy:

So, recently my wife and I spent time and money at Brazikat, which is supposed to be like a churrascaria.  Let me tell you this, the place is a joke.  From online reviews, it is seen that on the nights that the owner is there, the service and food is impeccable.  On other nights, when the owner is not there, everything slips.  Horrible service had our waiter complaining about the number of people in his section and then didn't get us plates or even tongs or the red/green card to start the food coming to our table.  The salad bar looked like a bus of vegetarians dismantled it and then the restaurant failed to restock it.  The food came out either over cooked or under cooked.  You could have two different preparations of prime rib and one would have been so salty and over cooked that it was all gristle and the other one was still bloody with NO seasoning at all!  The place is an utter joke.  Then, when my wife and I were finished, we complained to the manager on duty.  The first thing she did was ask who our waiter was, in an attempt to likely throw him under the bus.

A good manager would try to do something that could make us come back or recommend it but this manager actually looked my wife right in the eyes and asked "so what do you want me to do?"  My wife also mentioned to her that we have a large family and we like to go out all together.  This meant that if we were happy, we would have had a party of 10-20 people there on a regular basis.  But, as my wife said that we wouldn't bring our groups there, the manager looked at us and said "so?"   With that level of customer service, I wouldn't let that woman manage a lemonade stand.  I tried to contact or leave a message with the owner but it would seem that that real owner doesn't know how to use email or a phone, so that went bust.  What is sad as well, is that this place fills up fast on Saturday nights, so we had an hour wait, because we didn't make a reservation.  Even more so, even if we had a reservation they likely would have ignored it.  I am just am amazed at how bad a restaurant can be and then act like it is no big deal.  The blind sheep of Clayton, jump at anything new and because it is new, they believe it to be the best, when it is not even mediocre.

Here is a good example:  The waiter brings us this dish, which he says is a "Brazilian staple" and it is mashed potatoes with cheese.

Now, you may notice something strange amount this dish, being the fact that the cheese is NOT melted at all.  That would further indicate that the mashed potatoes are likely cold and you would be correct.  The potatoes were cold as in, not warm or even hot.  The cheese was cold as well.  So, in a tropical climate where meat is very salty because the use salt as a preservative due to the lack of large refrigeration units, you have cold mashed potatoes and cold, un-melted cheese, and this dish is supposed to be a staple, a regular, everyone has one of these, items?  I doubt it.

But, a "Brazilian Steak house" should have great, large pieces of meat given by the Gauchos, right?  Well...., if you had a tunnel vision like cataract in your eye and everything that was small looked huge, then you would be correct.  One guy came by and off of his sword he gave us this:

This is not a huge piece, look at that size.  That is a normal sized dinner plate, fork and knife.  So, the piece of ultra-rare, still moo'ing beef is about the size of a Kennedy half-dollar.  Now, just about every piece of meat was this size so while it is all-you-can-eat, you will be there for years trying to eat your fill of tiny pieces of meat.

Who loves candied bananas?  Well, at just about every Brazilian restaurant I have been to, they make them all the same way: they cut the lengthwise, and cook them with sugar or syrup, until they are almost spoon tender and sweet.  Well, here at Brazikat, they do things differently.  The bananas came out in a tiny dish and looked like this:

This is a tiny plate.  Just count the banana slices: one, two....eleven.  So, eleven slices isn't even a whole banana.  So, where is the rest?  Did I mention that while the banana slice at the 3 o'clock position looks like it has browned, the others were all raw?  Yeah, it just wasn't there.

I straight up give this place a 0 out of 5 stars.  I've never given a place such a low score, but the waiter giving bad service, the manager being a bitch, the food for anemic people and the design being done and organized by a blind person made me think that this is one of the worst places in St. Louis.

Dressels' pub

About a week ago, my wife and I went with another couple to Dressel's Public House.  The other husband we went with, has been there many, many times.  His main thought about the location, was that half of the items are good and the other half are bad.  I thought he was just being a pessimist but, his thoughts and ideas were correct as about half of the items we ordered were good and the other half could have been skipped.

We stood and waited for a table, after I had made contact with someone from the email on their website.  I sometimes call and sometimes use opentable to see how they respond to my reservation request.  This time, they did horrible with the email request.  I did get someone to respond and they confirmed the day and time and I thought I was ready, but then when we arrived, there was no reservation in my name at all and we had to wait 15 minutes for a table.  The inside was covered with signs and memorabilia about Scotland.  The pub was originally opened in 1980 and was opened to let people have a place to relax and feel comfortable in the art and literary area.  There are autographed magazines and playbills and all sorts of things from Jon Dressel, who is a respected poet dealing with subject matter from Wales, although he was born and raised here in St. Louis.  His son, Ben, runs the pub now and has moved it in the direction of the farm-to-table and seasonal food approach.  But, all of that doesn't mean anything if the food isn't that good.

We started off with some starters, so we could get a good feel of the food here.  We ordered the Homemade Potato Chips with the added Rarebit.  What we had received was burnt chips and a tiny portion of $2 cheese.  For $6 of chips that were supposed to be cooked to order, our luke warm burnt chips were not what we had expected.

Properly cooked chips are not supposed to be brown, but lightly browned.  I think of the chips they serve at John D. McGuirks or even the ones in this bag from Lays.  Chips are lightly colored as you only fry them long enough to cook them, not kill them.  You know, started off with burnt chips isn't a great way to impress me.  I give these a 2 out of 5.  I will not be ordering chips again from them.

We had also ordered the House Banger Plate, which in this case was a blue corn pancake with a breakfast pork sausage and fried egg.

It was good: the pork sausage was perfectly spiced and perfectly cooked.  The egg was right as well and that pancake was heavy and dense and very flavorful.  The whole thing was as much of a success as the first one was as much of a failure, which was a lot.  I would give this one alone a 4 out of 5.  In fact, if I came again, I'd order 3 of these just for myself.

Again, on this side of the spectrum, the two wives present, happily ate the Mussels.  They said that these mussels were perfectly cooked and perfectly flavored so that the broth was worth taking the time to soak up with the rock hard garlic bread.  Everyone loved them and a 4 out of 5 for mussels was given.

So then, it comes to my main plate and I get ballsy.  First of all, I'm not a cheese guy.  I don't sit around trying and tasting all sorts of cheeses.  I don't like the pungent scents and flavors that go with cheeses.  I ate some white and mild cheeses on pizza and will let go with some provel or mozarella but I will not eat cheeses on a sandwich or burger.  So, anyway, what made Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives so happy was the Porchetta "Louie".  So, this sandwich is supposed to some herb roasted pork, rapini and peppercini on it.  So, I start to eat and eat and it tastes good at first.  If I had only had two bites, like Andrew Zimmerman, and stopped there, this would have been a 4 out of 5 stars for me.  The problem, was that it was so heavily peppered, that by the 4th or 5th bite, I was sensing heat and by the 8th or 9th bite, I was using my Guinness to wash the sandwich taste down.  And it was salty, like salt-lick salty.  The sandwich was bad and it was getting worse with every bite.  I didn't even finish it and I was starving at this point.  I gave this sandwich a simple 2 out of 5 stars. 

So, then, I get a choice of a side and I am suggested that I take the baked beans and so I take them.  They arrive with my sandwich and I am happy.  The others at my table and I all take a fork-full of the beans and...we all had mixed reviews.  Half of us had beans which were over cooked, in that they were mushy.  The other half of us had undercooked beans which were almost crunchy.  There was no huge pieces of bacon fat or brown sugar syrup slathered in and instead was a simple tomato tasting sauce with undercooked and overcooked beans.  A 2 out of 5 for me.

Overall, there were some hits and some misses.  It seems that if this is a restaurant where great thing happen, the one who does them was off and his sub just didn't care.  The chips really started it all for me because I am one of those guys that if the chips are really really good, I'll find an excuse to come and sit, drink and eat chips.  But when you fail at making potato chips, I wonder how good you can do anything else.

st. louis culinary landmarks?

I normally go online, like so many other people, for my news. The days of waiting at home and reading the day's paper, when most of the day is finished as you sit on the couch at home in the early evening, is long gone. Why would I wait all day for the day's news when I can go online and find it?

Anyways, Bill writes a good article for stltoday here about the history of a st. louis steakhouse, starting in 1925 and still going on but slowly. http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/862DD682F0CA808A86257428001362AE?OpenDocument#tp_newCommentAnchor

The story is being interpreted by some as a sign that the chains are taking over and the single independent restaurant is dying but that is not the case. The real reason why places like this is dying is because of two things: price & location.

In this story, Al's, a high-end steakhouse, seems to be going out-of-business as less people are eating there. But as the author of the article shares, $38 for a steak and $35 for a cut of veal is a bit pricey. I have only paid that much for meat, once in my life and that was at Emeril's restaurant Del Monico's in Las Vegas. Probably with the same type of insides, at the Las Vagas place, my wife and I were greeted by the head waiter, who then sat us to a table where we were attacked by a clan of waiters and bussers, taking glasses and dishes away while unfolding our napkins and pulling our chairs out and so much more. That experience was way more than we have had and it was especially great because we were there during our honeymoon. I'm not a big carnivore, but I paid the $40 for a steak and a few sides as well. Al's is suggested that including the steak and veal, salads, sides and drinks, brings a total bill to $155!

I have eaten in some nice places: Del Monico's, Mesa Grill, Pearl and Chez Leon, and at none of those places did my wife and I end up paying more than $125! So, having a place in STL, of all places, charge that much for food, has to be a great place with the type of steak that is so tender that you can eat it with a straw. Money is a big issue when people want to eat and when they think about other things that they can get for the same amount, they turn away. So, if Gordon Ramsay was going to show up and help this place, he likely would suggest that they lower their prices. I don't feel sorry for this restaurant as it is not an issue of a local place competing and losing but an issue of a local place charging more than its competitors and dying. When places compete, they normally lower their prices in an attempt to get people in and in this case, it looks like Al's has been raising their prices.

Location is equally as important. There was a great restaurant off of Kingshighway called Space. I had never eaten there but the sign off of the bridge pointed down in a 1950's space style. From what I have heard and read about, the place was adorned with loud colors and old radios and other electronics. The location may have been prime, 50 years ago or so, but now it is only accessible from taking the back roads and you have to drive under the bridge, that is known as Kingshighway. When the bridge was built, who said "you know, let's not move somewhere else but stay right here"? It has always been so out of the way to get to that we never have and now it is out of business and closed down for good. I heard that it good food and now think we may have missed on a hidden gem, but eh, that's life.

In Al's case, where it was once by working and usable warehouses and businesses, those places have left or been unusable now and instead of moving to another location, Al's can still be found surrounded by warehouses and in a Gotham style looking area of downtown.

My thoughts: if you are keeping your prices high to hold out for the st. louis elite and you are fighting to stay open, maybe those elite really don't care about your store and you should lower prices. Moving to a location that has people may help as well. Now, if you want to stay there, like everything else in stl, if you wait long enough, someone may take one of those warehouses and make something of it. If I had the money, I would turn one of those warehouses into reasonable prices apartments and a store and make downtown a center again, but most STL elite like having downtown as a slum.