A Dining Room of Visual and Culinary Delights
12/04/2009
by Joe Bonwich
Dining
at Monarch these days is something like visiting the Impressionist galleries at
the St. Louis Art Museum or attending this weekend's Brahms concerts at Powell Hall.
You'll do just fine if you just merely sit back and enjoy the experience on a
basic sensory level.
But if you make the extra effort to discern the various layers of harmony,
contrast, complement and texture, the evening rises above a simple great meal
to something more transcendent.
The artist behind it is chef Josh Galliano, a Louisiana native with a culinary
pedigree that includes a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu, a European tour with
Michelin-starred restaurants and a return to his native state at the renowned
Commander's Palace in New Orleans.
Galliano wandered up the river several years ago to take a job as chef de
cuisine at Larry Forgione's An American Place downtown, moving over to helm
Monarch's kitchen last year.
Sometimes it's intricate, as with an appetizer terrine ($11) made up of
contrasting stripes of foie gras and beef, set at an angle to the grill marks
in a piece of brioche and ornamented with dots of fig-flavored balsamic
vinegar, a smear of fig preserves and a nest of quick-pickled red cabbage. The
visual complements are striking, but the various elements also play together
nicely, with the sweet fig flavors enhancing the foie while the beef adds a
slightly bigger flavor and the cabbage contributes a hint of tang.
And sometimes it comes from a narrower palette, such as a swirl of deep purple
from an elderberry coulis set in the golden-orange center of a butternut squash
soup ($8). A touch of maple adds a depth to the sweetness, while crisped
chicken cracklins stand in for bacon.
Galliano's nod to the season was an off-menu duo of venison, a perfect loin
coupled with a croquette that resembled a ground-venison hash.
He also catered to the old-fashioned meat-and-potatoes crowd with a
new-fashioned butcher steak ($30), unexpectedly tender for a shoulder cut.
Mushrooms showed up in the steak's crusting, in a side of sautéed mushrooms and
in a hearty sauce described as mushroom ketchup.
The PB&J added a touch of whimsy, positioning a log of peanut butter
semifreddo on a bed of crumbled dark-chocolate soil, with Concord grape gels
providing the J element and pools of bacon-infused honey there if for no other
reason than to prove that bacon improves just about everything.
It's not exactly cheap, but a $40, four-course weeknight tasting menu includes
one of two offerings from the cold appetizer, hot appetizer, entree and dessert
courses, knocking about $15 off the list price if they'd been ordered
separately. An additional $20 buys you four generous pours of matched wines.
The quality of service matched that of the food, both on a broad basis and with
subtle touches. I need to point out that my anonymity was compromised on both
visits, but it appeared that every table in the main dining room was receiving
equal attention.
That room, by the way, is my major objection to the
current state of Monarch. It's beige and relatively bland. And not all tables
are lighted equally, making it difficult to appreciate the kitchen's visual
artistry.
The restaurant's website also needs some updating: It positions the cuisine as
focusing on French, Asian and American Southwest influences, an approach that
has clearly been modified by Galliano's incorporation of his Louisiana
favorites.
Galliano is one of a closely knit group of young chefs who, in the past few
years, either migrated here or came home, in the process changing the face of
the local food scene. In his case, he married a local girl and has a son, so
I'm hoping his wanderings are over and he'll be in St. Louis for the long run.
7401 Manchester Road — 314-644-3995 — monarchrestaurant.com — Menu:
Thoughtful flavor combinations and striking presentations from eclectic
influences, including Louisiana and Mediterranean specialties from the chef's
background — Smoking: No — Hours: 5-11:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday