Death in the Afternoon #WeekendCooking
We have a nephew in the wine business. This is very handy. Most obvious is that family events involve great wine. But, it turns out, that expertise in wine goes hand-in-hand with understanding and discovering great food. So, when I had a text recently from said nephew that Death in the Afternoon, a new downtown restaurant in St. Louis, served the best lunch in the Midwest, I made arrangements to visit as soon as I could.
The Hemingway reference, according to a Sauce magazine interview of the owners, is a tribute to the setting. The all-glass building takes up a corner of CityGarden and looks out on the lush plantings, reminiscent of Key West.
We took another nephew, and his new bride, yesterday.
Lunch at Death in the Afternoon with Phil and Gabbi
On the table, above, are our delicious appetizers. We had the spicy eggplant dip (on the left) with the most amazing puffy pita bread. On the right are the crushed fried fingerling potatoes, accompanied by three separate sauces to taste — homemade ketchup, a garlicky ranch dressing, and a “fancy sauce” that was just the right level of spiciness to dress up the crisp-on-the-outside, hot-and-tender-on-the-inside, potatoes.
Everyone liked their main dishes, too.
Phil with his pastrami sandwich, with sauerkraut, on a pretzel roll.
Here’s my Vietnamese grilled beef salad–a lovely and unusual blend of greens with a soy-garlic-ginger dressing.
Rick enjoyed his Japanese steamed buns, particularly the one filled with duck confit. Gabbi ordered a grilled chicken sandwich, cooked on a skewer and slid into an Italian roll — although it was called a sandwich, knife and fork seemed to be the appropriate way to eat it.
None of us were going to argue with “best in the Midwest” to describe our lunch and we were all talking about, as we left, who else we wanted to bring to this restaurant to enjoy the beautiful setting, attentive and friendly service, and delicious food.
What’s the best lunch you’ve enjoyed recently?
Beth Fish Reads hosts Weekend Cooking, a weekly blog hop of food posts.
The food looks delicious. I like leafy greens. Hope you had a great day.
Those all look very tasty! For lunch I love Asian food. A good Dim Sum, a bowl of Pho, or a Bánh mì and I am happy.
Wow — the food looks and sounds fabulous! I like that you can see gardens out the windows.
On a recent trip to San Francisco I had an excellent sandwich from the Cowgirl Creamery at the Ferry Building. (http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/san-francisco-ferry-building-cheese-shop) The sandwich was a grilled cheese (a mild white cheese) with strawberry jam in it (just a little) on sourdough bread. I ate my sandwich (along with a yummy fruit spritzer) at a table overlooking the bay.
What a funny name for a restaurant…I’ll never forget that one! Glad you enjoyed your meal!
I’m amazed that anyone would use the word death in the name of any business let alone a restaurant! Brave! Cheers
What an original name for a restaurant! All the food sounds and looks wonderful!
That meal looks and sounds super-delicious.
I can’t say I have had many great lunches recently. Most of the good restaurants serve a very good dinner, but the lunches tend to be generic buffet-style spreads.
I will have to add this restaurant to our growing list of St. Louis sights to visit! I had thought perhaps we would spend the 4th of July in your neck of the woods, but now I’m not so sure.
Sure wish we had a family member in the wine business
Your grilled beef salad looks so fantastic, it sounds like a wonderful meal.