Review: The Grateful Inn in Maplewood

Gregg Perez, a peripatetic presence on the St. Louis restaurant scene for more years than the Guru can count, is in action again, and again paying homage to the Grateful Dead. This time he's operating the Grateful Inn, in the midst of the booming Manchester Strip in Maplewood as the street, between the Schlafly Bottleworks and Monarch, continues to explode with new eating spots of all types.

 In terms of full disclosure, however, let me point out that in the winter of 1995, just after my retirement from the Post-Dispatch, Perez brought a group of the city's top chefs together to prepare a splendid farewell dinner at his Delmar Loop restaurant.  I'll always be grateful, if not compromised.

The Grateful Inn is as much bar as it is restaurant, but its inexpensive, imaginative menu is just right for lunch, or for a light dinner before or after a theater, sports event or concert.  On the bar side, the drinks menu is far larger and sometimes more expensive than the food choices; the bartender has more responsibilities than a builder of nuclear bombs, including everything from a slender wine list to fancy liqueurs and a collection of drinks whose names and ingredients defy description.  Their effects on the human immune system are equally unknown.

Perez always has been extremely imaginative when it comes to designing a menu, and the Grateful is no exception.  It's a difficult menu to describe, but I guess I'd call it American Western with influences and spicing that tip a hat to Asia and Mexico.   For example, a dusting of pepper and a large squirt of lime juice does splendid things to a melon salad, adding a bit of heat here and there, but the glow is nicely assuaged by the tart fruit juice.  Asian five-spice powder shows up on chicken wings and roast pork as both a sandwich and a pizza topping.  The additions, all spread with a practiced, gentle hand, bring a touch of heat here and there, along with the flavor of garlic or lemon grass or anise in a good proportion.

Chicken wings -- grilled, rather than fried -- get a soy-ginger glaze in addition to the five-spice powder, and they are first-rate, arriving juicy and tender, flavorful and piping hot.  Messy, too, of course, but worth it. The five-space powder often is made at the whim of the chef, but the classic Chinese style, as I know it, blends Szechuan pepper, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and fennel, which brings a hint of licorice.  Other appetizers include a Vietnam-style chicken salad with cilantro and lime, ready to be rolled in lettuce leaves for eating; grilled shrimp with fresh salsa; a tostada with steak and black beans, plus vegetables and salsa; and skewers of chicken and pepper bacon, served with horseradish sauce.

Quesadillas, served with fresh salsa, are plain or involved with barbecued chicken, a delightful combination of pepper bacon and avocado, egg and cheese or pork and pineapple.

Salads, also offering imaginative spicing and ingredient combinations, begin with the usual garden with "every veggie in the house" and croutons, plus a vinaigrette dressing that includes hemp oil; a classic wedge of iceberg lettuce with a choice of dressing; chicken and roasted potatoes in a horseradish dressing topped with pepper bacon; and two fruit-based salads, the peppery one and a sweet one with honey and almonds.

Perez's menu, like one of Satchel Paige's life lessons, avoids fried foods because as the late, great pitcher said, "they angry up the blood."  The restaurant also is non-smoking, avoiding another temptation.

The Grateful Inn kitchen likes pepper bacon and roasted potatoes, which show up with many dishes.  The potatoes, which could be a little crisper on the edges, are roasted with herbs for an extra fillip of flavor. The bacon is excellent, sliced thick and with a hint of pepper adding a nice final touch to the well-smoked pig. 

Two of the five sandwiches show an Asian influence, and there's a touch of Perez's  imagination in the fact that three different breads are used – two sandwiches on Texas toast, two on mini-croissants and two on dollar rolls.  Not sure what effect he's seeking, but it gives the sandwiches a different look.  Chicken salad, with celery, onion and soy, has an Asian feel, and so does the outstanding, tender pork loin, roasted after being rubbed with the Asian five-spice mixture.  The former is on the croissants, the latter on dollar rolls.  Grilled cheese comes with sliced tomatoes and a spread of sun-dried tomato ranch dressing.  The classic BLT is improved to PBLTA with the use of pepper bacon and avocado.  An old-fashioned egg salad looks good, and a "black and blue steak" is a chunk of tenderloin blackened and bolstered with blue cheese.  Sandwiches come with roasted potatoes or fruit salad.  Unfortunately, Perez is using plastic knives and forks, which add a fast-food perception and detract from overall grace.

Pizza is both simple and complex.  The crust is tasty and has the feelijng of being hand-made, rather than coming from a package.  Toppings can be as simple as a handful of herbs in a hemp oil base, or more complex, like the five-spice pork, which comes with pineapple; grilled tenderloin and four cheeses, plus some A-1 sauce; grilled chicken, pepper bacon and a simple four-cheese (Asiago, blue, mozzarella and Provolone) with sun-dried tomatoes.  The pepper bacon, with white cheese and green onions, is exemplary.

Which brings us to dessert, milkshakes and sundaes from the soda fountain of childhood, strawberry pound cake topped with a splash of Bonny Doon's memorable framboise liqueur and the favorite at Grandma's house – warm cookies and cold milk.
  
There's always a restaurant in Perez's line of sight, whether involving a highly imaginative, eclectic menu like the Grateful, where bleached wood floors and furniture and white walls give it a bright, airy feel (and a deck to come for fresh-air fanciers), or a more traditional steakhouse, which seems to be in his plans for the near future.  In either event, he brings a note of pleasure and new experiences to St. Louis dining.