Review: Lynch Street Bistro in St. Louis

There was a period in my life, several years back, when I still had my youth, when one of my best friends had just started working for a small company called Anheuser-Busch. The company made a product that’s good for social gatherings or something, because just about every Friday afternoon, I received a call regarding a happy hour/evening/morning that was shortly to start on the back patio at Lynch Street Bistro. It all gets a little hazy from there …

Time passed and situations changed. I left Soulard (my liver thanked me), my friend now works in Clayton and LSB closed. So when the urban American grill named Sage opened in that familiar old location, I was curious and a little anxious to see what it was up to. I found a warm, friendly restaurant with a good bit of updated comfort food, lots of A-B and A-B-owned products, and a gigantic patio that felt very familiar.

Though the layout remains pretty much the same, with a bar and dining room downstairs and a second dining room and outside deck on the second floor, the space was softened considerably by replacing the stark whiteness of LSB with welcoming earth tones. Two other impressively simple but effective changes upstairs were the addition of a bar with comfy furniture and vastly improved access to the deck (which, btw, is an excellent perch to watch the inevitable A-B happy hours that will occur on the back patio).

Appetizers are universally recognizable but have been tweaked juuuust enough that you may be in for a small surprise. For instance, I saw “Rangoon” on the menu and ordered it, sure of what would arrive. Instead, the Chinese Firecracker Shrimp Rangoon was a crispy, paper-thin wonton the size of an egg roll, stuffed to the gills with creamy, gooey cheese and sweet shrimp accompanied by a minimally spicy wasabi sweet-and-sour dipping sauce. Another example was the AmberBock Buttermilk Onion Rings – light, crispy, batter-coated, huge knife-and-fork onion rings stacked about a foot high.

Judging by the comments posted on Sauce’s restaurant database, the Crispy Cha-Cha Calamari’s been a home run with diners; it’s positively fawned over by half of the posters. I am not of this temperament. The lightly breaded strips, which look like frites, were tender and just fine with the slightly spicy Asian cream, but they certainly weren’t “to die for” or “maybe the best I’ve ever had.” However, the medium-hot, beefy Flank Steak Chili Colorado did push some of those buttons for me.

Temperature control was easily my biggest nemesis, affecting apps and entrées alike. My pot stickers appeared not to have been pan-seared in peanut sauce but tossed in a deep fryer and forgotten. A savory and delectable romesco single-handedly kept the Tuscan Pork Chop above mediocre despite the dry, sandy meat. Garlicky and sweet, latently spicy hoisin sauce starred in an ooey-gooey noodle dish topped by what could only be referred to as shoe leather, the steak was so far gone. Sweet potatoes in a hash crunched like carrots.

The 15-Spice Ribs were dead nuts, though, only holding to the bone through the will of the kitchen, a solid bark from the rub and the sticky, sweet, caramel, crazy-licious mango-bourbon barbecue glaze. An earthy espresso-rubbed strip steak arrived squarely medium rare but was promptly overshadowed by the stunning andouille in the sweet potato hash. It had fire and succulence – I couldn’t stop eating it; there is no reason there shouldn’t be an entrée devoted to this.

Sage Seafood Capellini exhibited a familiar, pleasantly savory, faintly acidic broth and a generous amount of perfectly tender shrimp, crab and clams. Cornflakes gently crusted moist tilapia in a modified Reuben that could have used a touch more pop from the sauerkraut but thoroughly satisfied nonetheless.

Probably the most culinarily innovative items are the Sweet Shots, 3-ounce shooters filled with solid desserts like pecan pie, crème brûlée and pineapple upside-down cake, among others, that you pick from a tray without having to wait. At $2 a pop, Sage has made dessert service easily scalable to anyone’s remaining appetite.

As with the space and the food, the staff is warm, friendly and eminently approachable. Each of my visits started beautifully, but the food’s timing became an issue as the restaurant filled up later in the night. Plates tended to be cleared a bit willy-nilly, and if you are on the patio and the back bar is not open, you’re definitely going to want to monitor your reorder point on drinks.

All in all, though, this is a great place to go with friends for a relaxed and comfortable meal. If you can keep it light and relaxed, the kitchen and service gaffes will be more than overshadowed by the good food and casually upbeat atmosphere. If, however, your intent for the meal is more serious, such as romance or business, the landmines I encountered could easily become an annoyance.