DBGB - Mmm Decadance

Dated Dined: March 30, 2014

Rating: 4.5 Stars

I recently had the good fortune to be in New York for a Pitch conference for my new novel (shamless future plug). Among this good fortune, I was able to enjoy the presence of some wonderful friends and my baby brother. Most of my diet while in the city consisted of pizza by the slice (no complaint here), but on our last night we decided to live the good life and try one of the few things Saint Louis is lacking, a French styled restaurant.

Now I still start out by saying that in hindsight it was more French-American fusion with heavy emphasis on the American, but I had no complaints. I won’t speak much about the décor, but I will say that it was comfortable, the booths were high backed so as to give you a sense of privacy, and the tables spaced widely apart. The open kitchen was also enjoyable, although my back was turned to it most of the time.

Let’s start with the amazingness, the wine list. While many places have an equally impressive list, what made DBGB stand out was the wines by the glass. Straying from the traditional Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Pinot mixture, I found a wide variety of delicious varietals not usually served the glass. I started the night off with a tempernillo, which was not on the ordinary menu, but was made available to me on request. Then, as a Riesling snob, I had to try theirs and it was perfect with just the right amount of tartness and wetness that most Rieslings are missing nowadays.

I started with a selection of various oysters. For New York market price, they were very affordable, ranging from $2 to $4. While none of the oysters disappointed, they also didn’t delight. It was likely that they were getting a new shipment in soon (as it was Sunday) so that might have explained the mediocre taste.There was just a lack of anything except an extreme seafood taste. No sweetness, no saltiness, no buttery aftertaste.

The table followed this up with three sausages. The thai, a pork sausage with basi fried rice, chili sauce and a quail egg. The egg was nice, but this was probably my least favorite. There was nothing to distinguish it from an excellent sausage you could find here. Likewise the toscane, a pan roasted Italian sausage, while tasty, was almost exactly like a high quality breakfast patty.

Finally, there was the lamb sausage, and what a sausage it was! Served on a bed of spinach with chickpeas and braised lightly with lemon, this was perhaps one of the best sausages I’ve ever tasted. It was soft and flavorful, but lacking the unique taste that lamb can sometimes carry with it, making it palable for everyone. In simpler words, it was so moist, it was like eating jello. Delicious!

I ordered the black angus beef duo as my entrée which was a flat iron steak paired with glazed short ribs. Knowing the high quality of beef that awaited me, I ordered it rare. The flat iron steak was charred and cooked perfectly, and they did an excellent job considering usual quality of that meat. Tender enough to be cut with a fork, my only complaint was that there wasn’t enough of it! The glazed short ribs were good as well, but a little bit of a disappointed. I was expecting them to be on the bone, but these had already been taken off an shredded. They were a little on the fatty side, but still no complaints.

Jess and her best friend Emma ordered the Petit Plateau de fruits de mer. It came with east and west coast oysters, mussels, clams, shimp, tuna tartare, periwinkles and whelk. The description sounded delicious, but I would recommend upgrading to the next level up (the grand plate). Also shy away if you don’t enjoy raw seafood, because you’ll be getting a lot of that. She said she enjoyed the oysters, mussels, shrimp, and tuna tartare. The clams were a little off, probably better cooked to be honest, the periwinkles were difficult to get out of their shells and a few were even empty, and the whelk was just plain weird. Again, nothing major to complain about, bu the level up has lobster and crab claws, yum.

To finish we decided to get three desserts as a table. My favorite was the molten lava cake. It was chocolaty and rich an everything you could want. The tables favorite was the soufflé chaud, a small  baked soufflé which was popped at the table and filled with grand marnier. I think I would have enjoyed it more if they used a grand marnier syrup of some sort. The straight liquor overpowered the dish a little bit. We ended the night with a baked Alaska. Now I’ve never had it, and I’ve always longed to try one, but I feel like maybe this was a little disappointed. Instead of being baked, it was flambéed at the table. The meringue was mediocre and the ice cream in the middle very hard. Definitely a dessert for the kids.

So with my wonderful dining experience, why only a 4.5? Because it just didn’t bowl me over. Everything was very good, but only one or two things were fantastic. Everything in New York is overly expensive, but for the price, I needed just a little something more. Maybe a smaller sausage selection that was just a little more unique, or an inspired pairing to the beef duo. Just something.