Jim Edmonds puts together a winning restaurant
By Joe Bonwich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Nov. 08 2007

Maybe I just wasn't paying really close attention, but I didn't think a whole
lot about baseball while dining at F15teen. Had I not known that the restaurant
was co-owned by Cardinals outfielder Jim Edmonds (uniform No. 15), I don't
think I would have picked up on that fact once I set foot in the place.

An aside: Because of my deep-seated parental rage against the spelling of Sk8er
Boi — no doubt amplified by having to hear that song at least three times an
hour when it was at its peak on the charts — we will henceforth refer to the
local restaurant as Fifteen and avoid the alphanumeric idiosyncrasies of its
preferred logotype.

Anyway, I'll grant that I didn't spend a lot of time walking around the rather
sprawling layout of Fifteen. What was once a car showroom has been meticulously
renovated into a lovely, two-story dining room, capped by its original red
pressed-tin ceiling, that seats only about 60. A corridor of the vintage-1890
building leads to a bar-lounge-nightclub area in the rear, and a patio,
complete with outdoor fireplace, runs up the side.

But I don't remember any baseball stuff at all. In fact, the only celebrity
tie-in we experienced at Fifteen was purely coincidental: As we sat at the far
end of one of the banquettes, I looked out the window to see Channel 5
newscaster Art Holliday perfectly silhouetted by the fireplace, sipping a
cocktail.

Thus, my lasting impressions were less of flash and personality and more of a
commendable willingness to singlehandedly transform an underdeveloped downtown
block, a memorable interior design and, most important, a menu that's
affordable and approachable but with more than enough unexpected tweaks and
twists to elevate it above a simple celebrity steakhouse.

Five steaks and a pork chop make up more than half of the entree menu, each
served with a choice of one or two of five condiments that arrive arranged in
artful oversize dots around the meat.

We seem to be on a strip-steak kick lately — I prefer it to the filet as a
barometer of a restaurant's expertise with beef — and the 10-ounce, dry-aged
strip at Fifteen was among the best steaks I've had in St. Louis, providing
just enough resistance as a knife sliced through it, but with moderate
marbling, a minimal amount of fat around the edges and zero stringiness or
gristle.

We paired that steak with a condiment described as bleu cheese fondue, which
had more of a chunky-custard texture than a fondue texture but was easier to
deal with in such a semisolid form. I would have preferred a slightly milder
and less-salty blue cheese, but it didn't detract from the dish overall.

I was also a fan of the skirt steak, which was served in long, thin slices that
made the meat seem more tender but still played up the searing on the edges. In
this case, we got it with roasted garlic purée and the house steak sauce, the
former wonderfully mellow and the latter with a hint of mint and sarsaparilla
flavors.

For both of the steaks, the side was a moderate but perfectly prepared portion
of haricots-verts-style green beans along with tiny carrots, and a red and
golden beet of similar stature.

The braised short ribs and egg noodles was a nicely modified comfort-food dish,
the rib meat stripped of most of its fat and then shredded in among thick
matchsticks of noodles, with a woven crisp of pecorino cheese across the top.

The kitchen was able to stretch out a bit more with appetizers and desserts,
including a toasted chorizo dumpling starter served with both a dry mixture of
cumin and other spices and a full-bodied "tomato jam" as condiments.

The dessert side tended more toward whimsy, including a chocolate espresso
shake infused with raspberries and Cocoa Puffs, and a trio of ice cream
sandwiches mixing and matching flavors such as ginger cookies and pumpkin pie
ice cream.

And chef Tim McLaughlin — a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale, Ariz.,
and a veteran of ZuZu's Petals, Eau, Red Moon and Faust's — also gets to
indulge both his guests and his own creativity through complimentary
amuses-bouche, which in our case included a shrimp ceviche with microgreens and
black bean purée, and a hoisin-braised cod with Asian slaw, both served on
wonton crisps.

Our service ranged from very good to exceptional, that quality going to our
first server, who explained multiple dishes in great detail, provided a history
of the building and maintained a perfect pace throughout the meal.

Wines by the glass are poured at the table from the bottle, and the broth for
soups is delivered in stainless steel-pitchers and then poured over the soups'
ingredients.

The one atmospheric negative we encountered wasn't anyone's fault specifically
— but it should have been clear, for future reference, that allowing slightly
rowdy office parties in the front bar greatly detracts from the "classy" tone
the restaurant is trying to set.

The wine list is fairly lengthy and red-heavy (about 75 reds in total), but
also on the pricey side, with by-the-glass selections from $7 to $15.50 and not
a whole lot by the bottle under $40.