Newly opened in Maplewood where Monarch once stood, The Blue Duck offers up gourmet comfort foods. This is location No. 2 for the Washington, Missouri, restaurant, which apparently has quite a following. That’s understandable, since the food is interesting, well-priced and plentiful.
As for decor, I think they’re going for a rustic ambiance to match the comfort food theme, but the place is cavernous, which makes it the opposite of cozy. The menu has sandwiches and bigger entrees; you won’t leave hungry with either. Everything here is scratch-made, which the wait staff will proudly tell you: sauces, condiments, breads, desserts.
Our starter of Pastrami Steamed Buns ($12) illustrates the kitchen’s inventiveness in combining countrified elements like house-made rye steam buns and short rib meat with culinary darlings like kimchi and red miso. The doughy steam buns had a rye flavor—excellent—and came piled with ‘short rib pastrami,’ pickled cabbage, cucumber kimchi and Russian dressing flavored with red miso—tasty and fun.
The cornbread ($4), also on the starter menu, is an old standard and was sweet and good—more cake-like than grainy or chunky. It comes with a delicious smoked apple butter and honey butter. The soup of the day ($4) was Marsala Mushroom Cream; the flavor was superb, but its texture—lumpy and thick—was off-putting.
Standout dishes here include the popular Smoked Fried Hot Chicken ($18), a dynamic plate of food that includes two breaded breasts, milk gravy, red potatoes, house-made sandwich pickles and chow chow, a kind of Southern relish. The chicken had a thick and very crisp coating that reflects several steps, including flouring, crushed Riplets and plenty of spicing. It was hot, but you can flake some of it off and be perfectly content with the tender, moist chicken it encases. The big potatoes are ‘smoked and fried,’ although neither treatment was apparent to me, and the gravy was a good accompaniment for this countrified chicken treatment.
The signature sandwich, the DLT ($12), is a tower of delicious, house-cured and smoked duck breast, honey chipotle mayo, fried egg, lettuce and tomato on fresh sourdough. The flavors and textures worked well together, but it was a bear to eat: slices of duck kept falling out!
Scallops and Bacon ($25) provided another good plateful of food, with the bivalves beautifully seared and sweet. On the plate were celery root puree and thick, meaty slabs of ‘Bloody Mary braised bacon.’ The whole dish sat in a very good ‘Bloody Mary jus,’ i.e., a red ‘gravy’ made with tomato sauce and Worchestershire plus a little heat. Topping each scallop was grilled artichoke and minced jalapeño. Similarly well-conceived was the Seared Trout ($18), nicely browned fillets on top of seasoned butternut squash puree and topped with heavenly crunchy brussels sprouts.
A dessert of Opera Cake ($7) was pretty good, with layers of coffee-infused sponge cake, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream. The accompanying house-made coffee ice cream was stellar. Blueberry Hand Pie ($7) resembled an empanada and was not exceptional, but the lemon mascarpone ice cream on the plate was.
amuse bouche
the scene | Bustling neighborhood casual eatery
the chef | Jordan Knight
the prices | $10-$12 sandwiches, $16-$32 entrees
the favorites | Cornbread, Smoked Fried Hot Chicken, Scallops & Bacon, DLT , Seared Trout, Opera Cake
chef chat» jordan knight
pedigree | East Central College in Union, Missouri
favorite ingredient | Eggs
favorite st. louis restaurant | Acero
favorite cookbook | Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
most memorable dining experience | At Grandma’s home for Sunday dinner
guilty pleasure food | Mac and cheese
2661 sutton ave. | 314.769.9940
Photos: Bill Barrett
