Eating Up

I have always wanted to eat dinner at a farm house. I’m all about the farm-to-table movement, and the food can’t get any fresher than that, right? While I didn’t get to eat in a farm house during my stay in St. Louis, I did get to eat at Farmhaus.

Kevin Willmann is a bit of a celebrity chef in St. Louis, and his newest restaurant won many local awards and popped up in just about every best of 2010 list. I was excited to finally get a chance to see what all the hype was about. Farmhaus focuses on seasonal, local ingredients for the most part. Ironically, Chef Willmann is known for his awesome seafood…which is not local (he’s not catching fish from the Mississippi River).

Farmhaus is quality food in an unassuming environment. Its location is a bit off the beaten path, and that’s putting it nicely. It’s near nothing particularly interesting. I could see in someone’s living room when I looked through the window across the street. Basically, the restaurant is not selling its ambience. It doesn’t need to.

In keeping with the casual vibe of the restaurant, the serving style is shared small plates. Among my mom, dad and me, we ordered five dishes. My sister ordered a steak dish for herself.

First out was the Buttonwood Farms Turkey, Duck and Chicken Gumbo.

This was my dad’s request, and he happily gobbled most of it up. I snuck in a few tastes and was quite pleased with the not-so-hot but still flavorful taste. The next dishes to come out were the Blue Plate Salad with pickled veggies and the Sweet Potato Nachos with bacon, blue cheese, bacon and fire roasted red pepper ketchup.

My mom loved the salad and wanted to bottle the dressing and take it with her. Instead, she just ate every last bite. I dominated the sweet potato nachos. I heard they were good, but I wasn’t expecting them to be SO good. The flavor combination of sweet potato + blue cheese + bacon + fire roasted ketchup was unbelievable.

We then waited for our main courses: Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf with Smashed Potatoes and Poached Escolar with Blue Prawns (his signature dish).

My dad loved the fish, and the whole table loved the potatoes. I have to give a little love to the meatloaf too–it was much better than my meatmushloaf I had made the week before.

Overall, everyone was very pleased with the dining experience at Farmhaus. It was really my favorite kind of restaurant: good, innovative sustainable food served in an unpretentious atmosphere. I mean, where else do you find this on the menu?

Only $2 for beers for the kitchen crew? They no doubt deserve some.