As soon as I walked through the door, Saint Lou’s Assembly felt familiar. I’d never been to a meat-and-three cafeteria, a once-beloved, now mostly extinct institution that offers a choice of entree and three sides for one low price. But there was something about the vinyl booths, Formica tables, and wood paneling, not to mention the candy counter and the bowling trophies, that made me feel like I’d seen them before. It looked like the kind of meat-and-potatoes joint my grandfather would’ve liked, right down to the toothpicks on the tables. Only at Pops’s places, the booths were cracked and ripped and there was dust on the bowling trophies and maybe the candy counter too.
It’s probably best, if you go to Saint Lou’s Assembly, to think of it not as a true meat-and-three but rather as another member of Finkelman and Wentworth’s 16″ on Center family, which also includes Dusek’s and Longman & Eagle: a modern restaurant in a nostalgic setting, attached to a very good cocktail bar, in this case, Moneygun. If Saint Lou’s were a country, the meat loaf Wellington, enrobed in duxelles, pastry, and bordelaise sauce, would be its flag: a tribute to the Greatest Generation repackaged to appeal to the current crop of diners who are sentimental about their grandparents’ strong work ethic and common sense but not their stringy meat and overcooked vegetables. (When there’s a Depression to survive and a world war to win, who has time for duxelles?)
Saint Lou’s Assembly is very much a work in progress. Wentworth and chefs de cuisine Carlos Cruz and Gabino Ottoman continue to tinker. As I’ve been writing this review, the website has been updated several times, and patty melts have been added to the menu. Given some more time, it could grow into the sort of place where your grandpa would’ve been a regular. After all, even Lou himself was young once. v
664 W. Lake
312-600-0600
saintlouschicago.com
