Grapeseed

Unfortunately, Grapeseed has closed.

Every Friday night, you'll probably find my friends at Grapeseed, located in St. Louis Hills. When my plans fell through, I knew where I could find them. Luckily, they were willing to share their favorite neighborhood joint as long as we followed one simple rule.

DO NOT SHARE THE FRENCH FRIES!

We had to get two orders of these beauties!

House Cut Fries with Aioli and ketchup

The house made aioli was like a fancy ranch dip and I tried to scrape every last bit of it off with the fries.

Now with a name with "grape" in it, you would think that we'd be popping open a bottle of wine, but instead my friends had started with cocktails and we followed suit.

I selected an "egg-nog-like" Gingerbread cocktail that had The Big O in it...

Gingerbread Cocktail

 ...while Patience went with the Grapeseed Gin & Tonic made from local Pickney Bend Gin.

Grapeseed Gin & Tonic

We decided to split several small plates since our friends raved about the fries and the turkey leg nachos, while I was very interested in the Tagliatelle and Ricotta Gnocchi so we got them all!

Tagliatelle

The Tagliatelle came with Neuner Farm American style Kobe beef short rib on top with mushrooms, onion, carrot, sour cream, and dill gremolata. The rib meat could have been it's own separate dish!

Ricotta Gnocchi

The Ricotta Gnocchi wasn't as decadent as I had anticipated and that might have been because of the Brussels sprouts and squash covering the gnocchi.

As for the turkey leg nachos... those were really amazing!

Turkey Leg Nachos

The turkey is from Buttonwood Farms and sweet potato chips were used instead! This might be the best nachos I've ever had. Yes, I said it!

I have a feeling all their large plates would be just as delicious as well if you can just rip yourself away from the fries and nachos long enough.

And then we made the mistake of looking at the dessert menu even though we were already stuffed. Our friends didn't hesitate to order the carrot cake, while we made the best choice of going with the chocolate!

Carrot Cake

Chocolate Cake

So if you're ever looking for a place to go on a Friday night...

P.S. There are a lot of vegetarian and gluten free items clearly marked on their menu and it looks like they are emphasizing local farms for their meat.

Resources:

Grapeseed = http://www.grapeseedstl.com/

Photos by Patience Scanlon