Fifteen Minutes of Shame

Last night we had the displeasure of eating at Jim Edmund's number-sake restaurant, Fifteen. We did not choose this place, as we were with three other couples, but the menu looked safe (steak and more steak) and the gentlemen in our party (minus Tim) had actually eaten here before.

I'll start with the positive here: The restaurant in amidst the faltering revitalization of the far-west loft district between Wash Ave. and mid-town. There are many "For Lease" store fronts along Locust Street as we were driving east, and clearly a lot of these lofts were empty. It's good that a few businesses are trying their hand at making a go of it here, and this place was pretty full on a Saturday night as well as hosting a party (wedding reception?) in the upstairs area.

Now the negative: We had reservations for 7 PM, and our table was ready for us early. However, they placed us in an odd orientation, with our table running parallel to the wall and thus precluding the waiter from reaching none but the two top chair positions. We were constantly passing plates, drinks, and even steak knives down the line. We were all seated by 7:10...our bread service arrived at 5 minutes to 8:00. Our water was empty for at least 15 minutes before it was refilled and that was only after one of the lucky two at the top of the table stopped the waiter as he whizzed by. Our appetizer arrived 10 minutes before our steaks, and normally this is fine...except it was 8:10, one full hour after we had arrived. It was shrimp that were served cold (purposely), so they mearly had to pull these shrimp out of the fridge, put some cocktail sauce in a little dish and out of the kitchen it should fly.

All of these annoyances could have been forgiven, if our food was outstanding. Or maybe even just good. Our waiter, Robbie or Raubine, informed us that steaks were "what they were known for." Fine. All eight of us ordered steak, with seven choosing the indulgent filet mignon and the big guy choosing a 16 oz. ribeye, which in my opinion is much easier to mess up than a filet. We ordered ours "Medium" as filets are thick and I was concerned that it could still be mooing if I ordered it Med-rare, as I like my strips or sirloins. Well this cow stopped mooing, rolled over, died, had the vultures come and then it was served to us. Our even less-fortune dining partners had had their filets SPLIT! (ugly as hell) and then served as previously stated. I purchased bacon wrapped filets during a New Year's special Aldi was running for 2 dollars a piece...and they were better than these 30 dollar petrifications.

Everyone kept saying "mmmm the potatoes are good." When does one comment on the potatoes? When everything else sucks. And it all did.

http://www.15stl.com/