Pumping Iron

The Iron Barley is not really like any other restaurant in St. Louis. It's in a neighborhood that is devoid of any kind of eating establishment, let alone one that's received numerous accolades. It has a menu that is all over the place and as many specials as established items, and yet it works. The proprieter and the restaurant itself has been featured on both Man v. Food and "Triple D", and yet I heard someone ask about their celebrity status and the Cubs t-shirt clad hostess said "Yeah, I don't know."

This is the second time Tim and I have made the seven-minute drive to Dutchtown to see what kind of chow the Iron Barley was serving up. You can pick up the computer-generated menu, but why? Just wait for the specials. We decided to split a bunch of stuff because we #1: wanted many things and #2 couldn't decide and #3 wanted the same entree. We first split a wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing, complete with a little Jim Bean thrown in for good measure. We then had two appetizers-wait for it-crab cakes with remoulade and potato pancakes with apples. The potato pancakes were a prelude to our cured and smoked (!) pork chops, and oh, so glad we split this as it came with two bone-in chops over home-made saurkraut. The curing is a one-week process and then the chops are smoked for twelve hours or something like that, and the result is a pork chop that needs no accompaniment of a sauce (although the kraut was awesome).

The Iron Barley offers a modest tap beer selection that has a good focus on locally brewed beer that isn't traded publically. This was the first place I had ever had a cask beer (served room temp-good!) and last night I had a porter (oops can't remember the brewery, but I think it was Six Row) and it was first-rate. The beer selection does rotate, and it is one that the owner, with his passion for good beer, takes pride in.

Iron Barley: tasty American chow and who cares if it doesn't go together. I just don't want to know how many calories I consumed.

http://www.ironbarley.com/default.asp