Photograph by Katherine Bish
Call Mattingly Brewing Company a big-tent pub and bistro. It’s the sort of cozy-yet-chic neighborhood spot that attracts first dates, married couples, young families, groups of guys hanging over beers and a klatch of Old World fogies watching the soccer match and speaking to one another in Polish. It’s the size of a corner shop with the panache of a downtown café. And even though it opened a couple of months ago in Benton Park—for years a black hole for well-turned-out, midpriced eateries, though now there’s The Stable, Niche and Park West Grille as well—it seems, judging by crowd size and reaction on certain nights, that it has been desperately needed in this part of town.
The fact that Mattingly is riding the crest of the Benton Park wave is one hot dining trend that it has going for it. It could also be said that it’s latching onto the “gastropub” groundswell that’s responsible for The Shaved Duck and Newstead Tower Public House. Soon (perhaps even by press time), Mattingly’s gleaming chrome taps will begin serving up house-crafted brews, a step that many local microbrew fans are eagerly anticipating. But unlike those two aforementioned establishments, whose menus lean heavily toward that sort of rustic/Nordic/meat-heavy fare that constitutes much of gastropub cooking (think rarebit or bourbon-glazed pork), Mattingly’s menu is lighter and more global in its scope.
For example, you can begin your meal with a steak-and-veggie kebab, some hummus, chicken wings, beer cheese soup, a Greek salad, a Caesar salad or a Thai chicken salad. It’s a globe-trotting menu, to be sure, and mostly very well done.
The kebabs may be the best thing offered here, so it’s great that you can also get them as an entrée. Cubes of juicy marinated steak are skewered alongside also-juicy portobello mushrooms, plus green peppers and lovely, sweet slices of onion. The kebabs come with a trio of dipping sauces, but just ask for three ramekins of the horseradish sauce, perhaps the best of its kind I’ve ever had.
Thoroughly enjoyable as well are the Thai chicken salad (thanks to its perfectly piquant peanut sauce), the ale and cheese soup (not too thick, not too mild) and the “Pterodactyl wings,” so called because they’re served with thigh and wing still attached to one another, glazed in a barbecue or spicy sauce. You can get them merely breaded or plain and unadorned. Fortunately, another trend is finally starting to gain footing here: the end of the greasy wing. (I can’t believe that KFC is on par with places like Mattingly and Pi in pushing that trend forward, but good for them.)
Your main course could be pizza, salmon, pasta or a sandwich. You’re not going to go wrong with the menu’s strongest nods to gastropub cuisine: the fish and chips or the fried cod sandwich. Like the kebabs and the wings, my cod fillet was perfectly prepared and delightfully crisp and tasty. I didn’t even feel that guilty about basically eating a fried lunch that day. (How could I, especially when Mattingly does everyone a favor by using yummy Yukon Gold potatoes for its fries?)
Until the house beers are ready, the taps currently carry what all the cool kids are drinking these days: Scrimshaw Pilsner, Sawtooth Ale and, for when you really want to let your hair down, Delirium Tremens. Maybe you’ll be the person at Mattingly who’s decided to let your hair down. Maybe you’ll be the person conducting a business lunch in the corner, or maybe you’ll just want to meet an old friend for a pint. Remember, the tent is big, and there’s room for everyone.
3000 S. Jefferson, 314-881-1500, mattinglybrewing.com. Hours: Tue–Thu 11 a.m.–10 p.m., Fri–Sat 11 a.m.–11 p.m. (bar until 1 a.m.).
