The first Hanley's Grille & Tap opened Monday at 315 St. Clair Sq in Fairview Heights, in the former J Buck's space. Jeff Constance is leading this charge, introducing a casual concept that falls somewhere between steakhouse and bar & grill, whoops...grille. Constance's resume is interesting and deep...a Belleville native, he's worked with Tom Colicchio at Gramercy Tavern, Charlie Palmer at Aureole, was a James Beard Award winner, and most recently was the corparate executive chef for all the J Buck's restaurants, as well as for Finale in Clayton.
Hanley's menu is broad and quality-driven, with most items made in house--soups, sandwiches, salads, pasta, pizzas, comfort foods--plus hand-cut steaks, which is where you find the real values. Both the 12 oz. strip and the 8 oz. filet are $19.99, BUT they are wet-aged 28-35 days AND they come with a vegetable/salad, a starch and a choice of 5 homemade steak sauces/butters. Sold.
The "Tap" part of Hanley's is a ltttle misleading. There are but 7 beers on draft but other 25 varieties are available in bottles. I was told that as the opening menu gets tweaked, things can and will change.
Constance will open his second Hanley's in West County Center on Oct 5. Let me see, that's one guy opening 2 local restaurants within a six week period. Who does he think he is, Chris Sommers? -- George Mahe
