No, it is not April 1. (After reading the following, you will swear we're fooling, but we swear we're not.) And whoever these guys are, at least they have a sense of humor...the logo reads: "The Original Mongolian Grill...Since 1206."
For the unitiated, Altai appears to specialize in "Mongolian BBQ," where diners fill a bowl with their favorite meats and vegetables before handing it off to chefs who then flash-cook the goodies on a large, round, closed-flamed grill.
According to its website, Altai Mongolian Grill in fact started out in Mongolia in 2006, not 1206. Since then they added two more units in its home city of Ulaanbaatar, one in Huhhot City; then one in Irkutsk City (and you thought the latter was just a country created for the now-classic board game, Risk).
The sixth unit is under construction at 9528 Manchester (formerly Bella Vita wine bar) at the corner of Manchester and McKnight in Rock Hill. TripAdvisor has listed Altai as "#21 out of 57 restaurants in Ulaanbaatar," based on one review...written in German.
It gets more bizarre.
A video on Altai's website--titled The Griller Show--shows Altai's chefs tossing their long knives back and forth across the grill--blindfolded. Another link describes one of the specialties of the house--cooked sheep's head--in a way I never could: The Mongolians starting from the ancient time upto the current time period are used to singe the head, shank of their sheep and goats on fire, washing them well afterwards and cooking them hermetically. Please come to taste and eat this valuable dish in the Altai Mongol Grill Restaurant with satisfaction.
Makes existing Mongolian BBQ restaurants look rather tame now, doesn't it?
So will the St. Louis Altai be authentic--with long-knife tossing and hermetically-cooked sheep's head (whatever that is), or will it be adapted to local customs and tastes and use long spatulas and tasteless chicken, a la HuHot? (Or, a better question: Is this place for real or an elaborate ruse like the one Chris Sommers initiated last year, where a dummy website (you gotta click here) and a logo in a butcher-papered window were fabricated just so he and his crew could fully concentrate on opening its newest Pi, now Pi to Go in Chesterfield.) Relish has reached out to company representatives for more details.
But Altai Mongolian Grill is indeed the real deal. A spokesperson for Novus Development, owners/agents for the Market at McKnght, confirmed that construction for Altai is on a fast track and that the restaurant could open in less than 30 days.
In the meantime, all jokes aside, it's time to show some local pride and welcome what should be one of the more interesting restaurants to open here this year.
