Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
It’s dinnertime, and you want a grilled cheese sandwich, but your wife wants a thick ol’ ribeye. How do you maintain domestic bliss? Head to The Wood Cask. Where is it? Ask anyone over age 30 to direct you to the one-time Eleven Mile House location, in a Kirkwood strip mall on Manchester Road.
As the jump from grilled cheese to steak might indicate, The Wood Cask spans a range of preferences. A $10 grilled cheese might seem pricy for that genre, but it’s certainly not the American cheese that Mom used to use. This one has a generously allocated combination of cheddar, fresh mozzarella, and fontina, which forms a five-colored rainbow with the addition of julienned basil and sliced tomato. It’s a clever interpretation of a comfort food classic.
There’s a lot more on the menu that falls under the headings of Comfort Food and Pub Grub. In the Scotch egg, herby sausage surrounds the inner egg, which is served on lightly dressed spinach and cherry tomatoes. The flatbreads are six-piece ovals; the cowboy version includes fontina laced with a hot horseradish cream to accompany shaved beef and onions. We’re always impressed by a place that’s willing to serve its burgers rare; the one that we ordered was red on the inside but still managed an almost crispy sear on the outside. A fluffy brioche bun caught the excess juiciness.
That brings us to the ribeye: a boneless 12-ounce thick cut topped with a relatively mild blue cheese butter and caramelized whiskey onions. Ours was cooked just beyond our concept of rare but was still within reasonable tolerances, and it had lovely cross-hatching. All in all, it was a damn fine steak, but I just couldn’t reconcile its presence—and that of an 8-ounce tenderloin with the same price tag of $34—against the rest of the menu, especially with Fleming’s, Charcoal House, and Citizen Kane’s nearby.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Befitting a place named after an aging barrel, The Wood Cask offers about 70 whiskeys, served in 2-ounce pours or in flights of three 1-ounce pours. The cocktails are designated “craft,” but there are only 10 of them; although the Bloody Mary is exemplary, it doesn’t rise to the level of artisanal creation that “craft” implies.
The whole wood thing is in evidence all over the restaurant, with a server’s station and other décor made of whiskey barrels, art frames made from pallets, and walls paneled with reclaimed lumber. (I might have thought twice before putting up an interior sign that abbreviated the restaurant’s name as “The WC,” but then again, I’m frequently accused of having my mind in the toilet.)
If you want to spend $34 for a steak in this type of atmosphere, more power to you—and in fact you’ll get a reasonable deal for your money. Plus, you don’t have to spend the rest of the evening listening to your husband crabbing about how he just wanted a good grilled cheese sandwich.
The Bottom Line The Wood Cask offers something for everyone—and something special for whiskey lovers.
