Moussalli’s Prime serves the most exclusive beef in the St. Louis area

The recently opened Edwardsville steakhouse picks up where its predecessor left off.

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Over the past 30 years, Andria’s Countryside Restaurant in Edwardsville was known as a haven for great steaks, all of them finished with Andria's Brush-On Steak Sauce. The restaurant closed earlier this year, but three brothers, Edwardsville natives and all former employees —André, Antoine, and Christian Moussalli (along with partners and landlords Jonathan and Claire Fowler)—remodeled the building, renamed it Moussalli’s Prime, and have maintained the same high standards.

In 2012, in reference to Andria’s, SLM wrote, “We're no strangers to the best of the bovine descriptors—like Certified Angus Beef, USDA Prime, All Natural, and Niman Ranch—but we haven't seen them in the same restaurant in reference to every single cut of beef.”

In a dining review later that year, SLM dining critic Dave Lowry noted, “The limited supply of this quality of beef has the carnivore cognoscenti traveling to Andria’s like it’s a meat lover’s Medjugorje.”

Just how limited is the supply?

A representative from Niman Ranch recently explained that the grade used at Moussalli’s,  Niman Ranch Certified Angus Beef Prime Natural, is given to only .1 percent of the U.S. beef market. It’s so exclusive and in such short supply, no one else in the metro uses it or can even get it, says Antoine, who shares chef duties with André, who moved back home from stints at Auberge de Soleil and Étoile (among others) in Napa to open the namesake restaurant. Antoine's twin brother, Christian, is the general manager of the 100-seat operation.

Niman Ranch beef is produced “in the most humane way possible, and the only way to get it consistently is to buy directly from them," says André. "They tell us they can supply one restaurant but may not have the capacity to supply a second.” (Niman Ranch was originally an 11-acre ranch in northern California but now includes more than 720 independent farmers and ranchers.)

The steak portion of the menu at Moussalli’s currently includes a filet (in three sizes), a strip (in two sizes), a ribeye, a prime rib, and a heritage breed pork chop, all from Niman. The steaks are served as complete dinners (with soup or salad and baked potato, steak fries or seasonal vegetable), rather than a la carte. There are, however, three optional add-ons (including a cold-water lobster tail and sweet red crabmeat), five steak sauces, and the same number of sharable sides, including creamed spinach with roasted fennel.

Other entrées include house-made pappardelle, pan-roasted chicken and salmon, scallops, and a creamy sunchoke and lobster risotto. A raw bar, plus hot and cold appetizers, round out the menu, which includes four of Andria’s favorites: shrimp Alexander, baked escargots, chicken spiedini, and crab-stuffed mushrooms. A more casual bar-only menu will follow in the coming months.

The brothers report that the entire building ("all but the exterior walls") had to be redone, which included acquiring a city sewer and natural gas service. Inside, a brushed brass, navy and tan color scheme is repeated in several intimate dining rooms and in the separate bar area. Some of the space was redesigned to better control the flow, so that there are no bad seats in the house, according to Christian, which was important, especially given the price point (which, by the way, is reasonable, given the food quality and method of meal service).

On the beverage side, the brothers purchased Andria’s entire wine inventory, so expect to find some older reds and even half bottles on the list, which includes 15 wines by the glass averaging $10 per pour. Andria’s had one beer on tap; Moussalli’s has four, all of which are craft beers, plus some cans and bottles.

Moussalli's cocktail menu is unexpectedly refreshing for a steakhouse (traditionally the environs for staid Old Fashioneds and Manhattans). The 15-item list (average price $11) was created by two high school buddies of the Moussallis, craft cocktail specialist Zach Robinette and sommelier/wine advisor Ryan Peterson. The roster includes riffs on classics (Prime Mezcal Margarita, Seventy Five), three tiki cocktails (like the 70's-era Caribbean-born Painkiller), and even "dessert first" creations like a root beer float made with Buffalo Trace Bourbon Cream.

Praising his buddies' assistance with the beverage program (as well as Claire Fowler's design and managerial help), Antoine is grateful that "so many different people want to be part of our dream."

Andre predicts that “the old go-to place will be the go-to place again,” which has certainly been the case in the inaugural weeks. (Weekend reservations are booking up fast, with the holidays on the doorstep.)

Moussalli's Prime

7415 IL-143, Illinois 62025

618-656-0281

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Mon - Thu: 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.; Fri - Sat: 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Expensive

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