Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Squash toast: French peasant bread, ricotta, and squash with bacon, arugula, and red onion
You’ll never need to be reminded to save room for dessert at Russell’s on Macklind. If you’re seated in the dining room, you’re flanked by composed displays of sweets: brownies, muffins, snickerdoodles, layer cakes, bear claws, gooey butter cake… Even if you’ve made your way to the new upstairs dining room or the ancillary area on a rear porch, you had to walk by all of that temptation on the way in, and it will certainly have made an impression.
Russell Ping established his reputation with baked goods, breakfast, and lunch at his original bakery and café, in Fenton, and his move to the Southampton neighborhood in 2013 allowed the addition of full-fledged dinners. The opening of the upstairs space this past December accommodated another new element: a bar with an expanded selection of adult beverages and a new menu of bar snacks, as well as 30 additional seats.
Appetizers and entrées largely rely on clever twists on the commonplace. Squash toast is an out-of-its-gourd cheese garlic bread, with roasted squash atop a house-made garlic ricotta and bacon on a thick piece of toasted bread. It’s set atop an arugula–and–red onion salad with a maple-mustard vinaigrette.
Cheese puffs look like dinner rolls but are so fluffy and cheddary that either deception or addiction will lead to a second order—or even a third. Barbecue shrimp and grits features four sizeable shrimp buried under more arugula and onions.
The menu shifts seasonally, and the winter menu leans heavily on, well, heaviness. The bacon-wrapped meatloaf is almost 2 inches thick. An equally thick pork chop is herb rubbed and roasted, with a smoked–apple butter glaze. The chuck roast is also a generous portion, perked up with fresh horseradish; a similar braised beef is incorporated into the beef Stroganoff.
Side dishes for most entrées are at the discretion of the diner. White beans include bits of lemon-garlic sausage. A glaze of local honey enhances multicolored heirloom carrots. Roasted Brussels sprouts are nicely caramelized.
The chocolate pot de crème is especially notable among the desserts. It’s an improbable contrast in density and airiness that starts and ends with rich, pure chocolate flavor and just the right level of sweetness.
The portions and heartiness of the entrées ended up conspiring to make us forget to leave room for dessert. But with its parallel role as a pastry shop, Russell’s on Macklind easily packaged the pot de crème and several other selections to go home with us—probably getting the better of the deal because we took home a little extra for the next day.
The Bottom Line: A place where dessert is a must—at breakfast, lunch, and dinner
Russell’s on Macklind
5400 Murdoch
314-553-9994
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner Tue–Sat; brunch Sun
