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The honey in the soy-lime marinade makes for a beautiful char in the rotisserie.
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Chickens in the rotisserie -- almost done
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A selection of some of the restaurant's bottled hot sauces
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Chicken salad, with a touch of smoke flavor from the rotisserie
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The front of the building at 13029 Olive in Chesterfield.
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Owner Drew Sterling and boids.
In caveman (and cavelady) days, to let the fire go out was to risk death by cold, or on some nights, to eat Mastodon tartare, even.
Drew Sterling gets it. The owner of St. Louis Rotisserie, celebrating its 20th year in business, said that keeping the splits of hickory, cherry, and oak going under the rotisserie is endless toil.
“It’s a constant battle with the wood,” he said. “You worry about the wood supply, getting the right size, building the fire, keeping it going… We’re constantly
feeding the fire; it’s labor-intensive.”
But it’s worth it. From the soy/lime/honey marinade to the final char, the chickens emerge after 90 minutes of “rotisserizing” marvelously crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The Creve Coeur restaurant also turns ham, brisket, and salmon on the rotisserie, and every Thursday, baby back ribs.
The smoky chicken salad, made from pulled rotisserie chicken, is sufficiently popular that the eatery goes through 20 birds a day to meet demand for that dish alone, said Sterling.
Fourteen sides include house-made potato salad, garlic-roasted potatoes, and black beans with onions – which is actually more popular than their baked beans, said the owner.
Available both at the table and in take-home bottles, the array of hot sauces includes mango, blueberry, Jamaican jerk, “Cran Scary” cranberry, and “Burnin’ Bacon” varieties. The “Naidupanotch” flavor is the restaurant’s signature marinade with the addition of habanero. The sauces are made with locally grown peppers, including terrifically hot Jolokia ghost peppers.
St. Louis Rotisserie hosts a 20th Anniversary Celebration from 5 to 8 p.m. Sat., Aug. 9, that will include throwback-price food specials (featuring a $6 dinner), a super-hot wings challenge, free cake, live music, an appearance by the “Dreadbird” dreadlocked Jamaican chicken mascot, and “rotisserie chicken-style dancing.” That last one, said Sterling, is a freeform terpsichorean strut that may involve spinning. Proceed at your own risk.
St. Louis Rotisserie
13029 Olive
Chesterfield
314-576-5656
www.stlouisrotisserie.com
Mon–Sat: 10:30 a.m.–8 p.m.
