By George MaheMany of us have dreamt the same dream: to create a small, reasonably priced, comfycozy bar and grill that will be the neighborhood hangout—but ours will serve very good food, with a bona fide chef at the helm, not some unpracticed rube. And therein lies the rub: “Chefs” won’t hang their name outside a bar and grill; they need more firepower, more whiz, more bang. Enter the gastropub, a smoosh of words that describes (may I predict?) the newest local trend. Checking his ego at the door, chef Anthony Devoti recently throttled up the burners at the Newstead Tower Public House, a short block from his award-winning restaurant Five. An early visit revealed the place to be a tad shy of comfy, but it screamed with potential: seafood soup with lunker-bites of trout and sea bass; a warmed Cambozola salad, its oozy cheese begging to be smeared on soft croutons; and the
most tender and flaky of fish and chips—if cod had a tenderloin, it would taste like this. Devoti may be steering us into the perfect culinary storm: affordable, casual and a bit gourmet.
4353 Manchester, 314-535-7771, newsteadtowerpub.com. Lunch Mon–Fri, dinner Tue–Sat (hours TBD)
