Beatniks New Town St. Charles

My experience at Beatniks is thanks to a couple of great lunch friends Holly and Tracy. We all love to try new foods, new places, and most of all we love to visit with each other. Generally that means when we go to lunch we are there until juuust about dinner time. After a long hiatus from each other we headed out for a day of shopping and eating. Purposefully roaming off the beaten path to something unique, we headed to Beatniks.

Sitting in a neighborhood that is just shy of step-ford quality is Beatniks. It has the feel of a restaurant at the end of a pier and is decorated by iron sculptures and mannikin's dressed in every manner of funky clothing. The manikin that greeted us at the door was even holding a baby with a cigarette in its mouth. Holly removed the cigarette from said babies mouth ;)

The bar area is separated from the porch area that has several more iron scultures. Each table has an iron flower arrangment centerpiece. The porch area was walled in with glass garage doors making the entire area convertible from indoor to outdoor dining. Since the weather was unseasonably cool for May the doors were closed and since it was Monday were among very few diners.

Our waiter was a tall, red beared young man with an affable personality who admittedly hadn't been with them long but was eager to please and to visit with us when we invited him to do so. We asked what he recommended and ordered accordingly.

The Chipotle nachos were scrumptious. Not being a nachos fan, these were ones I would order again in a heartbeat. They were pretty simply prepared with a chipotle cheese sauce, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, and chunks of brisket, over multi-colored chips. To accompany our nachos we opted for the large bavarian style soft pretzels with three kinds of dipping sauce. The girls and I agreed that plain mustard was better than any of the dipping offerings made available with the pretzels.

Our main courses were varied; chicken with a truffle brandy sauce, a club sandwich with poorly sliced avocados and a soft fried egg on top, and a Monte-Cristo sandwich with current jelly. All in all it was tasty fair. The exception being the sweet potato fries. They were overcooked, and lacked any real sweet potato flavor.

A standout was the Truffle Mac N Cheese. We did as our waiter suggested and tossed some diced jalapeños on top of the Mac N Cheese for a little added spice. It was delicious if not a tad bit too salty. The sauce was creamy and rich just as it should be.

We thoughroughly enjoyed our dining experience at Beatniks and are eager to return when the garage doors are open!!!