Maker’s Mark Bourbon House & Lounge needs a shot of humility

Things were better at dinner, once the haughty hostess handed us our thick menus and slinked away. I was dining with Bob and Jennifer, and they admired the spartan beauty of the dining room but were blown away by the raucousness in the bar — on the other side of the room — where a former Cordish chef was holding court at full volume. He wasn't the only noisy patron yukking it up.

"That's the problem with this place," Bob said. "It aspires to be a fine-dining venue, but like everything else in the P&L District, it's really all about the bar business."

We started the meal with this restaurant's onion loaf: a heap of flash-fried, crunchy onion rings baked in a loaf pan and served with the sweet house barbecue sauce. Pretty good, but honestly, an onion ring is an onion ring. More offbeat is the plate of fried chicken breasts and a waffle. This Southern classic gets a pretty decent treatment here, the chicken breasts dipped in a light, tempura-style batter and heaped in a mound of mashed potatoes on top of a thick buttermilk waffle (which was, unfortunately, barely lukewarm). Jennifer ordered that and liked it, though she hoped the fried chicken would be the old-fashioned pan-fried version, like Stroud's serves.

Bob was impressed by four thick, beautifully seared scallops with a soothing pancetta-vermouth beurre blanc. At our server's suggestion, I ordered one of the Maker's Mark steaks, dry-aged for 14 days and not terribly costly, though the side dishes were à la carte. The 14-ounce Kansas City Strip was excellent, really juicy and tender, sided by chive-whipped potatoes that would have been better if they had been hotter.

For dessert, we shared a heaping bowl of freshly made beignets, which were lighter than clouds and dusted with powdered sugar and served with three sauces — dark chocolate, raspberry and a crème anglaise. It was a lovely, Louisiana-style finale for a thoroughly Midwestern meal. It helped that our server that night had been especially polished and the manager, a native of Russia, accommodating and sweet.

"Why can't everyone working here be so nice?" Bob wondered.

If this place really wants to make its mark, someone needs to think about that.

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