Commonwealth occupies the space formerly known as Grand Tavern, a partnership between the Angad Arts Hotel and David Burke's hospitality group, Esquared. Though Grand Tavern remained open after Burke's departure in January 2020, ultimately it did not survive Covid. The restaurant's proximity to The Fox and Powell Hall, among many other smaller theaters, certainly did it no favors during a year when live theater was shuttered. Theaters aside, the Angad Arts Hotel is destination enough with its permanent art commissions and the quarterly and biannual rotation of the latest the St. Louis art scene has to offer. Mix in beautifully designed interiors and an incredible view of downtown St. Louis from the rooftop bar and you can make a night of it with a single Uber ride.
The original team that launched the food and beverage program at the hotel has departed, the aforementioned David Burke as well as Beverage Director Meredith Barry who I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with not long after Grand Tavern opened. She was manning the rooftop bar and walked us through the menu she'd created and even taught my date and I how to properly stir a cocktail. She left when management turned over and they couldn't reach a shared vision. This departure and others are unfortunate because the overall quality of the food and beverage has suffered in their absence.
Despite the turnover and changes in management, my date and I really love the Angad so wanted to give the new restaurant a chance. We started at Commonwealth for dinner, fully knowing it had only been open for two days. I expected there would be some kinks and general jitters among staff as they all settled into their groove and found their rhythm. The first thing I noticed when arriving is that not much had been done to the dining room, at least not enough to be noticeable to the untrained eye. The layout and overall design aesthetic from Grand Tavern remained. The room they had to work with didn't necessarily need to be refreshed or updated but it's always unsettling to me when a new team moves in and doesn't shift or evolve the dining room. It's hard to delineate where the last restaurant ended and the new one begun. I find dining rooms to be such an integral part of the dining experience that with no significant design changes it's as if the new restaurant just white labeled the last one and slapped a new name on it. The dining room was almost empty when we arrived which can give one pause, but again, a new restaurant without a celeb chef attached to it can take time to build buzz and bring people in.
I managed to get over my Deja vu and turn my attention to the cocktail and food menu. But I was immediately hit with sticker shock as the cocktail I was eyeing was priced at $17. If you're going to sell me a $17 cocktail in St. Louis, MO it better have some fresh edible flowers adorning it or better yet an interesting ice cube with fresh edible flowers inside of it. But alas, my Black Gimlet, essentially a gin gimlet, was very good but no flowers or interesting ice was anywhere to be found. My date ordered his customary rye Manhattan and was satisfied with what the waiter presented.
The menu purports to be inspired by the 54 nations that comprise the commonwealth of Great Britain. Let's set aside all of the baggage and negative sentiment British colonialization stirs up, and just puzzle over how a single menu could possibly do justice to such a wide array of disparate and far-flung culinary influences. The scope and scale of the Commonwealth alone (Australia, India, Nigeria, Singapore, and Canada are all member states, to name a few) makes one's head spin. After a quick review of the menu, we decided it felt more European in influence, specifically British, with consistent nods to Indian cuisine. We agreed to share the Curried Mussels and Prawn & Endive (with a curry emulsion, just to reiterate the almost exclusive Indian influence) to start. The mussels were large enough but the broth, which is essential to the mussel eating experience, lacked any sort of punch or depth of flavor. The thin sliced toasts were certainly not substantial enough to soak up anything that remained after the mussels were eaten, which was fine as it wasn't worth the trouble. The Prawn & Endive was more successful, and yet I couldn't shake the notion that the shrimp had been cooked earlier in the day and simply plated at the time we ordered it. And these prawns were not of the peel and eat variety where they could be poached and held on ice until plated. This was meant to be a warm dish, the endive was charred after all, and it all came out lukewarm. What followed with the salad and main dish were more of the same.
The Commonwealth salad tasted like a standard greens (euro blended), fruit (apples, green) nut (Marcona almond) and salty/pungent cheese (Roquefort) salad, outside of the random and unwelcome English cucumber thrown in for what purpose I don't know. The chef decided to get cheeky with the Tikka Masala and serve the chicken roulade style. When a good friend with a Mumbai-born husband saw a picture of the dish on Instagram, she messaged me "that ain't Tikka Masala." Enough said.
Perhaps the most disappointing portion of the night was the wildly inconsistent service. What started as very attentive and prompt, devolved into a game of "where did our waiter go?" Where the first Manhattan my dinner date ordered was very good, the second looked completely different, the color was two shades lighter and it lacked the brandy-soaked cherry garnish that had accompanied the first one. As we looked around for our waiter our final dish was delivered. We kindly asked the food server if we could have the cocktail remade and he informed us "you'll need to let your waiter know," then promptly turned on his heel and disappeared back into the kitchen. Well, ok then. Our waiter finally resurfaced, along with three other waiters from the back, smelling of an unsanctioned smoke break. When he dropped off our check 10 minutes later, he had drenched himself in cologne to cover his indiscretion. But by that point, we were on to the ruse and didn't stay for dessert. The cocktails at the rooftop bar weren't any better so if you go, which you should for the view, stick to wine and beer.
My rating for Commonwealth is a 2.
I give it a 1 for ambiance, .5 for service and .5 for the food.
