The Crazy Patty's Reuben at Shay's Creole Smokehouse (912 South Main Street, St. Charles, 314-852-2803) is less a sandwich — or a clever reference to a character in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia — than a realization that you are eating a Reuben as god intended. The key is owner Shay Landry's pastrami, a succulent, peppery, smoke-laden masterpiece that drips with mouthwatering jus and rendered fat that soaks into the perfectly griddled marble rye and mingles with the tangy, housemade Thousand Island dressing to form a glorious sauce. Pungent Swiss cheese and funky sauerkraut slice through the decadence, adding a wallop of flavor that borders on dizzying. It's the best sandwich I've eaten in 2023 and perhaps the best Reuben you'll find in the bi-state area.
It's no surprise that Landry is capable of such genius. A veteran cook who has worked, by his account, at 44 different restaurants ranging from mom-and-pop joints to Ruby Tuesday, Landry has been preparing for a place like Shay's Creole Smokehouse his entire career — and well before that. Though he grew up in west St. Louis County, he traces his culinary influence to Lake Charles, Louisiana. That's where his father's side of the family resided and he'd regularly visit, soaking up his Grandma Hazel's cooking and the Creole and Cajun food heritage that permeated every aspect of the family's food traditions. He remembers learning to make gumbo alongside his mom at the age of 10, and he started smoking meat on the family's backyard Weber kettle grill when he was 13 after realizing he could do it better than his father.
In college, Landry took a job with Ruby Tuesday to earn some money, then found himself rising so high in the ranks that he quit school to work full time. After 10 years, he was ready for a change and got the opportunity to own his own restaurant, O'Shay's Pub in the Grove, a bar and grill that he ran for about a year before parting ways with his business partners. A few gigs later, he joined the Pappy's Smokehouse team, first at the restaurant group's flagship Midtown location and then at its sister spot, Dalie's Smokehouse in Valley Park.
Over time, Landry itched to strike out on his own again, so he called up his friend, Troy Gongwer, owner of the Old Millstream Inn on St. Charles' historic Main Street, and asked if he could open a restaurant in the kitchen space. Gongwer was supportive of the idea and offered to help Landry get things up and running so long as he'd agree to doing the food for the rest of the Old Millstream property, which includes a downstairs bar and an outdoor courtyard. Landry agreed, and on April 1 of this year, Shay's Creole Smokehouse welcomed its first guests.
Shay's Creole Smokehouse feels like the culmination of the knowledge and experience Landry has gained over the years. But more importantly, it feels like a place where he has committed to making the food he loves. He sees barbecue and Creole food as the dual threads that ignited his passion and animated his career, and at Shay's, he is able to finally marry those traditions in one wonderful concept.
Landry's gumbo is such a transportive dish, you practically feel yourself sitting at his Grandma Hazel's kitchen table eating it. Heartier than some of the looser, soup-like versions, this is like a cross between a Creole stew and crawdaddy risotto, its decadence cut by a vinegary hot-sauce kick.
Landry's barbecue puts it in the pantheon of St. Louis' great smokehouses. Pulled pork is exactly what you want: tender, slicked with the perfect amount of fat and interspersed with mouth-watering caramelized bits. Ribs are outstanding, cooked to that sweet spot that has the proper amount of chew and pull while being tender enough to pull off without effort. Landry rubs and glazes his ribs with just enough sauce to give them a lovely, sticky coating that accents the pork's natural sweetness.
I'm a die-hard Texas-style brisket gal, but Landry's thinner-sliced, Memphis-inspired brisket makes a case for other styles of the beloved cut. Peppery and with a thin layer of bark around the edges, the brisket is gently smoky and impossibly tender and moist — you wonder if it's been dunked in some sort of jus, but it's just naturally that juicy. It's an excellent dish, though his burnt ends left me speechless. Equal parts bark, meat and luscious fat, these meaty bits are glazed in a brown-sugary, Kansas City-style sauce that has a lovely creeping spice that builds with every bite.
Landry's wings are shockingly good — dry-rubbed, smoked and fried so that the skin cooks up to a crisp texture. The flats and drummies are plump and juicy; they're the perfect balance of crunch and tenderness. Another appetizer, the Shayquitos, are billed as smokehouse-style taquitos but are actually more like a barbecue version of a chimichanga. Here, a thin tortilla is filled with brisket, pulled pork and pulled chicken, rolled up, fried and served alongside a silken Creole-seasoned queso. I'd call it the quintessential barbecue joint finger food except it's so hefty, you need two hands to hold it.
Landry puts as much care into his side dishes as he does into his main courses. Mac and cheese is tangy and rich — a concoction so wonderfully creamy it's like mac and cheese queso. Pit beans, too, are thick, hearty and flecked with pulled pork — that stunning brown sugar molasses style that every baked bean wants to be. The meat gives them a hint of smoke, and there's a subtle backheat that balances the sweetness.
Hearty smashed potato salad, tossed with just a whisper of mustard and Creole spices, is a solid choice, as is the wonderful, trinity-filled Creole corn and a vinegary coleslaw that dazzles thanks to its chopped, crunchy texture.
Any of those would be a worthy accompaniment to that outstanding Reuben, though really, the only side dish you'll want with it is ... a second Reuben. But as much a masterpiece as it is, it's just one of the innumerable reasons to love this outstanding restaurant — and to celebrate Landry as one of the region's great pitmasters.
Open Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (Closed Mon.-Wed.)
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