Table Talk
Table Talk: April 5–11
This week: New spring menus, new sushi stops, drinking the rainbow at Kingdom Coffee, cocktail favorites and more.
by Jorge Cespedes
Apr 05 2022 at 8 a.m.
Photo courtesy The Ozark Mill Restaurant
Taste Springtime at The Ozark Mill Restaurant
Chefs are always inspired by what the season has to offer: fresh vegetables, new juicy fruits, the smell of flowers and all the potential that these flavors can create in a new menu. The Ozark Mill Restaurant has wonderful items such as the Hog & Feed Flatbread with roasted sweet corn, smoked bacon, cream sauce and house-made sourdough or crispy catfish with a Brussels slaw and salt and vinegar potatoes. Now, focusing on a spring menu at The Market, with delicious items such as a Summer Sangria with assorted white wines and grapefruit juice or the shrimp and grits with jumbo shrimp, fried okra, roasted tomato and bacon and stoned milled grits or an awesome strawberry buttermilk ice cream.
Dig Into the New Momo Sushi & Grill
It’s hard to believe how many sushi restaurants are popping up in our region. The latest one, Momo Sushi & Grill, recently opened at 2767 West Republic Road in Springfield. This south side location has a fun menu with unique items. Among the appetizers, I found a Jalapeño Bomb made with jalapeños stuffed with cream cheese and spicy tuna and deep-fried. Or you can go classic with the sumai, a Japanese shrimp dumpling. There is a fried rice menu section as well as a stir fry noodle section, which we all know tends to be very popular around town. Don’t forget to check out the grill and sushi menus with unique rolls such as the Pink Panther with spicy crab, cucumber topped with smoked salmon and masago or the King Albacore which is a California roll topped with seared albacore, masago and scallion.
Drink the Rainbow at Kingdom Coffee
Coffee shops have realized the potential they have beyond coffee and in all beverages by expanding their menus into iced lemonades, smoothies, cold teas and in some cases even cocktails. Kingdom Coffee is nailing the fun-to-drink, beyond-coffee ideas and has added some new ones for spring. They started with the Grapefruit Rosemary Espresso Tonic, and man is that a great combination! It features a trendy citrus and plays into the long-term trend of espresso and tonic. Next is a beautiful, purple-colored Blueberry Mint Lemonade that might sound more refreshing than spring itself. And finally the Green Smoothie with tropical fruit, spinach and matcha making this the greenest of green smoothies I’ve ever seen.
Try Fresh Sips at The Golden Girl
This rum bar has consistently offered some of the coolest, flavor-bursting, bold cocktails in 417-land, and this new menu is exploding with all of the above. The Golden Girl Rum Club has always had big menus with lots of options and far too many to write about, but the categories are just as fascinating as the drinks themselves. We have Greatest Hits with their most well-known cocktails such as Son of a Banana Man or the Trinidad Boi. The Virgin Sacrifice section offers non-alcoholic concoctions, and Original House Offerings include lots of mouth-watering combinations which so far has my favorite one called Shmucked at Sea, a French-style rum negroni riff infused with toasted coconut, pineapple skins and topped with smoky mezcal. There’s a Tiki, Traditional & Tropical menu with, well, exactly what it sounds like. And finally, the Poolside Sippers include basics such as Mojitos and Cuba Libres. But my favorite is the Daiquiri on Deck menu category, and as a daiquiri fan myself this might be one to explore in detail.
