Triumph Grill

Ratings Guide:
Half handshake, half chest-bump hug – 5 stars
Chest bump – 4 stars
Fist bump – 3 stars
High five – 2 stars
Handshake – 1 star
Manly ass slap – ½ star
Fone and fone – 0 stars


Restaurant: Triumph Bar and Grill
Location: 3419 Olive St.

The last couple Fridays I headed out for lunch – once to celebrate Deni’s birthday, and once for a work meeting. Both times I headed to Triumph Grill, located on Olive next to the Moto Museum and within spitting distance of Slu’s campus.

The interior and theme of the place carries over from the Moto Museum, as most of the art and light fixtures in the place are made of old motorcycle parts. There are even a couple different private rooms that feature old-time motorcycles on display. The atmosphere is really nice, and the place is best described as an upscale bar and grill. Clearly it’s becoming the place for power lunches, because on both visits the restaurant was filled with people in suits discussing work. I was actually surprised that there weren’t more college kids in there grabbing lunch. Now, as a former student who lived off his student charge card, I understand that disposable income for a 20 year old isn’t exactly excessive, but Triumph is right next to the campus, and the food here is pretty reasonably priced. Everything on the menu is under $10 (minus a couple $11 exceptions), unless you go there for dinner and order one of the house specialties ($15 - $25). And for good, upscale bar food, I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Maybe I should teach a college course on how to save money so you can afford to treat yourself once a week to a nice lunch. Here would be some of the lectures in Tight-Ass 101:
- Books – you don’t need them. You can either borrow them from a friend or roommate (like I did), date the smartest girl in the class and steal her notes (like I did), or just steal the books from the bookstore (like I did). For extra credit I would teach the students how to steal books that were just sold back to the bookstore during book-buy-back week, and re-sell them back.
- Use your student charge card for EVERYTHING. I used mine for every meal and bought all my groceries in the c-store on campus. And when my parents asked why my bill was excessive, I just told them that I needed a few extra books for the advance courses I was taking. They almost believed it!
- When in a pinch, you can live off of peanut butter, bread, and milk. Believe me, I did it one time for a month. And when I went to San Diego for a bowl game, I couldn’t afford food after paying for the rental car and hotel, so I just ate peanut butter sandwiches for every meal. Needless to say I was about 40 pounds lighter then.
- Date rich chicks or dudes. Or both.
- GET A JOB! No, seriously. Stop being such a spoiled, lazy d-bag and get off your ass and do some work. Your parents will be so proud of you they won’t even bring up the student charge card fiasco.
- Cash all the savings bonds your grandparents gave you growing up and spend it on speakers you don’t need, cheap beer, and lunch at Triumph Grill. Just don’t tell your parents about it.
- Give plasma. Seriously, you get like $50 for it. And you really don’t need plasma. It’s like your appendix. IT’S TRUE! You can look it up on Wikipedia.
- Dine and dash. I really don’t recommend this, unless the waitress/waiter is a total a-hole and they deserve it.
- Bang a Cougar and steal her purse while she’s sleeping. This is a no-brainer.


Not sure how much of this would fly at a Jesuit School, but you never know. I’ll at least offer it up to them.

Back to Triumph. The place has a real nice variety of items to choose from. Whether it’s apps, soup, salad, or a sandwich, everyone can find something they’ll like on the menu. Here’s what I had there on my two visits:
- AGO’S TUSCAN SALAD – there’s a bunch of different stuff in it, along with a grilled chicken breast on top. The salad was great, and the chicken was cooked perfectly. I could see me ordering this most of the time if/when I go back. It was filling, but not too heavy. And if you order an extra chicken breast you’ll be full until dinner. Which is quite an accomplishment for a salad.
- BLUE CHEESE AND TOMATO BISQUE – this was the soup special the first time I went, and it was really, really good. I don’t like Blue Cheese, but this was one of the times that it really worked for me.
- MILWAUKEE’S FINEST SOFT PRETZELS – if these were Milwaukee’s finest, then it doesn’t say much for that city (not that there’s much to say for that city to begin with). The pretzels were too buttery (I know, coming from me that sounds odd, but they were really greasy), and there was way too much salt for my liking. Plus it didn’t come with a cheese dipping sauce, and I think anything from Milwaukee should have cheese involved somehow.
- TURKEY AND BRIE MELT – this wasn’t too bad. The turkey was nice and thick, so it wasn’t like your typical deli-sliced meat. Added an extra heartiness to the sandwich. But you could barely taste the apples on the sandwich, which was disappointing. The fries were good, although I wish they were just a little hotter when they came out.

The other thing that surprised me a bit is that the place isn’t open that late. It’s got a nice little bar area, so I figured it’d be open late, especially for the college kids. But it closes at 10 during the week, and 11 during the weekend. And if you go for lunch, bring quarters. Parking is available on the street, but the meter maids don’t fudge around. My first visit cost me an extra $10.


Triumph Grill. Good food at a reasonable price with great service. That warrants a chest bump.