It's an interesting play: Merge a longtime casual food hangout with the inexpensive bar whose courtyard it shares. Take the bar's name, then make the restaurant-side's menu decidedly upscale.

The wild card in the new Molly's in Soulard is a menu devised by Eric Brenner, who's managed to keep things fresh and interesting at his own Moxy restaurant in the Central West End while consulting on numerous other endeavors. Brenner has dealt Molly's a potentially winning hand, drawing from Cajun, Southern and French influences along with some random American.

The space is a wonderful homage to the historic nature of Soulard, with exposed brick, including one wall painted with a "Molly's Bistro" sign designed to simulate fading from age. Red and black augment the color scheme, with old framed, oversize photographs of female friends of the mythical Molly adorning the walls, and shiny pressed tin on the ceiling.

The étouffée lasagna appetizer ($9.95) whimsically injected a touch of Italian into a classic Cajun dish, with cheese and a creamy tomato sauce diluting but not completely erasing the spiciness of the étouffée sauce and the andouille.

Three slices of fried green tomato were each topped with two "barbecued" shrimp and remoulade sauce ($9.95), producing a combination of creamy, salty and tart flavors along with that of the shrimp, although they weren't drenched in Worcester-butter as the New Orleans translation of barbecue might have indicated.

And a charcuterie plate ($13.95) — pork pâté, duck rillettes and prosciutto served with an olive relish and bread on which to spread — was quite ample in portion for each element, furthering a local trend of preserved meats as a viable appetizer choice.

The single disappointment among our appetizers was the fried oyster po'boy slider ($9.95). From the start, I cringed at seeing yet another "slider" on a local menu, while at the same time wondering why White Castle has so utterly failed to protect its trademark.

But the menu description was intriguing: a sandwich made from fried oysters with Rockefeller-style interpretation. My objection was the bread, which overwhelmed the oysters themselves and masked the interesting flavor combinations within.

Hanger steak with béarnaise ($19.95) was enhanced by a poached egg in the middle, with broccolini and a potato cake as side dishes. The tender, fairly unusual cut was properly prepared quite rare (in France, it's often served even closer to raw when ordered "blue"), but our server never did ask us what doneness we'd prefer.

Lamb Morocco ($22.95) drew from French colonial influences, with five Frenched bones worth of chops set among larger-diameter French couscous, along with a baba ghanoush garnished with whole chickpeas. On the side was merguez, a North African sausage served in a wedge shape. The lamb was perfect, and the mildly garlicky baba ghanoush served as a very good complement, but the merguez, as frequently is the case in all but a few American cities, was wimpy in its use of spices.

Georgia duck ($19.95) was served as a combination of sliced breast and a confit in a kind of beggar's purse presentation. The breast was a touch too far past medium and, while perfectly flavorful, lost some of the spring in its texture. The confit was simply too salty. A bourbon-and-apricot sauce added a perfect fruity complement, but the preparation of both aspects of the duck was off just enough to be distracting.

Molly's is a wonderfully restored space in one of St. Louis' great historic neighborhoods, and the menu captures Soulard's heritage in a unique and clever fashion.

Most of my criticisms are nitpicks, but because Molly's prices are on the high end for Soulard, minimal mistakes get magnified. All, however, are easily correctible.