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SHAKEUP! 4 RESTAURANTS MOVE INTO THE TOP 10

➨ Find everything from special-occasion splurges to everyday eats

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Top spot signals a new food future

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Ian froeb’s stl 1oo Visiting all 100?

Get Ian’s advice wherever you are

Use this checklist to keep track of which places you’ve visited.

Restaurants marked with a star are part of the Top 25.

B I L L I E -J E A N

J. SMUGS GASTROPIT

Find restaurants by cuisine, price range or location, or ask the Ian-bot for a recommendation when you just can’t decide where to go.

VICIA

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Here’s a chance to taste for yourself

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NIPPON TEI

S AVA G E

Join us March 13 at the St. Louis Science Center for the Great Taste, our annual event featuring bites from nearly 50 restaurants listed in this guide.

TOO MANY COOKS — AND THAT’S A GOOD THING This fifth annual edition of the STL 100 forced me to make the most difficult choices yet, from which 100 restaurants to include to which of those 100 to rank No. 1. (Teaser: A new champion has risen.) It speaks to the continued growth of St. Louis’ dining scene that so many new restaurants and chefs demanded notice in this year’s list. It speaks to the dedication of established restaurants and chefs that when I removed one of them from consideration, I did so only after much deliberation. ❡ As always, I want the STL 100 to provide a broad spectrum of dining experiences, even as I know it inevitably falls short of capturing everything great about our restaurants and the people who work in them. I’ll redouble my efforts again next year. ❡ For now, here is 2019’s edition of the STL 100. @ianfroeb

For starters … ☛ The STL 100 is divided into the Top 25 and the Rest of the Best.

There is no gap between No. 25 and whatever No. 26 would be. At a certain point, splitting the difference is too arbitrary to be useful. ☛ Restaurants must have opened

by Nov. 30, 2018, to be eligible for this edition of the STL 100. ☛ Pricing info is estimated per person based on dinner (when applicable).

OUR TEAM Gabe Hartwig editor, ghartwig@post-dispatch.com • Amy Bertrand Post-Dispatch features editor, abertrand@post-dispatch.com • Ian Froeb restaurant critic, ifroeb@ post-dispatch.com • Norma Klingsick designer, nklingsick@post-dispatch.com • Frank Reust copy editor, freust@post-dispatch.com • Hillary Levin photo editor, hlevin@postdispatch.com • Josh Renaud web developer, jrenaud@post-dispatch.com • Andrew Nguyen web developer, anguyen@post-dispatch.com • Donna Bischoff Post-Dispatch vice president of sales and marketing, dbischoff@post-dispatch.com • CONTACT US Advertise 314-340-8500, stltoday.com/advertise • Subscribe 314-340-8888, stltoday.com/subscribe • Write to us Go! Magazine, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 900 N. Tucker Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63101 • COPYRIGHT 2019 Go! Magazine is published by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Lee Enterprises. • ON THE COVER A rye cracker served with (clockwise from top) garlic confit, local butter, carrot tartare, and tomato skin salt with cured coppa from Salume Beddu at Vicia.

Photo by Hillary Levin of the Post-Dispatch

4 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

■ Acero ■ Annie Gunn’s ★ ■ Balkan Treat Box ■ Bar Les Frères ■ Beast Craft BBQ Co. ★ ■ The Benevolent King ■ Billie-Jean ★ ■ Blues City Deli ■ Bogart’s Smokehouse ■ Brasserie by Niche ■ Cafe Natasha’s ■ Cate Zone Chinese Cafe ■ Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet Restaurant ■ Cinder House ■ Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Creamery ■ Cleveland-Heath ★ ■ The Clover and the Bee ■ The Crossing ★ ■ Crown Candy Kitchen ■ Edibles & Essentials ■ Elaia ★ ■ El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery ■ Farmhaus ★ ■ Fork & Stix and Kiin Essentially Thai ■ Frankly Sausages ■ The Frisco Barroom ■ Gioia’s Deli ■ Grace Meat + Three ★ ■ Guerrilla Street Food ★ ■ Hiro Asian Kitchen ■ I Fratellini ■ J. Devoti Trattoria ★ ■ J. Smugs Gastropit ■ Jerk Soul ■ Juniper ★ ■ J’s Pitaria ■ Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria ■ Knead Bakehouse & Provisions ■ Kounter Kulture ■ La Patisserie Chouquette ■ La Tejana Taqueria ■ La Vallesana ■ Lemmons by Grbic ■ Levant ■ Local Chef Kitchen ■ Lona’s Lil Eats ★

■ Louie ★ ■ Mac’s Local Eats ■ Mai Lee ■ Medina Mediterranean Grill ■ Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant ■ Mission Taco Joint ■ Mi Tierra Bonita ■ Nathaniel Reid Bakery ■ Nippon Tei ★ ■ Nixta ■ Nudo House ■ Olio ■ Olive + Oak ★ ■ Pangea ■ Pappy’s Smokehouse ■ Pastaria ★ ■ Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. ■ Pho Long ■ Pint Size Bakery ■ Pizza Head ■ Planter’s House ■ Polite Society ■ Private Kitchen and Soup Dumplings STL ■ Reeds American Table ★ ■ Retreat Gastropub ■ Rice Thai Bistro ■ Salt + Smoke ■ Salume Beddu at Parker’s Table ■ Sameem Afghan Restaurant ■ Sardella ★ ■ Savage ★ ■ Seoul Taco ■ Sidney Street Café ★ ■ Simba Ugandan Restaurant ■ Sister Cities Cajun ■ Smoki O’s ■ Southwest Diner ■ The Stellar Hog ■ Stone Soup Cottage ★ ■ SweetArt ■ The Taco & Ice Cream Joint ■ Tai Ke ■ Taqueria Durango ■ Taste ■ Tony’s ★ ■ Union Loafers ★ ■ Urban Chestnut Brewery & Bierhall and the U.R.B. ■ Veritas ★ ■ Vicia ★ ■ The Vine Mediterranean Cafe ■ VP Square ■ Winslow’s Home ■ The Wood Shack ■ Yellowbelly

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toward a different but no less delicious future.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 3 • OPENED 2017 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 4260 Forest Park Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-553-9239, viciarestaurant.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday (limited happy hour menu between lunch and dinner, closed Sunday-Monday)

Stone Soup Cottage CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • FRENCH

Including Stone Soup Cottage in the STL 100 isn’t fair to the other 99 restaurants. Nowhere else comes close to the total experience of a dinner at Carl and Nancy McConnell’s farm-to-table jewel. The hospitality is impeccable, from the greeting as you enter the cottage itself to the glass of complimentary sparkling wine that comes with your amuse bouche to Carl McConnell’s uncanny ability to visit tables and chat with diners new and returning while orchestrating your six-course meal.

McConnell’s cooking favors a purity of flavor that can make classic dishes — my December 2018 visit included takes on fettuccine del mar and osso buco — new again. He can also create the perfect dish for the moment, like the warming smoked-pheasant coulis with a buttermilk biscuit that began my meal on a chilly, rainy night. It was a difficult decision to promote Vicia over Stone Soup Cottage to No. 1. Nothing has dimmed the McConnells’ restaurant.

Its cost ($100 per person before beverages, tax and tip) and its exclusivity (one serving nightly three nights a week, for which you must make reservations months in advance) makes its magic less accessible than Vicia’s.

But if you can go, you must.

Purple Top Turnip Tacos — with shiitake mushrooms, black beans, yogurt, marinated kale, pickled red onions, salsa verde and hot sauce — at Vicia

Vicia CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

I first reviewed Vicia in the summer of 2017, the ideal time to experience Michael Gallina’s seasonal, vegetable-focused cooking.

I rhapsodized over grilled nectarines with prosciutto and pickled watermelon rind, a white paprika pepper stuffed with black beans and charredvegetable mole, chicken and shiitake mushrooms in a smoked corn-cob broth.

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Vicia was the obvious choice for St. Louis’ best new restaurant of 2017.

It also made the national

6 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

best-new-restaurant lists from Eater and Esquire. In 2018, Food & Wine named Gallina one of its “Best New Chefs,” and Vicia debuted on the STL 100 at No. 3.

and their team have set for the restaurant — not merely celebrating local produce but changing how we view its role on the plate, challenging us to see cabbage as the star and meat as the accent — is essential.

I returned to Vicia for this year’s STL 100 on a cold January evening. I didn’t expect Gallina and his team to recapture summer’s glory.

Instead, they showcased a more subtle magic. A riff on spaghetti carbonara with rutabaga as the noodles, crumbled charcuterie and an amber egg yolk. Falafel made from the pulp of fruits that had already been juiced for other uses. These dishes were comforting, even heartening, but remained true to Vicia’s ethos.

That alone might have elevated Vicia to No. 1.

What put it over the top is its versatility as a dining experience. Yes, you can order the $85 tasting menu or otherwise spend a great deal of money here on food and wine. But you can also share several courses familystyle for a more reasonably priced experience, and at lunch you can enjoy a much more casual version of Vicia’s excellence starting at $12.

The food at Vicia is exceptional. The mission that Gallina, his wife, Tara,

Vicia is the best restaurant in St. Louis now, and the Gallinas are pointing us

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Tuna Risotto a la Provençal at Stone Soup Cottage

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 1 • OPENED 2009 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 5809 State Highway N, Cottleville • MORE INFO 636244-2233, stonesoupcottage.com • HOURS Dinner Thursday-Saturday

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P H O T O S : H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( V I C I A ) ; R O B E R T C O H E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S T O N E S O U P C O T TA G E )

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Duck at Sidney Street Café

favors “humble” ingredients, mostly vegetables, and uses fermentation and other old-school techniques to transform them into dishes as memorable as foie gras or caviar. Months after my review dinners last year, I still think about the single grilled spot prawn he dipped in a sauce of its own roe and about the sunchoke Ely roasted, warmed up in chicken fat and served with a barbecue sauce made from parsnips cooked for 90 days.

Savage was St. Louis’ best new restaurant of 2018 and in its first year has already become one of St. Louis’ most important restaurants, too.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING New • OPENED 2018 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 2655 Ann Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-354-8488, savagestl.com • HOURS Dinner

Elaia CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Aaron Martinez has succeeded Ben Grupe as executive chef of Ben Poremba’s Elaia.

When Poremba announced the transition in October 2018, he told the PostDispatch that when he read Martinez’s résumé, “I thought someone was playing a prank on me.” Martinez had worked at two restaurants that had greatly influenced Poremba: Addison in San Diego, where Martinez had been sous chef, and Quince in San Francisco, where he’d been chef de cuisine.

After a few months at Elaia (as I write this), Martinez seems like an ideal fit for the restaurant’s upscale, progressive aesthetic. The

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8 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

midwinter menu showed elegance (lobster agnolotti with leek ash and Meyer lemon under a shower of shaved black truffle) and inspiration (smoked foie gras as a bassline for velvet pioppini mushrooms in a seaweed broth), and I can’t wait to see what he does with his first spring and summer in St. Louis.

Another significant change for Elaia: Though a longer chef’s tasting menu remains available, you can now order a three-, four- or five-course menu for $55, $70 or $85.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 2 • OPENED 2012 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 1634 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-932-1088, elaiastl.com • HOURS Dinner Wednesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Tuesday)

Savage CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

The sign outside Savage in Fox Park still announces the previous inhabitant of the address, the A&B Market. Logan Ely’s debut restaurant isn’t a speakeasy, but it comes unencumbered by the glossy framing that usually accompanies a restaurant this significant.

Ely found the building himself by driving the city grid; he designed the space and with friends built it. That DIY ethos infuses Savage, where Ely, with minimal support staff, is turning out some of the most exciting food in St. Louis. The menu (a six-course or 12-course tasting menu or a rapid fivecourse selection of bites)

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A spot prawn topped with wakame seaweed pieces at Savage

Wednesday-Saturday (a-la-carte menu available noon-4 p.m.)

Sidney Street Café CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Calling Kevin Nashan the chef and owner of Sidney Street Café is technically true but doesn’t feel broad enough — and not simply because he has since opened the Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. and, as of last year, its satellite in Tulsa, Okla. Nashan took over the already-established Sidney Street in 2003. In the 16 years since, he has fashioned the restaurant in his own vision, from the modern cuisine to the produce grown on the property. And the kitchen, led by executive chef Bob Zugmaier, continues to turn out elegant, forwardthinking dishes, like an unlikely but successful winter juxtaposition of snapper in a chorizo nage. But Sidney Street feels bigger than that.

It’s a place where you can bring someone who wants a fine meal but doesn’t know or care that Nashan has won the prestigious James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Midwest.”

Nashan is a chef and owner and also a steward of food and community.

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 4 • OPENED 1985 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 2000 Sidney Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7715777, sidneystreetcafe.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

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P H O T O S : C O LT E R P E T E R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( E L A I A ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S AVA G E ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( S I D N E Y S T R E E T )

Flamed Mackerel at Elaia

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Farmhaus

Billie-Jean

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • LAO

Of the St. Louis chefs who have led the conversation about dining over the past decade or so, none has kept his restaurant as close to its original identity as Kevin Willmann has at Farmhaus. In fact, on my visit this winter, I ordered a dish that strongly echoed my favorite dish from the restaurant’s debut in 2010: escolar simply poached in white wine and butter with two head-on white shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and grilled broccoli. Then and now, the dish showed Willmann’s seafood acumen, pushing the fish to the outer limits of butteriness and balancing it with the briny liquid from the shrimp’s heads and the broccoli’s grill char. Farmhaus doesn’t look much different now from when I ordered that dish nine years ago — and even at the beginning, the decor was more homey than stylish. It fits the cooking, though. Even the most elegantly plated dish here still conveys an appealingly personal touch.

When restaurateur Zoë Robinson and chef Ny Vongsaly began planning the menu for their latest collaboration, Robinson told me in an interview last year, the ideas “just started pouring out of us, like writing.” This graceful confidence suffuses BillieJean, from the bold, sexy, black-on-black design to Vongsaly’s cooking, a seamless and deeply personal synthesis of the foodways of his native Laos and Southeast Asia and his long partnership with Robinson (the late Cafe Zoë and Zoë Pan-Asian Cafe and the still thriving I Fratellini and Bar Les Frères). At BillieJean, Vongsaly invigorates tired tropes (hamachi crudo and beef carpaccio) and builds bottomless layers of flavor (sesame-lacquered Japanese eggplant with tofu, a shrimp-pork dumpling soup brightened with makrut lime and lemon grass). “You should always be growing and always be pushing,” Robinson told me last year. At Billie-Jean, she and Vongsaly have pushed themselves into the highest rank of St. Louis restaurants.

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Nigiri Omakase with madai, saba, sake toro, maguro and A5 wagyu at Nippon Tei

Pot pie at Olive + Oak

Olive + Oak

Dumpling Soup at Billie-Jean

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Olive + Oak is as dazzling and fresh today as it was when it opened three years ago, a remarkable accomplishment in an industry where concepts can turn stale overnight. Olive + Oak isn’t a concept, though.

It’s gracious hospitality, led by owner Mark Hinkle, a seemingly constant presence in the packed dining room.

It’s the unfussy brilliance of chef Jesse Mendica’s cooking. She’s scored a significant percentage of this decade’s instant-classic dishes (the blue-crab gratin and the Hama Hama clams in tomato-clam broth, to name just two), and on my most recent visit she staggered me with the layered flavors of a new dish, rabbit mole.

The excellent bar program, overseen by the newly married team of Morgaine Segura and Charlie Martin,

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10 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

rounds out a restaurant that has gone from hot new thing to timeless as quickly as any I can remember.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 11 • OPENED 2016 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 102 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves • MORE INFO 314-736-1370, oliveandoakstl. com • HOURS Dinner daily

Nippon Tei JAPANESE • SUSHI

Twice in short order last year, Nick Bognar blew my mind with a piece of salmon toro, the fish’s fatty

7

belly meat. The first piece, brushed with nikiri (sweet soy sauce) and topped with grated wasabi root, was like butter churned from the essence of the ocean. The second, briefly torched and garnished with lemon zest, was as luscious as mediumrare rib-eye. I could list additional revelatory pieces of nigiri sushi Bognar has

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

served at Nippon Tei, but these blurbs can be only so long. Over the past year, the 27-year-old Bognar has taken the reins of the restaurant his mother, Ann Bognar, founded in 2001, and his dedication to quality product, proper aging and inspired accents has made Nippon Tei St. Louis’ most exciting sushi restaurant — and one of its most exciting restaurants, period. You can splurge here (especially when Bognar hosts one of his ticketed

Omakase dinners), but he also offers the day’s five best pieces of nigiri sushi for $18.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING New • OPENED 2001 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 14025 Manchester Road, St. Louis County • MORE INFO 636-386-8999, nippon. teistl.com • HOURS Lunch Tuesday-Friday, dinner TuesdaySunday (closed Monday)

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 6 • OPENED 2010 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 3257 Ivanhoe Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-6473800, farmhausrestaurant.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING New • OPENED 2017 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 7610 Wydown Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-7978484, billiejeanstl.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday

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P H O T O S : J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( N I P P O N T E I ) ; M I C H A E L T H O M A S ( B I L L I E -J E A N ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( O L I V E + O A K ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( FA R M H A U S )

Roasted Ozark Forest Mushroom Salad at Farmhaus

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ITALIAN • PIZZA

The past year was a busy one for acclaimed chef Gerard Craft and his restaurant group. Cinder House opened, Porano Pasta closed, and Craft installed new executive chefs at Sardella, Taste and Brasserie by Niche. At Pastaria, though, consistency remains the key to success. After a year and a half as the executive chef of both Pastaria and Sardella, Ashley Shelton is again focused on Pastaria, turning out the restaurant’s superlative wood-fired pizzas and rustic noodles. About those pizzas: This decade’s craze for Neapolitan-style pies seems to be ebbing somewhat, but Pastaria’s charred, airy crusts long ago transcended the trend.

Pastaria’s pizzas also offer a wide range of toppings, from chef-inspired combinations to classic American pies like pepperoni and Hawaiian.

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 9 • OPENED 2016 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 7734 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-773-7755, sardellastl.com • HOURS Dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday

The Crossing CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 10 • OPENED 2012 • PRICING $15-$30 WHERE 7734 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-862-6603, eatpastaria.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday

Margherita pizza at Pastaria

Crudo at Sardella

Louie CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ITALIAN • PIZZA

What would the perfect neighborhood bistro look like? You need only visit Louie, which opened in late 2017 and soon showed the patina of an indispensable St. Louis restaurant. Owner Matt McGuire, one of the area’s hospitality greats, has created a warm, welcoming space; whether you sit at a table, the bar or the counter surrounding the wood-burning pizza oven, you feel like an honored guest. The menu from head chef Sean Turner doesn’t seek to challenge you so much as wrap you into a cocoon of pleasure with dishes — roast chicken, a pork chop with chermoula and shishito peppers, pizza, Roman gnocco — that are the

Sardella CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ITALIAN

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12 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

After 20 years, not only can the Crossing still hold its own against younger, hipper restaurants — and the depth of its wine list will beat most newcomers — it also continues to incubate rising talent. Thu Rein Oo came to the United States as a refugee from Myanmar.

He started working at the Crossing in 2008 as a dishwasher and over the next decade worked his way up to lead the kitchen for owner Jim Fiala. Oo continues the Crossing’s knack for cooking simultaneously modern and classical (Texas quail with maitake mushrooms and butternut squash over crushed potatoes in a quail jus) and for breathing new life into dishes (tuna tartare topped with lemon cream and hackleback caviar). The Crossing has ended its less expensive $35 four-course tasting menu, but the fourcourse $50 menu remains a tremendous value.

Gerard Craft’s Sardella has worn a few different looks since it replaced his flagship Niche in late 2016. The original menu was swanky, playful Italian fare by way of California.

Craft then brought in the voice of Pastaria executive chef Ashley Shelton. This past fall, Shelton decided to focus on Pastaria, and Craft named Brian Moxey Sardella’s executive chef.

Moxey, a veteran of several Craft restaurants as well as acclaimed chef Marco Canora’s Insieme and Hearth in New York City, is leaning into the Italian tradition behind Sardella, with pastas developed with pasta chef Giovanni Brex and

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Roasted Beet Salad at the Crossing

best versions of themselves.

You don’t need to take my word for it. Listen to hip-hop megastar Drake, who dined here on three consecutive

nights during his St. Louis tour stop in November.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING New • OPENED 2017 • PRICING $30 and up

WHERE 706 DeMun Avenue, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-3008188, louiedemun.com • HOURS Dinner Monday-Saturday, lunch Monday-Friday (closed Sunday)

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 12 • OPENED 1998 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 7823 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-721-7375, thecrossing-stl. com • HOURS Dinner MondaySaturday, lunch Monday-Friday

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P H O T O S : J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L O U I E ) ; C O LT E R P E T E R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S A R D E L L A ) ; D AV I D C A R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( PA S TA R I A ) ; P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( T H E C R O S S I N G )

Pastaria

hearty fare such as braised short ribs with trumpet mushrooms over polenta.

I’ve liked Sardella in all its guises, and my favorite dish from Sardella’s current incarnation — chicken liver mousse enlivened by basil, apple, jalapeño and pecan — suggests nudging convention might still be its best path.

A pork chop with shishito and chermoula at Louie

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CLASSIC FINE DINING • ITALIAN

The familiar names are leaving downtown.

Mike Shannon’s Steaks and Seafood closed a few years ago. J.F. Sanfilippo’s Italian Restaurant called it quits at the end of 2018. Kemoll’s left in January and has reopened in Maryland Heights.

Tony’s abides — though not without some changes.

Vince Bommarito Jr. left as executive chef in May 2018.

Vince Sr. remains, however, and Tony’s still stands as the pinnacle of a certain kind of dining in St. Louis, its formality old-fashioned but not unwelcome. I sighed with pleasure when my recent order of osso buco (a special, though in keeping with Tony’s classic Italian fare) was served with a marrow spoon. I sighed with pleasure when I ate the marrow spread on toast.

Yes, yes, Tony’s is a specialoccasion, dress-up splurge, but every now and then you need to treat yourself to its food and hospitality.

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 4270 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-5332700, stlgrace.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday (brunch menu served 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday)

Cleveland-Heath CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

In 2017, ClevelandHeath gained new owners as founders Jenny Cleveland and Eric “Ed” Heath sold the Edwardsville restaurant to Keith and Kari McGinness.

In 2018, Cleveland-Heath changed chefs, with executive chef Rick Kazmer leaving for Three Sixty in downtown St. Louis and his chef de cuisine Evan Buchholz stepping into the executive chef position.

As with the ownership change two years ago, Cleveland-Heath’s character of higher-end comfort fare combined with an everyday neighborhood-restaurant ambience has not changed.

My most recent meal here included the classic posole, warming with a coiled chile sting, and the Chiva Cubana, smoked, braised and then sauteed crisp to order lamb over a blackbean stew heady with garlic, ginger, jalapeño and mint.

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 13 • OPENED 1946 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 410 Market Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314231-7007, tonysstlouis.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Pozole at ClevelandHeath

Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Grace Meat + Three

Lona’s Lil Eats CHINESE

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • FRIED CHICKEN • SOUTHERN

On the menu page of the Lona’s Lil Eats website is a brief statement I didn’t notice until recently. “Lona’s Lil Eats is dedicated to inclusion,” it begins. “Sounds like a strange concept but it comes down to diet and flavor.”

It lists the diets Lona’s can accommodate (vegetarian, vegan, paleo, diabetic, gluten-free) and the flavor profiles of the restaurant’s sauces and then concludes, “These options help every person find their place.” I was struggling to find a way to express how impressive and important Lona Luo and Pierce Powers’ restaurant is

— and why it keeps rising on this list — without repeating my usual praise for Luo’s vibrantly flavored fare, which is drawn from her native “hill tribe” area in China’s southern Yunnan province.

The statement clarified my thinking. Lona’s isn’t a great

14 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

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The beloved Princeton Heights neighborhood restaurant Quincy Street Bistro closed in 2018, but its spirit thrives at Rick and Elisa Lewis’ Grace Meat + Three.

Elisa’s parents owned Quincy Street, and in its kitchen, Rick first won acclaim for his Southern-accented comfort fare. At Grace, his cooking is even more refined, yet in keeping with meat-andthree tradition the food is plated and served without pretension. The turkey leg (brined in sweet tea, cooked confit-style and

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Steak and mushroom dumplings at Lona’s Lil Eats

Trio of Veals at Tony’s restaurant simply because the food is great. Lona’s is an open-hearted restaurant: casual, affordable, familyfriendly. You can order one of Luo’s signature wrap combinations or her Hill Tribe Soup, or you can fashion your own meal how you like it.

You will find your place, as Lona’s has among St. Louis’ very best restaurants.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 21 • OPENED 2014 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 2199 California Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-9258938, lonaslileats.com • HOURS

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 14 • OPENED 2011 • PRICING $30-$45 WHERE 106 North Main Street, Edwardsville • MORE INFO 618-307-4830, clevelandheath. com • HOURS Dinner and lunch daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday

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P H O T O S : D AV I D C A R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( G R A C E M E AT + T H R E E ) ; R O B E R T C O H E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L O N A’ S ) ; T I M V I Z E R ( C L E V E L A N D - H E AT H ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( T O N Y ’ S )

Tony’s

deep-fried to order) might be a masterclass in layering textures and flavors, but it’s also a big ol’ turkey leg on a plate. The turkey leg, the fried chicken, the friedbologna sandwich — not to mention the rotating selection of sides (if you order fewer than three, you’ve wasted your trip) — will bring you here. The Lewises’ sincere hospitality will bring you back.

Bourbon whipped sweet potatoes at Grace Meat + Three

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Happy Hour Monday-Friday 2:30-5:30pm ½ Price Beer and Wine $5 Select Cocktails Food Specials WE’VE BEEN CRANKING OUT ST ST. LOUIS’ FINEST PO-BOY’S AND MUFFULETTA’S FOR 15 YEARS NOW, AND I INVITE YOU TO

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106 N. Main St. • Edwardsville 618.307.4830 • clevelandheath.com Mon–Thu 11am–10pm, Fri 11am–11pm, Sat 10am–11pm, Sun 10am-8pm First Come - First Serve (No reservations) IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

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Room 3:30-9 p.m. Wednesday, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday)

Reeds American Table CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

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Pork-shankstuffed rice cake at Veritas

Annie Gunn’s CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • STEAKHOUSE

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Some truisms hold: To enjoy a great steak, you will need to spend money. The sleek corporate steakhouses are more than happy to take your cash and a little more a la carte for your potatoes and a little more a la carte for your vegetables.

You’ll spend money for a great steak at Chesterfield institution Annie Gunn’s, too, but that includes potatoes and vegetables, and you know the kitchen led by Lou Rook III will deliver your USDA prime rib-eye with the perfect grill crosshatch and sear and the temperature you ordered (true mediumrare, in my case). And you can pair it with wine from Glenn Bardgett’s deep list.

Annie Gunn’s is more than a steakhouse, of course, and

16 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

Grilled aged prime porterhouse at Annie Gunn’s

in years past the STL 100 has celebrated its other selves, but this year I just wanted the simple pleasures.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 17 • OPENED 1990 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 16806 Chesterfield Airport Road, Chesterfield • MORE INFO 636-532-7684, anniegunns. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

Veritas CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

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I’ve included Veritas in each edition of the STL 100 — and four consecutive years in the Top 25 — so calling it a

secret would be a stretch.

Still, I reach for the word.

Dining at Veritas feels like membership in a hidden-inplain-sight club: an Ellisville shopping-plaza wine shop that is also an upscale restaurant. Chef Mathis Stitt’s dinner menu changes weekly but is certain to feature creative, elegant, modern American fare.

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Weekday lunch service has ended, but weekend brunch showcases Stitt’s approach through such classic dishes as fried chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits, the latter accented with a sophisticated garlic-chive custard. Not in the mood for higher-end dining? The Mustard Room inside Veritas features a casual happy

hour menu with snacks and heartier fare such as a burger and hot dog.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 18 • OPENED 2004 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 15860 Fountain Plaza, Ellisville • MORE INFO 636-2276800, veritasgateway.com • HOURS Dinner Wednesday-Saturday, brunch Saturday-Sunday (happy hour menu available in the Mustard

When I dined at Reeds American Table last fall, I ordered its signature braised beef with foiegras cream, oven-roasted tomato and arugula over focaccia for the first time in a few years. I’m happy to report it was as terrific as I’d remembered. Between the succulent beef and the foie-gras cream, the dish is indulgent, but the peppery arugula and the acidity and gentle sweetness are perfect foils. As rich as it is, the dish is also homey. It looks like an open-faced roastbeef sandwich, and there’s no elegant way to eat it.

Technically impressive, creative and welcoming: The braised beef is the perfect encapsulation of chef-owner Matthew Daughaday’s immense talents and Reeds’ continued appeal.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 16 • OPENED 2015 • PRICING $30-$45 WHERE 7322 Manchester Road, Maplewood • MORE INFO 314899-9821, reedsamericantable. com • HOURS Dinner daily

J. Devoti Trattoria CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ITALIAN • PIZZA

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Anthony Devoti closed Five Bistro in March 2018, ending an acclaimed 12-year run that began in Forest Park Southeast’s Grove neighborhood and in 2009 moved to the Hill. Five was a mainstay of the STL 100’s Top 25, but I had no time to mourn it. Devoti reopened the space a month later as J. Devoti Trattoria, a name that suggests the new concept’s Italian influence and a more casual, familyfriendly vibe. Through all the changes, though, Devoti’s commitment to local vendors and seasonal cooking is steadfast, and many of the dishes I ate here last summer (a chilled turnip soup with corn and cherry tomatoes; cheese ravioli with confit chicken, zucchini and shishito peppers in a white wine-chive butter sauce; pork belly, smoked and finished on the grill, atop a spaghetti-squash pancake) would have felt at home at Five as well.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING New • OPENED 2018 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 5100 Daggett Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314773-5553, jdevoti.com • HOURS Dinner Wednesday-Saturday

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P H O T O S : S I D H A S T I N G S ( J . D E V O T I T R AT T O R I A ) ; M I C H A E L T H O M A S ( A N N I E G U N N ’ S ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( V E R I TA S ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( R E E D S )

Fried catfish on Chinese black rice at Reeds American Table

Chicken with tomatoes, greens and pan jus at J. Devoti Trattoria

HOME OF THE ORIGINAL GIANT RICE PAPER WRAP

Thank you St Louis for feeding our families.

You are the ones who made us.

Menu now featuring select German entrees, sandwiches and appetizers as well as our Tavern favorites.

Daily lunch and evening specials • Beef and pork supplied by Schubert‘s smokehouse • Large selection of German beers • Large outdoor patio

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lonaslileats.com

BIG Bob's "Belly Buster" Cod Meal $8.99 Meal - Includes 2 Sides & Bread

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Jack Salmon Meal

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$7.99

Half Pound Meal $7.99 Includes 2 Sides & Bread

Half Pound Meal $9.99 Includes 2 Sides & Bread

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Home Cooked Co Southernn Style Side Dishes

Hush Puppies (5) • French Fries • Mustard Potato Salad • Creamy Cole Slaw Seasoned Green Beans • Spaghetti & Red Sauce • Mac & Cheese *Additional sides may be purchased for $1.49 each

"Why Crab, When the FISH is that GOOD!"

New England Clam Chowder or Creamy Lobster Bisque

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Roasted pork sandwich at Union Loafers

BARBECUE

David Sandusky’s Beast Craft BBQ Co., newly crowned the area’s best barbecue in last year’s STL 100, will open a second location this spring in the Grove. Besides the barbecue restaurant proper, the new Beast Butcher & Block will feature an in-house butcher shop and the Skullery, a research-and-development kitchen and chef’s-table restaurant. In the meantime, Sandusky’s barbecue is only as far as Belleville, including the domestic-wagyu beef brisket and Duroc-breed pork that catapulted Beast into the Top 25 in 2018. “My goal is to beat myself for best barbecue in St. Louis,” Sandusky told the PostDispatch when announcing the new location last year.

I’m not betting against him.

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LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 20 • OPENED 2014 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 20 South Belt West, Belleville • MORE INFO 618-2579000, beastcraftbbq.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (or until sold out) daily

might not be so surprising.

Wilson honed his bread- and pizza-making skills at such acclaimed establishments as New York City’s Sullivan Street Bakery and, in St. Louis, Mike Randolph’s late, beloved Neapolitan pizzeria the Good Pie. His sourdough breads are beautifully structured and complexly flavored, and Union Loafers’ pizza is unique — New Yorkish, but with an airiness and aggressive blistering more reminiscent of Neapolitan pies. But if the crowds are any indication, Union Loafers might be its best self at lunch, when pizza isn’t available, not all of the sandwiches are served on sourdough bread and some of the best dishes (the Little Gem salad, the kale-garbanzo soup) aren’t bread-based at all.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 25 • OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 1629 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-833-6111, unionloafers.com • HOURS Lunch Tuesday-Sunday, dinner WednesdaySaturday (closed Monday-Tuesday)

the cost and convenience of a fast-casual restaurant? I’d be surprised if Guerrilla’s growth slowed any time soon.

The Big Cut Pork Steak at Beast Craft BBQ Co.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 23 • OPENED 2011 (food truck), 2015 (restaurant) • PRICING Under $15

Juniper

The Flying Pig at Guerrilla Street Food

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • FRIED CHICKEN • SOUTHERN

Sean Netzer and Ted Wilson’s Union Loafers has established itself as an indispensable bread bakery, pizzeria and lunch cafe. The first two accomplishments

John Perkins’ Juniper has moved into a gorgeous new space in the Central West End. It’s only about a halfmile from the restaurant’s original location, but it looks and feels like the bigger, brighter stage Juniper has demanded since opening in 2013. The new kitchen boasts a wood-fired grill, and Juniper has added an oyster program, but the heart of the restaurant remains the thoughtful, respectful

18 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

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Union Loafers BAKERY & DESSERT • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • PIZZA • SANDWICHES

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WHERE 3559 Arsenal Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-4481313, guerrillastreetfood.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Guerrilla Street Food FILIPINO • FOOD TRUCK

Southern cooking from Perkins and executive chef Glenister Wells. My most recent visit revealed more of the small, brilliant notes that have always set Juniper above much of the Southern cooking in town. Head-on

shrimp and heirloom Bloody Butcher’s grits distinguish the shrimp and grits, and here the ubiquitous pimento cheese is baked into a bubbling spread. And, yes, naturally, Juniper’s fried chicken made the move.

LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 22 • OPENED 2013 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE 4101 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-329-7696, junipereats.com • HOURS Dinner Monday-Saturday, lunch MondayFriday, brunch Saturday-Sunday

Guerrilla Street Food continues its impressive expansion. In 2018, Joel Crespo and Brian Hardesty’s Filipino concept opened a sleek new location on the eastern half of the

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WHERE 6120 Delmar Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-2269786, guerrillastreetfood.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Delmar Loop. My visit found the same quality of playful cooking in the citrus-forward Sour Fried Chicken with pickled corn, a seasonal dish.

Already this year, Crespo and Hardesty have added a Guerrilla Street Food stand at Two Plumbers Brewery + Arcade in St. Charles, and they plan to open a brick-and-mortar location in Maryland Heights and roll out a new version of the food truck that started it all in 2011. Inspired cooking with

WHERE 2nd Shift Brewing, 1601 Sublette Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-669-9013, guerrillastreetfood.com • HOURS 4-9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 1-6 p.m. Sunday (closed Monday) WHERE Two Plumbers Brewery + Arcade, 2236 First Capitol Drive, St. Charles • MORE INFO 636-224-8626,guerrillastreetfood. com • HOURS 3-11 p.m. TuesdayThursday, 3 p.m.-midnight Friday, noon-midnight Saturday

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P H O T O S : H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( J U N I P E R ) ; J E R R Y N A U N H E I M J R . ( B E A S T ) ; J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( U N I O N L O A F E R S ) ; C H R I S T I A N K . L E E ( G U E R R I L L A S T R E E T F O O D )

Beast Craft BBQ Co.

A glazed pork chop with braised red sauerkraut, emberroasted turnip and mustard jus at Juniper

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Ellisville Summer Classics Store: 15977 Manchester Road 63011 636-527-7655 Mon-Sat. 10-6 • 1-5 Sunday

IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

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JACK DANIEL’S is a registered trademark. ©2019 Jack Daniel’s. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Tennessee Whiskey Alcohol 50% by volume (100 Proof). Distilled and Bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, TN., USA.

20 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

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WE’D RAISE A GLASS OF OUR HERITAGE BARREL TO WHISKY ADVOCATE, BUT WE DON’T HAVE ANY. Over the years, the Jack Daniel Distillery has received an acknowledgment or two for the work we do. From

can, for more than a century and a half, and knowing that

barrel or two of it somewhere down the line. We do have

it’s well-received means the world.

a habit of making a little bit of whiskey over here in

satisfied sips at the bar to a few World’s Fair gold medals,

So we’d like to give a little appreciation of our own to

people do occasionally feel the need to get complimentary.

Whisky Advocate magazine. They named our Single Barrel

And while we don’t like to brag about these kind mentions,

Heritage Barrel the third best whiskey of 2018, and for

No. 3

we are proud of them. Not quite as proud as we are of the

that we’re grateful. We’d raise a glass of it to them, but

Tennessee Whiskey we make, but proud nonetheless.

we don’t actually have any Single Barrel Heritage Barrel

whiskey

It is nice to know that there are folks out there who enjoy

left. It seems that the people at Whisky Advocate weren’t

what we do. We’ve been doing it every day, the best we

the only ones who liked it. But maybe we’ll make another

Lynchburg, Tennessee.

OF 2018

ANY GLASS WORTH RAISING, IS WORTH RAISING RESPONSIBLY.

stltoday.com/stl100

IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

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OPENED 2017 (truck), 2019 (restaurant) • PRICING Under $15

Acero

WHERE 8103 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves • MORE INFO 314733-5700, balkantreatbox.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (or until sold out) Wednesday-Saturday (check social media for truck hours)

ITALIAN

Jim Fiala’s restaurants, the Crossing and Acero, are fully considered. This might not be the sexiest praise I can bestow on them, but it’s vital.

How many otherwise great restaurants stumble on, say, dessert or the cocktail list? At Acero, under executive chef Andy Hirstein and general manager Adam Karl Gnau, excellent Italian fare is a given, from pasta (here is the obligatory mention of the signature egg raviolo, though in recent years I’ve fallen harder for the rustic spaghetti alla chitarra with amatriciana sauce) to porchetta. Pair your meal with a wine from the deep list of Italian bottles or a cocktail such as the Affumicato, which lends an Italian accent to the mezcal craze with Nardini Amaro and Lazzaroni Amaretto.

Bar Les Frères FRENCH

Lobster Bisque at Bar Les Frères

OPENED 2007 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 7266 Manchester Road, Maplewood • MORE INFO 314-644-1790, acero-stl.com • HOURS Dinner Monday-Saturday

Breaded shrimp mogador at the Benevolent King

Egg raviolo at Acero

Balkan Treat Box

On my most recent visit to Bar Les Frères, the French restaurant from the duo of restaurateur Zoë Robinson and chef Ny Vongsaly, I took a chance to prove a point.

As a general rule, I don’t order filet mignon. I find its flavor inferior to other cuts, especially relative to its cost.

But I figured if any restaurant could do filet mignon right it would be Bar Les Frères, where Vongsaly’s team doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but draws maximum flavor from classic preparations.

So it was with the steak au poivre, precisely accented by green peppercorns, cognac and the beef’s own juices to be as flavorful as a rib-eye or strip steak. It joins the lobster bisque and cassoulet on the list of unimpeachable Bar Les Frères dishes, otherwise known as its menu.

OPENED 2012 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE 7637 Wydown Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-7258880, barlesfreres.net • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday

BOSNIAN • FOOD TRUCK • TURKISH

This year’s STL 100 catches the food truck Balkan Treat Box, 2017’s breakout hit, just as chef-owner Loryn Nalic and her husband, Edo Nalic, have opened their brick-andmortar location in Webster Groves. And I do mean just as: The restaurant’s first day was a week before this list was sent to the press.

The Benevolent King

Pide at Balkan Treat Box

22 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

lamb meatballs in a smoked tomato sauce seasoned with ras al hanout and the fresh farmer’s cheese known as jben. The spreads and small dishes known as salatim are a highlight.

Mixologist Tony Saputo inaugurated the Benevolent King’s impressive cocktail program; he has since left to run the bar program at the new Midwestern Meat & Drink downtown.

Mike’s Spicy Beef N’ Cheddar at Blues City Deli

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That isn’t close to enough time for any kind of fair critical evaluation. Know, however, that the Balkan Treat Box storefront features the dishes that have won the truck local (this critic included) and national acclaim: Bosnian cevapi on Loryn Nalic’s exceptional wood-fired somun bread, the turkish flatbread pide and doner kebabs with chicken or tofu. Expanded menu items include lahmacun (also known as Turkish pizza), pljeskavica (the “Balkan Burger”), and grilled-fish and grilled-eggplant sandwiches.

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ISRAELI • MEDITERRANEAN • MIDDLE EASTERN • MOROCCAN

The latest venture from chef-restaurateur Ben Poremba (Elaia, Olio, Nixta) feels less like a restaurant than a dinner party with a killer cocktail menu. For the food, Poremba has taken inspiration from his mother’s native Morocco, though as is his wont, he draws flavors from all around the Mediterranean and elsewhere. With Juana Caballo and Anne Fosterling as Poremba’s lieutenants in the kitchen, the casual, oft-changing menu likely will feature a chicken tagine,

OPENED 2018 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 7268 Manchester Road, Maplewood • MORE INFO 314-8990440, thebenevolentking.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday

Blues City Deli DELI • SANDWICHES

You go to this barbecue place for the beef brisket, that one for the pork ribs, to this sandwich shop for the Italian beef, that one for the hot salami. At Blues City Deli, you can order anything with confidence. Roast beef is juicy and brawny whether garnished with giardiniera in the classic Italian beef or dressed with cheddar, bacon and the spicy, smoky Delta sauce in the Mike’s Spicy Beef n’ Cheddar. Chicken?

Go for the Chicken Shack Ranch. Pork? Try any of the cold-cut combinations on the Delicious Italian menu. And while Blues City Deli isn’t a barbecue restaurant, it serves some fine smoked meats, like pastrami smoked over cherry wood (the Prez Reuben).

The line to order can be long, but the combination of efficiency and hospitality that owner Vince Valenza has mastered eases any wait.

OPENED 2004 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 2438 McNair Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7738225, bluescitydeli.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday (check website for Thursday evening live music schedule)

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P H O T O S : D AV I D C A R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( B A R L E S F R È R E S ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( B E N E V O L E N T K I N G ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( A C E R O ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( B L U E S C I T Y D E L I ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( B A L K A N T R E AT B O X )

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A taste for every mood.

Amazing restaurants, boutique shopping, entertainment and so much more.

StreetsofStCharles.com | Hwy 70 @ S. 5th St.

B a r L o u i e D e we y ’s P i z z a Fi r e b i r d s Wo o d Fi r e d G r i l l First Watch Five Guys Burgers & Fries Mission Taco Joint P. F. C h a n g ’s P i c a s s o ’s C o ff e e P i e o l o g y P i z z e r i a P r a s i n o T u c a n o ’s U - S w i r l W a s a b i S u s h i B a r

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IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

23

The patio at Brasserie

by Niche

Bogart’s Smokehouse

Salt-and-pepper calamari at Chef Ma’s

chicken rice: the Cilantro Hot Oil Juicy Chicken, the meat juicy as advertised and showered in chiles, scallion and cilantro.

Sweet-and-sour pork at Cate Zone Chinese Cafe

OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 2336 Woodson Road, Overland • MORE INFO 314-3958797 • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closed Wednesday)

OPENED 2011 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 1627 South Ninth Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-621-3107, bogartssmokehouse. com • HOURS 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sunday-Tuesday, 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m.

Wednesday-Saturday

Beef shish kebab at Cafe Natasha’s

Ribs at Bogart’s Smokehouse

Cinder House BRAZILIAN • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • STEAKHOUSE

Brasserie by Niche

Lamb ribs at Cinder House

FRENCH

A new chef, the same appealing French fare at Brasserie by Niche. Alex Feldmeier, who has worked for Gerard Craft’s Niche Food Group for several years, took charge of the Brasserie kitchen in October 2018.

Craft told me in an interview at the time that Feldmeier has “an extreme passion for French food,” which can double as an explanation for why Brasserie has remained both classic and fresh across its decade-long run. I can visit on a frigid winter night confident that both the peerless French onion soup and the hearty cassoulet will buoy my spirits, and I can still marvel at the technique: the soup’s silken texture, the cassoulet’s perfectly al dente beans.

OPENED 2009 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 4580 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314454-0600, brasseriebyniche. com • HOURS Dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday

24 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

Cafe Natasha’s MIDDLE EASTERN • PERSIAN

My son turned 1 as I researched this year’s STL 100, which meant many opportunities to pull up a high chair to one of St. Louis’ top tables and see what foods he was willing to try.

No joke: Little man went to town on Cafe Natasha’s gormeh sabzie, the Persian restaurant’s signature lamb stew served over saffron rice. His sister, 5 now and an accomplished eater, demolished a koubideh

kebab. Cafe Natasha’s bridges generations.

Hamishe Bahrami and her late husband, Behshid Bahrami, named the restaurant for their daughter.

Natasha Bahrami and her mother now operate the restaurant, with its classic recipes and, thanks to Natasha’s own passions, the area’s premier gin program.

Next year, when my son is 2, I’ll see if he’s ready for Cafe Natasha’s beef tongue.

OPENED 1983 (as the Little Kitchen) • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3200 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-771-3411, cafenatasha.com • HOURS Dinner daily, lunch Thursday-

Saturday (closed Wednesday)

Cate Zone Chinese Cafe CHINESE

The small dining room of Daniel Ma and Quincy Lin’s Cate Zone Chinese Café is perpetually packed and buzzing with conversation and the clatter of more plates being set down on already crowded tables. You can’t help but order too much here. The house specialty is the Dongbei cuisine of China’s northeast, and if you can

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

somehow restrain yourself to only one dish, it should be the traditional sweet-andsour pork as an introduction to that fare. But Cate Zone also excels at dishes from outside this region, including cumin lamb and fiery Chengdu spicy chicken. Cate Zone was impressive from the outset. Now into its third year and still growing its menu, it’s even more so.

OPENED 2016 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 8148 Olive Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314738-9923 • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet Restaurant CHINESE

Also known as That Chinese Restaurant in an Old Taco Bell, Chef Ma’s Chinese Gourmet Restaurant remains as wonderfully, refreshingly

idiosyncratic as its location.

Chef Ying Jing Ma’s menu draws from his career and multiple regional Chinese cuisines, and for the diner open-minded enough to explore beyond the ChineseAmerican fare, it yields gem after gem. I always recommend the fried squid and last year added the twice-cooked pork to my must-order list. This year, I found a cold chicken dish I like even more than Chef Ma’s signature Hainan

Cinder House replaced Cielo as the restaurant inside the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis, and it delivers the sleek luxury and expensive prices you expect from the high-end hotel chain — and the same views of downtown you loved at its predecessor.

Thanks to acclaimed chef Gerard Craft, though, Cinder House provides something more than conspicuous consumption. Craft’s childhood nanny, Dia, the late Cecelia Assuncao, was a formative influence on his cooking, and the best dishes here honor the cuisine of her native Brazil: feijoada, brimming with pork, beef and black beans; the seafood stew moqueca; Assuncao’s own recipe for cheese bread. Cinder House more broadly features wood-fired fare, with steaks as well as pork and lamb chops.

OPENED 2018 • PRICING $45 and up WHERE Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis, 999 North Second Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-881-5759, cinderhousestl.com • HOURS Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily

stltoday.com/stl100

P H O T O S : P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( B R A S S E R I E ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S A P T C H ( C H E F M A’ S , C A F E N ATA S H A’ S , C AT E Z O N E ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( B O G A R T ’ S ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( C I N D E R H O U S E )

BARBECUE

Of the big names of St. Louis’ decade-plus barbecue boom, no place looks and feels today as much like it did in its first year as Bogart’s Smokehouse. You still must squeeze yourself and your tray wherever you can find space in the shotgun dining room — and you’re still one wrong step from ending up in the kitchen. The menu hasn’t changed much. (I still dream of the return of the smoked prime rib, though.)

More importantly, the quality of the pork ribs, pastrami and other meats has been unwaveringly excellent. The Bogart’s team set a standard and have stuck to it. Booms end. Timeless is timeless.

Inspiring Community Spaces - Expansive Sky Lounge and Lobby - Dog Park and Resident Game Room - Resort-Style Courtyard and Pool

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Coveted Amenities - High-Speed WiFi Access Throughout Building - Underground Parking - State of the Art Fitness Center

Award-Winning Service - Five-Star Property Management Team - 24/7 Maintenance and Concierge

5700 Highlands Plaza Drive 314-833-6100 www.encore.apartments

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IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

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BAKERY & DESSERT

Since 2016, the STL 100 has celebrated the highbutterfat, low-overrun (translation: as decadent as can be) ice cream at Tamara Keefe’s Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Creamery as the best in St. Louis. So if you love ice cream and haven’t made a pilgrimage to the original Lafayette Square location or its larger outpost in Clayton’s DeMun neighborhood, I question whether you actually even like, let alone love, ice cream. For the rest of us, the joy is returning to see which flavors Keefe has rotated onto the menu.

Some recent favorites of mine have included rugelach (pieces of the eponymous pastry, made here with walnuts and raisins, folded into apricot ice cream) and, from the Naughty menu, the Tequila Chocolate Mole, rich and boozy with a pleasant lingering chile burn.

OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1637 South 18th Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-858-6100, clementinescreamery.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday WHERE 730 DeMun Avenue, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-858-6100, clementinescreamery.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday

his native Toluca, Mexico, and help from his married assistants Marcelo and Cruz Salazar from Tlaxcala, Mexico, serves stellar tacos, too. My favorite vacillates between the citrusy, garlicky and chile-laced al pastor and the barbacoa, lamb wrapped in maguey leaves and roasted four hours.

Order one of each, and save room for half of a torta.

OPENED 2016 • PRICING Under $15

BLT with a chocolate malt at Crown Candy Kitchen

an egg-sausage breakfast sandwich on a biscuit and an everything bagel with coldsmoked salmon. For 2019, owner Mark Hinkle and chef Mike Risk are transforming the dinner menu with a focus on Italian cuisine, putting the restaurant near the front of the line for STL 100 revisits in 2020.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 100 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves • MORE INFO 314-942-1216, thecloverandthebee.com • HOURS Breakfast and lunch daily; dinner Wednesday-Sunday

dip made from smoked Gouda as creamy and indulgent as any queso in town. Can’t get enough of Edibles & Essentials’ fries?

Track down the Essentially Fries truck, which serves them topped with different meats and garnishes.

OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $30

Ice cream at Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Creamery

A breakfast sandwich at the Clover and the Bee

Fork and Stix

Edibles & Essentials

The Clover and the Bee

Crown Candy Kitchen

BREAKFAST • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ITALIAN

BAKERY & DESSERT • SANDWICHES

The younger, more casual sibling of Webster Groves sensation Olive + Oak, the Clover and the Bee ended its first year a success on its own terms — I don’t recommend waiting until the day of to land a weekend brunch reservation — and an intriguing work in progress.

On the visits for my March 2018 review, the Clover and the Bee shined brightest at breakfast and lunch, with thoughtful interpretations of such classic dishes as

After the inaugural STL 100 back in 2015, I decided you didn’t need me to tell you to go to Crown Candy Kitchen. This is the St. Louis institution, after all, turning a spry 106 this year. You know about the sundaes, the malts, the Heart Stopping BLT. Andy Karandzieff has shepherded his family’s legacy into the 21st century, and he’s one of St. Louis’ best Twitter follows. But if you follow his tweets, you know he’s passionate about the problems facing

26 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • SANDWICHES

Crown Candy’s Old North St. Louis and the city in general — he even ran for mayor in 2017. That kind of engagement with the community is all too rare.

Crown Candy Kitchen isn’t simply an institution but the vital beating heart of a neighborhood.

OPENED 1913 • PRICING Under $15

WHERE 1401 St. Louis Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-621-9650, crowncandykitchen.net • HOURS 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Matthew Borchardt’s Edibles & Essentials benefits from repeat visits. A single meal here reveals a charmingly eclectic menu anchored by pork ribs (smoked, then deep-fried), banh mi tacos and french fries with garlic and Grana Padano. As the menu changes from month to month, however, you appreciate the range of Borchardt’s talents. On my most recent visit, he and his team showcased both duck-confit tostadas with pinto beans, salsa verde, an adobo crema and Oaxaca cheese as well as a cheese

WHERE 5815 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-328-2300, ediblesandessentials.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.

Saturday (brunch menu served 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday)

El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery MEXICAN

When I talk about Fausto and Maggie Pizarro’s El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery — after I try to explain its strange location, tucked back from and sideways to the Manchester Road-Highway 141 intersection — I usually mention the oversize tortas, which, whatever meat you order, come garnished with two pork cuts. I love those tortas, but I don’t want to ignore El Toluco’s tacos. Fausto Pizarro, working with recipes from

WHERE 14234 Manchester Road, Manchester • MORE INFO 636-686-5444, facebook. com/eltolucotaqueria • HOURS 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. WednesdayThursday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. FridaySaturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday (restaurant closed Monday)

Fork & Stix AND Kiin Essentially Thai THAI

Fork & Stix added a sleek downtown satellite named Kiin Essentially Thai last year, and though my heart remains loyal to the cozy original location, tucked away on the east side of the Delmar Loop, I support anything that spreads the gospel of the restaurant’s signature khao soi. That curry-noodle soup is a specialty of owner Phatcharin Wanna’s native northern Thailand, and since 2012, Fork & Stix has played a seminal role in introducing St. Louis to regional Thai cuisine. One other reason I favor the Delmar Loop location: Unlike Kiin, Fork & Stix’s menu offers my second-favorite of Wanna’s northern Thai meals, sai oua (sausage) paired with sticky rice and an order of naam prik nuum (roasted-chile sauce).

OPENED Fork & Stix: 2012; Kiin Essentially Thai: 2018 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE Fork & Stix, 549 Rosedale Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-863-5572, forknstix. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday) WHERE Kiin Essentially Thai, 550 North Seventh Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-241-1989, forknstix. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday)

stltoday.com/stl100

P H O T O S : J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( E L T O L U C O ) ; J E R R Y N A U N H E I M J R . ( E D I B L E S , C L O V E R ) ; D AV I D C A R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( C R O W N C A N D Y, C L E M E N T I N E ’ S ) ; R O B E R T C O H E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( F O R K & S T I X )

Clementine’s Naughty & Nice Creamery

Bacon-wrapped dates at Edibles & Essentials

Guacamole at El Toluco Taqueria and Grocery

Taste from the best restaurants in town featured in

Ian Froeb’s STL 100 List including:

MARCH 13, 2019 @ ST. LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER PRESENTED BY

Music by DJ Al Tucci

EVENT SPONSORS

BEAST Craft BBQ Billie | Jean Bogart's Smokehouse Brasserie Cinder House Clementine's Naughty & Nice Creamer y Cleveland-Heath Edibles & Essentials Elaia Grace Meat & Three J. Smug's GastroPit Katie's Pizza & Pasta Kitchen Kulture La Vallesana Mission Taco Joint Nixta Olio Pappy's Smokehouse Pastaria Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. Pint Size Bakery & Coffee Sardella Sidney Street Cafe Sister Cities Cajun Smoki O's Taste The Benevolent King The Woodshack Veritas Winslow's Home

Visit STLtoday.com/ourevents for tickets & more info! stltoday.com/stl100

IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

27

Gioia’s Deli

BURGERS • FOOD TRUCK • SAUSAGES

DELI • FOOD TRUCK • ITALIAN • SANDWICHES

Frankly Sausages serves the best sausages in town — snappy, juicy and full of flavor whether you order a conventional beef frank or beer brat or one of chef-owner Bill Cawthon’s signature creations, like the chile-verde sausage with a tomatillo-avocado relish and queso fresco. Here is a fun thing to consider, though: The sausages might not even be the best thing on the Frankly Sausages menu. The thickcut fries — brined, fried at low temperature and then fried again to order at high temperature — are crisp and cottony and by themselves are worth a trip to Frankly’s Cherokee Street storefront or wherever the food truck is parked at lunch. At the storefront, you can also get the fries covered in melted Raclette cheese.

Gioia’s Deli celebrated its 100th birthday last year with $5 sandwiches and a block party, and owner Alex Donley got up at 3:30 a.m. to start prepping the Hill institution’s signature hot salami for the event.

“We’ve made 1,600 pounds,” Donley told me at the time.

“Which might be overkill.”

Never underestimate diners’ demand for Gioia’s hot salami, and never doubt Gioia’s ability to meet that demand with a consistently excellent product at its Hill home, its downtown outpost or its year-old Creve Coeur expansion. Maybe the most telling moment of Gioia’s centennial year wasn’t the party but Donley’s decision to pull the restaurant’s hot salami from Busch Stadium’s concessions after Opening Day snafus. “It cannot be about the money,” he said

OPENED 2015 (food truck), 2017 (restaurant) • PRICING Under $15

Pastrami sandwich at the Frisco Barroom

WHERE 2744 Cherokee Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-449-1178, franklysausages.com • HOURS 5-10 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.11 p.m. Friday-Saturday (closed Sunday and Monday); check social media for food truck locations

Chile Verde Pork at Frankly Sausages

The Frisco Barroom CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

John Barr and Kelley Hall-Barr, owners of the Webster Groves retail shop Civil Alchemy, planted a second distinctive business on their block of Big Bend Boulevard when they opened the handsome, sprawling Frisco Barroom last year. Executive chef Tim Montgomery oversees a menu meaty (house-cured pastrami and corned-beef sandwiches, a tri-tip steak) but sometimes strikingly, appealingly simple (shrimp grilled with white wine, butter and lemon). The most interesting dishes pay homage to Barr and Hall-Barr’s favorite fare from restaurants in HallBarr’s native northern Michigan, including the

28 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

then. “It has to be about who we are. I will lose money to make sure my customers are happy.”

OPENED 1918 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1934 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7769410, gioiasdeli.com • HOURS 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday WHERE 903 Pine Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-776-9410, gioiasdeli.com • HOURS 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday WHERE 623 North New Ballas Road, Creve Coeur • MORE INFO 314776-9410, gioiasdeli.com • HOURS 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Hiro Asian Kitchen PAN-ASIAN

Hiro Asian Kitchen isn’t a ramen restaurant. A good, if imperfect, description of its menu would be pan-Asian, with an emphasis on the fare of chef-owner Bernie Lee’s native Malaysia.

But this is Hiro’s fifth consecutive year in the STL 100, and again I return to ramen. Lee was ahead of the St. Louis ramen curve when he opened Hiro in Downtown West six years ago, and the shrimp-based seafood ramen remains my favorite dish here. In 2018, Lee introduced Hiro Poke Co., a weekday-only lunch counter at the Eatery in the One Metropolitan Square building (211 North Broadway), and here, too, ramen is the star: to be specific, tori paitan ramen, a chickenbased ramen with the creaminess of a pork broth.

WHERE 1405 Washington Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-241-4476, hiroasiankitchen. com • HOURS Dinner TuesdaySunday, lunch Wednesday-Friday, brunch Saturday-Sunday

I Fratellini ITALIAN

I Fratellini refreshed its decor at the end of 2018, and the new interplay of light, shadow and color (especially pops of red) has only enhanced the restaurant’s intimate vibe.

The warm hospitality is unchanged. Zoë Robinson’s Italian restaurant in collaboration with chef Ny Vongsaly set the template for the duo’s other two restaurants in Clayton, Bar Les Frères and their masterpiece Billie-Jean, and is a standout in its own right. The obvious move here is to indulge yourself with dishes like spaghetti tossed with garlic, shallots and butter and topped with lobster-tail meat. But I’ve been equally impressed by more rustic fare, like a soup of the day that paired briny, perfectly cooked clams with tomato that even in winter was as lushly acidic as the summer crop.

OPENED 2001 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 7624 Wydown Boulevard, Clayton • MORE INFO 314-727-7901, ifratellini.com • HOURS Dinner Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday)

OPENED 2013 • PRICING $15-$30

Cornish pasty (a classic British hand pie with beef, potato, onion and rutabega) and a charcuterie board with venison sausage, duck rillettes and smoked trout.

Spaghetti with lobster tail at I Fratellini

Hot salami sandwich at Gioia’s on the Hill

OPENED 2018 • PRICING $15 and up WHERE 8110 Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves • MORE INFO 314-455-1090, thefriscostl. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

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P H O T O S : C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( H I R O A S I A N , F R A N K LY S A U S A G E S ) ; P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( F R I S C O B A R R O O M ) ; R O B E R T C O H E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( G I O I A’ S ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( I F R AT E L L I N I )

Frankly Sausages

Ramen at Hiro Asian Kitchen

House-ground beef brisket burger at J. Smugs Gastropit

J. Smugs GastroPit BARBECUE

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15

When I reviewed J. Smugs GastroPit in October 2017, I said the pork ribs at this small Hill barbecue restaurant owned by Joe Smugala of Smugala’s Pizza Pub, his wife, Kerri, and his brother and sister-in-law John and Linda Smugala could stand against any other ribs in town. In March 2019, I’ll go even further: J. Smugs’ ribs, aggressively seasoned and smoked over cherry wood to a perfect texture, are the best in St. Louis right now. The compact menu overseen by pitmaster Carlos Hernandez is impressive throughout, with very good brisket, pulled pork and chicken alongside fun sides and starters — especially the pit beans, mac and cheese and bacon-wrapped street corn — as well as the unique Dr Pepper barbecue sauce.

As St. Louis’ barbecue boom enters its second decade, J. Smugs is one of the upstarts catching up to the big names.

WHERE 5003 Gravois Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-3395319, jspitaria.com • HOURS 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday (breakfast menu served 9 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday, closed Monday)

Chicken and dumpling soup at J’s Pitaria

WHERE 2130 Macklind Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-4997488, jsmugsgastropit.com • HOURS 4-9 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

J’s Pitaria BOSNIAN

Bosnian stuffed, rolled pita is the heart of the menu at Josi and Zamir Jahic’s small,

“Northern Thai Cuisine”

Jerk Soul CARIBBEAN

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30

Judah’s Jerk at Jerk Soul

bright, fast-casual restaurant just southwest of the iconic windmill in Bevo Mill. You order the cigar-shaped tubes by the pound and crack through the thin, crisp phyllo exterior to your choice of filling: beef, cheese, spinach

and cheese, or potato. (Sweet tooth? Try the apple or Nutella pita.) The pita alone makes J’s Pitaria a stellar addition to the St. Louis dining scene. But the menu also includes one of the best doner kebabs in town,

Zahra Spencer and Telie Woods intended to open a small beachfront restaurant in St. Thomas in Spencer’s native U.S. Virgin Islands.

Soon after, Woods, who hails from Chicago, joined Spencer in St. Thomas, Hurricane Irma wrecked the island.

Woods then returned to the United States, via Puerto Rico, right before Hurricane Maria arrived. He ended up in St. Louis and quickly found a storefront for him and Spencer to open a restaurant in the Hyde Park neighborhood. This isn’t St. Thomas, but the jerk chicken, brasied oxtails and other dishes at this carryout-only restaurant will put you in mind of the Caribbean.

The menu includes both classic dishes, “fusions” like nachos and pizza topped with jerk chicken, and vegetarian fare based around black-bean patties.

549 Rosedale Ave., St. Louis, MO 63112

314-863-5572

OPENED 2018 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 2016 Salisbury Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-601-3871, facebook.com/jerksoulstl • HOURS Noon-8 p.m. daily (closed Saturday)

Hours: Mon. closed; Tu-Th 11am-3pm/5pm-9pm; Fri. 11am-3pm/5pm-10pm; Sat. 12pm-3pm/5pm-10pm; Sun. 12pm-3pm/5pm-9pm

Heather Aehle Financial Advisor

forknstix.com

1001 Craig Rd Ste 101 Creve Coeur, MO 63146 314-254--7689 www.edwardjones.com

MKT-5894G-A-A1

P H O T O S : C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( J . S M U G S , J ’ S P I TA R I A ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( J E R K S O U L )

cradled in housemade somun bread, as well as lamhacun, a Turkish flatbread topped with minced meat, garlic, onion, red pepper and tomato and then folded over itself.

Is your broker an 800 number? Let's talk.

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Member SIPC

RELEASE DATE: 4/5/19 AT DISTILLERY ONLY Pre-Sale link: https://www.still630.com/shop/5year * Must reserve online. No holds, etc.

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29

Omu ramen at Kounter Kulture

Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria

OPENED 2013 • PRICING $15-$30 WHERE 9568 Manchester Road, Rock Hill • MORE INFO 314-9426555, katiespizzaandpasta.com • HOURS Dinner daily, lunch MondayFriday, brunch Saturday-Sunday WHERE 14171 Clayton Road, Town and Country • MORE INFO 636-2203238, katiespizzaandpasta.com • HOURS Dinner daily, lunch MondayFriday, brunch Saturday-Sunday

Macarons at La Patisserie Chouquette

The patio at La Vallesana

OPENED 2008 • PRICING Under $15

for sandwiches and topped toasts. And alongside the Browns’ brioche bread and other baked goods, the Rustic Loaf cinches Knead’s place of high esteem in St. Louis’ growing artisan-baking scene.

WHERE 3149 North Lindbergh Boulevard, Bridgeton • MORE INFO 314-291-8500, latejanataqueria.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Potato pizza at Katie’s Pizza & Pasta Osteria

La Vallesana

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15

MEXICAN

WHERE 3467 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-376-4361, kneadbakehouse. com • HOURS 7:30 a.m.-3 p.m.

Tuesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

Saturday-Sunday (closed Monday)

Knead Bakehouse Kounter Kulture & Provisions On my most recent visit CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • PAN-ASIAN

BAKERY & DESSERT • SANDWICHES

Antonio and Brenda Garcia’s La Tejana Taqueria is an oasis of community and excellent food along an otherwise drab stretch of North Lindbergh Boulevard in Bridgeton. The name and a cursory glance at the menu might suggest tacos as the restaurant’s focal point — and you certainly wouldn’t be wrong to order tacos here, especially the cabeza and lengua — but there is quality throughout the menu, from tortas to soups like the consomé de borrego (my favorite dish here) to the carnitas and other larger plates. I’ve been dining here without disappointment since the beginning of this decade, which I can’t say about many other places, even on this list.

Legumeamole at Knead Bakehouse & Provisions

Tacos at La Tejana Taqueria

AJ Brown, who with his wife, Kirsten, opened Knead Bakehouse + Provisions in Lindenwood Park in late 2017, told me he views the bakery and cafe’s signature Rustic Loaf as a distinctly Midwestern style of bread.

It begins with a 6-yearold sourdough starter to which he adds a blend of einkorn, rye whole wheat and Missouri and Illinois wheat berries, with sea salt, all of which ferments for 72 hours. The resulting bread is excellent by itself — crusty, airy and tangy — and also makes a fine base

to carryout-only Kounter Kulture, I called ahead with my order. I mention this because doing so deprived me of one of the highlights of the Kounter Kulture experience: watching Christine Meyer and Mike Miller’s team hustle in their cramped quarters to perfect multiple orders simultaneously. The food — steamed buns with slow-roasted pork or fried catfish, khao soi, gyudon and more dishes inspired by various Asian-Pacific cuisines — are meticulously plated in their take-home packaging. And even allowing

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Saturday (closed Sunday; hours adjust during farmers market season, contact restaurant)

La Patisserie Chouquette for the drive back home, they are as gorgeous and brilliantly flavored as many upscale restaurants’ dishes.

You can also see the team working its magic at Kitchen Kulture, Kounter Kulture’s twin concept that serves made-to-order food at Tower

Grove Farmers Market. And there you can’t call ahead.

OPENED 2012 (as Kitchen Kulture) • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3825 Watson Road, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7814344, kounterkulturestl.com • HOURS 4:30-9:30 p.m. Monday-

BAKERY & DESSERT

The normal way to visit La Patisserie Chouquette is to browse Simone Faure’s baked goods and then try to limit yourself to only a few purchases. Some macarons, naturally. One

of her signature pastries, like the chocolate croissant known as the Darkness.

And maybe something you haven’t tried before. For me, this year, that last item was the tiramisu brownie, which did a fine job of representing the traditional dessert in handheld form. Another way to visit La Patisserie is to reserve a spot for its Saturday-only tea service.

Let me suggest a third way, though. A hack, if you will.

Pair the cheddar-bacon corn muffin (with actual small pieces of bacon rather than mere crumbles) or

another of Faure’s savory pastries with something sweet and call it lunch.

OPENED 2013 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1626 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-932-7935, simonefaure.com • HOURS 9 a.m.-2 p.m. TuesdayFriday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

How do you fall in love again with a restaurant you’ve maybe come to take for granted, to shunt aside for the newer, shinier restaurants on this list? At Cherokee Street anchor La Vallesana, the answer was to ignore my go-to tacos and dig into a menu that has expanded quite a bit since Hilario Vargas opened the restaurant as a much smaller shop selling ice cream and paletas. (La Vallesana still sells both desserts.) This is how I found La Vallesana’s carnitas, crisp and juicy, as well as the pierna enchilada torta with thin slices of fiery pork leg — one of the best tortas I’ve eaten in St. Louis and what a fried-bologna sandwich wishes it were.

OPENED 2003 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 2801 Cherokee Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7764223, neverialavallesana.om • HOURS 10 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

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P H O T O S : P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L A VA L L E S A N A , K O U N T E R K U LT U R E ) ; C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L A PAT I S S E R I E C H O U Q U E T T E , K AT I E ’ S P I Z Z A & PA S TA ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L A T E J A N A TA Q U E R I A )

MEXICAN

ITALIAN • PIZZA

If you wanted a model for how to build your restaurant beyond opening day, you could do far worse than Katie and Ted Collier’s Katie’s Pizza and Pasta Osteria. Katie’s served good pizza when the original location opened in Rock Hill in 2013. Since then, however, Katie Collier has improved the crust recipe, and the pizza now ranks among the best in St. Louis.

The Colliers have added a second location in Town and Country and also founded a meal-kit company, Vero Meal Kits, while maintaining the restaurant’s overall quality. And the Colliers have made Katie’s a community partner through its monthly Giveback Tuesday events, donating a day’s profits to a designated charity. As of mid-February 2019, Katie Collier said in an inverview, these events have raised a total of nearly $200,000.

La Tejana Taqueria

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Lemmons by Grbic BOSNIAN • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

When executive chef Senada Grbic was creating the Lemmons by Grbic menu, she told me in a 2017 interview, “I did things I always wanted to eat.” Two years later, the restaurant she opened with her siblings Ermin and Erna remains fresh and unique, a Bosnian- and (more broadly) Balkan-influenced south-city tavern. The Grbics are the adult children of Grbic Restaurant owners Ermina and Sulejman Grbic, and some of Lemmons by Grbic’s most appealing dishes mash up Bosnian and American fare: pizza topped with cevapi, smoked wings glazed with rakija.

More than anything, what unites the menu is Senada Grbic’s cooking, sometimes bold (a burger that is 50 percent beef, 50 percent bacon), sometimes nuanced (fire-seared trout that remains tender, with just the right note of lemon) and always appealing.

OPENED 1985 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 8396 Musick Memorial Drive, Brentwood • MORE INFO 314-645-2835, maileestl. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

Shish Tawuk at Levant

Balkan Dipping Board at Lemmons

by Grbic

The “Dirty Sancho” burger at Mac’s Local Eats

Pho Tai at Mai Lee

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 5800 Gravois Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314899-9898, lemmonsrestaurant. com • HOURS Dinner TuesdaySaturday, lunch Saturday (closed Sunday and Monday)

Levant MIDDLE EASTERN • SYRIAN

St. Louis doesn’t lack for very good Syrian and, more broadly, very good Levantine restaurants. Ahmad Hameed’s own brother runs one of them, Ranoush in the Delmar Loop. Still, Hameed saw an opening for something different. At Levant, which took over the iconic Kopperman’s space in the Central West End last year, Levant serves the food he ate while growing up in Damascus: dawood basha, meatballs in a garlicky tomato sauce; bameh, an okra stew with beef; smoky freekeh with beef or chicken and a tart yogurt sauce. Those seeking more familiar fare — hummus, falafel, kebabs — will also be impressed. Hameed, whose culinary career

32 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

includes time at a sevenstar hotel in Abu Dhabi, is a chef with serious chops.

as chef. The guarantees: There will be a range of protein and vegetarian options each week, and the price for that main course and any a-la-carte sides will be a terrific value.

OPENED 2018 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 386 North Euclid Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-8334400, levantstl.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

OPENED 2016 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 15270 Manchester Road, #130, Ballwin • MORE INFO 636-220-3212, facebook. com/localchefstl • HOURS 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m.

Saturday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday

Local Chef Kitchen BREAKFAST • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

When Rob Uyemura opened Local Chef Kitchen in 2016, one of the dishes I celebrated in my review was sauteed chicken in a broth with leeks and chanterelle mushrooms.

On my latest return here, I devoured crackling, juicy fried chicken. In a sleeker restaurant, Uyemura could have charged twice as much

smashed burger in St. Louis and what might be the area’s best burger, period. How good is it? In theory, the biggest burger here is the Captain, with four patties, but you can keep adding extra patties, and if you’re the first person to finish a burger with a certain number of patties, you can name the burger. As I write this, diners have eaten and named burgers with as many as 18 patties. Normally, I dislike gimmicks such as these, but the Mac’s burger, made from ground dry-aged, whole-cow beef, is so extraordinary that I’m tempted to try to fix my name on some towering, heart-stopping beast.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1227 Tamm Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-479-8155, macslocaleats.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closed Tuesday)

Mai Lee CHINESE • VIETNAMESE

Chicken sausage with creamed-corn mac and cheese, marinated beets and Mayfair kale salad at Local Chef Kitchen

Mac’s Local Eats BAR & GRILL • BURGERS

for the former. The latter, were it available daily, would earn him a devoted

Medina Mediterranean Grill

following. The appeal of Local Chef Kitchen is that its menu is in constant

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flux, guided by the local produce Uyemura brings in and his own inspiration

Mac’s Local Eats, the holein-the-wall restaurant inside Dogtown’s Tamm Avenue Bar, serves what is unquestionably the best

MIDDLE EASTERN • SANDWICHES

Ibrahim Ead’s Medina Mediterranean Grill embodies some of the most important trends in contemporary dining. It’s a locally owned fast-casual operation.

Its menu doesn’t sprawl but focuses on doing one dish — shawarma, beef and chicken — exceptionally well.

And its menu also reflects Ead’s own experiences, growing up both here in St. Louis and in the Palestinian territories, with sandwiches such as the Summer in Dubai, a mashup of shawarma, chipotle-tahini sauce and pepper jack cheese. When Medina joined the STL 100 in 2016, I wrote it might be the “restaurant of the future.”

The future is now — and here.

OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1327 Washington Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-241-1356, medinagrill.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closes at 5 p.m. Sunday) WHERE 5 Maryland Plaza, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-240-5301, medinagrill.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closes at 5 p.m. Sunday)

Few chefs have been more influential over the past four decades of dining in St. Louis than Lee Tran, founder of Mai Lee. She introduced St. Louis to Vietnamese cuisine when she added it to the menu of her Chinese restaurant, and few restaurants of any kind can match Mai

stltoday.com/stl100

P H O T O S : J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L E VA N T ) ; D AV I D C A R S O N - P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( M E D I N A ) ; P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( M A C ’ S ) ; J E R R Y N A U N H E I M J R . ( L E M M O N S ) ; C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( M A I L E E ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( L O C A L C H E F K I T C H E N )

Lee’s consistent record of excellence from its original University City location to its current Brentwood home. (I doubt any other restaurant could have not merely succeed but thrived after moving to the ground floor of a parking garage behind big-box stores.) And Mai Lee continues to impress across its expansive menu, from soups to noodles to stir-fries.

As always, the place for firsttime diners to start is #133, the salt-and-pepper calamari.

Al Andalus salad at Medina Mediterranean Grill

Carne arrachera at Mi Tierra Bonita

P H O T O S : C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( M I T I E R R A B O N I TA , M I S S I O N TA C O J O I N T ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( M E S K E R E M )

Doro wat at Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant

OPENED 2007 • PRICING Under $30

Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant ETHIOPIAN

South Grand mainstay Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant is an ideal antidote for our distracted, solitary modern times. Here, as is custom in Ethiopian dining, you forgo utensils and scoop up your food with the spongy flatbread called injera. In other words, you must put your phone away. And as everyone at the table uses their injera to scoop up some tibs wat from here, some miser alecha from over there, your meal naturally turns into a communal experience. For 12 years now, Henok Gerbi and Atsede Wondem have been serving a vibrant array of beef, lamb and chicken dishes and, as importantly, lentil, vegetable and other vegetarian-friendly fare. We need it today more than ever.

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WHERE 3210 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-772-4442, meskeremstl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Mi Tierra Bonita MEXICAN

At Mi Tierra Bonita, Juan Sanchez has relocated and expanded his brother’s restaurant and grocery store Mi Tierra Tienda y Taqueria.

The relocation is right next door. The expansion is significant: The old location was a small grocery store with the taqueria in back. In the new location, you pass through the modest market into a large dining room with a bar. The restaurant features Sanchez’s family recipes from Michoacán, Mexico.

Dishes range from tacos and tortas to enchiladas, fajitas and other larger plates. I’m especially fond of Mi Tierra’s soups and stews, including mole de olla (beef, corn, potato and chayote in a broth

Three Little Pigs burrito at Mission Taco Joint

laced with the smokiness and medium heat of guajillo chiles) and carne en es jugo (flank steak with pinto beans, bacon and a few small pieces of hot dog in a broth nearly as thick and rich as gravy).

OPENED 2018 (expansion) • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 3203 Collinsville Road, Fairmont City • MORE INFO 618-2717311 • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

connection to the food: This isn’t straight-up Mexican fare, but Mexican food as seen through the Tilfords’ native California. The food can both honor traditional recipes (the torta ahogada, the Yucatecan roasted pork) and not take itself too seriously (the Brah’rito, with carne asada, black beans and cheese as well as bacon and fries inside the burrito).

Drink Locally

OPENED 2013 • PRICING Under $30

Mission Taco Joint MEXICAN

Adam and Jason Tilford’s Mission Taco Joint continues its growth, with four locations in the St. Louis area and two outposts in Kansas City. The key to Mission’s success has been, first and foremost, the Tilfords’ appreciation of and respect for Mexican cuisine, as also displayed at their previous ventures Tortillaria and Milagro Modern Mexican.

Specific to Mission, though, is the Tilfords’ personal

WHERE 6235 Delmar Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-9325430, missiontacojoint.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE 908 Lafayette Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-8588226, missiontacojoint.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE 398 North Euclid Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-9302955, missiontacojoint.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE 1650 Beale Street, #130, St. Charles • MORE INFO 636442-1620, missiontacojoint.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Open Daily 11am-5pm closed tuesday’s Wine Tasting info@noboleisvineyards.com

Live Music

Tours Available

100 Hemsath Road Augusta, MO 63332

636 . 482 . 4500

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BAKERY & DESSERT

If you doubt the growth of the St. Louis food scene over the past two decades, consider Nathaniel Reid Bakery, a world-class patisserie tucked like no big deal into a Kirkwood shopping plaza a generous passer-by would describe as unremarkable. The interior is anything but.

Inside the display case, colorful macarons, exquisite miniature cakes, breakfast pastries and even savory fare such as sandwiches and quiche compete for your attention. Reid and his team of bakers give equal due to classic pastries (croissants, the kouign-amman, the Paris-Brest) and Reid’s own creations, including the Kyoto, a hazelnut cake with milk-chocolate mousse, hazelnut praline and lime caramel. The Kyoto is one of the aforementioned exquisite miniature cakes, but its sticky-smooth-crunchy textures and swanky take on familiar flavors make this the best grown-up candy bar I’ve eaten.

OPENED 2016 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 11243 Manchester Road, Kirkwood • MORE INFO 314-858-1019, nrbakery. com • HOURS 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m.

Saturday (closed Sunday)

Nixta MEXICAN

Chicken Liver Mousse at Olio

Frisco-style Smash Burger at Pangea

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3245 Rue Royale, St. Charles • MORE INFO 636-757-3579, pangeaworldfusion.wixsite.com • HOURS Dinner Monday-Saturday, brunch Sunday (closed Tuesday)

Pappy’s Smokehouse

deep-fried crisp to order and served with a bracing salsa macha) and not (leaden masa dumplings in the sopa de orejitas, bland chicken in a mole negro).

What Nixta has already accomplished speaks to its importance and continued potential, but this is a restaurant at a crossroads.

Pulpo Con Salsa Macha at Nixta

A breakfast sandwich at Nathaniel Reid Bakery

Pappy’s Smokehouse BARBECUE

OPENED 2016 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 1621 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-899-9000, nixtastl.com • HOURS Dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Nudo House

Banh Mi Pho Dip at Nudo House

JAPANESE • VIETNAMESE

Two exciting but tumultuous years seem to have caught up with Ben Poremba’s Mexican restaurant. Nixta weathered the 2017 departure of inaugural executive chef Tello Carreon, whose inspired, soulful cooking brought the restaurant national acclaim, thanks to his successor, Alex Henry, who shifted the menu’s focus to his native Yucatán while maintaining the standard Carreon had set. Henry left Nixta last year, though, and my visits to the restaurant under Poremba’s stewardship alongside sous chef Cesar Correa have found dishes both electric (octopus steamed tender,

Qui Tran and Marie-Anne Velasco marked Nudo House’s first anniversary in July 2018 with news of a second location, which is slated to open this spring in the Everly on the Loop building on the eastern half of the Delmar Loop. When they announced the news, Tran noted the significance of the new location’s Delmar Boulevard address to his family. His mother, Lee Tran, opened Mai Lee a few miles west on Delmar. “It’s very nostalgic,” Tran told the PostDispatch. “It’s coming full circle.” The new Nudo House will follow the original’s

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Olio CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • ISRAELI • MEDITERRANEAN

menu of pho, several different styles of ramen — including my co-favorites, the tonkotsu and the Hebrew Hammer (chicken paitan) — and soft-serve ice cream.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 11423 Olive Boulevard, St. Louis County • MORE INFO 314-274-8046, nudohousestl. com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday)

In October 2018, Ben Poremba named Aaron Martinez the executive chef of his upscale flagship Elaia and the adjacent, more casual Olio. At Olio, the changes have been gradual but not insignificant. When I visited this winter, I enjoyed an Olio standby, lahmacun (aka Turkish pizza). By the

time I called to fact-check the first draft of these words, lahmacun was off the menu.

Poremba told me in a phone interview that Martinez is continuing a process that began before his arrival to shift Olio’s identity from a wine bar with diverse Mediterranean influences to an Israeli restaurant. Already you’ll notice a brighter spotlight on vegetables. A key part of Olio’s evolution is its wood-fired outdoor oven and the bread program overseen by Joe Stein.

OPENED 2012 • PRICING $15-$30 WHERE 1634 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-932-1088, oliostl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

At this point, I should just put a photograph of the Pappy’s Smokehouse ribs in this space and save the 100 words for the next restaurant on the list. Alas, I fear there might be some souls out there who haven’t experienced the magic of the dry-rubbed ribs smoked over apple and cherry wood, ribs that in 11 years of visits have never been anything but the perfect texture. So go, don’t worry about the line (if there is one, it moves quickly), order the ribs and — why not — the burnt ends, too, and change your life already.

OPENED 2008 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3106 Olive Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-535-4340, pappysmokehouse.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (or until sold out) Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. (or until sold out) Sunday

Pangea CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

When Jessie Gilroy opened Pangea in St. Charles’ planned New Town community in 2017, she served thoughtful

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P H O T O S : C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( PA P P Y ’ S ) ; C O LT E R P E T E R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( O L I O , N I X TA ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( PA N G E A ) ; J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( N AT H A N I E L R E I D , N U D O )

Nathaniel Reid Bakery

modern American fare with (as the name Pangea suggests) global touches.

Jerk seasoning here, Thai red-curry paste there. If you look at the menu today, you’ll see descriptions of more straightforward fare, and you might describe Pangea as a neighborhood restaurant. That suits Gilroy, who told me in a phone interview this winter that she still applies those global touches here and there — she just doesn’t advertise them. Regardless, the talent Gilroy burnished at Charlie Gitto’s, the Tavern Kitchen & Bar and Sidney Street Café is evident in the care of seasoning and execution she applies to a comforting tomato soup or the Steak ’n Shake-esque Frisco burger.

P H O T O S : H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( P L A N T E R ’ S H O U S E ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( P I Z Z A H E A D , P O L I T E S O C I E T Y ) ; C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( P E A C E M A K E R ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( P I N T S I Z E ) ; J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( P H O L O N G )

French Onion Burger at Planter’s House

A slice of pepperoni pizza at Pizza Head

Pint Size’s facility with savory treats like the “BLT” muffin flecked with bacon, sun-dried tomato and spinach. Big and small, sweet and savory, Pint Size’s true appeal is universal across its menu: Augustin’s and Boehm’s skills as bakers and their dedication to fresh, quality ingredients.

OPENED 2012 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 3133 Watson Road, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314645-7142, pintsizebakery.com • HOURS 7 a.m.-4 p.m. TuesdayFriday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Oysters at Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co.

Pizza Head PIZZA • VEGETARIAN

The Brown Shuga’ crumb cake at Pint Size Bakery

Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. SEAFOOD

When Kevin Nashan announced last year that he was expanding Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. to Tulsa, Okla., he told the PostDispatch: “We always wanted to give (the Peacemaker concept) another chance.

We didn’t know where that was going to be.” If I was surprised by the location of this next chance, I was more surprised, on reflection, that there weren’t already several Peacemaker satellites orbiting the Benton Park original. The concept is a slam-dunk: Acadianinspired seafood from the Northeast and New Orleans (with an essential side trip for Maryland blue crabs, boiled or steamed) in a casual setting overseen by the James Beard Awardwinning Nashan. As vital to Peacemaker as Nashan’s credentials is his respect for his seafood purveyors, immortalized in large photographs throughout the dining room.

OPENED 2014 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE 1831 Sidney Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-772-8858, peacemakerstl.com • HOURS

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Shrimp and grits at Polite Society

Dinner daily, lunch Monday-Friday (opens at 1:30 p.m. Sunday)

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $30

Pho Tai at Pho Long

Pint Size Bakery BAKERY & DESSERT

Pho Long VIETNAMESE

I’ve long celebrated University City’s Pho Long for being at the vanguard of St. Louis restaurants confident enough to focus on a single dish, and now I also celebrate Pho Long opening a second location on South Grand Boulevard in the city’s Shaw neighborhood. The spacious new dining room will be a shock to those of us who have squeezed into the University City location (and especially those who recall the even smaller original location), but the pho retains the deeply beefy essence that lingers past the herbal,

floral top notes, the warming spices and whatever else you add to your own bowl.

OPENED 2006 • PRICING Under $15

Dough made me a fan of Scott Sandler. First, there was the Neapolitan-style dough he crafted at Pizzeoli in Soulard, which for a toobrief time was St. Louis’ best pizzeria. Sandler sold Pizzeoli in 2017, though, and focused on his South Grand New Yorkstyle pizzeria, Pizza Head.

The dough here is, by design, less complex in flavor and structure than the Neapolitan style, but it still makes for a fine crust. But over my return visits I’ve realized cheese is what I love most about Pizza Head. Or, rather, how cheese covers Pizza Head’s crust. Sandler has nailed the ratio of stringy, melted, low-moisture mozzarella to crust. A slice is a meal itself, and a whole pie ensures leftovers to be savored cold.

WHERE 8627 Olive Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-997-1218, facebook.com/ pholongstl • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closed Tuesday)

WHERE 2245 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-833-4333, facebook.com/ pholong2 • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closed Monday)

Christy Augustin and Nancy Boehm’s Pint Size Bakery evinces a homespun, everyday vibe. You don’t need to cradle your precious purchases on the way to your table. These are big pastries and bigger flavors: the signature oatmeal-cream pie, Brown Shuga Crumb Cake and breakfast cookie, to name but a few. But Augustin and Boehm offer smaller, more subtle treats, too. New to me on my most recent visit was the oatmeal-stout tea cookie, gone in a few bites, cakelike in texture, with a malty and, yes, vaguely beerlike sweetness. This year I also reminded myself of

WHERE 3196 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-266-5400, pizzaheadstl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

it every year. In the last couple of years, though, Planter’s House has come into its own as a restaurant, too. The menu from chef Sam Boettler doesn’t try to complete with the dazzle of Kilgore’s cocktails. His cooking can be subtle, like the unfolding layers of heat, spice and grassy meat in the lamb adobo over toast. It can also surprise, as in a winning juxtaposition of tempura-like fried chicken over sauteed mushrooms and bok choy.

OPENED 2013 • PRICING $30-$45 WHERE 1000 Mississippi Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-6962603, plantershousestl.com • HOURS 4 p.m.-midnight TuesdayThursday (kitchen closes at 10 p.m.), 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday (kitchen closes at 11 p.m.), 4-11 p.m.

Sunday (kitchen closes at 9 p.m.)

Polite Society CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Thomas Futrell’s unshowy but exacting and flavorforward cooking at Polite Society continues to impress.

Signature dishes like shrimp and grits (an appetizer), the pork osso buco and the bistro steak with foyot sauce anchor the menu, but Futrell changes dishes with some frequency. My visit in the late fall of 2018 featured a bowl of hearty cioppino and a bruschetta topped with braised beef and chile-laced ricotta. The cocktail program has improved since the restaurant’s 2017 debut, with greater balance in the flavors of the specialty drinks. Polite Society is a premier example of a vanishing breed: a modern neighborhood bistro worth a trip from elsewhere.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING $30 and up

Planter’s House CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Over the past 13 years, from Monarch to Taste by Niche to Planter’s House, Ted Kilgore has done as much as anyone — and likely more than anyone — to bring St. Louis’ cocktail culture into the modern era. If the STL 100 were a list of the area’s most essential bars, Planter’s House, which Kilgore opened in 2013 with his wife, Jamie, and business partner Ted Charak, would have topped

WHERE 1923 Park Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-325-2553, politesocietystl.com • HOURS Dinner daily, lunch Monday-Friday, brunch Saturday-Sunday

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Seared salmon at Retreat Gastropub

curry sauce, heady with chiles, galangal, fresh basil and makrut lime, simply by itself. That personal touch, both in hospitality and in the complex flavors of the Prapaisilpas’ cooking, is what brings me back to Rice Thai Bistro for the green and other curries and signature dishes such as khao moo daeng (barbecue pork over rice).

OPENED 2014 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 14536 Manchester Road, Winchester • MORE INFO 636-220-1777, ricethaibistro. net • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

Salt + Smoke BARBECUE

It’s difficult enough for a restaurant to maintain a quality product over multiple locations, and I would be praising Salt + Smoke if I said its barbecue remains consistently excellent at both its original

Private Kitchen AND Soup Dumplings STL CHINESE

Lawrence Chen’s Private Kitchen repays the (slightly) additional effort it requires to dine here. Peruse the menu on the restaurant’s Facebook page and know what you want to order when you call or text to make a reservation. Chen’s cooking generally focuses on the cuisine of Shanghai — soup dumplings and the Shanghaistyle braised shrimp are good introductions for first-time diners — but don’t overlook his gorgeously crisp-skinned version of classic Peking duck. (You must order that at least two days ahead.) Chen’s Soup Dumplings STL in the same small University City shopping strip features his signature soup dumplings with various meat and seafood fillings in a much more casual setting.

OPENED 2015 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE Private Kitchen, 8106

36 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

Olive Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-989-0283, facebook.com/privatekitchenstl • HOURS Dinner daily (closed Tuesday)

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN

Deviled eggs with bacon at Salt + Smoke

OPENED 2015 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE 6 North Sarah Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-261-4497, retreatgastropub.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday (closed Tuesday)

WHERE 6525 Delmar Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314727-0200, saltandsmokestl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE 5625 Hampton Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7270200, saltandsmokestl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

ITALIAN • SANDWICHES

Retreat Gastropub

STL 100, I’ve eaten both lunch and brunch here and was impressed on each occasion that Retreat keeps its standards high no matter the time of day.

OPENED 2014 • PRICING Under $30

Salume Beddu at Parker’s Table

Speck sandwich at Salume Beddu at Parker’s Table

WHERE Soup Dumplings STL, 8110 Olive Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-445-4605, facebook.com/ soupdumplingstl • HOURS 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily (closed Tuesday)

One of 2018’s most anticipated debuts was Yellowbelly, the new venture from Retreat Gastropub’s Travis Howard and Tim Wiggins. Anticipation for Yellowbelly started building even before Howard and Wiggins announced the involvement of “Top Chef” celebrity chef Richard Blais, thanks to the standard Retreat had already set. The restaurant has maintained that standard into 2019 under new executive chef Adam Bingham, with its deftly executed, deceptively casual American fare and Wiggins’ inspired cocktail creations (including a few with lower-than-usual ABV). Since last year’s

Delmar Loop location and its St. Louis Hills expansion. But Tom Schmidt and co-owner, pitmaster and executive chef Haley Riley haven’t merely kept Salt + Smoke consistently excellent — they’ve kept improving it. A couple of years ago, they switched to prime beef for their signature beef brisket. When the St. Louis Hills location opened, they introduced french fries cooked in beef fat; since then, they have added this upgrade to the Delmar Loop. This year gives Schmidt and Riley their next challenge: a third location, slated to open in spring or summer in St. Charles.

Rice Thai Bistro THAI

A moment I haven’t forgotten from my review visits to Rice Thai Bistro in 2015: Bryan Prapaisilpa, who operates the restaurant with his wife, Nina, took my order for red curry with beef but then gently suggested that, if I wanted beef, I should order green curry instead. He was right, of course — though I’d happily eat the restaurant’s green

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

Khao Moo Daeng at Rice Thai Bistro

Nothing can replace the original Salume Beddu storefront, which offered Marc Sanfilippo’s worldclass salumi on its own or in sandwiches as well as standout weekend specials. (Well, sort of.

The business that took over its Lindenwood Park address, Knead Bakehouse + Provisions, is an excellent cafe that joins the STL 100 this year.) But Salume Beddu’s sandwich legacy lives on at the Richmond Heights wine shop and specialty grocery Parker’s Table, where six days a week you can order the speck with preserved lemon or another of the classic sandwiches for lunch. Parker’s Table makes it an all-in-one deal: The price of your sandwich includes chips and a drink.

OPENED 2011 (Salume Beddu) • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 7118 Oakland Avenue, Richmond Heights • MORE INFO 314-645-2050, parkerstable.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-2 p.m. MondaySaturday (Parker’s Table open 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Saturday)

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P H O T O S : J . B . F O R B E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( P R I VAT E K I T C H E N ) ; C R I S T I N A M . F L E T E S / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( R E T R E AT G A S T R O P U B ) ; C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S A L U M E B E D D U ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S A LT + S M O K E ) ; R O B E R T C O H E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( R I C E T H A I )

Steamed pork buns at Private Kitchen

P H O T O S : P O S T- D I S PAT C H F I L E ( S I M B A , S E O U L TA C O , S I S T E R C I T I E S ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( S M O K I O ’ S ) ; L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S O U T H W E S T D I N E R ) ; C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S A M E E M )

Mbizi Enjokye at Simba Ugandan Cuisine

Spicy kimchi soup at Seoul Taco

Shrimp and grits at Sister Cities Cajun

goal was to prepare snoot in the most qualitative manner that ever touched your teeth, while sincerely exciting your palate regardless of your age.”

Done and done. Smoki O’s crunchy, smoky snoots are a St. Louis treasure, by themselves or in the classic pairing with rib tips, and a welcome antidote to the brisket-ribs sameness of the current crop of barbecue restaurants. Not that you should only order snoots and rib tips here. The hot link is exceptional, and the pulled pork and brisket both make for fine sandwiches.

OPENED 1997 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1545 North Broadway, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-6218180, smokiosbbq.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Southwest Diner BREAKFAST • DINER • SOUTHWESTERN

Sameem Afghan Restaurant AFGHAN

St. Louis lacked an Afghan restaurant when brothers Fahime and Qayum Mohammad opened Sameem Afghan Restaurant in 2005.

They’ve been showing us what we’ve been missing ever since, from the original Tower Grove South location to an outpost in Manchester (now closed) to its current home in Forest Park Southeast’s Grove. Qayum and his wife, Sitara, are in charge of the kitchen, where they prepare muntoo, chicken pallow and other traditional Afghan fare.

Lamb dishes — especially the spicy biryani and karahi — are a highlight, and your meal should begin with an order of sambosas and the addictive green chutney that accompanies them.

OPENED 2005 (original location), 2012 (current location) • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 4341 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-534-9500, sameems.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

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Seoul Taco

Butter shrimp at Sameem Afghan Restaurant

FOOD TRUCK • KOREAN • MEXICAN

After conquering St. Louis with his Korean-Mexican mashup fare, David Choi in 2019 will at long last open a location of Seoul Taco in the city itself. (Specifically, Seoul Taco is slated to open in the new Chroma building in Forest Park Southeast’s Grove district.) OK, that isn’t entirely fair. The original Seoul Taco food truck has been visiting city locations since 2011. Still, with Seoul Taco having since expanded to big ol’ Chicago, it’s good to see Choi placing a bet on the city and giving us another spot to scarf down the spicy pork burrito with kimchi fried rice.

OPENED 2011 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 6665 Delmar Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-863-1148, seoultaco.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE 46 Four Seasons Shopping Center, Chesterfield • MORE INFO 314-548-6868, seoultaco.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

Smoki O’s

Biscuits and gravy with an egg at Southwest Diner

Simba Ugandan Restaurant UGANDAN

In her native Kampala, Uganda, Christine Mukulu Sseremba was an actress and ran a company providing IT training, especially to women and the underprivileged.

Then a dispute with a relative of Uganda’s president forced her to flee the country.

She sought asylum in the United States and, having moved to St. Louis, opened

Olive Green International Restaurant in University City’s Jeffrey Plaza, home to many notable small, independent restaurants over the years. In 2018, she reopened the restaurant in a standalone building across the street from Jeffrey Plaza as Simba Ugandan Restaurant. The food ranges from Ugandan street fare (the chapati-wrapped Rolex) to the warming spices of goat curry and the garlic-imbued mbizi enjoyke (roasted pork ribs). Simba’s food is delicious, its relaxed pace winning, its story thoroughly, essentially American.

OPENED 2018 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 8531 Olive Boulevard, Unversity City • MORE INFO 314-222-9029, facebook.com/ simbaugandanrestaurant • HOURS Lunch and dinner TuesdaySunday (closed Monday)

Sister Cities Cajun CAJUN/CREOLE

For as long as I’ve recommended Travis Parfait and Pamela Melton’s Sister Cities Cajun, from its original Dutchtown location to its current home

in Marine Villa, I’ve called the smoked chicken wings the restaurant’s must-order dish. The wings are great, and you should order them, but to appreciate Parfait’s talent as a chef more fully, order his gumbo. A native of Dulac, La., about 75 miles southwest of New Orleans on the Gulf Coast, Parfait loads his gumbo with crawfish, shrimp, clams, scallops and mahi mahi (or similar fish). Based on a dark roux and laced with chile heat, it’s spicy, briny and rich on its own or smothering smoked chicken thighs and dirty rice (the Dirty Chick).

OPENED 2013 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3550 South Broadway, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-405-0447, sistercitiescajun.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday-Monday)

Smoki O’s

Southwest Diner serves barbacoa fries. Did you know this? I somehow didn’t until a recent visit and now regret my six previous barbacoa-fries-less years.

At Jonathan Jones and Anna Sidel’s New Mexicoinspired diner in Ellendale, the kitchen braises beef and then finishes it on the flattop grill. The pieces get a tender-crisp combination like great gyro meat. This is piled atop fries along with guacamole, pico de gallo and Chihuahua cheese.

It’s an appetizer you can order as an entree — or order as an appetizer and then again as an entree.

Along with Southwest Diner’s posole, carne adovada and enchiladas, it’s another reason to accept the inevitable wait for weekend brunch here.

OPENED 2012 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 6803 Southwest Avnue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-2607244, southwestdinerstl.com • HOURS 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday

BARBECUE

Posted to one side of the cash register inside Otis and Earline Walker’s Smoki O’s is an article by Earline from some years ago on the subject of “snootology.” At Smoki O’s, she writes, “Our

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BARBECUE

Alex Cupp has taken a circuitous route to the upper ranks of St. Louis barbecue. He was burned out on cooking after working in a country-club kitchen, but a “real” job didn’t suit him. So he went to work at his neighborhood barbecue restaurant, Adam’s Smokehouse, and fell in love with smoking meats.

His passion is apparent in the Stellar Hog’s focused menu, highlighted by four cuts: pulled pork, pork ribs, beef brisket and corned beef brisket. Each is worthy of a visit, but the two briskets set the Stellar Hog apart. The standard brisket is among the best in town, dry-rubbed and smoked over fruitwood, while the corned brisket’s weeklong brine gives the smoky meat the mineral edge of a fine medium-rare steak.

OPENED 2016 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 5623 Leona Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-4818448, thestellarhog.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday (bar only open Monday, closed Tuesday)

Southwest veggie burger at SweetArt

PRICING Under $15

Torta ahogada at Taqueria Durango

Taste CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • SMALL PLATES

From left: spicy chocolate, cheesecake and chocolate chip mint scoops at the Taco & Ice Cream Joint

Gulf shrimp served on tostones at Taste

SweetArt BAKERY & DESSERT • BREAKFAST • SANDWICHES • VEGAN • VEGETARIAN

Reine and Cbabi Bayoc’s SweetArt is a community hub, a studio for Cbabi’s art, a bakery and a vegetarianand vegan-friendly breakfast and lunch cafe. I came back to SweetArt for the first time in several years because of that last category. Thanks to the hyped, beef-mimicking Impossible Burger, nonmeat patties have been on my mind, and I remembered SweetArt’s as a standout. My memory was correct: The patty here is hearty, with a distinct spicing that takes well to the usual burger condiments but doesn’t pretend to be meat. Another savory dish to sate the vegan-skeptical is Octavia Butler’s Burrito, with vegan chili, salsa and a cilantro chutney. My return naturally led to a reintroduction to Reine Bayoc’s baking,

38 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

WHERE 10238 Page Avenue, Overland • MORE INFO 314429-1113, facebook.com/ taqueriadurangosaintlouis • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

from the refreshingly light-bodied cupcakes to the signature Maine Event chocolate-chunk cookie.

OPENED 2008 • PRICING Under $15

the cash register without forgetting to order the savory half of your meal.

WHERE 2203 South 39th Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-7714278, sweetartstl.com • HOURS 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Saturday (closed Sunday)

The Taco & Ice Cream Joint BAKERY & DESSERT • MEXICAN

Even among the Mexican restaurants on the STL 100, the Rico family’s Taco & Ice Cream Joint stands out. No matter what kind of taco you order here, you’re guaranteed a great meal.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 2738 Cherokee Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-224-5799, facebook.com/tacoandicecreamjoint • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closes at 7 p.m. Sunday)

Gua Boa at Tai Ke

My personal favorites are the spicy, citrusy cochinita pibil and the beef barbacoa and cabeza, but I’d hear arguments for the classic al pastor or the plump grilled shrimp, too. (Whatever taco you prefer, you can amp it up further with the selection

of squeeze-bottle salsas, each labeled with its own daunting spiciness warning.)

The greatest challenge here, though, isn’t choosing only three or four tacos. It’s walking past the lengthy display case of ice creams and paletas on the way to

GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.03.19

Tai Ke CHINESE • TAIWANESE

Potential redevelopment looms over the intersection of Olive Boulevard and Interstate 170 in University City, which has become

one of St. Louis’ most vital restaurant crucibles. And while the best of these restaurants might occupy modest storefronts, they aren’t “hidden gems.” Tai Ke has been packed more or less since day one with diners eager for chef-owner Calvin Koong’s take on Taiwanese cuisine, from street snacks like a hot dog cradled in a sticky-rice “bun” to brimming bowls of braised-beef noodle soup and clear clam soup, from the sizzling clay pot filled with the Signature Three Cup Chicken to my new obsession, the chile-spiked Taiwanese popcorn chicken.

Redevelopment happens every day. Restaurants as

essential as Tai Ke don’t.

OPENED 2015 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 8604 Olive Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-801-8894, taikestl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily (closed Tuesday)

Change has come again to Gerard Craft’s Taste, but its appeal remains undiminished. Since my last visit for the STL 100, Matt Wynn, who worked for Craft at Niche and Sardella and who most recently was at Good Fortune, has stepped into the executive chef role, while Nick Digiovanni of the late Público is now bar manager. Under Wynn, the kitchen continues to turn out small plates more thoughtful and flavorful than many restaurants’ main courses, like carrots cooked in bacon fat with pickled shallots, smoky blue cheese, bread crumbs and a sunflower-oat granola or gnocchi and hen of the wood mushrooms under a cap of fontina cheese with an unexpected chile kick. Digiovanni and the bar team have maintained Taste’s tradition of honoring classic cocktails and offering inventive, cheekily named new creations.

OPENED 2009 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE 4584 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-361-1200, tastebarstl. com • HOURS Dinner daily

Taqueria Durango MEXICAN

If you could only go to one Mexican restaurant on the STL 100? Don’t make me choose. If you and a large group could only go to one Mexican restaurant on the STL 100? That’s an easy call.

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P H O T O S : C H R I S T I A N G O O D E N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S T E L L A R H O G ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( S W E E TA R T ) ; R O B E R T O R O D R I G U E Z ( TA Q U E R I A D U R A N G O ) ; R I C H A R D PA C K ( TA S T E ) ; S I D H A S T I N G S ( TA C O & I C E C R E A M J O I N T ) ; D AV I D C A R S O N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( TA I K E )

The Stellar Hog

Taqueria Durango, which on my visits over the years has never lacked a crowd in spite of its awkward backfrom-the-road location.

The menu offers something for almost every palate, from the signature torta ahogada to breakfast fare to shrimp cocktail. Taco aficionados will appreciate the range of available fillings, and everyone will agree on the creamy, spicy chori-queso dip to begin.

Smoked ribs at the Stellar Hog

P H O T O S : L A U R I E S K R I VA N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( V I N E M E D I T E R R A N E A N C A F E ) ; H I L L A R Y L E V I N / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( W I N S L O W ’ S , U R B A N C H E S T N U T ) ; J E R R Y N A U N H E I M J R . ( W O O D S H A C K ) ; P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( Y E L L O W B E L LY ) ; S I D H A S T I N G S ( V P S Q U A R E )

prominent at VP Square — he runs the restaurant with his siblings Vincent and Mina; the trio also operates the nearby Cafe Mochi — but you’ll want to know it.

Lentil soup at the Vine Mediterranean Cafe

OPENED 2018 • PRICING Under $30

Fried chicken biscuit at Winslow’s Home

Three Cheesy Pigs sandwich at the Wood Shack

Bacon-and-beet brat at Urban Chestnut

Urban Chestnut Brewery & Bierhall AND The U.R.B.

Wu Tang Clams at Yellowbelly

OPENED 2014 (Bierhall), 2016 (The U.R.B.) • PRICING Under $30 WHERE Bierhall, 4465 Manchester Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-222-0143, urbanchestnut.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily WHERE The U.R.B., 4501

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Manchester Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-474-0935, urbanchestnut. com • HOURS 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Wednesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Friday-Saturday, noon-8 p.m.

Sunday (closed Monday-Tuesday)

VP Square CHINESE • JAPANESE • KOREAN • PAN-ASIAN • THAI • VIETNAMESE

The Vine Mediterranean Cafe LEBANESE • MIDDLE EASTERN

The Vine returns to the STL 100 after a two-year hiatus.

I assure you leaving the Vine off this list was as painful as, say, dining at the Vine and not eating its signature freshly baked pita. The service hiccups that made me wary to recommend the restaurant the last couple of years were absent at

Hawaiian Poke Bowl at VP Square

my recent meals here, so I again urge you to visit the Vine for chef Ali Mohsen’s lovely Lebanese fare. My current obsession, after a long devotion to the Vine’s beef shawarma, is its sujok,

a spicy beef-lamb sausage wrapped in a sandwich with pepper, tomato, onion and pickle. Whatever you order, don’t deny yourself that fresh-baked pita with hummus or baba ghanoush.

Winslow’s Home BREAKFAST • CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • SANDWICHES

Winslow’s Home debuts on the STL 100 a decade after Ann Sheehan Lipton opened her unique farm-to-table restaurant and general store in University City. The reason for taking a new look at it now? Last year, Winslow’s named Cassy Vires as executive chef, and she has invigorated the restaurant with the smart, soulful cooking that won her such acclaim at the late Home Wine Kitchen in the first half of this decade. Alongside such classic Winslow’s dishes as the braisedbrisket sandwich, Vires has added a fried pickle-brined chicken thigh with smoked pimento cheese, pickles and hot honey on a buttermilk biscuit. She has also brought renewed attention to the oft-changing dinner menu.

A mid-winter visit found a homey broccoli-cheddar soup and a lovely piece of seared trout enlivened with citrus and a beet puree.

CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • GERMAN • PIZZA • PUB FARE

Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. director of restaurant operations Andrew Fair has rebooted the menu at the brewery’s Grove facility, broadening its offerings beyond its original German influences. You can still find bratwurst, currywurst and a pork-schnitzel sandwich here, but now they sit alongside such beer-friendly fare as the inevitable smashed burger and a wonderfully overloaded cheesesteak.

Most importantly, the Bierhall’s exceptional pommes frites remain on the menu (available with dipping sauces or as either poutine or “loaded” cheese fries), and Urban Chestnut’s nearby U.R.B. continues to offer some of the best New York-style pizza in St. Louis by the slice and whole pie.

WHERE 3611 Juniata Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-8334838, facebook.com/vpsquarestl • HOURS Lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday (closed Monday)

OPENED 2009 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3171 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-776-0991, thevinestl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily

At VP Square, which opened in 2018 just off the bustling South Grand commercial strip, chef Duncan Pham cooks with confidence and inspiration the food of his native Vietnam alongside Thai, Japanese, Korean and Sichuan fare. He can delight you with the sweetness of strawberries in his Starbust Summer Rolls or the meaty heft and kimchi jolt of his VP Fried Rice Special. He can soothe you with silken tonkotsu ramen or hearty bo kho, the latter served with crackling French bread to soak up every last drop of the Vietnamese beef stew. Pham’s name isn’t

OPENED 2008 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 7213 Delmar Boulevard, University City • MORE INFO 314-725-7559, winslowshome. com • HOURS Dinner TuesdaySaturday, breakfast and lunch Tuesday-Friday, brunch SaturdaySunday (closed Monday)

The Wood Shack BARBECUE • SANDWICHES

The barbecue-restaurant menu is so formulaic — this many meats, that many sides — I sometimes wonder if there are barbecue police lurking around, ready to ticket the first deviation.

The Wood Shack doesn’t call itself a barbecue restaurant, which explains the barbecue

police’s absence. Over the past couple of years, though, under the guise of his small Soulard sandwich shop, chef Chris Delgado has been serving some of the most interesting and delicious smoked meats in town, like hickory- and mulberrysmoked prime rib (the Soulard Primer) and hickorysmoked chuck roast (the 1862). Definitely don’t tell the barbecue police the Wood Shack serves wraps as well as traditional sandwiches.

OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1862 South 10th Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-8334770, thewoodshacksoulard.com • HOURS 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m. ThursdaySaturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

Yellowbelly CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN • SEAFOOD

The new seafood restaurant from Retreat Gastropub’s Travis Howard and Tim Wiggins in partnership with “Top Chef” alum Richard Blais was my most ambivalent dining experience of 2018. The Instagram-bait decor and such visually striking but functionally flawed dishes as a 2-pound hunk of tuna meat-glued to a beef bone pointed to the most tiresome of contemporary trends.

But the brilliant flavors of the best dishes overseen by executive chef Kate Wagoner (raw oysters with frozen “pearls” of cocktail sauce; the Wu Tang Clams in a briny, spicy broth) paired with Wiggins’ rum-focused cocktails outshone the safer fare at many of last year’s other debuts. With my memories of these flavors still vivid, and knowing the standard for hospitality Howard established at Retreat and continues here, I’m bullish on Yellowbelly.

OPENED 2018 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 4659 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-499-1509, yellowbellystl.com • HOURS Lunch Wednesday-Sunday, dinner daily

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Carving a New Experience

Endless servings of flame-grilled meats cooked over a wood-charcoal fire Chef-crafted gourmet salad area Ultimate caipirinhas, award-winning wines, and much more!

Saint Louis Galleria 1137 St Louis Galleria | 314.352.8800 Serving Dinner Nightly Happy Hour | Monday - Friday | 4:30 - 6:00 PM

TexasdeBrazil.com 40 IAN FROEB’S STL 100

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