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 ( TA S T E ) ; L E X I B R O W N I N G / P O S T- D I S PAT C H ( V E R I TA 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 ) ; S I D H A S T I N G S ( V P S Q U A R E ) ; 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 )
THE REST OF THE BEST
Pork burger with cheddar, bacon and french fries at Taste
Taste CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN
Gerard Craft had only recently named Matt Wynn executive chef of Taste when I visited the small-plates restaurant for the 2019 edition of the STL 100. I was impressed then. A year later, Wynn’s cooking has given Taste an energy I last saw here when Matthew Daughaday was executive chef. Vegetable dishes are a particular strength: last year (and still on the menu on my most recent visit) carrots cooked in bacon fat; this year barbecue-spiced Brussels sprouts with pickled red onion and sunflower granola over a butternut-squash puree. Wynn also knows when to hold back, serving wild-boar meatballs in nothing more than a red gravy, with Union Loafers bread to sop up the soulful sauce. As always, the cocktail menu offers bold but thoughtfully balanced creations. LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2009 • PRICING $15-$45 WHERE 4584 Laclede Avenue, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-361-1200, tastebarstl. com • HOURS Dinner daily
Veritas BRUNCH, CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN
A dish from Veritas chef Mathis Stitt is a high-wire act. Even now, knowing he will pull off the trick, I read his next menu and wonder how. Kingklip, a firm white fish, is perfectly pan-roasted — a given — and then stltoday.com/stl100
1862 sandwich at the Wood Shack set with beets, orange segments, pickled onion, radish slivers, grilled bacon and pistachio over both lemon hummus and chive oil. All of this should be too much, but the dish balances tart and earthy, sweet and smoky, spring and winter. Over the years I have been dining here, Stitt and his team have approached delicate fish and rustic pasta, Sunday brunch and burgers at the bar, with the same enthusiasm. Stitt’s fine-dining menu may no longer be a secret, but it is always a thrill.
Wu-Tang Clams at Yellowbelly
Pan-roasted kingklip at Veritas
Lentil soup at the Vine Mediterranean Cafe
LAST YEAR’S RANKING No. 19 • OPENED 2004 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 15860 Fountain Plaza, Ellisville • MORE INFO 636-227-6800, veritasgateway.com • HOURS Dinner Wednesday-Saturday, brunch Saturday-Sunday (closed Monday-Tuesday)
LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2018 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3611 Juniata Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-833-4838, facebook. com/vpsquarestl • HOURS Lunch and dinner TuesdaySunday (closed Monday)
The Vine Mediterranean Cafe
VP Square
LEBANESE, MIDDLE EASTERN
I have been dining at the Vine Mediterranean Cafe for a decade now, and I don’t think the cooking by Ali Mohsen and his team has ever been better. Lately, I have been obsessed with the beef shawarma, which shows the tenderness and depth of flavor you usually associate with braised meat, and also the chicken shatta, marinated, char-broiled and cut with a piquant sauce of tomato, garlic, jalapeño and herbs. The lunch menu, featuring falafel, shawarma, kebab and other sandwiches,
in town, and his kimchi ramyun is even better than his ramen. I haven’t seen a more generous or appealing poke bowl in town than VP Square’s, and no one serves a dish quite like Pham’s VP Fried Rice Special, with smoked bacon, barbecue chicken, Chinese sausage and a potent kimchi kick.
CHINESE, JAPANESE, KOREAN, PAN-ASIAN, THAI, VIETNAMESE
VP Fried Rice Special at VP Square is a tremendous value, and the Vine’s attention to small pleasures — the day’s fresh-baked pita that accompanies the hummus, the warming curry note in the lentil soup — remains one of its greatest charms.
LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2009 • PRICING Under $30 WHERE 3171 South Grand Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-776-0991, thevinestl.com • HOURS Lunch and dinner daily
I might recommend VP Square as a restaurant perfect for groups with varied desires. Here chef Duncan Pham offers ramen and hot pots, bibimbap and fried rice, bright poke bowls and hearty Vietnamese beef stew. What I want to do, though, is recommend VP Square even if you or your group harbor a hankering for just one of these dishes or anything else on Pham’s menu. His ramen can hold its own against any other bowl
The Wood Shack BARBECUE, SANDWICHES
I mention elsewhere in this year’s STL 100 that I have noticed a leveling off in quality among St. Louis’ many barbecue restaurants. This isn’t a problem — good barbecue is good barbecue — but fewer places stand out. Among those that do is sandwich shop the Wood Shack. Its menu features smoked meats you won’t find anywhere else (hickory- and mulberry-smoked prime
rib, served with bonemarrow aioli, charred onions, arugula and blue-cheese cream on the Soulard Primer) and those that can hold their own against more traditional barbecue restaurants (mesquiteand pecan-smoked pork butt, pecan-smoked chicken). The peppered pastrami, a rare miss for me when I reviewed the Wood Shack in 2017, is now dialed in, zippy and meaty. Stop by on a Friday, when you can order it as a Reuben. LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2017 • PRICING Under $15 WHERE 1862 South 10th Street, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-833-4770, thewoodshacksoulard. com • HOURS 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.10 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday
Yellowbelly CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN, SEAFOOD
Travis Howard and Tim Wiggins keep working. Not content with one Central West End hot spot in Retreat Gastropub, in 2018 they opened the more ambitious Yellowbelly,
featuring visually dazzling and often delicious seafood dishes and a rum-focused beverage program from cocktail expert Wiggins. When I returned to Yellowbelly in late 2019, Howard and Wiggins and executive chef Ben Tulin had tightened Yellowbelly’s menu, ditching the overthe-top large-format fare, though not the focus on big flavors. I enjoyed one of my favorite dishes from my 2018 visits, the spicy, briny Wu-Tang Clams, and a lovely piece of barramundi with warm, Moroccan-inspired seasoning. Howard and Wiggins haven’t stopped working. This winter, aware of national trends, they tried a deliveryonly “ghost kitchen” concept called Soupboi out of Yellowbelly. LAST YEAR’S RANKING Rest of the Best • OPENED 2018 • PRICING $30 and up WHERE 4659 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis • MORE INFO 314-499-1509, yellowbellystl.com • HOURS Dinner daily, lunch WednesdayFriday, brunch Saturday-Sunday
IAN FROEB’S STL 100 GO! MAGAZINE • ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH • 03.08.20
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