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Forks down and glasses up St. Louis. We need to take stock of the year that was, as two thousand and thirteen comes sauntering across the finish line, making good time but far from from the flat-out breathless sprint that has been dining around the Gateway City in recent years.
This past year is one where a handful of notables joined us at the table, but we mostly enjoyed the fact that the long list of what is good about eating in St. Louis dining stayed quite long, even if what we enjoyed was comfortable and familiar, but not particularly new.
This is not to say that we didn’t make a few, delicious new acquaintances this year, though. The Libertine opened with great anticipation and celebration as Josh Galliano stormed back into the kitchen sporting a trifecta of menus - vegetable (but not always vegetarian), meat, and seafood - threading the needle between a cozy spot to spend a Tuesday after work and a blow it all out date night.
Communal dining captured our attention with the introduction of Cassy Vires' new spot Table. The savvy concept was and is a great idea, but it was frustrating (and let’s face it, kinda understandable) to watch a town that loves small plates and tapas fidget nervously at the idea of sharing personal space and dishes in the way that Vires planned. Across town at Element (below left) Brian Hardesty coaxed a crew of kitchen vets into his own space like a culinary John “Hannibal” Smith to create a team turning out dishes that live up to the beautiful space it calls home.
Finally, time may prove that the most interesting opening of the year could, in fact, be a move...of Stone Soup Cottage (above right), from a small home in Cottleville to a hill on the farm where many of the ingredients for its dishes are sourced. Stone Soup’s new location has a sense of permanence and place that is unlike any other in St. Louis, and solidifies its position as the must-try then must-make-reservations-and-return spot for destination dining in the area.
It has been fun to watch a handful of places come into their own in 2013. South City’s Quincy Street Bistro started the year in transition as Rick Lewis trimmed back and incrementally changed the menu from serviceable bar food to some of the finest from-scratch (and affordable) cooking in the Lou. Mi Linh (left) quietly brought Vietnamese to Rock Hill, and then spent the summer and fall dialing in their pho broth to become a heady combination of rich florals, spice, and a generous helping of beef fat that was missing early on when I eagerly snacked on crisp egg rolls and ate up the sweet and spicy tang of their chicken wings, but felt a bit disappointed in the main event: the soup. I’m disappointed no more. Mi Linh’s trajectory is one that I hope U-City’s Corner 17 follows in 2014, as their chewy, obsession-worthy, hand pulled noodles should do for Chinese soups in St. Louis what Fork & Stix did for Thai, if only they can get a bit more oomph into their broths. If I’m pulling for one place in the new year, it is Corner 17. Ok, and maybe a dumpling joint. No, definitely a dumpling joint.
However, of all the things worth noting from 2013, the most important might not be what we ate, but what we drank. Sure, the cocktail bar has been raised all over town - and thankfully sans any Tom Cruise bottle tossing - but the year might just belong to craft beer, which has grown bigger than at any time since the start of Prohibition. Perennial Artisan Ales continues to medal at national beer events with an ease that belies just how hard it is to do what they do, and to cause a frenzy among beer fans with every release and variation of Abraxas, a decadent double stout brewed with ancho chiles, cacao nibs, vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks.
2nd Shift Brewing consistently offers up the best IPAs in St. Louis, and often does it with ingenious (and playfully scandalous) beer names that make one wonder if anyone in a position of authority over the approval of beer labels is paying attention. Four Hands Brewing has become a must stop for pregaming a Cardinals game, and their wax topped and wood-label wrapped Volume #1 was one of the must-try bottles of the year.
But if there was one beer that stood out amongst them all, that could be the standard-bearer for St. Louis in 2013, it has to be the American Brown Ale from The Civil Life (left), whose tap handle seemed to be lurking behind the bar of almost all of our favorite places to eat. A pint of murky, malty goodness that provided the backdrop for what was a year of good, comfortable eating in St. Louis, and a flavor and feeling that I hope to see on the table for years to come.
And that, St. Louis, is not too shabby of an end to the year at all. Cheers and Happy New Year.
