INSIDER TIP
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The latest player in the ghost kitchen game is SnapShot Sandwich Stop, courtesy of Veritas Gateway to Food & Wine in Chesterfield. Borne out of customer demand for takeout lunch options, executive chef Mathis Stitt is now showing his creative prowess in the sandwich arena. Beginning this week, every Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Stitt presents a changing array of inspired sandwiches (which can also be ordered as salads), sides, and sweets. Among the current offerings are a Cubano, The Big Bird, and a vegetarian offering, The Mr. Rogers (portabella, roasted squash, roasted garlic, grilled onion, oven-dried tomato, roasted red pepper, herb goat cheese, and sweet onion aioli on a grilled baguette). Sides include warm potato salad, bourbon baked beans, apple beet slaw, and fried okra. In-house or curbside pickup. 15860 Fountain Plaza, 636-227-6800.
HOT SPOT
Loving Lion’s Choice
White Castle, long known for its in-house candlelit dinners on Valentine’s Day, has switched to carhop service this year. Enter Lion’s Choice and Roaring With Love, a contest that offers a chance to experience a coursed menu of the restaurant’s latest new items, served in a private setting. On Sunday, February 14, four metro locations (Hanley Road, Sunset Hills Plaza, Chesterfield, O’Fallon, Missouri) will be decked out for the holiday with white tablecloths, candles, and special music. One winner will be selected for each location, and the winning couples will have the restaurant completely to themselves for a 6 p.m. reservation. The Roaring with Love menu—served tableside, of course—includes the restaurant’s new vegan Black Bean Soup; a choice of side salad (including the recently released Chicken Bacon Chipotle Ranch Salad); any entrée sandwich; Bacon Cheese Fries; and a choice of a sundae, concrete, or custard cone for dessert. Enter on the restaurant’s Instagram or Facebook page through Thursday, February 11.
MICRORANT
A Critical Time
In recent months, we’ve castigated armchair dining critics for being overly judgmental in online reviews or on social media forums. A good rule of thumb: Call the manager; don’t call out the restaurant. At a time when many professional dining critics have been gracious since last March (if heard from at all, considering temporary restrictions have prevented in-house dining at times), Michelin decided to move forward with its famous star system, even as its peers (the Best 50 list in Britain and France’s La Liste) opted not to do rankings. Michelin did give three-star chefs a pass and added some starred restaurants to its revered list, but its critics also demoted some establishments that, in the most turbulent of years, closed or reinvented their concepts. The guide’s international director, Gwendal Poullennec, said, “They were able—while sticking to our time-honored methodology and making as many visits as usual—to establish a selection of restaurants as credible and trustworthy as in previous years.” Considering restaurants across the world were deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, last year was a time that the critics might have instead considered a kinder, more forgiving, approach.
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