OPENINGS
Best Natural Pairing: Peel Wood Fired Pizza and Brewery
What to do with a gigantic second floor’s worth of open space? The owners of Peel added a microbrewery to their new, second location in O’Fallon, Ill. Pizza with beer? Captain Obvious approves.
Best Innovation: Seoul Q
Moving the popular Seoul Taco into larger confines would have been a smash hit regardless, but adding Seoul Q to the mix added intrigue: Owner David Choi says the only other place in the world he’s seen pull-down, table-side fume hoods was in Korea.
Best for Sweets: Sugarfire Pie
Sugarefire Pie's a treat for the taste buds, as well as the eyes. The '50s theme is well-played (literally), including vinyl LPs spinning on a period “High-Fidelity Stereo” and an early color television playing static—but it’s color static…
Best Rejiggering Job: avenue
Co-owners Bryan and Diane Carr caught some flak at first for closing both of their restaurants, Pomme and Pomme Café. But when they opened the just-as-cozy and more versatile avenue one block away, the naysayers raised a glass.
Best Place to Brag About (on several levels): Ferring Jazz Bistro
With quality food service from the folks at Catering St. Louis, a new sound system that could have been designed by Dr. Amar G. Bose, and premier jazz acts from across the country, put this new bistro on your 2015 to-do list.
Best Specialty Restaurant: Old Standard
While some lament the price (“Hey, it’s just chicken”), we had a more than satisfying meal for less than $50, a deal when you consider the quality of Ben Poremba’s side dishes and the perfection of the main attraction.
“Engine That Could” Award: Grapeseed
When Gist Bistro never really gained traction in Ballwin, Ben Anderson packed up his knives, moved to SoHa, and planted Grapeseed. He seems to have found his home, literally—the owner/chef lives upstairs.
New Pizzeria of the Year: Pizzeoli
We shy away from picking a favorite because we like many of the newcomers (Pizzeria Mia, A Pizza Story, Plank Road Pizza...), but the winner by a sliver is Pizzeoli, where owner Scott Sandler inspects and analyzes every pizza as if it’s the one being served to his mother.
Best Follow-up Restaurant: The Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co.
Diners’ eyes were focused on Kevin Nashan’s long-awaited second restaurant, and The Peacemaker didn’t disappoint. You can go big (a lobster boil with all the accoutrements) or on the cheap (an oyster po-boy with a side of fried green tomatoes).
Best New Breakfast—or Lunch: Whitebox Eatery
Still unknown to some locals, the creativity and consistency at Whitebox never disappoints. Put this place on your radar now.
Best Novelty: Ices Plain & Fancy
Ice cream is made to order using custom mixes and fresh add-ins, where liquid nitrogen is the showy, wacky catalyst. It's high entertainment for ice-cream lovers from ages 3 to 93.
Best at Overcoming the Odds: Death in the Afternoon
We admit that we were the first to pooh-pooh the oddball name, but also the first to sing Death’s praises. The folks at Condé Nast Traveler agree: The magazine named it among the “15 Best New Restaurants in the Midwest.”
Best New BBQ: Salt + Smoke
Owner Tom Schmidt inspects, examines, tests, pokes, and prods each and every piece of brisket. Maybe that’s the reason that many St. Louisans say his BBQ is the best in town.
Best Shifting of Gears (and Locations): The Shack
Moving from midtown to Valley Park was an admitted gamble, so managing partner Brant Baldanza doubled-down and added breakfast to his already successful formula. The West County crowds responded—so much so, Baldanza was spotted flipping pancakes on Father’s Day.
Best Affordable Gourmet: Giovanni’s Kitchen
Frank Gabriele had an idea to provide the quality of Giovanni’s/Il Bel Lago-quality food in a casual setting with prices to match. He did it in Ladue, at Giovanni’s Kitchen.
Best Microbrewery and Food: Urban Chestnut's Grove Brewery & Bierhall
Not long ago, it was the wineries that added gourmet food to the winery experience. This decade, the trend is spreading to microbreweries, led locally by Urban Chestnut, who graced local hop heads with an impressive new brewery and a menu to match.
Best Second Location: Mission Taco Joint
Packed-house crowds at the flagship Loop location wolf down street tacos like somebody else is paying. Diners at the slick Soulard location seem to prefer Mission’s burritos. So we tried one. It was delicious.
Best Addition: Anthonino’s Taverna
While Anthonino’s 80-seat addition (triple the restaurant's former size) was formerly a side lot used for horseshoes and yard games, the food is serious business. The pasta is fresh, the pizza memorable, the gyros gigantic, the prices ridiculously low, and the toasted ravioli (the same ones seen on Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives) appear on nearly every table.
Best Contemporary Décor: BaiKu Sushi Lounge
Brad Beracha has a knack for several things: hip, contemporary restaurant design, inventive sushi and Japanese cuisine, carefully curated music that changes tone throughout the evening, and the ability to catch a restaurant/bar wave before it hits St. Louis. And so it is at BaiKu, with shades of Miso on Meramec and then some.
Best Overall: Three Flags Tavern
This restaurant is a perfect match for St. Louis: a name that’s steeped in history, an atmosphere to match, a sprawling patio (complete with shade trees), affable owners, and a superior but not too edgy range of menu items. It’s easy to see why this restaurant was a runaway hit this year.
CLOSINGS
Vino Nadoz
This wine bar was the right size (small) and had the right food (tasty small plates), the right personnel (the chef and bartender were a great team), the right vibe (quietish), and the right location (central).
The Majestic Restaurant & Café
“St. Louis' own version of the Greek diner,” as Joe and Ann Pollack described it, was popular for generations. It’s always sad when a restaurant icon like The Majestic closes up shop.
Harvest
For many reasons and on many levels, it was one of the most significant local restaurants of the past 20 years. Of all the closures this year, this one may have stung the worst.
Tripel Brasserie
Its closure was perhaps an example of this region’s “too many good new restaurants” syndrome—as in, “We meant to try that place... We heard it was really good.”
Mi Linh
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Ian Froeb raved about the butter garlic wings, and this scribe noted its calamari (the best in town, we both claimed). It was unfortunate to see this promising up-and comer close.
Pomme and Pomme Café
While some lament these Clayton restaurants' closures, others rejoice in its successor, avenue, which features the best items from both Pommes and located a block away.
The Market at The Cheshire
There was no better place to enjoy a cold-weather coffee and a croissant than in front of The Market’s original, wood-burning stone fireplace, where stoking was encouraged.
Yacovelli’s
For generations of North Countians, Yac’s was the place for wedding and rehearsal dinners; for retirement, birthday, and anniversary parties; for pre-prom and first-date dinners. Ninety-five years of those memories could fill several books.
Home Wine Kitchen
For some diners, it's lamentable that a fine restaurant is closing over a lawsuit. So long to SLM's 2012 Restaurant of the Year.
Romano’s Macaroni Grill
All four metro restaurants unexpectedly closed, with no prior notice (to its customers or employees) on December 29. Our only printable reaction is “shameful.”
