Ian Froeb’s 10 restaurant neighborhoods in the St. Louis area for 2025

Published in St. Louis Post-Dispatch | Ian Froeb | November 14, 2024

Midtown: the city’s uncontested new champion

In 18 years on the restaurant beat, I can’t think of a project more transformative than the Food Hall at City Foundry (3730 Foundry Way), which shook off its difficult, delayed development to become an essential dining destination from the day it opened three years ago. Yucatecan food at Sureste, wood-fired pizza at Fordo’s Killer Pizza, oxtails and jerk chicken at Chez Ali: I could list the entire directory, really.

Remarkably, Midtown contains multiple distinct dining areas, from the Locust Street corridor (Egg, Fountain on Locust, Small Batch) to the newer development on Locust just west of Jefferson Avenue, home to several newer restaurants, including the excellent Filipino fare of Kain Tayo (2700 Locust).

Midtown remains the spiritual home of the great St. Louis barbecue boom of the Aughts and Teens, and you still might wait in a long line at Pappy’s Smokehouse (3106 Olive Street). The biscuit boom of the past couple of years might be significantly smaller, but you could pinpoint its home at the Biscuit Joint (2649 Washington Avenue).

Read full article at stltoday.com.