Talk of the Town

During our visits to the Maya Café, we saw and heard about several other food-related developments in the immediate area. According to the Maplewood city newsletter, plans are in place to convert the first-floor area of Saratoga Lanes (2725A Sutton Ave., across the street from Maya) to a pizzeria and grill. Around the corner and down the street, on Manchester Road, the short-lived Mustard Seed has been trisected into a new Italian restaurant called Maria's Pasta and Pizzeria, an antiques store and a bar. And next door, on Southwest Avenue, demolition work has begun in preparation for the new branch of Schlafly's St. Louis Brewery.

Elsewhere around St. Louis, Zoë Houk has finally opened her new Clayton restaurant, I Fratellini, just east of Hanley Road on Wydown Boulevard. And fans of Charlotte's Rib, the longtime barbecue joint on Manchester Road (and once at Big Bend and Kirkwood Road) run by the family of early TV personality Charlotte Peters (whose son Mike is a cartoonist of some renown), should be cheered that signage for a new location has gone up in the Claymont Center at Clayton and Kehrs Mill roads in West County.