First Look: The Kitchen Sink Cooks Up A Cajun-Infused Diner-Style Menu of Burgers, Sandwiches and More

Mabel Suen

The Pyro Burger -- a half-pound burger topped with jalapeno bacon, hot pepper cheese, fried jalapenos, fried hot banana peppers, habanero pickled onions and jalapeno aioli.

The phrase "everything but the kitchen sink" can imply a whole lot. At the Kitchen Sink (280 DeBaliviere Avenue; 314-261-4455), new from-scratch diner just footsteps away from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Metrolink stop, chef-owner Anthony Ellerson Jr. offers as many of his favorites as he can fit onto the restaurant's chalkboard menu.

When asked if he's a St. Louis native, Ellerson points out the window directly down the street.

"I've been living right across the street since 1985," he says. "A lot of people asked me why I picked this spot. It's because it's my neighborhood....It was a totally different place before, and I get to make it my own."

Mabel Suen

Sous chef David Anderson hand cuts sweet potato fries.

Besides a logo painted on the building's brick facade, there's not much indicating that the diner even exists at the busy intersection that straddles several neighborhoods. Once inside, however, it's easily a diamond in the rough.