If you decided one day you wanted to see the very best of St. Louis and all that entails, you would need only to take a short jaunt along Grand Boulevard from Shaw Boulevard south to Utah Place. Those nineteen short blocks embody everything that makes our city a magnificent place to live. You'll find not one, but two parks — Tower Grove Park to the west and Compton Hill Reservoir Park to the east. Multicultural dining opportunities abound, from Vietnamese to Thai to Ethiopian to good-old American, and visitors likewise seem to be of every ethnic stripe. Take a side trip down Hawthorne or Longfellow boulevards and you'll encounter some of the most magnificent homes in the Midwest, some lovingly restored, others mirroring St. Louis' more typical faded-glory aesthetic. Interesting and diverse people, beautiful buildings and green spaces, delicious food. It's the best of St. Louis!