Ten years ago, I sat down to write my first-ever Best New Restaurants roundup as a brand-new critic dazzled by all of the thrilling places I'd had the pleasure of getting to know as I found my footing and familiarized myself with the state of St. Louis food. Now, a decade later, I know much more about the people and players who make the region's food community what it is, but I am as awestruck as ever.
This year's crop of restaurants (which is limited for our purposes here to those places I reviewed in 2023) is a remarkable one that cannot be defined by one trend or genre, but instead underscores how many interesting voices we have in our food scene. There are veteran restaurateurs, newcomers and people showing St. Louis new cuisines. Some have created showstopping bastions of fine dining, others are fast-casual spots, but what they have in common is that their chefs, owners and staff use their platforms to tell a unique story of who they are and what matters most to them — one that's based on an unrelenting passion for food.
This will be my last Best New Restaurants list for the Riverfront Times. As my time as its critic draws to a close, I can't feel anything other than fortunate to have had such an important platform — one that I have always felt has less to do with food and everything to do with the people behind the places where we have the pleasure of eating. Getting to share their stories has been one of the biggest joys of my life — one I will never forget, and one that has made my life, and hopefully yours, infinitely more delicious.