My Favorite Restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is a great town for a foodie to live in. We have one of the largest numbers of restaurants per capita in the country. You can probably find 20+ good restaurants for every type of food that you can imagine. Tony's, a five-star restaurant near downtown, great Italian food in The Hill area, Irish places in Dogtown, and authentic Mexican cantinas down on Cherokee Street. There are actually some national chains that have stayed out of the St. Louis market, not because there aren't enough customers here for them, but rather because of the large number of independent restaurants that make up our town.

So shoot off in any direction for five minutes in the city or the county and you'll probably run into a good place to eat. But if you're like me, you have a couple of those really special places that you just can't seem to do without. The types of places that have some kind of special meaning in a relationship or to a loved one, or a place that you frequented while growing up, or maybe just a place where you really like the atmosphere and the food. Going there just doesn't fill your belly, but almost fills a spiritual need, a religious experience. You save that place for special occasions. You don't want to go there every day and risk diminishing the experience. Better to wait when you have someone else with you and you can show him or her the light. Of course, they may not agree with your assessment and then you have to suffer the bitter sting of disappointment, but then it's worth the risk just to spread the word.

The following are three such restaurants in St. Louis that inspire me. They may not be the best in any particular category, although some of them have won "best of" in the magazines and newspapers, but they are personal favorites: