Tran and executive chef/partner Marie-Anne Velasco hired Shigetoshi Nakamura, one of the world’s four “ramen gods,” as a consultant and worked with the legendary Sun Noodle to develop their noodle recipe.

So what happens when a master of pho wants to open a ramen restaurant to rival the best in the world? He gets help.

Read MoreĪt Mai Lee, the beloved Vietnamese institution, Qui Tran makes pho so stunning it landed on the cover of Food and Wine. You can’t miss it.Īfter almost two decades as a chef and chef educator, Holly Fann hung up her apron to write full time about food and dining. Just look for the beautiful, midcentury monument by Eero Saarinen and you’ll know you’re in the right place. It’s a get-on-a-plane-and-fly-there-right-now city. Louisans with voracious appetites will come. If something delicious exists anywhere in the 314, St. And then there’s the happy little red Japanese fire truck that zips around the city, where preorders are required to score a coveted konbini-style strawberry and cream sando on downy milk bread. Just a few miles away, another line forms around an avant-garde ice cream shop that sustainably sources ingredients. Outside a Korean window-service restaurant, long lines are standard as it serves up snow crabs smothered in gochujang butter from a tiny kitchen in the back of a pinball bar. An Italian deli on the Hill, famous for serving the same pig’s head salami sandwiches since opening 100 years ago, is not just a beloved institution but an enduringly popular one. A hawker-style stall planted in the middle of a pan-Asian superstore - serving melamine bowls brimming with lip-numbing mapo tofu - earns the same fervor and local pride as the baby back pork ribs tended by a beloved local pitmaster. In a restaurant scene that’s not only impressive but expansive, diners spread the love, never reserving enthusiasm exclusively for James Beard winners and Michelin stars. The city has never doubted it could, should, and would rival culinary powerhouses like LA, Portland, and Chicago.

Through sheer audacity and Midwestern grit, the STL culinary community has kept pace with Goliath competitors, with some especially strong openings in recent years. Louis is often characterized as a large city that feels like a small town, residents of the Lou have long had an inordinate preoccupation with food and drink.

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