Ian Froeb

3 weeks ago | stltoday.com | Ian Froeb

ST. LOUIS — Loryn Nalic of Balkan Treat Box and Jane Sacro Chatham of Vicia are finalists for the 2025 James Beard Awards, widely viewed as the nation’s most prestigious culinary honors. Nalic, the chef and owner of Balkan Treat Box in Webster Groves, is a finalist for “Best Chef: Midwest.”Chatham, the chef de cuisine of Vicia in the Central West End, is a finalist for “Emerging Chef” nationwide. Nalic and Chatham are both first-time James Beard Award finalists.

3 weeks ago | stltoday.com | Ian Froeb

Is the Cardinals’ most popular offseason addition Crumbl Cookies? Sure, blame the team’s front office for not introducing many alternatives this winter via trade or free agency. Cardinals fans already do, judging by the boos that greeted president of baseball operations John Mozeliak during opening day’s pregame ceremonies Thursday. But in the rainy hours before the season’s first pitch, fans also lined up at the new Crumbl stand by section 136 of Busch Stadium.

4 weeks ago | stltoday.com | Ian Froeb

ST. LOUIS — Mom’s Deli will return in a new location at 5425 Hampton Avenue in St. Louis Hills. The beloved south city sandwich shop closed its longtime home at 4412 Jamieson Avenue in Lindenwood Park in February. The closure followed the dismissal of a lawsuit between the shareholders of Mom’s Deli and the members of the LLC that owned the property at 4412 Jamieson. Members of the two groups overlapped. Mom’s Deli owner Denise Vago announced the new location Wednesday on social media.

1 month ago | stltoday.com | Ian Froeb

How do I review a restaurant like Pavilion, the new sushi experience from acclaimed Sado and Indo chef Nick Bognar? This isn’t a rhetorical question, a critic’s navel-gazing about the futility of trying to capture a meteoric talent in deathless prose — though my mind might have strayed that way at a few points during my dinner here, like when Bognar torched sardines flown in from Japan the night before with a butane lighter sticking out of a velociraptor’s head.

1 month ago | stltoday.com | Ian Froeb

I could spend this month’s fifth anniversary of the pandemic’s arrival discussing its still-rippling effect on restaurants. Or I could share some good news instead. Five years later, Byrd & Barrel has returned. Restaurants generally don’t return from such a prolonged hiatus. If one does, it is likely to be either a faded copy of its former self or a stranger out of time with current trends.