Salt + Smoke’s name represents half of the recipe for its signature dish. Add beef and black pepper, then cook for 12 - 18 hours for well-flavored, meltingly tender, Texas-style brisket. “Our calling card really is the brisket,” says owner Tom Schmidt. His recipe is simple yet exacting. The beef comes to room temperature while it’s trimmed of excess fat. Then it’s coated with a two-ingredient rub, coarse kosher salt and pepper straight from the grinder.

John Perkins’ path to becoming a chef and restaurateur was as winding as it was unconventional. “I was late to the game,” taking his first restaurant job at age 30, says Perkins, chef-owner of Juniper in the Central West End. He also considered a number of other careers, including photography, writing and graphic design, and he earned a master’s degree in divinity.

Restaurateur Sam Kogos faithfully recreates the Cajun/Creole comfort food of his Louisiana upbringing at Riverbend Restaurant & Bar, right down to the Gulf Coast-sourced blue crab, shrimp and spice blend.

Separated by nearly 700 miles, New Orleans and St. Louis are nonetheless connected by their common French heritage and linked by life on the Mississippi River. An informal exchange has taken place between the two cities, with citizens and cuisine bridging the geographic divide.

When Rich and Terri LoRusso opened LoRusso’s Cucina almost three decades ago, many of the recipes came straight from his mother’s kitchen. “This restaurant emulates how I was brought up,” he says.

Nothing unusual in that, except the matriarch of this Italian restaurant was Irish.“My grandmother taught my mom to cook,” LoRusso explains. He, in turn, always loved to hang out in the kitchen, soaking up knowledge from his mother and his paternal aunts.

Bar Les Frères was never supposed to be a restaurant. When Zoë Robinson opened the Paris-inspired bar on Wydown in Clayton in 2012, she really only envisioned it as a cozy waiting area for patrons itching to get into her popular Italian restaurant, I Fratellini, across the street. But the bid for a liquor license required food, and Robinson is not one to do food halfway.

You’ll find something for just about everyone at Bishop’s Post. That goes for the menu and the setting, too.

 “We have the best patio in Chesterfield,” says general manager Brenna Marchand. One side is covered by a roof, and the other abuts a burbling waterfall — a lovely scene that gives little hint that Chesterfield Mall is just up the hill and over the parking lot.

The restaurant can seat up to 300 people and offers a variety of large rooms, making it a popular place for parties, business meetings and other groups, she says.