Scoop up some of Lisa Slay’s creamy, lemony hummus with a piece of Lebanese flatbread. Sample her stuffed grape leaves, tight cylinders filled with savory ground rice and lamb and topped with a vibrant tomato sauce. Each bite is a little bit of the history of Lebanese cooking in St. Louis.

Tucked into a discreet, alley-like street in downtown St. Louis is one of the city's most exclusive eateries, Blood and Sand. This unassuming location is the perfect home for the only private restaurant in town. You don't need a secret password to get in, but you do need a membership.

EdgeWild Restaurant and Winery chef Aaron Baggett was cooking at a Chinese restaurant and studying to be an architect when his sister convinced him that he belonged in culinary school. “I went from building buildings to building plates,” says Baggett, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

EdgeWild’s most popular dish is an appetizer, Pistachio-Crusted Herbed Goat Cheese topped with white wine-quince syrup. It’s also the first recipe Baggett created for EdgeWild, which opened a year and a half ago. 

Chef/owner Bryan Carr pauses before describing Atlas Restaurant. “It’s a nice neighborhood restaurant, but our clientele comes from all over the area,” he says, explaining that Atlas, which is in the Central West End, draws many patrons on their way to performances at nearby Grand Center. Then he pauses again. “I never know how to describe a restaurant,” he says. “We are very detail-oriented. We just try to do things the right way.”