I'm relatively new to St. Louis. I worked in Chicago (Tru) before coming here, Canada and Europe before that. Now I'm working in the Central West End, cool and trendy nieghbourhood where you can walk around and people watch. In the past 3 years working here, I've learned St. Louis is a different kind of dining town, and it was pretty hard to get used to. The local magazines and readers polls tend to be tunnel visioned too. The places people told me were FANTASTIC! were mediocre to say the least. The best restaurants are kept hidden and unfortuately lack in the service department. Maybe I've just got much too high expectations, but swimming across the current here in St. Louis is a hard feat. Frustrated? yes, will I keep trying to cook great, fun food for people who still don't appreciate it? of course I will...