Photo by Roberto Rodriguez
Stellina
When Stellina opened in 2007 in Lindenwood Park, chef Jamey Tochtrop served a limited menu featuring fresh pasta and sandwiches. You can still order pasta and sandwiches here — the terrific South Side Smoke, pulled pork with caramelized onions and gouda, among them — but Tochtrop has since added a small, oft-changing selection of more upscale appetizers and entrees. My most recent meal, in winter 2015, was quite impressive: a terrine of beet, apple and walnut with goat-cheese mousse and a golden-beet puree, and perfectly cooked red snapper over a yellow-lentil ragout with a lobster-stock reduction.