Photo by Huy Mach, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Milagro Modern Mexican
I’m disappointed there aren’t more restaurants like Milagro Modern Mexican. I don’t mean more locations of Milagro itself. Brothers Adam and Jason Tilford are busy enough operating Milagro, Tortillaria Mexican Kitchen and two Mission Taco Joints (with another two, one here and one in Kansas City, Mo., slated to open later this year). But when Milagro first opened six years ago, I hoped it would be the beginning of, if not an explosion, then at least a impressive conflagration of interest in traditional Mexican cuisine — or cuisines, rather, because as the Tilfords themselves would be the first to tell you, Mexico is home to a wealth of regional variations. I’m still waiting for that conflagration. (Mike Randolph’s Público is great, but more broadly Latin American.) In the meantime, Milagro still moves confidently from tacos and burritos to cochinita pibil, lamb barbacoa and queso fundido with huitlacoche, the fungus also known as corn smut.
Opened: 2010
Must order: Queso fundido ($8.95)