Photo by David Carson (Post-Dispatch)
Acero
I keep discovering reasons why Jim Fiala’s Acero, which enters its second decade this year, remains one of St. Louis’ essential Italian restaurants. On my most recent visit, it was a tiny, unlikely reason: a salad. Or, rather, not the salad itself, which is neither tiny nor unlikely, but how the menu lists it as “White Anchovies,” a bold concession that this salad isn’t meant as a palate cleanser before the famous egg raviolo or another of the pasta courses (for a fun mashup of two traditional dishes, try the spaghetti alla chitarra paired with an Amatriciana sauce), but a celebration of the underrated and deliciously salty and oily fish. Here is your obligatory reminder that Acero’s $35 four-course tasting menu is a steal. Those white anchovies are a $3 supplement, but worth it.
Hours: Dinner Monday-Saturday
Opened: 2007
Must order: Egg raviolo ($15)