Photo by Christian Gooden (Post-Dispatch)
Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co.
Kevin Nashan's Peacemaker Lobster & Crab Co. anticipated by a few years St. Louis diners' burgeoning demand for seafood boils. Peacemaker, though, thrives outside the seafood-boil boom. Its range is greater: Not only does it offer lobster, crab and other boils, but it also can go upscale (seafood towers and white-sturgeon caviar) and everyday (po'boys and maybe the best seafood deal in town, the $9 fried-clam roll). What I always come back to at Peacemaker are the large wall photographs of the restaurant's seafood purveyors. Nashan's concept is savvy, of course (as evidenced by its expansion into Tulsa, Oklahoma), but it is rooted in a love for seafood, its traditional roles in American cuisine and the people who bring it to us — a love always apparent on the plate.
Hours: Dinner daily, lunch Monday-Friday (opens at 1:30 p.m. Sunday)
Last year's ranking: Rest of the Best
Opened: 2014