3 new restaurants to try in St. Louis this month

Brasas
The team behind St. Charles’ Peruvian bistro Jalea, a Sauce Best New Restaurant in 2022, is at it again with Brasas, which focuses on pollo a la brasa, or chicken cooked over embers. We already know the chicken is divine from trying it at Jalea, as well as chef-owner Andrew Cisneros’ original pop-ups that featured the chicken several years ago, but it’s some newer menu items that had us most excited on a recent visit. The star of the evening was the papa rellena, a potato croquette filled with beef estofado (egg, panca pepper, spices, red wine and olives) and topped with salsa criolla, all atop a generous layer of aji verde, possibly our favorite green sauce in town, brimming with the bright and verdant flavors of cilantro and lime. The beef strip loin anticuchos were a great starter, bursting with spices and smoky flavor, although we did wish the meat was slightly more tender. The chaufa aeropuerto, a rich Peruvian fried rice dish, was another hit, topped with three kinds of meat and studded with a variety of veggies, including Peruvian corn. On the beverage side, you can never go wrong with the pisco sour, which is more balanced than some of the other pisco sours we’ve tried around town.
6138 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314.256.1937, brasas-stl.com

Expat BBQ
The latest Niche Food Group restaurant offers globally inspired barbecue, meaning you’ll find hints of cultures from around the world meshed with traditional American barbecue recipes. The chopped salad is pretty simple with kale generously dressed with curry ranch and seasonal veggies, but it’s the topping of khatta meetha, a crunchy snack mix, that really makes this fibrous dish. The beef brisket sandwich was our favorite item on a recent visit, rubbed with chiles, garlic and cumin and topped with citrusy salsa verde studded with chunks of creamy avocado. We also loved the revival of the simple but perfect Brass Burger, a Niche Food Group favorite for years at various locations. The well-seasoned waffle fries served  with the sandwiches were somehow still crispy for leftovers the following day, and the black beans were an unexpected delight with Chinese sausage, black bean paste and black vinegar. This massive space is sprawled across three floors, so you can get table service inside or head to the third-floor terrace when the weather allows for an abbreviated menu and counter service, plus sweeping views of City Foundry and Midtown.
City Foundry STL, 3730 Foundry Way, St. Louis, expatbbq.com

No Ordinary Rabbit
The former Nixta space in Botanical Heights has new life thanks to 5 Star Burgers owner Steve Gontram and general manager David Zitko, who co-own the new bar and restaurant. The wine selection is quite expansive, but the craft cocktails here are our preferred order. The smoky, complex Another Acid Flashback has a mezcal base, along with harissa, Calabrian chile, pineapple, honey and black walnut bitters for an interesting combination of flavors. Lilian’s Revenge felt a little more commonplace, but was well done with pineapple rum, yuzu gin, orgeat and yuzu bitters. On the food side, you absolutely must order something served with the house-made fry bread, where a crisp exterior reveals a soft and pillowy interior with just a touch of sweetness. We paired it with the butternut squash hummus, but it could be a vehicle for just about anything on the menu. We also enjoyed the roasted carrots with citrus labneh and tangy agrodolce made with honey, white wine, vinegar and pickled red onion. The menu here is very much in flux and will be expanding as demand increases, so it definitely seems like a place we’ll want to visit more than once.
1621 Tower Grove Ave., St. Louis, noordinaryrabbitstl.com