Ian Froeb's annual STL 100, the St. Louis Post‑Dispatch ranking of the 100 best restaurants across the metro, landed this week and immediately sent hungry readers scrambling for reservations and reviving age‑old neighborhood arguments about whose favorites really belong on top. Froeb walked through the big moves in a quick TikTok breakdown produced for the paper, framing this year's version as a blend of splashy newcomers and long‑loved stalwarts. For a lot of local diners, the STL 100 still functions like a slightly controversial cheat sheet, a running list of where to book next, where to return and what to debate over a round at the bar.
According to St. Louis Post‑Dispatch, the 2026 package, published April 9, is credited to Froeb, with Jenna Jones listed as digital production editor. The rollout pairs a full ranked guide with video and short‑form clips that condense the list into quick hits. That TikTok recap is designed to get readers oriented in a hurry, flagging which debuts might be worth the wait and which legacy spots still deserve to be circled on the calendar.
The STL 100 launched in 2015 as a way for Froeb to check back on restaurants year after year, and over time it has turned into an annual snapshot of how the region's dining scene shifts and grows. As detailed by St. Louis Public Radio, a small cadre of restaurants has landed on every single edition, a reminder that even in a buzzy food town some places quietly become fixtures.
What Froeb Flagged This Year
Across the Post‑Dispatch package and his social clips, Froeb leans into "debuts, hot new spots and trends," calling out specific neighborhoods and hard‑to‑book counters that have been pulling in attention. The message is that a lot of diners will be chasing the latest openings while the old reliables keep chugging along, a tension the STL 100 lays out for anyone plotting a multi‑stop St. Louis restaurant crawl, according to St. Louis Post‑Dispatch.
Why It Matters For Diners And Chefs
The STL 100 can shift momentum for local spots, bringing a wave of new attention and reservation pressure to the restaurants it singles out. Froeb's ongoing coverage also intersects with other signs that St. Louis is climbing on the national radar, with his reporting and author page citing local chefs and restaurants among 2026 James Beard finalists, a marker of broader recognition, per Muck Rack.
If you are mapping out a St. Louis eating weekend, the STL 100 functions as a tidy, if opinionated, roadmap of what is new and what still earns a detour. For the complete ranked list and Froeb's TikTok overview, check the Post‑Dispatch's STL 100 package and the paper's social channels.
