This Venezuelan restaurant on the edge of the Bevo neighborhood brings life back to the former Taft Street Restaurant & Bar. The dining room may feel like a space that is still in transition, but the new tenants have certainly asserted their identity in the kitchen with a menu dominated by delicious Venezuelan street food.
The pabellon arepas adapt Venezuela’s national dish, pabellon criollo, for easy snacking. The traditional combination of stewed shredded beef, plantains and black beans is served here with cheese inside a crisp, freshly made pocket of corn-based dough. The pabellon can also be served in empanada form, or in its most classical presentation with rice. A number of other empanadas and arepas are offered, like the traditional domino filling of black beans and cheese.
There are also Venezuelan street-style hamburgers, hot dogs and salchipapas (french fries topped with meat and doused with various sauces). Finally, the Sauce team will never turn down an opportunity to order tequenos in a Venezuelan restaurant, and these chewy, queso-filled sticks of fried dough – served with an avocado, cilantro and garlic salsa – are as good here as anywhere else.
4457 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314.328.1130, Instagram: loschamosrestaurantbar
This article appears in July 2024.