Owner Matt McGuire’s initial motivation for Wright’s Tavern was to create a restaurant that served the kind of food he wanted to eat. McGuire built a place to enjoy a great steak and a Caesar salad, but more importantly, the Clayton steakhouse also tapped into a communal longing: for delicious food and drinks, genuine hospitality, and the unbridled enjoyment that a really lovely restaurant can deliver. Wright’s is driven by the conviction that the simple food is the best; its ambition is to cook the best version of that food you’ve ever had. The greatest hits collection at Wright’s already includes the shrimp scampi with its addictive garlic-and-chile sauce, the wedge salad with blue cheese and smoked bacon, the perfectly flaky potato-crusted halibut with lemon beurre blanc, and the salt and cream of the heady dauphinoise potatoes. The baked crab cake made with colossal lump crab is seasoned with salt and pepper, has just enough egg and dairy for binding, and is plated atop a delicious red pepper remoulade. It’s one of the very best dishes in St. Louis and no visit to Wright’s is complete without it. At this restaurant, which was Sauce’s Best New Restaurant of 2023, people dress up, and the servers are sharply attired, but it’s never stuffy: You’re here to feel good. In this cozy dining room, you’re never far from other diners, and conversation between tables comes easily. We love a restaurant where a civilized meal feels like it could imminently spill over into a rambunctious party, and that’s exactly the vibe at Wright’s.
7624 Wydown Blvd., Clayton, 314.390.1466, wrightswydown.com
The Sauce 75 is a photomosaic of the best in St. Louis dining. This list is a celebration of the diverse skills, techniques and culinary traditions that meet across our region. In sum, it tells a story about where St. Louis has been, where it is now and where it’s going next. Many great and good St. Louis restaurants have not made the cut. (Seventy-five is a lot fewer than you think!) Restaurants are constantly growing and evolving and go through ups and downs. Newly opened restaurants can take time to find their feet: There are a few exciting new places we’re cheering for, but which we feel haven’t yet fully hit their stride.
This article appears in January/February 2025.