John Perkins is one of several St. Louis chefs redefining what the term “restaurant” can encompass. In some cases, these chefs are embracing the pop-up ethos, offering a one-time-only event inside of another restaurant’s space.
Others have experimented with forms that defy easy categorization, from a dinner series forcing chefs to cook without their usual tools to Perkins’ rotating concepts.
Call it the rise of the alternative restaurant.
In this, St. Louis follows a trend that in recent years has spread across the nation, and even the world, touching some of the highest circles of the culinary scene.