RestaurantsVegetarian

shops of Shaw, SweetArt stands out. It is many things all at once: art studio, café, a Black- and family-owned bakeshop – it’s the kind of place from which creativity bubbles up and out into the community. And it’s the kind of place you’ll keep thinking about even after you leave –especially if you order a signature Big Momma cinnamon roll.

The menu – in all its vegan and vegetarian glory – boasts crowd faves like the Sweet Burger, made with lettuce, tomato, vegan “magic” spread made using old-school techniques and sandwiches named after Black creatives like essayist and playwright Zora Neale Hurston and poet Nikki Giovanni. Beyond partnering with locals like Mississippi Mud Coffee and Confluence Kombucha, SweetArt uses recyclable to-go boxes, cupcake trays and compostable containers.

SweetArt, 2203 S. 39th St., Shaw, St. Louis, Missouri, 314-771-4278, sweetartstl.com

Small Batch

Whiskey & Fare

Wandering into Small Batch in Midtown is like stepping into a whiskey lover’s black-and-white daydream. The tiled floors and all-black wooden bar, tables and chairs create a stark contrast to the perfectly white counters and tabletops; the large, round, hanging lights harken back to times past.

But one detail feels quite contemporary, especially when paired with so much whiskey: The food menu at Small Batch is entirely vegetarian. “Simply by virtue of being a completely vegetarian restaurant at Small Batch, we reduce our carbon footprint, as meat production in general produces a lot of emissions,” co-owner Kara Bailey says. Bailey and her husband Dave run Baileys’ Restaurants, including St. Louis staples Rooster, Baileys’ Chocolate Bar and Baileys’ Range, among others.

“We take multiple steps, company-wide, to be more sustainable,” Bailey says. “We procure our food locally as much as possible – including mushrooms and other fruits and vegetables –along with making our own breads, sauces and seasoning mixes.” All of the Baileys’ eateries have received five-star ratings from the Green Dining Alliance.

Small Batch Whiskey & Fare, 3001 Locust St., Midtown, St. Louis, Missouri, 314-380-2040, smallbatchstl.com

Pizza Head

Anybody who has lived in St. Louis knows that South Grand has a stretch of supreme restaurants and bars. Some of the city’s best spots are located here, including Pizza Head, the punk rock pizza parlor with a nose for sophisticated flavors. The pie palace is all vegetarian, with vegan options, and for good reason: “Plant-based meats – and plant-based cheeses – produce significantly less greenhouse gasses, consume much less water and require less land to create than their animal-based counterparts,” co-owner Dylan Dodson says.

Even better, Pizza Head strives to do good around town. The restaurant works with local foodshare organizations to coordinate pickups of leftover slices, salads and incorrect orders. And, if pies can’t be donated, they still go toward helping the planet. “We started working with a composting company to compost food that we can’t otherwise donate or use,” Dodson says. “They weigh our bins when they pick [them] up, and our total emissions saved from composting in 2022 was the equivalent of taking two cars off the road.”

Pizza Head, 3196 S. Grand Blvd., South Grand, St. Louis, Missouri, 314-266-5400, pizzahead.com