Veruca
Niche is amaaazing, and Food & Wine Magazine says that Niche chef Gerard Craft is one of the best new chefs in the country. Niche's pastry chef Matthew Rice started a bakery side operation called Veruca last year, which is next door to Niche itself.

I went yesterday, and snagged cupcakes (which were cheaper, and quite possibly better than either the Cupcakery or Jilly's), a house-made chocolate-peanut butter-granola-coconut-other stuff candy bar, a slice of a Coca-Cola-flavored cake, and one of the very best mocha lattes I've ever had. Not gonna lie, access to the culinary joy of Niche is generally gonna cost you, but everything at Veruca is pretty low-priced, with prices on baked goods starting at $1 and generally topping out at $3.

In short: if you live in St. Louis and haven't been to Veruca yet, there is something wrong with you.
- posted by Eric @ 8:22 PM