As much as I eat at Olive Garden I am nonetheless smart enough to know it's not cool to list that as my favorite restaurant. A favorite restaurant should be a one of a kind place or at least of a small, regional chain. I think Tazé Mediterranean Street Food is my new favorite. I ate there with coworkers for the first time today. This is a one-of-a-kind family-run place and it is Mediterranean food. I think this is the first Mediterranean place I've been that has a Freebirds/Chipotle walk-down-an-assembly-line and then pay at a register thing going on. It's like those customize-your-own-burrito places only you customize a gyro instead of a burrito. I built out a gyro today and got jalapeño hummus and couscous as my sides as seen here. The meal was da bomb. I will definitely be back. Soco's Gyros near where I live is OK, but it is more of what you'd expect from a traditional Mediterranean restaurant (with the exception of the religious music playing) and does not have customizability of what I discovered today, so will probably never go back there even though it is within a mile of my apartment in the Concord neighborhood and today's find is in the heart of St. Louis. What is more, today's meal was just better. The customizability will probably just give way to me having the same thing every visit knowing how I am. Tazé Mediterranean Street Food is in the part of St. Louis that does not sit in St. Louis County. This might be thought of as the heart of the city. St. Louis is one of a handful of what are thought of as independent cities in the United States of America which almost unbelievably do not sit in a county. There is a St. Louis County wrapping St. Louis on all sides except the side pressed against the Mississippi River to the East in sort of a C shape, and I am a little fuzzy on whether or not if someone can be in St. Louis County and also St. Louis. An Uber driver told me that St. Louis County is referred to as "The County" but in my case, as I have a 63128 zip code, that I am still in what might be thought of as "The City" even though I am not in the independent part of the city. Certainly, I have a St. Louis street address and not a Concord street address. Chesterfield, MO might be an example of a city in "The County" that is a city other than St. Louis. It's all a bit fuzzy. Soco's Gyros would be short for South County's Gyros (I live on the South side of the C shape) and thus that kinda says "The County" and not "The City" so... whatever. Arnold, MO a little South of me sort of is to St. Louis what Round Rock is to Austin and Jefferson County where it sits, bordering South County to the South, is sort of the Williamson County of my immediate environment. I digress again! Up until now I think I would have given Athenian Bar & Grill in Austin, Texas as my favorite restaurant if asked. The food is also Mediterranean there too. The place is run by a husband and wife team from Albania, an Anil and Gladys Simicia. Gladys' name is pronounced "Lattice" and she would always greet me with "Hello my friend!" alongside a smile and thick Albanian accent. The photo of her here is from 10/21/2015.
Addendum 3/14/2018: I have learned there is a second location for Tazé Mediterranean Street Food upon a second visit today. It's at 8½ South Euclid, St. Louis, MO 63108 while 626 Washington Ave #103, St. Louis, MO 63101 is the original that I have visited twice now. It has been around for a couple of years and the new one for less than a year.
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