Secret St. Louis Shares Some of City's Lesser-Known Nooks and Crannies

It's only been up since yesterday, but already the Secret St. Louis Facebook discussion group has garnered more than 2,500 fans who have generated several pages of recommendations and reminiscences about St. Louis' finest diners, pho joints, make-out spots and mommy pick-up parks.

It sounds, come to think of it, remarkably similar to the Riverfront Times' annual Best of St. Louis issue. Except updated continuously.

Creator Eric Stiens did not respond to the Daily RFT's entreaties for an interview, but a note on the Secret St. Louis Facebook page says he was inspired by Secret London, an expansive website that covers all things London, including food, shopping, history, trivia and walks.

So far, Secret St. Louis contributors have recommended the Loy Lange Box Company ("If you need 20,000 or so boxes, its the place to go"), "the reversible lanes of I-70 at 3 AM in a high performance sports car" and the Whispering Arch at Union Station.



They've also debated the heart attack-causing properties of the offerings at The Buttery versus those at Courtesy Diner and announced the best bagel in town: the Bagel Factory on Olive.

Maybe in 2010 instead of doing a Best Of issue, we could just hand the awarding off to the Secret St. Louis folk and take the week off. Yeah, that sounds pretty nice.