Chef-owner Alec Schingel has carved out a home in downtown Maplewood with Robin Restaurant , his first brick-and-mortar restaurant. From the start, Schingel’s focus has been on telling the story of Midwestern cuisine while weaving sustainability and seasonality into an evolving menu.

The most recent iteration is highlighting the bounty of late summer, with dishes that reflect what locals have seen strewn across farmers market stands throughout the area. For Schingel, shifting the menu with the turn of the seasons is second nature. “In St. Louis, it’s knowing the purveyors, knowing the rhythm of the seasons, knowing what’s coming and what’s on the radar after that,” he says. “For us, it’s having a pantry of ideas that we know we can pull from, where we’re combining modern American prog

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