I was thumbing through a recent edition of Finance & Commerce (shut up, it’s totally true) and something caught my eye: An article (more of a list, really) about the restaurant-rush of 2011—a quote from Andrea Christenson, vice president with the local office of St. Louis-based Cassidy Turley sums it up perfectly, “I’ve never seen this much restaurant activity. It’s just crazy.”

That’s right. Crazy.

And just who laps up the sweet nectar of this fortuitous/delicious upswing? Well, we do. The economy may be shaky but a girls gotta eat and sometimes the crock pot is too tired to plug itself in.

Two of Tanek’s projects are on the list: the always-packed Lowry and the soon to be always-packed, Bar Louie.