By popular demand, chef and restaurateur Greg Perez is back for more.

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Someone once called Greg Perez the Forrest Gump of restaurants. From Rich & Charlie’s, to his award-winning Painted Plates, to the Grateful Inn, it was indeed, “Run, Greg, Run!” from one project to the next.

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Monarch opened for business on Manchester Road in Maplewood in 2003, and thrived for almost 10 years. Aaron Teitelbaum and Jeff Orbin talked with me about their restaurant at Teitelbaum’s Kingside Diner in Clayton.

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La Tropicana Market was an institution on the corner of Lindenwood and Hereford for over 30 years. Rafael Trabanco told me his family’s story when I talked with him at his longtime office on South Broadway.

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Gregg Mosberger ran his own catering company – Gregory’s Creative Cuisine – for 34 years. But Mosberger began his career as a dishwasher at Richard Perry’s Jefferson Avenue Boarding House.

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Culpeppers was an institution in the St. Louis area for almost 80 years. Its Central West End location was the first to open and had the longest run.

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Louis Fiddleman operated Louie’s Delicatessen from 1955 to 1987. I talked with Alan Fiddleman about his father over a noisy breakfast.

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Harry Giessow owned The Candlelight House on Clayton Road. He and his son, Gary, owned the Howard Johnson’s in Kirkwood and the Howard Johnson’s on Clayton Road, which Gary morphed into Layton’s. I talked with Gary and his wife Lil at their home in Ladue.

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Michael Del Pietro has opened more restaurants than he wishes to remember. I talked with Michael about growing up in his parents’ restaurant, training at The Culinary Institute of America, and opening his first restaurant, Portabella.

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Ken Bland may be less well known that some of his restaurants, such as The Leather Bottle, Cork ‘n Cleaver and Dierdorf & Hart’s. I talked with Ken about his restaurant career at his home in Clayton.

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