The Delmar Loop is changing. These 6 new restaurants are reasons to celebrate.

I’m not a St. Louis native, but I’ve lived here long enough to nod whenever someone says, Wow, the Delmar Loop has changed.

Twenty years ago, I worked at the Starbucks in the heart of the Loop, slinging caramel macchiatos, caramel Frappuccinos and the occasional Norah Jones CD with a colorful cast of characters. Back then, you could bar-hop from Brandt’s to Riddle’s to the Delmar Lounge. You could choose one of three Thai restaurants for dinner.

Sometimes, you heard Loop old-timers mutter how the neighborhood used to be seedier, grungier, better.

Now, I’m one of the old-timers. The Loop restaurants I always thought of as “new” — Salt + Smoke, Corner 17 — are as much mainstays as Blueberry Hill, Fitz’s and the remaining two of those three Thai spots.

I won’t say things used to be better