A long, strange trip From wine lists to vapor bars to hemp oil, chef Greg Perez has made a career of pushing the envelope.(Let's Eat)

Byline: Joe Bonwich ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Greg Perez has always hung out on or near the leading edge. Back in the early 1980s, he was one of the youngest executive chefs in town at the Mayfair Hotel. Thereafter he was among the first to introduce tapas-style dining to St. Louis through some of the dishes at the Blue Water Grill; he pushed the boundaries of the Delmar Loop eastward and lengthened by-the-glass wine lists at his critically and popularly acclaimed Painted Plates restaurant; and most recently, he turned St. Louis on to a "vapor bar" and a hemp-infused menu at his Grateful Inn in Maplewood.

Those last two items might sound far out and groovy, but in fact Perez is stone-cold sober about the flavor and nutritional benefits of industrial hemp, which he calls the "mild-mannered cousin" of the more infamous member of the cannabis family, marijuana. His latest project is bottling and marketing Greg's Hemp Oil Vinaigrette, which he currently sells locally and in California but plans to distribute nationwide.

"I couldn't sleep at night if I didn't give this a full-fledged shot," says Perez, 48, who sold the Grateful Inn this year. (The space now houses a new restaurant, Fu …