Photography by Alise O’Brien
Moonrise Hotel
6177 Delmar
314-721-1111
At the top of the Moonrise Hotel, in the shadow of the country’s largest man-made revolving moon, is the Rooftop New Moon Room, a bar that seems to draw inspiration from a planetarium. The ceiling re-creates the solar system, complete with eight planets and 600 twinkling stars. The stars are actually fiber-optic filaments that hang from the room’s roof, which is made of solar panels—the only roof of its kind in the country, according to owner Joe Edwards. Though the hotel’s technology is cutting-edge, the decor is retro-futuristic, based on the 1960s vision of space exploration and The Jetsons’ version of the future. Much of the furniture comes in midcentury modern shapes and colors, like burnt orange and teal.
Edwards based the hotel’s concept and design on space memorabilia that he’s been collecting since he was a kid; it’s now displayed in cases throughout the building. In the New Moon Room, you can see an Invasion of the Monster Women lunch box, an Amelia Earhart doll, and a model of a barnstorming plane used by Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to get her pilot’s license. “I named it the New Moon Room because the new moon is so beautiful,” says Edwards, “and it was new.” Combining elements inspired by the past and future, the New Moon Room is many things—including a nice spot for a nightcap.
