It’s hard to believe how big of a deal Top of the Riverfront was when it opened in 1969. St. Louis was a different city then, more brash perhaps, and this spot, we thought, put us in the big time. Not even New York had a revolving restaurant.
It must have been mobbed. The Gateway Arch had been built by then, and Busch Stadium II was in full flower. The floor revolved, but the windowed walls and center of the room remained stationary. A horizontal lip between the walls and floor was also fixed in place. (For women sitting at one of the window seats, staff quickly learned to remind them not to put their purse on that lip, or it would glide away.)
The restaurant was hard to beat for a romantic evening. It also did an, er, booming business on the Fourth of July. The fact that the food was inconsistent didn’t seem to matter, at least for a long while. For a seemingly brief time, the kitchen was serious about modern American food and local products, and we had a fine meal there. Some weeks after, a friend called. He was about to propose and was looking for somewhere romantic to do it. Hesitantly, we suggested Top of the Riverfront. She said yes, he later reported—but the food was awful. Fortunately, the marriage has been a success.
Were the restaurant missteps perhaps due to the old curse that goes something like “The better the view, the worse the food”? More likely, the continual changes of management philosophy and personnel were among the factors leading to its downfall. Now, it’s just another addition to that list titled “Do You Remember the Restaurant That ___?”
