Photograph courtesy of the Moonrise Hotel
When Joe Edwards refers to something as “my single biggest project ever,” your ears do tend to prick up. The beloved “Mayor of the Loop” opens his $23.5 million, seven-story, 125-room Moonrise Hotel this month on Delmar Boulevard, between his Pin-Up Bowl lanes and Pageant concert hall.
“I’ve thought for about a decade that the Loop was finally to the point that it needed a hotel,” he says. “It’s a major piece of the puzzle for this amazing shopping and entertainment district.”
With a rooftop terrace bar, an oversized Vegas-style electric sign, and embedded LED lights that make the grand staircase in the lobby seem to change colors, the boutique hotel is more of what we’ve come to expect from Edwards: fun, fun, fun.
Sleeping With a Celeb
There are 10 suites themed in honor of St. Louis Walk of Fame inductees, with guests receiving surprise gifts related to that inductee. You can share a room with Tennessee Williams, Josephine Baker, Redd Foxx, Vincent Price, Shelley Winters,
and others.
Out-of-This-World Dining
Edwards promises “creative cosmic cuisine” at an upscale restaurant open to the public from 6:30 a.m. to about 2 a.m. daily, he says.
The Lunar Loop
Known for commissioning inventive signs like the ones that front his Flamingo and Pin-Up bowling alleys, Edwards topped the Moonrise with a 10-foot-diameter moon that’s light on one half and dark on the other. As the massive sign rotates, and with the help of dramatic lighting, Edwards says, “People will get to see all the phases of the moon.”
Moonrise Hotel, 6177 Delmar, St. Louis, 314-721-1111, moonrisehotel.com
