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Joe Edwards’ swanky new Moon Room, high atop the Moonrise Hotel, is charming by day, but it’s positively enchanting by night.
The glowing luminaries are painted like planets, and the tiny fiber-optic lights at the end of filaments emulate twinkling stars (especially if you’ve had a cocktail or two). Behind the bar, a mirror has been inlaid with images of the moon in seven phases, and they pulse from red to blue to green and back. It’s romantic, and perfect for summertime rendezvous.
But what has riveted earth’s altruists about the project is that it’s also the first restaurant roof in the United States made entirely of solar panels. The translucent glass squares that comprise the dramatic, sloping roof allow sunlight (and moonlight) to enter, are waterproof, and provide the power for the lighting and all the room’s electrical needs, and then some. St. Louis-based Microgrid Solar is responsible for the construction.
The Moon Room will offer small plates and a full bar in the evenings, and Sunday brunch, too. The 2100 SF, 200-person space (previewed here) can also be rented for special events like wedding receptions.
The adjacent Rooftop Terrace Bar (below) is an uncovered patio, so revelers can circulate back and forth from celestial viewings real to faux. It’s an elegant spot for serious chillaxin’.
Edwards has placed a chunk of his cute, retro, outer-space memorabilia collection in a few display cases in the eatery. (Much more is downstairs in the lobby and the Eclipse restaurant.)
The ever-festive hotelier/restaurateur made a grand entrance in an astronaut costume at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and party yesterday. Waiters wore flight suits, and a “candy girl” (below) offered outer space-themed treats like Pop Rocks, Moon Pies, and Orbit gum.
Edwards continually makes this town a better and better place to be.
And that goes for dogs, too. Edwards’ has placed a bowl of water and dish of moon- and star-shaped dog biscuits on the floor in the lobby. The cosmic biscuits (right) are made with bacon fat, and pooches are over the moon for them.
The Moon Room
Evening hours nightly beginning May 8
Plus Sunday brunch, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Moonrise Hotel
6177 Delmar Blvd.
314-721-1111