Ballpark Village is betting on a beloved hometown chef for its next culinary chapter: James Beard Award-winning chef Kevin Nashan has partnered with Live! Hospitality & Entertainment to open The Clydesdale (601 Clark), slated to debut in mid-August in The Crown, which partially occupies the ground floor of the Budweiser Brew House building along Clark Avenue, across from Busch Stadium.
For Nashan, the project came together fast. “The Live! team at Ballpark Village wanted to make a change—to bring in someone local offering something different than what was already there,” he tells SLM. “Once we started talking about the modern tavern concept, it all came together organically—and quickly, literally in a couple of months.”
Here’s what to know before you go.
The Concept & Atmosphere
As the name conveys, Nashan and the Live! team wanted to embrace the building’s Anheuser-Busch heritage rather than compete with it. “The idea was to piggyback on the existing A-B presence and add to it with a name like The Clydesdale,” he says. “I hope the restaurant becomes as iconic as they are.”
Rather than creating another sports bar, Nashan is aiming for something with broader appeal: a polished but approachable restaurant where guests can grab a burger before Cardinals games, linger over a grilled trout after a concert, or enjoy a date night when Busch stadium is idle.
“The modern tavern idea is perceived as being more upscale, yet affordable and approachable,” he says.
Think of it as bar-and-grill fare elevated with better ingredients, sharper execution, and more restaurant-worthy entrées.
The restaurant seats about 100 indoors, with another 40–50 seats on a stadium-facing patio equipped with an indoor-outdoor bar that’s expected to become one of the space’s biggest draws. Inside, the existing dark wood finishes will be upgraded, and oversized hammered-copper pendant lights will be added, Nashan says. The resulting vibe feels “way more warm and restaurant-y and less sports bar,” Nashan says.
The restaurant occupies the first floor of the three-story, 25,000-square-foot building, while the upper two floors—the existing Crown Room event space and Rooftop Bud Deck, both with their own outdoor components—are slated to be reactivated as private event spaces by next spring. Nashan’s team will ultimately operate all three levels.
“What my entire subcontractor team could do décor- and buildout-wise in a few weeks, if we’re lucky, these guys…can do in a day,” Nashan adds. “The whole thing is coming together very quickly, so we should be ready for a mid-August launch. The plan is to initially open five or so days a week, but we hope to offer lunch and dinner every day as soon as possible.”
The Food
While The Clydesdale marks Nashan’s first Ballpark Village project, regulars at Peacemaker will immediately recognize a few signature items. A seafood program anchors the menu, featuring oysters, smoked trout, caviar, and a jumbo shrimp cocktail made with fresh shrimp, which is still a rarity in St. Louis. Those items also come together in the Crown Tower, a grand seafood presentation that combines all of the above.
Beyond the raw bar, appetizers include house-made sausages and pickles with soft pretzel sticks, chicken wings tossed in brown sugar Buffalo sauce, P.E.I. mussels in coconut-green curry broth, crispy calamari, lobster bisque, and house-made potato chips topped with caviar and crème fraîche.
Not wanting to spark “burger wars,” Nashan created two distinct options: Clyde’s Burger, an 8-ounce Wagyu blend thick burger, and the Village Burger, a double-patty Wagyu smashburger with its own bun and sauce. Both join sandwiches including crispy (or grilled) hot chicken with chow chow and blue cheese and an Italian beef on a hoagie roll. Burgers and sandwiches will be $17–$19.
Fresh pastas include mezze rigatoni with Calabrian chile vodka sauce, mafaldine with spicy Italian sausage, and squid ink bucatini loaded with shrimp, calamari, mussels, and lump crab.
“We didn’t want to delve too deeply into sandwiches, pastas and barbecue,” Nashan says. “We have neighbors that we respect that are doing a fine job with those.”
Entrées include prime sirloin steak frites with house-made, double-cooked beef tallow fries, a grilled Newman Farms pork chop, and whole roasted trout with cotija, smashed potatoes, and chimichurri.
Desserts range from a tasting of local ice cream to a gooey butter cake gussied up with pretzel cream, bacon, and chocolate sauce.
The beverage program remains beer-forward, in keeping with the building’s heritage, but with a greater emphasis on craft selections than previous concepts. Cocktails, Nashan says, will be “straight ahead but very fun.”
The menu was collaboratively developed by Nashan and executive chef Matt Duffin (formerly of Cardwell’s, Bolyard’s Meat & Provisions, and pop-up dinner events, including the Friends with Benefits Supper Club). Also playing major roles are Joe Shirley, corporate chef for Live! Hospitality & Entertainment, and Phil Dikeman, ballpark chef for Live!
“Phil has been at Ballpark Village since Day 1,” Nashan says, “so he knows the BPV customer better than anyone.
“I’ve been a sponge” he adds. “I’ve been playing follow-the-leader behind these guys. I’ve long believed in the ‘it takes a village’ mentality. This project is a perfect example.”
The Backstory
For Nashan, The Clydesdale adds another chapter to a career that began far from St. Louis. He grew up working at his family’s restaurant, La Tertulia, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. After graduating from Saint Louis University and the Culinary Institute of America, he trained at some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants, including Daniel in New York City, Le Francais in Chicago, Commander’s Palace in New Orleans, and El Bulli in Spain before purchasing Sidney Street Cafe with his wife, Mina, and his brother, Chris, in 2003.
Today, Nashan oversees restaurants in both St. Louis and Tulsa—including three locations of Peacemaker Lobster & Crab and La Tertulia, respectively—and earned the James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Midwest” in 2017, after being a finalist in the category twice and a semifinalist five times.
Despite the accolades, Nashan says his philosophy has never changed. “It’s not about what you know—it’s about how you make people feel,” he’s said many times. True to the adage, you’ll see Nashan offering as many hugs as handshakes.
He hopes that sense of hospitality will define The Clydesdale, becoming another reason for locals—not just baseball fans—to spend time on Clark Avenue.
“Ballpark Village has really evolved over the past 13 years,” he says. “It’s incredible to walk from Live! by Loews and The Bullock, past Katie’s, the Brew House, the AVA Garden Bar, and end up at Salt + Smoke. There’s a lot going on up and down that block, and not just during baseball season. We’re really excited to become a part of it.”
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