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The peacock is ready for his close-up.
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From near or far, the sign makes a bold impression.
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The bar-to-be at the Peacock Loop Diner.
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A diner wouldn't be a diner without a counter. The Peacock Loop Diner has several, convivially shaped.
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Joe and Hope Edwards, father and daughter.
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Looking good, prior to installation.
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The sign at night
On Saturday morning, the sign for Joe Edwards’s 24-hour restaurant, Peacock Loop Diner, was attached to the building in preparation for its late-September opening. The diner, along with United Provisions in the adjacent building, will occupy prime Delmar retail space on the first floors of new lofts for Washington University students.
While many have been eagerly anticipating both the market and the diner and know well Edwards’s golden touch that runs throughout The Loop, few might be aware that his daughter, Hope Edwards, has been working alongside him as his graphic designer. I had the opportunity on Saturday, after the sign’s debut, to sit down with the father and daughter team and talk about the new diner and their collaboration.
After completing a bachelor’s degree program in photography and fine art at New York University, Hope moved to Washington, D.C., where she earned a certificate in advanced graphic design from the Corcoran College of Art + Design. In 2009, she returned to St. Louis for what she thought would be a short visit and ended up staying on to help her dad with several projects, including revising The St. Louis Walk of Fame book, and redesigning Blueberry Hill’s menu—no small feat given the vast number of selections.
Specifically, Hope added color to the menu as well as pictures—pictures she took—to accompany select dishes. They’ve noticed that since the menu redesign, the pictured items now draw more attention than ever before, and she’s following suit as she designs the diner’s menu.
Once Joe decided on a peacock—a bird he’s always been drawn to since his childhood visits to the St. Louis Zoo—for the diner’s theme, he shared his concept with his daughter. In her hands, the concept translated into “a mixture of elegance and diner kitsch,” as described by Hope, who consulted with Kiku Obata & Co., the firm in charge of the diner’s interior.
Eleven feet high, seven feet wide, and weighing in at an impressive 1800 pounds, the double-sided sign, which sits 16 feet above the ground, boasts a peacock with a fantail comprised of lemon yellow, emerald green, and neon blue feathers punctuated with raspberry eyes. Joe knew he wanted the word “peacock” to curve like the fantail, with “loop” and “diner” below, and Hope added three stripes in the same raspberry color on either side of “diner,” a detail inspired by other diners, which she heavily researched for the project.
More than 680 feet of glass tubing adorns the sign, which took over 300 hours to construct by Piros Signs, from Barnhart, MO, the same company responsible for the iconic Anheuser-Busch flying eagle sign overlooking Highway 40. According to Mary Hendron, at Insight PR St. Louis, the workers at Piros said the peacock sign is one of the most beautiful they’ve worked on. Stunning it is, all the more so because the neon tubes light from the center of the peacock out to the edges and back inside, on dazzling repeat.
We met first inside the unfinished diner, where Joe and Hope explained the concept: four horseshoe-shaped counters, which will have different colored lights on their edges, take up much of the space. Over the counters, from the ceiling, hang four eye-of-the-peacock-shaped boards that will be illuminated with the same color palette. Beginning near the front, each counter rises four inches higher than its neighbor so that one can see all of the colors together; the same is true of the illuminated boards on the ceiling, but in reverse, with each one hanging lower than the previous one as they move toward the back of the room.
The cumulative effect, from standing outside, will be a kaleidoscope of graduated color leading to a focal point in the back of the diner—a visual invitation to pedestrians on the heavily trafficked Loop sidewalks. Lining the walls, anchored by booths, will be the signature display cases filled with Edwards’s peacock and diner memorabilia. A bar will run the length of a corner near the front windows.
Zach Flynn, head chef at Eclipse has been consulting on the new menu, and items will include diner mainstays like biscuits and gravy and The Loop Sling (two eggs, meat or vegan sausage, chili and cheese, served over potatoes O’Brien or waffles) as well as Asian-influenced options like wasabi tuna salad and tempura onion rings. Burgers will be griddled rather than grilled, Joe shared, so as not to compete with Blueberry Hill, and desserts will be homemade pies, out of respect for nearby Piccione Pastry’s Italian offerings.
Hope added that customers will be able to vote on which pie is best, with the winning pie gaining a featured spot on the rotating menu. General Manager Rob Mueller, a longtime employee at Blueberry Hill, also noted that the dinner menu will run all day, providing healthier options, like salad, for late-night dining. Vegetarian and vegan fare will also be available as well as craft beers, cocktails, wine, and spiked milkshakes.
The Edwards father and daughter share much in common, from their enviable youthful appearances to their rejection of technology—Joe is famous for not having email, while Hope stays away from Facebook (Joe prefers to think of it more as “protection of time” rather than rejection)—to their modesty and genuine niceness.
It’s clear that they also share a mutual respect for each other’s professional contributions; several times in the interview, Joe seemed to be in awe over his daughter’s talents: “I never could do what she does,” he said more than once. For example, Hope tirelessly researched various typefaces to find one that “combined geometric style and substance with friendly curves,” as she put it. Because the sign is the restaurant’s logo, and the typeface will be used on everything else Hope is designing, from the menu, website, and stationery to the t-shirts, stickers, and temporary tattoos, it was imperative to get it right.
Equally complimentary of her dad, Hope said, “It’s fun working with him because he has great ideas. And I love coming up with something that works for him because I know him so well and know his tone and attitude and goals.” She also remarked upon the challenge of making her dad’s vision accessible to the diverse groups of people who visit The Loop: “I love taking a lot of information and making it digestible and simple enough to understand. He has so many things he wants to convey and he’s always trying to connect with every type of person and every type of style, so it’s challenging and gratifying to take everything he wants and somehow make it simple enough that people will want to be engaged with it.”
When asked if he thinks about his current places as he’s developing a new concept—if there’s an overarching idea or theme that unites them—Joe responded that in all of his ventures, he “like[s] to create places where people can be happy, where they can leave their troubles behind.” He added that the display cases filled with memorabilia are a dead giveaway of a “Joe Edwards” place as well as whimsical touches, like the 3000-pound rotating moon atop The Moonrise Hotel. Hope experienced her father’s love of whimsy as she was working on the sign. She explained, “Normally I’m a little more restrained with my design, and he’s like, ‘More color! Feathers! And I want them fanning out like that!’”
Key to the duo’s collaboration is their work space; with offices side by side above Blueberry Hill, they check in for 30-second consultations throughout the day rather than once-a-week, scheduled meetings. Of their close collaboration, Joe said, “It speeds up the process and also enables us to talk about so many more aspects of the project. That’s why the design is so great.” Ultimately, Joe believes we’d all be better off with that kind of collaboration: “Building by consensus is wonderful,” he said.
With all of his current and upcoming business ventures, including the Loop Trolley project, Joe Edwards could be both stressed out and inaccessible. But when I met with him, he seemed relaxed and generously sat chatting for nearly an hour and a half on Blueberry Hill’s patio as people walked by and waved or stopped for a quick hello. Something he said, however, about the importance of Hope’s collaboration gave a small glimpse into his hectic world: “I can relax with her around. It’s lightened my pressure.”
And with that comment, Joe Edwards—“civic leader,” “entrepreneur,” and “businessman extraordinaire”—became “dad,” proud of and thankful for his daughter.
