When a shuttered landmark restaurant space spins into an Italian restaurant, it’s time to dance a celebratory tarantella. Enter Constantinos (4200 S. Grand), located in the Dutchtown building that previously housed The Feasting Fox, which shuttered in 2020. Following a nearly two-year renovation, Constantinos is slated to open this Saturday, June 8 at 5 p.m.
The Menu
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The extensive menu covers the waterfront, with from-scratch Neapolitan pizzas, strombolis, calzones, pastas, freshly baked breads, and more. To get things started, longtime baker Benjamin McCoy bakes house-made bread each day. “Everybody loves the bread,” says executive chef and general manager Dan Wilder, who developed the menu. (Wilder has clocked more than 40 years in the business, starting as a busboy at Trotter’s before becoming executive chef at The Boathouse and running a food truck serving barbecue.)
Pizza gets top billing at the restaurant, where the tag line ‘A pizza you can’t refuse’ is scrawled across one wall in the main dining room. The Neapolitan-style pies start with a house-made dough, handmade red sauce, and a combination of Provel and mozzarella. Customers can choose from a wide range of toppings. Meat options include sweet Italian or pork sausage, pepperoni, bacon, hamburger, Canadian bacon, and meatballs. Among the veggie variety: red or yellow onion; red, yellow, green, or orange bell peppers; mushrooms; tomatoes; spinach; and black olives.
Calzones come in small or medium sizes, along with a side of marinara and ricotta cheese. Strombolis follow a similar pattern, with ricotta and Swiss cheese. Pastas include three classic fettuccine options: alfredo, carbonara, and sweet Italian sausage with marinara sauce. The lasagna is layered with marinara, six cheeses, and sweet Italian sausage. There’s also a classic spaghetti with marinara and meatballs, as well as two ravioli offerings: butter and cream sauce, or marinara with Parmesan cheese. Sandwiches, appetizers, salads, and soups are also available.
A menu of weekday lunch specials is served from 11 a.m.–2 p.m., and a happy hour menu runs from 3–6 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Saturdays and Sunday from 8–11a.m., Constantinos serves brunch, with a full menu, including breakfast pizza, frittatas, and a special breakfast no-noodle lasagna that Wilder created. “Shredded hash browns make up where noodles would be,” he says. “Plus, there’s eggs, sausage, bacon, three different cheeses, and ricotta all baked together.”
Once a month, Wilder also teams up with Ray Maxwell of Wild Wine Life to host dinners that pair wild game dishes with wines that Maxwell distributes.
Wilder also plans to host additional special events. On Friday and Saturday nights, the restaurant will host live music. There will also be music on the fourth Tuesday of every month, which will be a special bike night. “We welcome anybody on a motorcycle,” Wilder says. “It doesn’t matter what kind, what make, or what model—just come have a bike night with us.”
The Atmosphere
Co-owner Michael Cahill, who also owns Midwest Flood Restoration, did the work on the historic restaurant and bar, as well as its companion event space at South Grand and Meramec. He’s new to the restaurant business and opened Constantinos to pay homage to his Italian heritage. The menu includes family recipes from both his grandmother and mother, Barbara Constantino, the restaurant’s namesake.
At one time housing The Gretchen Inn, the historic Tudor Revival–style building was built by Anheuser-Busch in 1913. The classic cream stucco and dark timbered façade is now a deep grey with red trim. In a nod to the Italian flag, green-white-and-red panes fill in the eyebrow style at the top of windows on the building’s front and sides.
Inside, Cahill pays homage to the building’s roots with an original mural of the Clydesdales on one wall of the dining room. The bar looks much as it did during the 25 years that Marty and Sue Luepker ran The Feasting Fox, though the antiques are now gone.
“The neighborhood, the nostalgia of the old building, and the fact that August Busch used to stop in here on the way home to his castle, I like all of it,” says Wilder. “I saw how the people in Dutchtown are revamping the neighborhood, and I need to be a part of that energy.”
