The Fountain on Locust turns 10

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Photo via Flickr

“Do you know the bathroom story?”

Joy Grdnic Christensen, owner of The Fountain on Locust, leans over the table at one of the cozy booths in her restaurant, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. “Well, it’s kind of a weird story, but I’ll tell it to you anyway,” she says.

In 2004, Christensen bought a building on Locust, a one-way street lined with boarded-up storefronts with the idea of opening a restaurant that served fancy chocolate and ice cream drinks. She'd previously worked in radio, had no restaurant experience, and didn't know anyone who owned a restaurant.

In February 2008, after two years of painstaking renovation—including hundreds of hours that Christensen spent on a scaffold hand-painting and creating the walls' original art deco murals—the restaurant was ready to open its door.

The ice-cream shop opened at a challenging time. “The economy had just tanked and Highway 40 had just shut down for two years of construction,” says Christensen. “On opening day, February 19, 2008, a snowstorm blew through the city, and we had only three people come in. In a way, it was a blessing that we were slow in the beginning, because we still didn’t know exactly what we were doing. It took a while to be able to staff consistently.”

Slowly, people began to trickle in. Upon experiencing the grand atmosphere, stellar ice cream and scratch soups, sandwiches and salads (including the lip-smacking dill pickle soup), many patrons returned with friends or family. The Fountain started to build a growing clientele.

Photo credit Fountain on Locust

And this is when the bathroom came into play.

It started when a restaurant supply company ran a contest calling for nominations for The Best Restroom in America.

"Customers always wanted to tell others about about finding our restaurant and one of them entered us into this contest. We had no idea the person had done this until the company contacted us to let us know we were in the top 10 finalists."

The Fountain was now competing against restaurants that featured such items as TVs in stalls and waterfalls in powder rooms. “It was pretty funny that we were in the contest at all," she says. "Well, then something funny happened. Once the public knew about it, everyone started voting for us! We had customers who would eat here and say things like, ‘I got my whole family to vote for you.’ A young man said he went to visit his grandmother in her condo, and he got everyone in the condo to vote for us.”

Joy smiles and blinks back a few tears. “Students told us they got their roommates to all vote for us," she says. "And one day, a delivery guy was dropping off an order in the back of the restaurant, and he looked at me and said, ‘I vote for you.’ We ended up winning the Best Restroom in America contest.”

Christensen has endless stories like this to share about The Fountain. She tears up again while she tells tales about wedding engagements and about couples who had their first date at the restaurant, only to return after getting married and again with children. “So many people have a story about this place," she says. "That’s why we’re celebrating our 10-year anniversary with the ‘Tell us your ice cream story’ promotion.”

If you have a unique, touching, or funny story to share about ice cream, it might garner a free sundae or ice cream martini—and could be published in The Fountain's menu. The winner will also be entered into a drawing for a free ice cream martini party for 10. (Click here to share your memory and possibly win some free ice cream.)

“St Louis is a city that supports its own,” says Christensen. “They root for you and come together and rally and can make amazing things happen. I don’t think there is any place in the world like St. Louis, and we are forever grateful for how people have supported us over the last 10 years.”