Cue The Drifters’ classic hit song, “Up on The Roof.” Clayton’s new restaurant and bar—High Bar Clayton—debuts this evening atop the 11-story, 207-room AC Hotel by Marriott St. Louis Clayton (227 S. Central). The city’s first and only permanent rooftop bar and restaurant is open seven nights a week.
The hotel is the third AC Hotel in metro St. Louis, after locations in Chesterfield and the Central West End. Koplar Enterprises, Homebase Partners, and Concord Hospitality (the largest operator in the AC Hotel chain) are partners in both the CWE and Clayton properties. Here’s a sneak peek.
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The Property
Located on the site of the former Clayton Police Department, the AC Hotel will offer on-site restaurants High Bar Clayton, as well as AC Lounge and AC Kitchen—back-to back-spaces located off the first-floor lobby.
At present the High Bar Clayton is accessible via the lobby elevators, but soon to come is a dedicated entrance and elevator, which will run as an express to the roof during open hours every evening. “We want to cater to local diners along with hotel guests, hence the two entrances,” says John Gieseke, director of sales and marketing for Concord Hotels. “We want High Bar to feel like a local restaurant.”
Koplar Enterprises’ Sam Koplar echoes the sentiment: “People are sometimes averse to dining in restaurants connected to hotels, but look at Las Vegas or even at The Chase Hotel back in the day,” he says. “We want High Bar to become ingrained in the local community.”
The Menu
“Think of the menu is an homage to our Spanish roots,” says Gieseke, noting that Antonio Catalan founded AC Hoteles C.A in Spain in 1997. The specialty item during the daily buffet service is sliced-to-order prosciutto, says Gieseke. “Every AC hotel is equipped with a high-end, color-matched Berkel slicer, so it only makes sense we feature shaved prosciutto.”
The single-page menu—composed of 10 small plates and half that number of signature entrées—will be tapas-style. Starters will include citrus shrimp, baked ricotta, several flatbreads, charred zucchini (with feta, pickled, onion, honey, and almond), and a seared tuna stack (with a yuzu and soy glaze, served with avocado and fish roe over fried sticky rice).
Entrées include a hangar steak with chimichurri, grilled chicken thighs, a half-pound white cheddar burger with bacon and caramelized onion, and pesto rigatoni (with sun-dried and cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, feta, breadcrumbs, and Parmesan). Bookending the 20-item menu are two salads, as well as key lime pie with macerated raspberries and a warm brownie sundae for the table, topped with Neapolitan ice cream.
The menu format and composition has been designed to complement High Bar’s robust cocktail, beer, and wine collection, Gieseke says. A representative describes High Bar “as more B&F [beverage and food] than F&B.”
“The High Bar menu is created just for this space and is not confined by the AC brand,” explains hotel general manager Peter Arscott. “Downstairs the menus are the same as the other AC Hotels,” he says. “They’re very good, but designed by Marriott. Up here we have some freedom.”
The cocktail menu lists 18 classics and another dozen specialty drinks, with such locally themed names as Forest Park Fizz, Soulard Sangria, and Arch-itect’s Manhattan. Another signature cocktail, The Perfect 400 Manhattan, is named after the perfect score on the Uniform Bar Exam, which also plays into the restaurant name. A happy hour menu is in the works.
The restaurant’s food and beverage director, Brian Parrott, previously held the same position at the Angad Arts Hotel and The Last Hotel. His resume includes general manager stints at Firehouse Bar & Grill, Over/Under Bar & Grill, Pi Pizzeria, and Farotto’s, which is owned by his cousins.
High Bar’s bar hours are from 4 to 11 p.m. during the week and 4 to midnight on Friday and Saturday (the kitchen closes one hour prior to the bar). Reservations can be made through Open Table.
The Atmosphere
The interior at High Bar Clayton Rooftop will boast leather, copper, and suspended islands of striated wood—a design element unique to the Clayton hotel. The same treatment wraps several of the seating areas and booths, tying the large room together. Industrial-inspired oxidized steel dividers and metal pieces of art add a ruggedness to the space.
The centerpiece of the 75-seat dining room is a square, 36-seat bar topped with natural stone. Suspended bottle shelving allows unobstructed views through a wall of folding windows, which open to reveal a 65-seat east-facing patio. The patio features a long half-wall topped with glass panels, serving as a safety feature and protection against inclement weather. Retractable screens or clear blinds can be lowered to enclose the space, making it usable during three seasons. Additionally, there is an open-air section of the patio with a fire pit as its focal point. Both sections of the patio, as well as the dining room, can be rented for private events.
“The space came out better than what we envisioned,” Arscott says. “As the sun sets and reflects on the building to the east, it lights up the entire bar, and the effect changes as the sun goes down. Suffice to say, one of the best times to visit High Bar is at sunset.”
“You can’t beat the view,” Gieseke adds. “It’ll be great place to be on the Fourth of July.”
The goal of AC Hotels is to create a “friction-free, perfectly precise stay,” and the High Bar speaks to that, Geiseke says. “Clean lines, clean everything. You won’t find a lot of clutter. It all plays to the AC tagline of striking ‘the perfect balance of the details you want and the services you need.”’
In addition to the restaurant and bar, a meeting room called The Heights spans a 3,000-square-foot space that can be broken into three carpeted areas, including two that can be organized schoolroom-style for meetings or set with round tables for up to a 200-person wedding/event dinner. A 700-square-foot pre-event space is also available. The rooms can be divided by accordion-style, floor-to-ceiling “glass air walls,” tinted dark-to-light from bottom to top for privacy.
The Backstory
“When Clayton issued an RFP for the former Clayton Police Station, we were the only group that proposed a hotel and restaurant, giving Clayton another entertainment option instead of another apartment or condo complex,” says Koplar.
Yet it was a project that almost didn’t happen because of the pandemic, Koplar adds. “In March 2020, we were getting ready to close the deal with the partners when the world came to an abrupt halt. We had an agreement with the City of Clayton to get the project moving, and it took several more years than any of us had planned, but here we are—we got it done.”
Koplar’s a big fan of the AC brand, especially the High Bar. “There’s nothing like it in Clayton or anywhere nearby,” he says. “Today, people are accepting of new places, new ways to dine, new ways of doing things. The AC and High Bar fill those niches.”
