A long-held tradition at Westport Plaza, the monthly Parties on the Plaza, is returning today, April 18, after a five-year hiatus. The festivities will be held every third Thursday of the month at the new, 10,000-square-foot The Plaza at Westport venue, located in the middle of the Westport Plaza village.
The kickoff event opens with a three-hour show from rock icon impersonators Platinum Rock Legends. (Dr. Zhivegas will follow on May 16.) Bar service will be available within the space and the complex’s restaurants will serve food and beverages on the patios surrounding the venue. Attendees are free to play beer pong, bags, and other lawn games during the event. (In the event of inclement weather, Parties on the Plaza will be moved indoors to Westport Social.)
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The Rawlings Connection
In addition to the new plaza, a 15-by-25-foot video board is being installed nearby, above the doors to the southernmost building, known as the Gold Tower. The amenity will be shared with Rawlings, which recently moved its corporate headquarters to that address and opened the Rawlings Experience this week. Part baseball history museum and part interactive playground, the experience includes touring the glove vault lined with recent and past gold glove awards, designing a ball glove with a master glove maker, and taking swings in a batting cage using the newest-design baseball and softball bats.
“The move to Westport, the unique Rawlings Experience…and then there’s the giant gold glove that’s being installed on the roof of the Gold Tower,” says Todd Hotaling, vice president of sales and revenue at Lodging Hospitality Management, which owns and operates Westport Plaza. “Anyone traveling on Interstate 270 will soon see the presence of Rawlings in our city.”
The Onsite Restaurants
LHM’s first restaurant project on the property, Westport Social—featuring a massive bar, restaurant, and recreation space—opened in 2017. Late last year, LHM added Soda Fountain Express and 360 Westport, sister concepts to the flagship operations in the city. (Other Westport Plaza restaurants include Drunken Fish, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop, Jovick Brothers Deli, Kobe Steakhouse of Japan, and Trainwreck Saloon.)
The plan is for more restaurants to flank the courtyard at The Plaza at Westport, with garage doors and/or French doors opening onto it, LHM operations manager Blaise Pastoret recently explained on The Carney Show with Julie Buck on KTRS. Pastoret teased that two such restaurants are in the planning stages: an Italian gastropub (focusing on pastas, wood-fired pizzas, and steaks) and a country-leaning bar (featuring duck pin bowling).
Hotaling later told SLM, “There’s room for a third [restaurant project]. It’d be nice to have a little steakhouse out there.”
The Backstory
Years ago, LHM bought the 42-acre, mixed-use Westport Plaza with grand plans to breathe new life into an area that was once the epicenter of the St. Louis County entertainment scene, thanks to its restaurants, bars, nightclubs, shops, and entertainment venues.
Hotaling explains that an open courtyard was always an important piece of the development puzzle (and a building was demolished to make it happen) and that LHM’s CEO Bob O’Laughlin wanted to create something with a major pull—such as a park environment with an entertainment element—to complement the lake and amenities.
“A lot of people used to attend Parties at the Plaza,” Hotaling says, “so we thought, Why not bring that back in a bigger and better way? There’s a group that remembers the parties fondly, but there’s another group that doesn’t remember them at all.”
Hotaling says the goal is for The Plaza at Westport to spawn an entertainment district hosting several additional events per month, with the restaurants open for business before, during, and after.
In addition, Westport Park is a fully rentable space, capable of hosting outdoor and tented parties, receptions, and corporate events. “We have most of the necessary party equipment at the onsite hotels already, which makes planning easier,” says Hotaling. “We can also tent part of the space, which we’re planning on doing for our upcoming Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day parties. Guests have numerous nearby eating and drinking options before or after the event. They can even stick around and stay the night.”
Earlier this week, Hotaling smiled when he overheard a visitor say, “This is exactly what this area needed.” Another boasted, “Westport is back.”
