POP sparkling bar and restaurant reopens in Lafayette Square
Dave and Kara Bailey's champagne-themed restaurant/bar has been closed for a year, in part because of a broken water pipe.
Courtesy Baileys' Restaurants
The bar at POP in Lafayette Square
After a one-year hiatus, Dave and Kara Bailey’s champagne-themed restaurant/bar in Lafayette Square, POP (1915 Park), softly reopens to the public Friday night, leading up to a grand opening later this month.
Sister restaurant Baileys’ Chocolate Bar, located upstairs in the same building, is slated to open at month’s end as well.
The Background
“When we reopened [following the initial wave of the pandemic], we combined the POP and Baileys' Chocolate Bar menus and just seated the first floor," says Dave. "Finally, we’re back to using the floors separately, reopening POP first, with BCB following a couple weeks later."
The delayed reopening was exacerbated by water damage to both floors. “We hoped to open back up earlier this spring, but after a broken water pipe completely destroyed both kitchens, repairs took far longer than expected,” Dave adds. The rest of the space has also been improved to what it had been, "pre-pandemic and pre-pipe break disaster."
The Atmosphere
The restaurant seats 80 inside and an additional 70 on the renovated, bi-level, covered, wraparound rear porch, easily one of the more secluded and romantic outdoor dining spots in the city.
Inside, POP is split between two rooms, with the front area brightened by Warhol-esque floral wallpaper. A dark wood bar stretches across one side of the shotgun space. A long, black wood and tufted leather banquette lines the other, with pillows providing pops of color.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Photo by George Mahe
The rear dining room, with one exposed brick wall and the other painted black, feels like it could have been plucked from New Orleans' French Quarter. Filament-bulb wall sconces add to the charm. Below a service-ready cabinet of stemware are iced bottles of service-ready sparklers, sitting akimbo in antique silver punch bowls.
Along the opposite wall are Jackson Pollock–style paintings, created by Kara and her mother, retired art teacher Maryellen Picker. The bursts of color, Pop Art touches, and overall concept “play off sparkling wine and bubbles,” Dave previously told SLM.
Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
Courtesy of POP
The Menu
As the restaurant progressed since first opening in January 2019, its concept of bubbles did, too. The beverage menu now includes an exhaustive list of champagne and sparkling wine from around the world, plus spirit-based sparkling cocktails, beer, and sparkling cider.
Photo by Jason Rowland
Sliced ribeye with pickled radishes that on this night matched the accent colors in the main room
Offering pairing suggestions—as well as pouring tastes, half-glasses, and glasses of the 80 sparklers on hand—is St. Louis native Duff Hufford, who recently returned home after living in Sonoma for the past 25 years. Order a variety of dishes and let Hufford guide you through bubbles from different countries and regions. Doing so is one of the high points of the POP experience.
The food menu, created and executed by executive chef and general manager Scott Davis, follows suit. (Davis previously served as executive chef at both Three Flags Tavern and Café Osage. While waiting for POP to reopen, he also revamped the menu at Small Batch, another Baileys restaurant, which somehow manages to dovetail a vegetarian menu with a large selection of whiskies.)
Photo by George Mahe
While completely different than POP's original offerings, the latest menu—spanning seven small plates, five entrées, and seasonal specials—focuses on big flavors and brightly colored presentations. Small plates include a pork and prawn Scotch egg with sambal aioli, a grilled cabbage Caesar salad, and two must-gets: house made ricotta with pickled green tomatoes and shishito peppers (pictured at right) and pan seared scallops with bacon marmalade and champagne sabayon (pictured below), a steal at $19.
Large plates include a grilled half chicken with turnip purée and green harissa, grilled Spanish mackerel, a grass-fed double bacon cheddar burger, and a wild mushroom omelet with fonduta. Desserts range from a goat cheese cheesecake to custard-stuffed profiteroles.
1 of 4
Photo by Jason Rowland
2 of 4
Courtesy of POP
Grilled half chicken, turnip puree, chicken jus, green harissa
3 of 4
Courtesy of POP
Grass-fed beef double bacon cheeseburger with mustard relish
4 of 4
Courtesy of POP
Wild mushroom omelet with fonduta
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The Concept
The genesis of POP was one of the more interesting restaurant unveilings we’ve ever witnessed. Dave and Kara Bailey (pictured at right) and their team completely transformed the prior restaurant, L’Acadienne, in the middle of dinner service—removing curtains to reveal new artwork, resetting tables with different stemware and china, unveiling a new logo, and serving a completely new menu—as invited guests’ heads spun in amazement.
Photo by George Mahe
When Dave first met Kara, guests learned, they had many things in common, bubbles being one of them. In the back of his head, Dave longed to add “a sparkling bar” to his mental list of to-do concepts. It would be a place to have a first date or a 500th. A place to pair bubbles with food (or just more bubbles).
“This is the restaurant I wanted to open to spend time with Kara,” Bailey said at the time.
“A whole lot has changed since then,” he says today. “That part has not.”
