The Gelateria (3197 S. Grand), a breakfast, lunch, and dinner hangout along St. Louis South Grand strip, suffered extensive damage resulting from a fire in the overnight hours of March 7. Owner Andrew Fair believes the fire started in the building’s basement and spread to the cafe and other parts of the two-story building.
Originally called The Gelateria Coffee Company, the café became known for its Italian gelato and coffee, but under Fair’s watch, it has grown into more of a fast casual restaurant specializing in breakfast sandwiches before 11 a.m., focaccia sandwiches at lunch, and pizza at dinner. Fair has spent over a decade perfecting his pizza recipe, which blends Roman, Sicilian, and Detroit styles and is baked in a deep pan. His playful creativity was on display recently at Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, where he served a brioche gelato sandwich, calling it “the suave aunt of ice cream and waffles.”After the fire, neighboring businesses quickly stepped up.
Steve’s Hot Dogs was the first neighboring to lend a helping hand by announcing that all weekend, 50 percent of its proceeds (not just the profits) from every St. Louis Dog (and vegan St. Louis Dog) sold at the South Grand location (3145 S. Grand) will be donated to The Gelateria to help with expenses resulting from the fire. Owner Steve Ewing is also helping Gelateria’s employees find work. “It’s devastating,” he told KMOV. “This is completely something you can’t plan for. You can’t plan for a fire and complete devastation so this is something we have to help out on.”
At Terror Tacos (3191 S. Grand), co-owner Bradley Roach followed Steve’s lead, and is bringing back the Behemoth Taco (a longtime fave) and donating 50 percent of its proceeds for the weekend as well. Daniel ‘Dr. Dan’ Drake (aka Dan the Pancake Man) has pledged support from his company, The Joy of Pancakes. “The Gelateria is critical community infrastructure,” he said on social media. “Don’t know how many creative meetings I’ve had there. If you need any help, if there’s any kind of fundraising situation, you can 100% count on @thejoyofpancakes doing pancake art to raise money for you. Please let us know.”
Another neighboring business, Kenny’s Upstairs ( 3131 S. Grand), said on social media, “As a way to give back to them as they always have for us and the neighborhood, we will be donating 100% of net proceeds from baby beer sales this weekend directly to them. Help us help them and their crew who is now out of work for the foreseeable future. Cheers to community. We love you.”
Even in the face of a devastating loss, the Gelateria was most concerned about its employees, and launched a GoFundMe on their behalf. The initial goal of $20,000 was earmarked to compensate for what they would typically receive for a pay period (over $29,000 had been raised at press time) with a total goal of $100,000 support them over the next several months. Donate here.
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Later Friday morning, a fire broke out at Bristol Seafood Grill (11801 Olive) in Creve Coeur before the restaurant opened for the day. No injuries were reported. The extensive damage to the roof is visible from the street. It was reported that the restaurant had just finished extensive roof and hvac improvements. In a statement on social media, the restaurant wrote that “we are currently evaluating the damages and once fully assessed we will know more about a reopening timeline.”
