Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Crab cakes – atop quick-pickled fried green tomatoes, served with comeback sauce and cole slaw
Just in time for St. Louis’ unexpected spate of patio weather (it’s August, remember), came the arrival of The Last Rooftop, located on the 11th floor of The Last Hotel (1501 Washington).
The hotel proper and The Last Kitchen (the ground-floor restaurant) quietly opened at the end of June. The Last Rooftop bar then quietly opened in late July. And the rooftop menu quietly rolled out last weekend.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Though there’s been no formal (or even informal) announcement, word seems to have gotten out: Guests are finding their way to The Last Rooftop, enjoying the new discovery, and telling friends. The rooftop is geared for hotel guests lunching and lounging by the pool, but it's also open to the public.
“There may eventually come a time when we have to restrict public use to certain time periods to better accommodate hotel guests," says Will Rogers, the hotel’s director of food and beverage, "but right now, we want as many people to experience the amenity as possible.”
Currently, visitors are granted access to the 11th floor roof via a hotel representative. (Hotel guests use their room card for access). The most commanding view begins in the northeast, sweeps south through downtown, and then around to the west, “from the Musial Bridge to the Chase Hotel and everything in between,” says Rogers. A sliver of the Arch is visible, as well as an indirect view at sunset. "Guests don’t get baked as the sun goes down," says Rogers, "but instead see the changing glow on the buildings."
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A lap pool is flanked by a wall of comfy double-loungers equipped with hideaway mini-tables for food or drink. A variety of seating arrangements (couches, strap chairs, deeply upholstered cathedrae) surrounds the pool, as does the music, which seems to come from everywhere. Inside is a composite-topped bar and wide wooden barstools.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The bar and pool area wasn't part of the original Theodore Link–designed building, which itself was a blend of architectural designs: Neo Classical, Art Deco, Art Nouveau. That meant the hotel's designers had "free rein to do almost anything,” Rogers says. The firm gave the rooftop bar a sleek, modern look and riffed on the building’s frieze for the clever Last STL tiling around the pool.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
The Last Hotel is the latest project from developer Tim Dixon, whose Milwaukee hotel The Iron Horse helped transform that city’s tannery district. In St. Louis, he converted the former International Shoe Company headquarters into a 142-room experiential hotel (a more fitting descriptor than “boutique”, according to Dixon) that he designed to appeal to out-of-towners and staycationers. International was the largest shoe company in the world until the '80s, and the hotel plays off that theme whenever it can—a “last” is the mold used to shape shoes. Restrooms are delineated by men’s or women’s shoes, and there’s a shoeshine stand in the hotel lobby.
Courtesy The Last Hotel
The hotel's entryway seamlessly blends into The Last Kitchen, which dovetails into the bar. It leads to a loungy area equipped with tabletop games and a pool table.
The executive chef in charge of foodservice (including three 10th floor event spaces) is Evy Swoboda, the former chef de cuisine at Pastaria. Prior to the hotel opening, Swoboda toured the Midwest, staging in kitchens to discover the roots of St. Louis’ melting pot cuisine, which she showcases in The Last Kitchen’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert menus. (The dessert menu appropriately includes a seasonal cobbler.)
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Street Corn Arancini - with fresh sweet corn, cotija cheese, house hot sauce powder, lime aioli. "I attribute all my risotto ball making skills to Gerard Craft," says Swoboda, former chef de cuisine at Pastaria.
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Crudite, Crackers, and Whipped Hummus - with marinated heirloom cherry tomatoes and crispy shallots. The addition of ricotta cheese makes this hummus extremely light.
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Crab Cakes - adding Swoboda's dehydrated house hot sauce provides the kick.
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Courtesy The Last Hotel
Power Bowl - grain salad with farro, house giardiniera, black beans, arugula, pistachio, pesto, goat cheese + optional protein
The 15-item Last Rooftop menu includes sharing plates, snacks, and three sandwiches, including the XXL Ballpark Salsiccia Dog, which hangs over both sides of a house-made pretzel bun. A smoked-then-fried chicken thigh sandwich includes house-made hot sauce, Provel cheese, and slaw. Swoboda calls the rooftop menu "poolside fare," which spans several seafood items (crab cakes, peel-and-eat shrimp, oysters, weekend specials). The items are produced in a kitchen one floor below, the same space used to prepare food for banquets and catered events.
The Last Rooftop's bar menu is still being finalized, but it will include a selection of wine, beer, and house cocktails, served in unbreakable acrylic glasses.
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Old Fashioned with The Last Rye Whiskey aged in Port Barrel
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Sherry Cobbler
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Two Step Gin Martini
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Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Grapefruit Spritz with Lamarca Prosecco, Deep Eddy Ruby Red Grapefruit vodka
At present, The Last Rooftop is open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m.–midnight and 11 a.m.–2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Food service ends at 7 p.m., but it will be extended on Sundays, when Industry Night commences August 18.
Rooftop guests are greeted by two Bob Cassilly sculptures that were given Lewis and Clark names: Meriwether (a hippo) and William (a manatee). The fiberglass creatures were “already residing in the building and became our unofficial mascots,” says Rogers, who thought a suitable tagline for the bar might be “Home of the Martini-Drinking Aquatic Mammals.”
Photo by George Mahe
From his corner perch, Meriwether the hippo surveys the action
