The partners of The Wheelhouse (15 N. Central Ave., 314-726-7955) have announced that the Clayton location is closing on July 1. Wheelhouse’s second location (at 1000 Spruce Street downtown) will remain open.
Stephen Savage, Lou Groff, and Jared Ater opened the restaurant/sports bar just over three years ago. The Wheelhouse name was appropriate, since the trio worked together at the original Harpo’s Bar & Grill in Columbia, Mo.
While the Wheelhouse had the expected accoutrements (flat-screen TVs, cheeseburgers, and beer), it took the sportsbar game to the next level by ratcheting the fare up a titch. For a time, it was the place for both millennials and Claytonites to hang out and take in a sporting event.
Then the game changed a bit.
When the partners took a risk by opening a downtown location a few months after the debut of Ballpark Village (and just a few blocks away), many initially questioned the decision, but when the hordes immediately began packing the 10,000 square foot space, the naysayers fell silent.
In retrospect, Savage theorizes that many of his Clayton customers likely defected to the newer, spiffier digs downtown (right). “It’s a better, bigger venue, in a beautiful historic building, where we had total control over the design,” Savage said, referring to the several bars to speed ordering, a mezzanine with VIP service, and ample outdoor seating...to say nothing of a 3 a.m. closing time.
The N. Central Ave. location (prior home of the Pasta House Co., Tucci & Fresta’s Trattoria & Bar, Portabella, and Port St. Louis), “just didn’t pan out for us the way downtown has,” said Savage. “Take brunch, for example. Downtown, we’d fill all 300 seats and have another 150 people just drinking at the bar. Nothing like that ever happened in Clayton, an area where we thought brunch would be strong.”
The partners plan to keep the Clayton location open during Parties in the Park (held once a month on Central Ave. until fall), but their main focus is on making the downtown venue even more formidable (“we took two good kitchens and made one great kitchen,” Savage said) and opening the highly anticipated Start Bar right next door.
Savage described the Start Bar as “a tribute to past and present arcades,” to which we’d add, “but with better food.”
Start Bar is slated to open next week and should be formidable as well (Atomicdust, fresh off the Porano Pasta and Revel Kitchen projects, did the branding). When we caught a sneak peek earlier this week, our fancy adjectives escaped us...all we could muster was, “Holy Shit!”
We trust that a little Mortal Kombat and a few games of Skee-Ball will make us more articulate in the future.
