Crushed Red closes Ballwin and St. Charles locations

The two newest locations of Crushed Red closed over the weekend. The last day of service at the Ballwin (14124 Manchester) and St. Charles (165 Beale, Suite 117) locations was July 25. The company’s other locations remain open.

Founder and CEO Chris LaRocca, a veteran restaurateur with more than four decades of experience developing and operating restaurant concepts, says he remains baffled by the outcome. “There are no dots to connect here. If I took the analytics and demographic information I used a year ago researching both of these locations, I’d open them again,” he says. “That’s how much of a sure thing I thought they were. Every box was checked. There’s nothing I would have done differently. But unfortunately, both stores were performing well below our projections.”

The decision was especially difficult because of the impact on the staff, he added. “It was incredibly emotional for me, and it still is,” he says.

The Backstory

Originally branded as Crushed Red, Urban Bake & Chop Shop, it was “arguably the most successful restaurant to open in St. Louis in 2012,” SLM wrote when the concept first launched. During those first several months, the Clayton location (8007 Maryland) was so busy at lunchtime that local police had to direct traffic. LaRocca eventually expanded to locations in Kirkwood, Creve Coeur, Chesterfield, and Overland Park, Kansas.

Photo by Kevin A. Roberts

Photo by Kevin A. Roberts

The concept later adopted the moniker “Artisan Fast,” combining the speed and convenience of fast-casual dining with scratch preparation and premium ingredients. Today, its slogan is “Artfully Chopped Craft Salads,” reflecting a menu built around chopped-to-order salads prepared with a mezzaluna, 90-second pizzas baked in high-temperature ovens that are custom made for the company, house-made soups, and a longstanding commitment to sustainability as a member of the Green Dining Alliance.

LaRocca has long been one of the area’s most prolific restaurant developers, having been involved in dozens of restaurant projects. Beyond Crushed Red, his portfolio has included such concepts as Crazy Fish, Sage Urban American Grill, Chandler Hill, Wrap Rage, Mile 277 Tap & Grill, Tomatillo, Triumph Grill, Kota Wood Fire Grill, and EdgeWild Restaurant & Winery.

Throughout his career, he has combined culinary creativity with an interest in operational innovation, developing a vegetarian pizza crust made from the stores’ veggie scraps, experimenting with voice-recognition handwashing systems that encouraged employee compliance, and installing interactive nutrition kiosks that allowed guests to customize menu items and instantly view updated nutritional information.

Courtesy of Crushed Red

Courtesy of Crushed Red

Crushed Red has continued to evolve over its 14-year run, regularly introducing new ideas and refining the concept. In 2024, the company expanded to Terminal 2 of St. Louis Lambert International Airport with a self-serve pizza kiosk. Its Ballwin restaurant debuted a new drive-thru prototype, making that location’s closure less than a year later especially notable. Later in 2025, the brand also entered St. Charles County for the first time with a location at the Streets of St. Charles.

Innovation continues to remain central to the concept. In April 2026, Crushed Red introduced the Chop Pocket, a pizza-dough roll filled with one of the restaurant’s signature chopped salads that LaRocca describes as “a one-handed salad in sandwich form.” Just days later, Panera unveiled a similar limited-time product, prompting LaRocca to joke, “We have a security breach.” Then, he realized that new menu items take months to develop and that creative minds exist in both camps. “When concepts are similar, competitors often go down the same path,” he reasoned. “We just happened to go down this one at the exact same time.”