Courtesy Bar Les freres
It's perhaps the most asked question about the dining scene during the past year: What will become of Zoë Robinson’s restaurants?
After months wondering about the fate of I Fratellini, Bar Les Frères, and, Billie-Jean in Clayton, there finally appears to be an answer.
Courtesy Suzy Gorman
Zöe Robinson, Susan Barrett
The longtime restaurateur has sold her beloved trio of Clayton restaurants to local art collector and gallerist Susan Barrett, former director of the World Chess Hall of Fame and owner of Barrett Barrera Projects.
At press time, plans call for Bar Les Frères and I Fratellini to reopen with minor cosmetic changes. The Billie-Jean space is slated to be converted into an entity that’s similar but different to the prior concept. “It’s so unique and personal, an homage to Zoe’s parents,” says Barrett, who is close friends with Robinson. “To me, that’s sacred territory. But I think people will like what we’re planning.”
Barrett plans to provide the art and design for the restaurants, while a to-be-named chef-operator will handle the culinary duties. “The wheels are in motion for all this to happen, but it’s not a done deal,” Robinson notes, as the contract with the operator is still being finalized. Referencing Barrett, Robinson says she couldn’t be leaving the restaurants in better hands, and the same goes for the operator, whom Robinson says “doesn’t need my help at all—this person is that good.”
Courtesy Suzy Gorman
The interior at I Fratellini, prior to its closure in March 2020
Robinson and Barrett have been working on the project since March, when Barrett expressed a desire to buy the restaurants. But selling a restaurant (let alone three) is no easy task, Robinson says, especially after throwing a pandemic into the mix. One contingency for both parties was that a suitable operator-partner could be found.
“These were Susan’s hangouts,” Robinson says of the restaurants. “Her desire is to see them reopen and still have the same character. The operator had to feel the same way.”
“We both thought that the core needed to remain," Barrett adds, "that there’s no reason to change what had over time become such beloved places.”
And so the search began. An interested operator had to be located, relationships established, reputations vetted, visions compared, and the process repeated if it didn't work out. “All that took a long time,” Robinson says.
That said, the hope is that Bar Les Frères and I Fratellini would reopen concurrently, in January or February, with the possibility of a pop-up event or two in December. “There would be no better holiday gift than that,” says one devotee.
Challenging Times
While the three restaurants have built a loyal following over the years, with chef Ny Vongsaly at the helm, the pandemic hit the trio of beloved spots along Wydown Boulevard especially hard, due to their small size and cozy table spacing. In June 2020, Robinson began offering culinarily themed picnic boxes—French-cuisine one week, Italian the next—but the concept only lasted several weeks. “It was not the type of hospitality that I wanted to provide, that I was good at providing,” Robinson admits.
Having negotiated reasonable leases for all three properties, she preferred to wait it out. “I didn’t decide to sell the restaurants initially,” she continues, “but I knew I didn’t want to put food in people’s car trunks anymore—that was long before any vaccines and was terrifying for all of us. I thought I’d reopen when the time was right, when it was safe and it made sense economically. When the smoke began to clear, I had already decided to explore other possibilities."
Throughout the 18 months, she received texts, emails, calls—not all of them kind-hearted—asking when she was going to reopen and why she hadn't reopened. “It took its toll on me,” she says.
Then, in November 2020, Robinson was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I had to reevaluate my life and consider that it might be shorter now,” she says. “Were the restaurants still in business, I would have owned up to the fact and said I was getting treatment and I made it out OK. Considering all that I’ve been through and all the details involved, I think I did a pretty good job.”
Finally, this September, the windows of all three restaurants were papered over on the same day, signaling some sort of culmination.
Photos by George Mahe
On the Near Horizon
Barrett says I Fratellini, a space so small and cozy that the staffers interacted with balletic grace and precision, is nearing completion. The floor has been refinished, and the rest of the cosmetics are progressing. “It’s nice to freshen up a place after a little nap,” Barrett says.
Courtesy Suzy Gorman
The bar at Bar Les Freres
She will be cautious with tinkering with the aesthetics at Bar Les Frères as well. With its terrazzo floors, glowing candles, gilded frames, and lavishly upholstered furniture, the bistro has the vibe of a romantic Parisian cafe. When renowned chef Daniel Boulud paid a visit, he said he felt like he was in Vienna.
Collectables, unusual finds, and objets are everywhere, including a curious assortment of deer antlers above the bar. There are hats—bicornes—and triangular-shaped boxes for the bicornes. Guest checks are anchored to their holders with a skeleton key. On the terraced patio, chairs at tables for two are set side by side, facing the boulevard. And somehow, the bistro fare—gruyère souffle, potato blinis with crème fraîche and caviar, Little Gem salad with tarragon, French lamb chops with cauliflower gratin, scalloped potatoes—all managed to pair perfectly with a French 75. When the question asked was “What’s the most romantic restaurant in St. Louis?,” the answer was most often “Bar Les Frères.”
Plans call for an encore of what Robinson created over time: a production that’s the same every night yet always different.
An Artful Touch
Robinson and Barrett have been on intersecting paths for years.
Barrett worked for Robinson at Café Zoë in the '80s and says she "became an extrovert after observing Robinson interact with customers on the floor. Everyone was her best friend, and it was all very genuine. I learned from her to be not just outgoing but gracious and mannerly. I’m her biggest fan.”
Earlier this year, after Robinson appeared on an installment of Barrett's podcast, Art is a Verb, the friends realized they had similar philosophies, about “nurturing the community, bringing people together, creating a lifestyle and the enhancement of that lifestyle,” Barrett says. “That’s what Zoë does, and that’s how I feel about bringing art to people, about the experience of art. When you buy a piece of art, you’re buying into the community; the experience enhances your life. And now, as COVID wanes, we all realize how much we miss the dining experiences that were so important to us, too.
“I miss some of the institutions that St. Louis has lost over the years—cultural, architectural, and culinary,” Barrett says, “the things that define and shape the community. I didn’t want to see Zoe’s restaurants succumb to that fate.”
Robinson says Barrett's knowledge and connections in the art world will allow her to do what few people in the country are able to do in a restaurant environment. Founded in 2014, Barrett Barrera Projects is a multidisciplinary consulting company that presents art exhibitions and offers art advisory services. Barrett operates two galleries (projects+gallery in the Central West End and projects+exhibitions in The Grove), as well as Guest House, an 8,000-square-foot former home and antique store in the CWE where artists and creatives can stay when visiting St. Louis.
“The discussion started with Guest House,” says Robinson, “with Susan and I considering mixing the visual arts and culinary arts through collaborations," such as bringing in a guest chef or artist to collaborate and to stay at Guest House, "and it took off from there." In the future, Barrett's scope could incorporate designing uniforms, commissioning artists to create tableware, or selecting appropriate playlists. “The restaurants will become her lifestyle brand, and the possibilities are endless,” Robinson says. “Susan has a wealth of ideas and knows how to execute them.”
Robinson, who now lives in Aspen for most of the year, will not be part of daily operations but is planning on collaborating on related projects in the future—“the brainstorming, the planning, the fun stuff,” she says.
