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Following the acquisition of the buildings, demolition and construction began almost immediately, on August 1st. Twenty-two weeks later we opened the doors, on December 26th.
We took a minimalist approach in the design for two reasons. First, we wanted to create an environment where everyone was welcome and would feel comfortable because the focus was BEER. Second, it was all we could afford. A restaurant was not even part of the original vision, which included only a beer hall with homemade pretzels. That idea soon changed and local food expert and gourmet Susan Katzman was hired as a menu consultant.
Our architect was Tom Cohen, who also returned to design the renovation of the North Building in 1998, and the Tap Room on the D Concourse at Lambert Airport in 2002. Our original interior designer was Julie Rosenfeld. Jeff Wamhoff, from the St. Louis Art Museum, designed and built the beautiful back bar in the restaurant. (Coincidentally, Samuel L. Scherer, the architect who designed our building, later became the first Director of The St. Louis Art Museum.) The wood Jeff used for carving the bar (Douglas Fir) was part of the tens of thousands of dollars worth of lumber that had been purchased and left by the previous owner in order to repair the damage caused by the fire storm 16 years earlier.
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