Mike Hobbs has had his eye on Brandt’s restaurant for five years.
The owner of The Melting Pot in The Loop even submitted offers to buy the place, both to Jay Brandt and to his nephew Adam, the most recent owner.
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Since Brandt’s closed two weeks ago, though, that purchase is now moot, so Hobbs was anxious to revisit the property, and recently did so with his architect and designer, just to see if the concept he’d been visualizing even made sense.
The good news and the bad news: the space is 2800 SF; good, because drinkers and diners like cozy, cramped spaces (kitchen party, anyone?) and bad because 2800 may not be enough real estate to make the numbers work.
His idea is to transform the space into a restaurant/tavern along the lines of FX McRory’s in Seattle, PJ Clarke’s in New York, or Harry’s Bar or the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco (with maybe a little Annie Gunn’s thrown in). All are iconic watering holes, “Cheers”-type places that also happen to serve superior food.
When asked if The Loop was changing, especially this year (as was the contention of Adam Brandt), Hobbs answered like a guy who’s been doing business there for the last 15 years. “Nothing has changed in The Loop,” he said. “We get a new group of teens there every spring. Sometimes they create some trouble, sometimes little or none at all. In any case, the appropriate action is taken and we move on. Just like we did this year.”
This Loop veteran also thinks the area is actually “skewing older,” that the number of non-teens visiting The Loop is increasing, and speculates that number will only get larger when the Loop Trolley starts to roll, at which point tourists–older ones–will be looking to eat along one of 10 Great Streets in America.
By the time his project could be finished, Chuck Berry Plaza (immediately to the west) should be completed as well. He also noted that the Centennial Greenway bike trail, a 20-mile route that runs from Forest Park to St. Charles, will cross over Delmar at that plaza, adding yet another source of potential customers. They’ll even be a taxi stand, a real anomaly in St. Louis.
So while many Loop observers cry Chicken Little, Hobbs sees nothing but blue sky. Plus, owning The Melting Pot will afford him the opportunity to cross-promote.
He concluded by correctly observing that the 2011 Loop has recently become a haven for bar and grill-type places and that “especially since the demise of Riddles, there are no ‘nicer’ places to dine along that strip, except for The Melting Pot.”
Hobbs intends to provide one more.
If all goes as planned, the new restaurant will be called Dillon’s on Delmar, a family name as well as Hobbs’ middle name. At this time, neither a construction timetable nor a projected opening date has been set.
