The historic Schneithorst’s Restaurant & Bar in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Missouri, will close permanently the afternoon of Christmas Eve in a final chapter of a long conversion into office and retail space.
The current restaurant at 1600 S. Lindbergh Blvd. (aka Route 66) has been there since 1956, but the family had been in the business for more than a century in St. Louis.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
The Schneithorsts already had a knack for German fare served in settings with styles to match. The business’ patriarch, Arthur Schneithorst, Sr., operated Bevo Mill in the 1930s and 1940s — the landmark south St. Louis establishment that occupies a building with a windmill and vaulted dining hall.
Younger generations of Schneithorsts have kept the Ladue restaurant running in the decades since it opened. The spot gained popularity, and was even in the rotation of preferred lunchtime haunts for Cardinals legend Stan Musial. […]
The redevelopment of the site marks the end of the slow conversion of the Schneithorst complex — once a complex that included the restaurant, bar and coffee house, plus multiple dining rooms and banquet halls — into other businesses, one piece at a time. […]
That shift nearly 20 years ago meant not only a loss of space, but also many of the paintings and collectibles — including a knight in armor, brought over from Europe — that contributed to the establishment’s atmosphere, and were auctioned off.
The Schneithorst’s website gives a little more on the restaurant’s pedigree:
It was the culmination of the founder, Arthur B. Schneithorst, Jr.’s dreams: a place where outstanding food and service could come together in an atmosphere equally suited to business and family dining / entertainment. But the present-day Schneithorst’s isn’t the beginning of the story.
For that, we have to return to 1917 when his father, Arthur Schneithorst, Sr. started Benish’s Restaurant at Eighth and Olive downtown. Arthur Jr. recalls eating at the downtown family restaurant every day until the Depression years finally closed its doors. His father reentered the restaurant business by opening the Rock Grill at 204 N. Eighth St. Arthur Jr. was in law school at the time, but it wasn’t long before he joined his father in the family business.
The restaurant will close at 3 p.m. Dec. 24.
The Washington Post reported last year that Americans’ changing tastes are leading to the closing of many German restaurants, many of them historic.
According to Yelp data scientist Carl Bialik, German food ranked number 83 of the 100 biggest restaurant categories in growth. In a 2015 National Restaurant Association study, only 7 percent of respondents said they ate German food at least once a month — less than Italian (61 percent), Mexican (50 percent), Chinese (36 percent) and 11 additional categories, including Southeast Asian, and even Belgian. It tied French and Vietnamese, and eked out a small lead over Indian, Caribbean and Scandinavian food. Respondents said they were more likely to eat German food at home than at a restaurant. But the cuisine ranked high in familiarity. People know about German food, but apparently aren’t seeking it out.
But biergartens are doing well — mostly because they sell mostly beer, with food as a lower-volume afterthought.
(Hat tip to Richard Orr; an image of Schneithorst’s in Ladue, Missouri, via Facebook)
A victim of the worldwide ‘fast food culture’? Knowing the price of everything, but appreciating the value of nothing, as Oscar Wilde had it.
Not so much a victim of fast food as much as other types of cuisines are much more popular nowadays. That’s my take on it, anyway.
Cuisines tend to be cyclical. I wouldn’t be surprised if German food experiences a renaissance in the coming years.
Thanks, Ron. Here, in the UK, going out now usually means to an Indian or other oriental cuisine restaurant, or a help-yourself to as much as you want buffet, or a local pub that does fairly British type food, but usually with oriental dishes as well. In one town there was a street with Chinese, Indian, Italian restaurants almost side by side. And a fairly standard British menu place. The last time I ate German food was back in 1962, in Germany. I remember the typical local breakfast: cold meats, different breads, good butter and jams, and fresh coffee!
Meals at Bevo Mll and Ladue Schneithort’s were almost ceremonial , atmospheric and unusually high quality . And that was also true of so many closed St. Louis venues with German heritage – House of Maret on Lindbergh for example . Often there was a small live music feature as well as Rouladen and Sauerbratten , Spatzel , etc. Gott in Himmel
how could we let such places disappear ? Hope they will be recreated soon, but with those original recipes . Yavoll .