One Lafayette Square Anniversary Ended on Park Avenue. Another Opened a Café on 18th Street.

On the 1900 block of Park Avenue, two storefronts have been dark since August. One is 1913 Park, where 33 Wine Shop & Bar poured from 2001 until its last night on August 28. Next door, 1915 Park held Baileys' Chocolate Bar, which closed after service on August 1.

A few blocks away, 1410 S. 18th Street went the other direction. Picky Café opened there on August 31 as a small urban garden, market and café. The business behind it is SqWires, across the street at 1415 S. 18th, which has been feeding the neighborhood for 25 years.

So 2026 brought two 25-year milestones to the same small business district, and they ended very differently. That split shapes the holiday season ahead. The newest energy on Lafayette Square's map is coming from a business that has been here for decades, and December itself rests on two weekends the neighborhood puts on for itself.

The 1900 block of Park Avenue, door by door

Park Avenue's commercial blocks are small enough that a single change shows. Here is the stretch from the closed storefronts to the nearest restaurant still open, as of the latest local reporting:

As of early October, no new tenant had been announced for either address. St. Louis Magazine's openings and closings roundup, current as of its early-October press date, listed nothing new for 1913 or 1915 Park. On South 18th, it listed Kingside Diner as coming soon to 1463 S. 18th in late October, taking over the former Rosé by Peno space.

Why 33 closed at 25

33 Wine Shop & Bar opened in 2001, and for most of the time since it has served as an anchor of the Park Avenue business district. Owner James Smallwood described the decision to St. Louis Magazine in plain terms: "The costs were going through the roof. We were dealing with death by a thousand cuts. And we realized, we just can't do this anymore."

Sauce Magazine reported that the owners also pointed to falling alcohol sales and changes in how customers spend. Both outlets ran the announcement on August 12, about two weeks before the last service.

The closure came from rising costs and lower revenue piling up over time. Nobody reported a building sale or a single dramatic event behind it.

What Bailey said about 1915 Park

Baileys' Chocolate Bar closed for a different reason. The closure was part of a company-wide reorganization at Baileys' Restaurants, owned by Dave and Kara Bailey, which closed Baileys' Range on Shaw Boulevard the same day. The couple is keeping its two Rooster locations, its catering operation and its downtown event venues.

Speaking to St. Louis Magazine, Dave Bailey cited "increased food costs, rising interest rates, and labor issues to financial obligations" as the reasons for the cuts. He also said he spoke with nearly all of the roughly 20 affected employees before the announcement and offered as many of them as he could jobs at Rooster.

He was open about what could come next at 1915 Park. "We have a landlord and a lease there, too, and would like to host private events for the next month or two," he told the magazine. "But the same buy, lease, or takeover options available at Range are also available at the Chocolate Bar. Both would make great second-generation restaurant spaces."

A "second-generation restaurant space" is a room that already has a kitchen built out, which tends to attract the next operator sooner than an empty shell would. So far nobody has been named for either door.

SqWires at 25 did something else

SqWires reached the same 25-year mark this year. A KSDK feature on the anniversary highlighted its weekly fixtures, a Thursday fried-chicken night and a Friday fish fry.

Picky Café grew out of that base. Owner Erin Budde built the concept with her sister, Bethany Budde Cohen, who has run SqWires for its whole 25 years. In St. Louis Magazine's opening story, Budde said, "I could not think of opening anything that had to do with hospitality without her expertise and help."

The partnership runs both ways. SqWires works as Picky's commissary kitchen, and Picky sells SqWires' prepared foods in its market. That arrangement makes room for a café of about 1,100 square feet in a building from the 1890s.

Budde explained the name to the same outlet: "I think everybody is picky about something. I really wanted to open a place that was small enough that I could landscape beautifully, garden, and raise vegetables. I wanted to have a really small menu and feed people what I would like to eat myself."

The café serves a seasonal menu of breakfast, lunch, baked goods, coffee and smoothies. Its retail side carries local produce, flowers, curated goods and grab-and-go food.

Rising costs closed a standalone 25-year business on Park Avenue. On 18th Street, a 25-year business shared its kitchen with a new café, and that partnership produced the neighborhood's first opening of the fall.

Two December weekends, both run by neighbors

The Lafayette Square events page confirms two December dates:

1. Saturday, December 5: Light Up the Square + the James "Jim" King Pet Parade. Costumes are "strongly encouraged — for both pets and humans." Awards go to Best Homemade Costume, Most Holiday Spirit Costume, Most Original Costume, Best Group Costume and Best St. Louis Representation, and the grand prize winner gets a surprise. The association hasn't posted 2026 start times yet.
2. Sunday, December 13, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: the Holiday Parlor Tour and Holiday Market. Historic homes open their decorated interiors, carolers walk the neighborhood, local vendors set up along the Lafayette Park fence, and free trolleys carry guests between tour stops.

Proceeds from the Parlor Tour go to the Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association's work to preserve, protect and beautify the neighborhood. Those houses draw people for a reason. The neighborhood became St. Louis's first historic district in 1972, and Lafayette Park, founded in 1836, is the city's oldest public park.

The fall season started the same way. The Fall Festival and Biergarten filled the Kern Pavilion on October 18 from noon to 4 p.m., with vendors, music, Urban Chestnut beer and Steve's Hot Dogs. All three events are put on by the neighborhood and centered on the park, so none of them depends on which Park Avenue storefronts are open.

Planning the Parlor Tour Sunday around what's open

The December 13 tour runs six hours, and with trolleys running between houses, visitors cover more ground than on a typical neighborhood walk. If you're hosting visiting family or planning to spend the full day, these places are the current anchors within reach of the park:

• Picky Café, 1410 S. 18th St. For coffee and a pastry before the 10 a.m. start, or a stop at the market for flowers and produce on the way home.
• SqWires, 1415 S. 18th St. Across the street from Picky, for a sit-down meal at the 25-year neighborhood fixture.
• Polite Society, 1923 Park Ave. On the same block as the two closed storefronts. A FOX 2 story from January mentioned its weekend brunch.
• Eleven Eleven Mississippi, 1111 Mississippi Ave. For dinner after the market closes at 4.

If Kingside Diner at 1463 S. 18th has opened on its late-October target by then, it adds another option on the same street. On Saturday, December 5, Picky's grab-and-go case works for a pet-parade family that wants a snack in hand while costumes get their last adjustments.

Bailey's comment about private events "for the next month or two" put his timeline around early fall. Any announcement about 1915 or 1913 Park will most likely come through the same local food outlets that reported the closures. For now, the holiday plan for the 1900 block's two former anchors is to walk past them on the way to the park.

Meggin lives in Lafayette Square too, and she's glad to share what she hears about the Park Avenue storefronts as news comes in, or to suggest a route for your Parlor Tour Sunday with out-of-town guests. If either is on your mind this December, Meggin Martin would love to hear from you. Let's connect.