The Wednesday after it opened, Coffeestamp's new cafe at 1228 Washington Avenue was already full of morning customers ordering coffee and empanadas. One of the empanadas on the menu is new. Called the Wash Ave., it's stuffed with French fries, provel cheese and beef chili, as a nod to St. Louis. The space is more than twice the size of the original Fox Park shop. It has a side room for classes and lectures and a table up front for cuppings, the formal coffee tastings.
That cafe is a good way into the street this season. Coffeestamp didn't land at 13th and Washington by chance. The space was leased to fill a specific gap, and the developer who filled it is behind most of what's opening on these blocks this fall.
One developer, a few blocks
Coffeestamp opened Friday, Sept. 25, on the ground floor of the 1901 Rudman Building at 500 N. 13th St. Oliver Properties has renamed the building Cordovan on the Park. Isaac S. Taylor designed it as headquarters for the Peters Shoe Co., and the International Shoe Co. later moved in. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. Oliver is turning it into 74 apartments. The first residents are expected to move into finished units in mid-October, and work on the full building should wrap up next spring.
Alex Oliver, the company's CEO, was blunt with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about why a coffee shop went into that storefront:
"We were targeting a coffee shop for that strip of Wash Ave because there was a gap."
Coffeestamp's operations director, Sam Padilla, told St. Louis Public Radio that the developer brought the brothers who own it, Patrick and Spencer Clapp, the space along with a pitch about helping revive downtown. The Clapps had already wanted a third location.
Cordovan is one piece of a longer list. Oliver's Washington Avenue holdings include Six Cord at 1000 Washington, Vanguard Lofts at 1110, the Bogen at 1209 and Ventana Lofts at 1635. The company is also finishing the Wash Ave Food Hall at 1122 Washington, plus a market and a speakeasy. "There's momentum with retail (on Washington Avenue) right now," Oliver told the Post-Dispatch.
When one landlord is filling a corridor, openings arrive one lease at a time. That explains this fall. The small places are open. The big anchor projects are still being finished.
The corridor by address, as of the first week of October
Here is the stretch from east to west, plus two nearby side streets, with where each spot stood in the most recent reporting.
- 1001 Washington Ave., The Boom Boom Room. Open. It moved here Aug. 18, next door to Buddy's Local Grill & Bar.
- 1007 Washington Ave., Dorsa Market and At the Moment. Not confirmed open. The district's own listings for both still read "not open yet" when last checked.
- 1019 Pine St., Le Méridien, with Longitude Bar and Pine Street Social Kitchen & Wine Bar. The hotel reopened Sept. 8. St. Louis Public Radio listed the restaurant among September's openings.
- 1122 Washington Ave., Wash Ave Food Hall. Not open yet. As of late September it was aiming for October.
- 1228 Washington Ave., Coffeestamp. Open since Sept. 25.
- 313 N. 11th St., 8020 Restaurant. Open since July 24.
- 208 N. 9th St., SNOO. Status unclear. The sources disagree.
That leaves three spots on Washington itself to visit this week, one around the corner on 11th, and a hotel restaurant on Pine. The two biggest projects on the list are still on the way.
What you can walk into this week
8020 Restaurant took over the 11th Street space where Juwan Rice ran Rated Test Kitchen. Rated Test Kitchen was known for tasting menus that kept changing, and in its first format it served a seven-course "experimental fusion" menu that rotated monthly. Chef Orlando McKinney Jr. and his business partner Melissa Taylor have gone a different way: internationally inflected, seasonal American food. In its Sept. 4 profile, St. Louis Magazine described butternut squash soup with brown butter and bourbon, a pepita-based fried rice with mushrooms and edamame, Caribbean fried chicken over coconut risotto, seafood ravioli, and beet-cured smoked salmon on focaccia.
Before you plan a dinner there, check the hours. When the profile ran, 8020 was serving lunch only, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Dinner on those days was waiting on a liquor license, with hopes for a start in late September or early October. We haven't found any reporting yet that confirms dinner service has started.
Le Méridien at 1019 Pine had been closed since January 2024, when a sprinkler pipe burst and caused heavy water damage. The 96-room hotel in a 1913 building reopened Sept. 8 with Longitude Bar, which serves specialty espresso drinks and gelato. Pine Street Social was slated to open later in the month. St. Louis Public Radio later listed it among September's openings. Pine Street Social has a modern American menu with short rib ragu pappardelle, bourbon-brined pork chops, Cornish hen, and a signature burger topped with bacon jam and pimento cheese. Sauce Magazine describes a dining room with wood millwork, marble and white linens, and a wine list that covers a range of styles and prices.
Coffeestamp fits the hours in between: a morning cappuccino, a lunch of empanadas, or a class in the side room once the schedule fills in. Its menu photos from St. Louis Public Radio also show hibiscus iced tea and horchata. The storefront next door, the former Lucas Park Grille, was still looking for a tenant in the Sept. 28 report. That's the next gap Oliver is trying to fill on this block.
What's still on the way
Wash Ave Food Hall is the project that will change the street most once it opens. It's going into the former Reign nightclub and Copia Restaurant and Wine Garden space. Plans call for 10,000 square feet with eight food and beverage concepts, two central bars, and an indoor-outdoor social area under a retractable roof. You'll be able to order from several vendors in one transaction, and there will be a separate gaming area.
The vendors announced as of late September:
- Steve's Smash
- Little BAO
- Maci's Prime BBQ
- Troit, a Detroit-style stand with pizza, Coney dogs, corned beef sandwiches, egg rolls, Faygo and Better Made chips
- Conefection, from the team behind The Fountain on Locust
4 Hands Brewing Co. is adding a self-pour PourMyBeer wall, and Wash Ave Social will run an indoor lawn and gaming area. On Sept. 28, St. Louis Magazine reported that the hall would open "next month," which means October, and that more vendors were still to be announced. The hall's homepage says "Coming Fall 2026" and gives no exact date.
Dorsa Market at 1007 Washington is planned as a grocery and prepared-food market with pizza, beer, wine and spirits. In early September, St. Louis Magazine expected it to open in late September. We haven't found a newer date or an announcement that it has opened. The speakeasy next door, At the Moment, will be entered through an ATM inside the market. It plans to open to the public on Friday and Saturday evenings, host private events, and hold Thursday mixers for members.
SNOO at 208 N. 9th St. is a dessert shop. St. Louis Magazine listed it as opening Aug. 4, and St. Louis Public Radio included it among August's openings. The Washington Avenue district site said on Aug. 26 that it wasn't open yet. Check its social channels before you go.
The storefronts that went dark
The new leases are arriving alongside some recent closings. Ozzy's Market in Downtown West closed in August after less than a year. Planet Sub at 211 N. Ninth closed in late August, and it was the chain's last location in the metro area. Syberg's on Market was on St. Louis Public Radio's list of July closings.
The Ozzy's Market and Dorsa Market addresses aren't the same, but the two businesses are similar enough to matter. Downtown West lost a neighborhood market in August, and a planned market with prepared foods a few blocks east is still waiting to open. Until Dorsa opens, the area has one less place to grab groceries on foot.
Thursdays at Kiener Plaza
If you'd rather wait on the food hall, October has a free standing plan a few blocks south of Washington. Urban Chestnut Brewing Co. is bringing its Der Biergarten Oktoberfest to Kiener Plaza every Thursday from 4 to 7 p.m., starting Oct. 8 and running through the end of the month. Expect beer, live music, food from local vendors, activities, and a stein-holding competition.
If you want something more formal one block off the stadium, Kevin Nashan opened The Clydesdale, a new American tavern, at 601 Clark in Ballpark Village on Aug. 27.
For October, that adds up to Thursday beer at Kiener Plaza, lunch at 8020 from Wednesday through Saturday, dinner at Pine Street Social, and morning coffee at 13th and Washington. If the food hall at 1122 opens on its October target, it will be the first time the corridor's largest project has joined the smaller places that have been opening around it since July.
When a building like Cordovan on the Park changes, it changes how the whole block feels to live on, and that's the kind of detail Meggin Martin keeps track of across downtown and the city's historic neighborhoods. If you're curious how Washington Avenue's next round of openings might affect your own building or block, let's connect.
