HIGH BAR CLAYTON ROOFTOP SLATED TO OPEN THIS FALL

By George Mahe – St. Louis Magazine – August 2, 2024

Cue The Drifters’ classic hit song, “Up on The Roof”: Clayton is poised to welcome High Bar Clayton Rooftop, a new restaurant and bar atop the 11-story, 207-room AC Hotel by Marriott St. Louis Clayton (227 S. Central).

Both projects are slated to open concurrently this fall. It will mark the third AC Hotel in St. Louis, after locations in Chesterfield and the Central West End. Koplar Enterprises, Homebase Partners, and Concord Hospitality (the largest operator in the AC Hotel chain) are partners in both the CWE and Clayton properties. Here’s a sneak peek.

The Space

Located on the site of the former Clayton Police Department, the 207-room, 11-story AC Hotel will offer on-site restaurants High Bar Clayton Rooftop, AC Lounge, and AC Kitchen—back-to back-spaces located off the first-floor lobby.

High Bar Clayton Rooftop will be accessible via a dedicated entrance and elevator, which will run as an express to the roof during open hours every evening. “We want to cater to local diners along with hotel guests, hence the two entrances,” says John Gieseke, director of sales and marketing for Concord Hotels. “We want High Bar to feel like a local restaurant.”

Koplar Enterprises’ Sam Koplar echoes the sentiment: “People are sometimes averse to dining in restaurants connected to hotels, but look at Las Vegas or even at The Chase Hotel back in the day,” he says. “It was the food and beverage there—at the Tenderloin Room and the Tack Room—that helped define that hotel. I’d like to get back to that way of thinking. We want High Bar to be ingrained in the local community.”

The Menu

“Think of the menu is an homage to our Spanish roots,” says Gieseke, noting that Antonio Catalan founded AC Hoteles C.A in Spain in 1997. The specialty item during the daily buffet service is sliced-to-order prosciutto, says Gieseke. “Every AC hotel is equipped with a high-end, color-matched Berkel slicer, so it only makes sense we feature shaved prosciutto.”

The single-page menu—composed of 10 small plates and half that number of signature entrées—will be tapas-style. Starters will include citrus shrimp, baked ricotta, several flatbreads, charred zucchini (with feta, pickled, onion, honey, and almond), and seared tuna stacks (with a yuzu and soy glaze, served with avocado and fish roe over fried sticky rice).

The menu format and composition has been designed to complement High Bar’s robust cocktail, beer, and wine collection, Gieseke says.

Entrées will include a hangar steak with chimichurri, grilled chicken thighs, a half-pound white cheddar burger with bacon and caramelized onion, and pesto rigatoni (with sun-dried and cherry tomatoes, pine nuts, feta, breadcrumbs, and Parmesan). Bookending the 20-item menu will be two salads, as well as key lime pie with macerated raspberries and a warm brownie sundae made with Neapolitan ice cream.

The beverage menu’s signature item will be The ACGT—A Custom Gin Tonic—served in AC Hotels’ trademark Gin Tonic glass (the name of the cocktail in Spain). Developed in 2018, the ergonomically engineered glass features three etched bands that serve as measuring guides for the gin, tonic, and ice—a design that also heightens the taste, aroma, and palate experience. (At the time, AC Hotels partnered with Bacardi to create a special tonic recipe and paired it with Bombay Sapphire East Gin. Infused with botanicals including lemongrass and Vietnamese black peppercorn, the gin is reputed to pair especially well with AC’s custom tonic.) The ACGT is garnished with orange peel and a thinly sliced lime wheel that emphasizes the flavor profile.

“As a brand that prides itself on obsessing over the details, we are proud to unveil AC Hotels’ carefully crafted Gin Tonic glass and signature cocktail, which evokes the European soul of the brand,” AC Hotels by Marriott senior global brand director Benoit Racle said when the glass and cocktail debuted.

The High Bar cocktail menu will list 18 classics and another dozen specialty drinks, with such locally themed names as Forest Park Fizz, Lou Lemonade, and Arch-itect’s Manhattan. Another signature cocktail, The 400, is named after the perfect score on the Uniform Bar Exam, which also plays into the restaurant name.

The restaurant’s food and beverage director, Brian Parrott, previously held the same position at the Angad Arts Hotel and The Last Hotel.

The Atmosphere

The interior at High Bar Clayton Rooftop will boast leather, copper, and suspended islands of striated wood—a design element unique to the Clayton hotel.

A square 36-seat, natural stone–topped bar will be the focal point of the 75-seat dining room. A bank of windows will fold up to expose part of the bar to a 65-seat patio facing east.  On the patio, a long half-wall will be capped with 4-foot-high glass panels, a safety measure and inclement weather mitigator. A fire pit will also anchor an open-air section of the patio. (Either part of the patio—or dining room—will be available to rent out for private events.)

“You can’t beat the view,” Gieseke says. “It’ll be great place to be on the Fourth of July.”

The bar at High Bar Clayton Rooftop

The goal of AC Hotels is to create a “friction-free, perfectly precise stay,” and the High Bar speaks to that, Geiseke says. “Clean lines, clean everything. You won’t find a lot of clutter. It all plays to the AC tagline of striking ‘the perfect balance of the details you want and the services you need.”

In addition to the restaurant and bar, a meeting room tentatively called The Heights will span a 3,000-square-foot space that could be broken into three carpeted areas, including two that can be organized schoolroom-style for meetings or set with round tables for up to a 200-person wedding/event dinner. A 700-square-foot pre-event space will also be available. The rooms can be divided by accordion-style, floor-to-ceiling “glass air walls,” tinted dark-to-light from bottom to top for privacy.

The Backstory

“When Clayton issued an RFP for the former Clayton Police Station, we were the only group that proposed a hotel and restaurant, giving Clayton another entertainment option instead of another apartment or condo complex,” says Koplar.

Yet it was a project that almost didn’t happen because of the pandemic, Koplar adds. “In March 2020, we were getting ready to close the deal with the partners when the world came to an abrupt halt. We had an agreement with the City of Clayton to get the project moving, and it took several more years than any of us had planned, but here we are—we got it done.”

Koplar’s a big fan of the AC brand, especially the High Bar. “There’s nothing like it in Clayton or anywhere nearby,” he says. “Today, people are accepting of new places, new ways to dine, new ways of doing things. The AC and High Bar fill those niches.

“There’s a flight-to-quality in Clayton, which is a good thing,” he adds. “I think Clayton will thrive for a long time. Energy begets energy. We have to keep the flywheel moving.”

First posted in Uncategorized | Friday, August 2, 2024