Clayton’s only permanent rooftop bar opens
By Gloria Lloyd – Reporter, St. Louis Business Journal
Nov 20, 2024
A venue opening this week in Clayton will be the city’s only permanent rooftop bar and restaurant.
High Bar Clayton will open for business Thursday, organizers said. It is the rooftop venue located atop the new $50 million, 11-story AC Hotel that opened last month at 227 S. Central Ave.
With theming that pays tribute to Clayton’s business professionals, especially lawyers, the High Bar was built to showcase extensive views of downtown Clayton, downtown St. Louis and surrounding areas, as well as drinks and small plates.
The rooftop bar and hotel were developed by a partnership of St. Louis-based developer Koplar Properties and Homebase Properties, which develops projects in Missouri and Montana. The hotel is managed by Concord Hospitality Enterprises. Along with the rooftop bar, the top floor also has meeting space.
High Bar’s indoor-outdoor central bar has seating on all sides and suspended, open shelving to allow for clear views, according to a news release. Club chairs and low bar tables line the edge of the balcony, facing downtown Clayton, the developer said.
Although it’s possible that other rooftop bars have operated in the past, Clayton City Manager David Gipson said that when it opens, High Bar will be the city’s only permanent rooftop bar and restaurant. When developers first proposed the rooftop bar in 2019, they said they wanted to make it a “destination” for guests and visitors.
Among the craft cocktails that will be available at High Bar are selections named after St. Louis neighborhoods and attractions, such as Gateway Sunrise, Riverfront Breeze, Forest Park Fizz, Arch-Itect’s Manhattan and Soulard Sangria, according to the release.
The design of the bar is intended to represent “industrial chic,” with rustic metals mixed with brick and reclaimed barn wood, according to the release.
For food, the bar will have small plates available based on American food with locally sourced ingredients, the developer said. Some examples include steak with fries and High Bar’s house-made steak sauce, pesto rigatoni, truffle fries, baked ricotta with honey, fig and pistachio, seared tuna stacks, citrus shrimp and flatbreads.
“We want High Bar Clayton to be the local, go-to gathering spot for happy hour with coworkers, late-night drinks, entraining clients or meeting friends,” Peter Arscott, the hotel’s general manager, said in a statement.
The hotel and rooftop bar were built at the site of the former headquarters of the Clayton Police Department, which was vacated years ago and demolished in 2022, ahead of a roughly two-year construction process on the hotel that had originally been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The AC Hotel is the second hotel to open in the last 18 months in Clayton, following the opening of the Residence Inn by Marriott last year. Before that, it had been 30 years since Clayton had seen the construction of a new ground-up hotel.
Although rooftop bars are a popular feature at hotels like the Hilton at the Ballpark in downtown St. Louis and its 360 Bar, which this year expanded to Westport Plaza in Maryland Heights, and the Moonrise Hotel in the Delmar Loop, the only other rooftop bar in Clayton is the pop-up holiday bar The Chalet at the Le Meridien St. Louis Clayton at 7730 Bonhomme Ave., which is designed to look like a European Alpine ski retreat, complete with a curling rink, and runs weekends now through Dec. 29.
First posted in Uncategorized | Friday, November 2, 2024