The best thing about eating at Meriwether’s in the Missouri History Museum – the sweet view of Forest Park from the top-floor café – will stay the same. Soon, though, everything else will change.

After 10 years of using Patty Long Catering at Meriwether’s, the museum will switch to Butler’s Pantry, close its restaurant for a time, and open a remodeled and renamed eatery in March.

“The restaurant will be known as Bixby’s, after philanthropist William Bixby,” explained Richard L. Nix Jr., president of Butler’s Pantry. “In the early 1900s, Bixby helped fund the original Missouri History Museum and served as its president. He collected a lot of valuable artifacts and left them to the museum, too.”

Bixby’s will serve lunch on weekdays and Sunday brunch. “It will be a destination restaurant,” Nix said. “Our chef de cuisine, Todd Lough, who was the executive chef at Busch’s Grove before he came to Butler’s Pantry, will be working seasonally on menu changes and featuring local products, including local food, wine and spirits.”

Besides furnishing a new menu for the main space, Butler’s Pantry will operate a secondary express area with extended hours. Between the Dec. 31 closing of Meriwether’s and the early-spring opening of Bixby’s, a kiosk will provide food service at the museum.

– Byron Kerman

Tags: Bixby's, Butler's Pantry, Meriwether's, Missouri History Museum, Patty Long Catering

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