As reported over the weekend by the Riverfront Times and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Anthony Devoti, chef-owner of Five Bistro on The Hill and Newstead Tower Public House, announced the imminent closing of his gastropub in The Grove.
Yesterday, Devoti told Sauce that plans to close Newstead were a year in the works. “The original plan was to close by the end of last year but we were able to keep things cruising for about a year. I would say it was 100 percent economical. We moved Five from over there a year and a half ago because our lease was up. We were able to find a building we could buy, the current Five. It pretty much came down to, we still had to pay rent over there. We were robbing Peter to pay Paul. As far as business goes, you don’t have to be a rocket science builder to know that is bad news.”
Devoti noted that Newstead is not the only establishment that has closed or left the The Grove neighborhood recently. “We had the two most successful venues in The Grove. That restaurant [Newstead Tower], that building is on all the banners in The Grove. It is The Grove for all I consider it. Since Five has left, 13 to 15 places have closed from Kingshighway to Vandeventer on Manchester. That’s a serious number. If The Grove wants to succeed, it has to be full.”
What does please Devoti is what he and his team accomplished at Newstead during its near three-year run. “We introduced something that was never in that neighborhood – that was never in this city. We were the real gastropub of this town. We researched it. We did our due diligence on it. It was ‘the place.’ I don’t think you could find the food that we did there, food-wise as local product. You can come to Five for the burger or pastrami at lunch, but that’s not every day for lunch and dinner like at Newstead pub.”
With the closing of his upscale English-style pub, Devoti called his bistro on Daggett Avenue the future for him and his family. He cited excitement for the future, namely for things such as continued local sourcing of fresh meats and produce, along with beer, scotch and wine dinners, and the artisanal breads made by in-house boulanger Alex Carlson (“This is the future of bread,” Devoti said, noting that Five’s breads are on the tables of a few other eateries in town). Five serves lunch Thursday through Saturday, and dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
Want to bid farewell to the end of a St. Louis first? The last day that Newstead Tower will be open is this Saturday. Apart from the regular menu offerings, Devoti will be whipping up some old Newstead faves like pastrami sandwiches and lamb burgers. “Those are things that we did all the time that people loved,” Devoti said.
All of our coverage of Newstead Tower Public House
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2010.