There’s a brand-new wine spot coming to Clayton. Louie’s Wine Dive will open in the old Tani Sushi Bistro location at 16 S. Bemiston Ave., as first reported by the St. Louis Business Journal. Owner Whitney VinZant said he’s looking at an early 2016 opening.
The 90-seat restaurant will be the seventh Louie’s location nationwide, the first of which opened in Des Moines, Iowa in April 2012, and the first St. Louis-area location. “We’ve wanted to be in St. Louis and have looked at real estate there for a long time,” VinZant said. “Traditionally, we built our company on being unique to the neighborhoods we serve. We plan on doing the same thing in Clayton.”
Because each location is set up to partially reflect the area it’s in, about half of the menu will be left to the chef. The other half of the menu will include tried and trues from Louie’s Wine Dive’s other locations. The Clayton location will also feature ingredients sourced from local farms, a weekly weekend prix fixe three-course dinner and various wine dinners
Louie’s Clayton location will also feature local Missouri wines on their extensive wine list. “We try to focus on smaller, more undiscovered vineyards, in general, with an emphasis always on quality,” VinZant said. “We seek to make wine accessible … We will also open any bottle if a table purchases two glasses.”
This article appears in October 2015.