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Monday, August 9, 2010, 2:16pm CDT

Pickleman’s coming to St. Louis

St. Louis Business Journal - by Kelsey Volkmann

Brandon Holzhueter and Brad Merten are opening the first Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe in midtown St. Louis, probably by the end of the month.

The friends from middle school are investing $250,000 in the franchise, including $50,000 of their own money and a loan from Eagle Bank and Trust, Holzhueter said.

“It took almost six months to find a bank that was willing to take a chance on two 25 year-olds with hardly any net worth but they believed in us,” he said. “It’s an exciting time for the young franchise group because this will be the first move into a real major market. Brad and I decided to pursue this opportunity because we wanted to take a risk while we were still young, motivated and able to do so.”

Holzhueter is a CPA and Merten was general manager of Pickleman’s two corporate stores in Columbia, Mo., where the restaurant started about five years ago.

A grand opening for the St. Louis restaurant at 3722 Laclede Ave., near Saint Louis University campus is planned for early September.

Pickleman’s founder Doug Stritzel, a former executive with Jimmy John’s, has been pursuing franchising his gourmet sandwich, salad and pizza company for two years. Pickleman’s also has a restaurant in Springfield, Mo.

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  • 1 month later...

Good article on Midtown Alley in today's Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/09/27/focus2.html

Looks like the Billiken Field House will just be known as the Field House Sports Bar & Grill. My sources tell me the U. has been aggressively defending the use of the Billiken name.

Also, Pita Pit and Hamburger Mary's are coming to the area soon.

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Good article on Midtown Alley in today's Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/09/27/focus2.html

Looks like the Billiken Field House will just be known as the Field House Sports Bar & Grill. My sources tell me the U. has been aggressively defending the use of the Billiken name.

Also, Pita Pit and Hamburger Mary's are coming to the area soon.

Good to hear. Also glad that Steve won his battle over the name of this Board years ago. Would probably not win today.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Can't think of any other place to post this, so I'll post it here. Went to Pappy's for the first time on Saturday at lunch. Waited in line for an hour, but it was worth it. Good stuff. Actually was behind a wedding party (the whole thing with the dresses and tuxedos along with the photographer) in line for a few minutes before they made carryout arrangements. Would be a great place to go to eat before a game, but the line might leave timing in question.

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  • 9 months later...

A few new developments...

The vacant and deteriorating Metropolitan Building at Grand and Olive is being converted to artists' lofts:

Posted Image

http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/building-blocks/article_93910a70-acdb-11e0-88e9-0019bb30f31a.html

The new Hotel Ignacio opened up next to Triumph Grill, and it looks great:

Posted Image

The Grand Center Arts Academy is about to open in the old Carter Carburetor building across from Powell Hall:

Posted Image

The Arts Academy is reportedly planning on renovating the Sun Theater next door as a 1,500 seat auditorium:

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http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_92af6bb1-0646-5d39-a055-37765556ae03.html

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-sneak-a-peek-at-grand-center-arts-academy-school-20110706,0,1450891.story

A new frozen yogurt place is opening in one of the recently renovated loft buildings just north of Hotel Ignacio: http://www.flyingcowyogurt.com/

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A few new developments...

The vacant and deteriorating Metropolitan Building at Grand and Olive is being converted to artists' lofts:

Posted Image

http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/building-blocks/article_93910a70-acdb-11e0-88e9-0019bb30f31a.html

Thank God! The Metropolitan Building is such an eye-sore.

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A few new developments...

The vacant and deteriorating Metropolitan Building at Grand and Olive is being converted to artists' lofts:

Posted Image

http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/building-blocks/article_93910a70-acdb-11e0-88e9-0019bb30f31a.html

The new Hotel Ignacio opened up next to Triumph Grill, and it looks great:

Posted Image

The Grand Center Arts Academy is about to open in the old Carter Carburetor building across from Powell Hall:

Posted Image

The Arts Academy is reportedly planning on renovating the Sun Theater next door as a 1,500 seat auditorium:

Posted Image

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_92af6bb1-0646-5d39-a055-37765556ae03.html

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-sneak-a-peek-at-grand-center-arts-academy-school-20110706,0,1450891.story

A new frozen yogurt place is opening in one of the recently renovated loft buildings just north of Hotel Ignacio: http://www.flyingcowyogurt.com/

Good stuff Box. Thanks for posting.
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One more tidbit: The Business Journal is reporting that a 136-room Hyatt hotel and 40 residential units are slated for the Missouri Theater building just south of Powell Hall.

That is FANTASTIC news! The midtown area/Grand Center really needs a quality hotel and the residential units with presumed concierge services will attract the right tenants. There is a lot of focus on Grand Center right now. It will never be a Times Square, but if you have been to Times Square in the last decade you can appreciate why we would want our theatre district to aspire to that same vibe and environment.

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That is FANTASTIC news! The midtown area/Grand Center really needs a quality hotel and the residential units with presumed concierge services will attract the right tenants. There is a lot of focus on Grand Center right now. It will never be a Times Square, but if you have been to Times Square in the last decade you can appreciate why we would want our theatre district to aspire to that same vibe and environment.

It really is exciting. Once the Metropolitan, Missouri Theater and Sun Theater buildings have been rehabbed, all of the major buildings in Grand Center will have been brought back to life. And once that has happened, we'll hopefully start seeing more infill construction, which will be really cool. Hopefully SLU will do something with the lot at Grand and Lindell sometime soon. I still don't see why they had to tear down the Marina Building, but that's another story.

I forgot to mention two other projects taking place in Grand Center:

St. Louis' NPR station, KWMU, is moving its studios from the UMSL campus to Grand Center, on Olive next to Channel 9's studios - they've already broken ground:

Posted Image

Independent radio station KDHX is moving its studios to Grand Center as well:

Posted Image

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It really is exciting. Once the Metropolitan, Missouri Theater and Sun Theater buildings have been rehabbed, all of the major buildings in Grand Center will have been brought back to life. And once that has happened, we'll hopefully start seeing more infill construction, which will be really cool. Hopefully SLU will do something with the lot at Grand and Lindell sometime soon. I still don't see why they had to tear down the Marina Building, but that's another story.

I forgot to mention two other projects taking place in Grand Center:

St. Louis' NPR station, KWMU, is moving its studios from the UMSL campus to Grand Center, on Olive next to Channel 9's studios - they've already broken ground:

Posted Image

Independent radio station KDHX is moving its studios to Grand Center as well:

Posted Image

This is great because it is going to bring decent paying jobs for professionals to the area. Thanks for sharing these updates - it is great the hear about the activity in this district!

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Does anyone have a picture of the often-lamented lost Marina Building? I would really like to see what was there before the sculpture park

This is an early-20th Century view looking south on Grand; it's the building with the tire sign on top. It looked largely like a POS when it was torn down, but that had something to do with viable tenants being evicted and general lack of maintenance anytime after 1975.

Posted Image

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Here's another pic. When I was in college, Golden Dynasty was in the Worth's space. Bullfeather's Pub was in the space with the striped awning. In the basement to the east of Bullfeather's (which you can't see in this pic) was the original Vito's. Immediately east of the Marina Building was a tall, slender white brick apartment building called The Feathers.

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Here's another pic. When I was in college, Golden Dynasty was in the Worth's space. Bullfeather's Pub was in the space with the striped awning. In the basement to the east of Bullfeather's (which you can't see in this pic) was the original Vito's. Immediately east of the Marina Building was a tall, slender white brick apartment building called The Feathers.

Posted Image

If I remember right, the Golden Dynasty was the place that was there when I was there. I was there '89 - '93. One of the girls from the Gries tower ate at that Chinese Restaurant and got really sick with horrible throat / esophageal / stomach pains. She was taken to the ER and they found out she actually ate some broken glass from that restaurant.
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If I remember right, the Golden Dynasty was the place that was there when I was there. I was there '89 - '93. One of the girls from the Gries tower ate at that Chinese Restaurant and got really sick with horrible throat / esophageal / stomach pains. She was taken to the ER and they found out she actually ate some broken glass from that restaurant.

Good lord. I was there from 93-97, so I'm sure it was Golden Dynasty when you were there. I also remember the Mercantile Bank across the street, where the fountain is now. There was also a shady motel where Parks College is now.

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Good lord. I was there from 93-97, so I'm sure it was Golden Dynasty when you were there. I also remember the Mercantile Bank across the street, where the fountain is now. There was also a shady motel where Parks College is now.

That Mercantile was like the only ATM in the area if I remember right.
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Good lord. I was there from 93-97, so I'm sure it was Golden Dynasty when you were there. I also remember the Mercantile Bank across the street, where the fountain is now. There was also a shady motel where Parks College is now.

[/quote

I'm assuming Golden Dynasty was the descendant of Mao's? Lordy Lordy I had some good drunken Chinese there when I was at SLU (82-86). Bonwich, help me out with this.

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