Jim Fiala to run downtown sculpture garden restaurant
This is also in the news section of STLtoday.com, but in case you didn’t see it:
The Gateway Foundation has chosen another artist to complement its new Citygarden sculpture garden downtown: restaurateur Jim Fiala.
Fiala — owner of The Crossing in Clayton, Acero in Maplewood and Liluma in the Central West End — will also run The Terrace View, a 3,000-square-foot indoor/outdoor restaurant at the northeast corner of Citygarden at 8th and Chestnut streets.
“The Gateway Foundation board sorted through a lot of different candidates, and they were thrilled to find one who was perfect,” said Paul Wagman of Fleishman-Hillard, spokesman for the Gateway Foundation. The Gateway Foundation is a private charitable organization that is funding Citygarden.
“The site is absolutely amazing,” Fiala said. “They took two whole city blocks and rebuilt it from the ground up.”
The restaurant space, he added, offers a panoramic perspective on the garden and its sculptures and waterfall.
“Three walls are all glass, and the building is eight to ten feet above the sidewalk,” Fiala said.
Jim Fiala. Photo by Katherine Bish.
Fiala plans a menu consisting of Midwestern ingredients with a Mediterranean influence to the flavors.
“My Mediterranean is mostly French and Italian, but I’ll also be open to bringing in flavors of Morocco, Spain and Greece,” Fiala said. “I’ll be working with local farmers and ranchers for the ingredients.”
Fiala said he will offer appetizer and small-entree portions in a $10 to $15 price range. “I’m really trying to make it a place that’s accessible to everybody,” Fiala said.
Philip Durham of Studio Durham Architects in Soulard designed the building in a style he calls a “Miesian glass box” after the style of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. MORE METRO
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Pending completion of lease negotiations, Fiala hopes to have the restaurant open some time between the July 1 official opening of Citygarden and the All-Star Game festivities in mid-July. The restaurant will initially be open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday, with the possible addition of daily breakfast and Sunday brunch at a later date.
(5 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
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Joe Bonwich has been the restaurant critic for the Post-Dispatch since 2002 and has covered the local food scene for various publications for more than 25 years. He does his best to maintain his anonymity so that he isn't recognized in restaurants (which is why his picture looks like it does). 
Fantastic choice. Fiala produces quality food and quality restaurants. The Crossing may be the best restaurant in town and nobody talks about it.
Knowing the people who run downtown I’m surprised the place is not a Cheesecake Factory.
Knowing the people who run downtown? Who are those people? You know them?. What is it about downtown restaurants or “the people who run downtown” offers any evidence that this was ever going to be anything remotely akin to Cheesecake.The great majority of restaurants downtown are independent and locally owned. This place was never going to be a Cheesecake Factory or PF Chang or any of the like.
A good choice indeed.
All the restaurants downtown may be independently owned yet all have the same feeling of a cheesecake! Thank God for the Americas Center because most of those places would have been buried a long time ago. Hopefully Fiala will have something more unique than anything on the Washington strip. Great choice and good luck!!
I am very excited about the whole Citygarden development. I think it is a great step in the right direction for how the city — especially downtown — can make itself more human-scaled/friendly. Most of downtown is all about cars and buses, not pedestrians or cyclists. I can hardly wait for the whole thing to open. What a gem for our downtown cityscape!!