City to consider only “qualified, professional” operators for Bevo Mill
FILE PHOTO 1986 — The restaurant, Bevo Mill in South St. Louis.
In what might be considered a City Hall dig at former operators David Gilbert and Patrick Viehmann, the next people to run the restaurant city-owned Bevo Mill must be “qualified, professional restaurateurs and banquet facility operators with an established record,” according to the first paragraph of a request for proposals, or RFP, posted Tuesday afternoon on the city’s website.
The St. Louis Development Corp., a public agency, came to own the building in January, when Anheuser-Busch donated it to the city as one of its last acts of civic philanthropy before InBev took over. Just a couples months into the new arrangement, Gilbert and Viehmann abruptly shut the place down, leaving in the lurch couples planning to celebrate their weddings there.
The city’s RFP doesn’t stipulate the rent that operators must pay, though would-be operators must say in their proposals how much they’re willing to pay. The city also wants an extensive business plan and at least three references. You can read the RFP here.
Proposals are due at 3 p.m. on April 20.
(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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Many thanks to Gilbert ans Viehmann for doing there best to keep this landmark a going concern, I’m sure it wasn’t easy.
They had better put a token minority contractor in charge of it if they don’t want picketers.
Some renovation is needed before opening this facility.
The roof leaks in some places, there is peeling paint in the Mill Room.
Chairs in the lower level are in fair condition.
This is not as easy as it sounds.
Much luck to any banquet operators who might be interested.
Carolyn Burke
Event Location Services
Wedding Ceremony Services
(314) 821-4844
In other words, only those who who have greased the appropriate palms. This is the city of St. Louis we are talling about, after all.
Who were the previous manaagement team related to?
Or were the palms of progress properly greased?
Apparently whomever assigned this historic site to such individuals should themselves be shelved. FIRED as well unless they are related to Slay?
What is the deal? Does anyone that reports on this know how the guys that ran the Bevo Mill into the ground get the gig to begin with?
^^ Gilbert and Viehmann managed the restaurant when it was owned by Pat Hanon. He sold the business to them several months ago. When the city took the property over, they continued the lease arrangement that was already in place.
Who’s standing in line to run this place? There’s a reason why the brewery GAVE IT AWAY without even trying to sell it. It’s not in a destination location for fine dining (i.e. The Hill, Loft Dist., CWE, etc) and it’s too far away from other tourist attractions to survive on tourism alone. Unfortunately the unique design makes it a maintenance nightmare and the revenue generated from targeting the blue collar/ethnic mix of the local neighborhood would never make enough money to keep up a 90 year old building that’s so unique. For an operator to want to run it as a catering/reception hall in this economy would be financial suicide unless it was heavily financed by the city. Although St Louisan’s consider it historic, truth is it’s less than 100 years old and was never actually used as a mill. It was built to be a rich guy’s personal bar. Now that the rich guy’s family has washed their hands of it, it’s just another abandoned building that the city has no real plan for.
I thought there was a couple lined up to take over,and the city in it’s stupidity has more or less scared them away. This city of St Lou is a disaster. The bunch in silly hall don’t have a clue. They are so hung up on downtown it’s almost unbelievable. How about some far reaching ideas. Some say the Bevo is not a tourist destination,well make it one. Have a FREE trolley type bus,like the ones in Old town St Charles,make the rounds from the river front,spin around downtown,pick up tourist for the sole purpose of taking folks for a trip to Bevo and back.Lets also take a look at our river front,what a joke.The city fathers have been BS-ing about a pedestrian over pass to the arch from in front of the Old Court house for years,just “Get er done”. Have any of you been to New Orleans,Cincinatti,K.C.,Baltimore,San Antonio and on and on,to see how neat their river fronts are? The city of St Lou is a joke,so much potential in the hands of so many IDIOTS,from the mayor on down.
Ohyeah, speaking of idiots. Your diatribe depicts your intellect. The couple that was supposedly scared away ran from the City to run a dirty, mediocre restaurant in Illinois. It took Cincinatti 20 years to get their riverfront entertainment going. Before they tried it looked like East St. Louis. All what was happening was on the Kentucky side of the river. Mayor Slay and Ald. Gregali are doing what is in the best interest of the City by taking on a potential disaster. I give them credit for seeing the potential to revive a St. Louis icon that the Busch family apparently abandon a long time ago.
only accredited ‘city’ approved operators, huh?…oh, ok, i see…like the city-subsidized nitwits who currently ‘occupy’ (sort of) the half-empty soulard market, mostly vacant laclede’s landing, empty locust street district, hollow union station, closed city centre disaster, bankrupt renaissance hotel project, and other ’success’ stories?…great…