Beginning tonight and scheduled to run for the remainder of the summer, Central West End restaurants will expand their services onto the street to provide safer dining options amid the COVID-19 pandemic. By extending their patios onto sections of Euclid Avenue, restaurants and bars in the neighborhood will increase their operations from 5–10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Central West End businesses worked with the Central West End Business Community Improvement District and the City of St. Louis to execute the program. “Our small businesses are the lifeblood of the Central West End and thanks to this program, many of them will be able to safely seat more customers,” said Kate Haher, executive director of the CWE Business Community Improvement District. “We know restaurants in particular have suffered during the shutdown and we want to give them the best possible chance of surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, while providing a place for visitors to the CWE this summer.”
Safety measures will require tables to be 6 feet apart and guests to wear masks when not eating. There will also be hand-sanitizing stations at the end of each dining section. "'Streatery' programs have taken off all over the country, so we've been looking at what other cities have been doing as well and making sure we fall in line with all the official guidelines," says Erica Lembo, marketing coordinator for the Central West End Business Community Improvement District.
Lembo says it's possible that the program could be extended into September considering restaurants' need for more safe seating during the pandemic. "We're going to continue to evaluate the program to see how it's going, how businesses are feeling and to make sure people are following guidelines and everything's still safe and productive," Lembo says.
"We've never done something like this before," she continues. "We're not quite sure what the community response will be, though we've heard from restaurants and other people in the neighborhood that they're excited about it. We're hoping that people will feel safer to want to come out and enjoy a meal."
These sections of Euclid will be closed to traffic during the program:
- Euclid North of McPherson to the first alley
- Euclid South of McPherson to the first alley
- Euclid North of Maryland to Carriage Lane/the first alley North of Maryland
Participating Streateries Include:
- Drunken Fish
- El Burro Loco
- Mission Taco Joint
- Pi Pizzeria
- Ranoush
- Salt + Smoke
- Up-Down STL
