Yes, We're an Immersive Dining Experience — Here's What That Actually Means to Us
People ask us all the time what makes The Fountain on Locust different.
The honest answer is that we're not really a restaurant with art in it.
We're more like a piece of art that happens to serve extraordinary
food and cocktails — and we think that distinction matters.
The Fountain on Locust’s founder Joy Grdnic paints her muses on the wall during the early days of The Fountain on Locust.
We get asked a version of this question pretty regularly, and we love it every time: Is The Fountain on Locust really an immersive dining experience? Sometimes it comes from someone who has never visited and is trying to set their expectations. Sometimes it comes from a regular who wants to know how to describe us to a friend they are bringing for the first time.
Our answer is always the same: yes. But we want to tell you what that actually means — because "immersive dining experience" can sound like a marketing phrase, and what happens inside this building on Locust Street is something much more specific and much more real than that.
It Starts With the Building Itself
We did not build this place from scratch and theme it to look like something. Our founder Joy Grdnic bought a 108-year-old landmark on Locust Street in Midtown St. Louis and fell in love with what was already here. It didn’t look like much at the time, but boy did it have potential. The bones of this building — the soaring ceilings, the bold geometric lines, the sheer volume of the space — these things exist because this was once an automobile showroom on St. Louis's Historic Automotive Row. The grandeur was always part of the architecture. We just get to be its current stewards.
When Joy transformed this space into The Fountain on Locust in 2008, she did something remarkable: she honored what the building already was rather than fighting it. The Art Deco direction was not arbitrary. It was a conversation with the structure itself, designed originally by architect Preston J. Bradshaw; with the era in which it was built, the glamour of the city it served, the spirit of craftsmanship that went into every Stutz automobile that was once assembled here by hand.
We're not a restaurant with art in it. We're a piece of art that happens to serve extraordinary food and cocktails — and to us, that distinction is everything.
The Murals Are Not Decoration.
They're the Point.
The floor-to-ceiling hand-painted Art Deco murals that cover our walls are the first thing most guests notice when they walk in, and they are the thing people most often mention when they describe us to someone who has never been. We understand why. They are genuinely breathtaking — sweeping, detailed, rich with the visual language of the 1930s and 1940s — and they do something that printed art or photographs simply cannot do in a space this size: they surround you completely.
When you sit down at The Fountain, you are not looking at art from across a room. You are inside it. The murals wrap the entire space, pulling you into another era with a totality that takes most guests a moment to fully absorb. We have watched people walk through our front door and simply stop — just stop in the doorway — because the visual experience of the room hits them all at once.
That is what we mean when we say immersive. It is not a word we use lightly. It is a word we use because it is accurate.
A Building That Was Always Meant to Be Extraordinary
We think the history of this building is part of what you feel when you walk in — even if you don't know it consciously. There is something about a space that has been significant for over a century that settles into the walls. Here is how we got here.
1916 - Construction
Our building is constructed on Locust Street as part of St. Louis's Historic Automotive Row — one of a string of showrooms serving the city's booming automobile culture. It was first home to the Leach-Brouster & Company automotive dealer.
1918-1924 - The Supreme Car Co.
The building houses The Supreme Car Co., dealers of the legendary Stutz Blackhawk and Stutz Bearcat. Each car is built to order by hand. Only two are on display at a time. The craftsmanship is extraordinary. The Supreme Car Company remains in the building through 1924.
1925-1938 - Various Used Car Dealerships
The building is transformed into the Southwest Nash Company, offering used automobiles along historic automotive row, then later into Render-Rengers Buick (1932-1934), Central Chevrolet (1937-1938).
1939-1960 - Office Building
From 1939-1960, it went through periods of vacancy and neglect while intermittently being occupied by companies including the Coca Cola Bottling Company’s advertising department, the Schemmer Brokerage Company and Prim Corporation.
2005 - Joy's Vision
Joy Grdnic purchases the building and begins an incredible journey to transform it into something St. Louis has never seen — a retro soda fountain and café rooted in 1930s and 1940s glamour. The building was boarded up, run down and long neglected. The transformation would take 3 years.
2008 - The Doors Open
The Fountain on Locust opens its doors. The Art Deco murals go up. The Ice Cream Martinis are poured. St. Louis dining is permanently changed.
2021 - Danni & Ike Eickenhorst
We take ownership — two people who had been coming here as guests for years. Our job, as we see it, is simply to protect and deepen what Joy built. We take that responsibility seriously every single day.
Danni and Marcus “Ike” Eickenhorst, took over as stewards and owners of the legendary Fountain on Locust in 2021.
We're Part of Something Bigger Than Ourselves — Midtown Alley & Grand Center
One of the things we feel most grateful for is where we are. The Fountain on Locust sits in Midtown Alley — one of St. Louis's most exciting and fast-evolving neighborhoods — right on the doorstep of the Grand Center Arts District, and that location is not incidental to what we are. It is essential to it.
We are part of an arts ecosystem. The institutions around us are world-class, and on any given evening the streets of Grand Center are filled with people who came for a concert, a show, a gallery opening, or a performance — and who are looking for a dining experience that matches the cultural ambition of the evening they are having. We think about that responsibility often. We want to be worthy of the neighborhood we are in.
Our Neighborhood
The Grand Center Arts District — St. Louis's Cultural Heart
The Fox Theatre
St. Louis's legendary 4,500-seat entertainment palace, hosting Broadway tours, headline concerts, and special events year-round. The Fountain is the ideal dinner before the show.
Just Steps Away…
Powell Symphony Hall
Home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra — one of America's finest — and one of the most acoustically celebrated concert halls in the country.
An Easy Walk…
The Sovereign
Grand Center's acclaimed cocktail lounge, offering a sophisticated atmosphere that pairs beautifully with a Fountain dinner for a complete evening in the district.
Grand Center Arts District
Galleries, theaters, performance spaces, and cultural institutions surround The Fountain on all sides — making every visit a full evening in one of St. Louis's most beloved neighborhoods.
If you are planning an evening at the Fox Theatre or a night at the Symphony, we want you to know that dinner at The Fountain is not just a convenient option nearby — it is the beginning of the experience, not the prelude to it. Guests regularly tell us that The Fountain was their favorite part of the evening. We love hearing that. We also know it puts a little pressure on us to keep delivering, and we welcome that.
The Detail That Always Surprises People
Beyond the murals and the architecture, there is one element of The Fountain experience that almost nobody expects until they discover it: "Soap Hospital." It is the only restaurant radio comedy serial in existence — playing in our west-side bar booths on a continuous loop, with a brand-new episode every two minutes. It is strange and delightful and completely unlike anything you have encountered in a restaurant before, which is precisely why we love it.
It is also, in a small way, a perfect illustration of what we are trying to do here. The murals are the big statement. Soap Hospital is the whisper in the corner that rewards the curious. An immersive experience is not just the thing you see when you walk in — it is everything you discover the longer you stay. We have been here for years and we are still finding new things to love about this place.
If you have been to The Fountain before and never sat in the west-side bar booths, that is your homework for your next visit. Order a cocktail. Settle in. Listen. You will understand.
So — Is It Worth It?
We are obviously biased. But here is what we can tell you objectively: The Fountain on Locust has been named Best Place to Impress Out-of-Towners, Best Place for a First Date in St. Louis, Best Place to Get Engaged in St. Louis, and one of the Top 4 Restaurants in St. Louis by TripAdvisor. Feast Magazine gave us Best Service in St. Louis in 2023. Only in Your State named us home of the Best Soup in Missouri.
Those awards come from a lot of different directions, but they all point at the same thing: people leave here feeling like something genuinely special happened. That is the goal every single day — not just great food and great cocktails, but a complete experience that makes the world outside feel a little further away for a while.
Come see us. We are at 3037 Locust Street, right in the heart of Midtown Alley, in a building that has been remarkable since 1916. We think you'll feel it the moment you walk in.
