Restaurant veteran Matt McGuire has signed a lease at the former Jimmy’s on the Park space on DeMun Avenue in Clayton, where he will open a restaurant called Louie.

Jimmy's closed this past January, following a 21-year run.

The former owner of the renowned King Louie’s (at Chouteau and 39th, where Catering St. Louis’ City Cottage on Chouteau is now) says he “didn’t want to overthink it, so I’m calling it just Louie, minus the King. Louie is what we all called the restaurant back then anyway. I wanted a continuation of that theme.”

The Jimmy’s space was too large for most potential restaurant operators, so the landlord subdivided the space: Louie's 2,800 square feet will occupy the space between a new hair salon and Sasha’s Wine Bar.

“You only want a Jimmy's size space a few times a year, maybe,” McGuire says, “not every day of the year.”

The address for all three businesses is 706 DeMun Avenue, a holdover from when the entire footprint was occupied by a grocery store, J. F. Luebke Grocery Co. McGuire says he’s always loved the DeMun area; when he discovered the provenance of the address, he pulled the trigger. “My grandfather had been a neighborhood grocer all his life,” he says. “And I’m pretty sure Louie’s door was the entrance to the grocery, so I felt a connection.”

The original King Louie’s was approachable enough for diners to visit several times each week, but that changed over its 13-year tenure.Though it eventually morphed into a special-occasion restaurant McGuire wants Louie to be an "any-occasion restaurant.” While the original King Louie’s didn't do much business during the weekdays, McGuire says, “I don’t think that will be an issue on DeMun.”

Asked to quantify “approachable,” McGuire says the yet-to-be-determined number of seats will dictate the price point. “As soon as I can put together a realistic seating chart, I can dial that number in,” he says.

McGuire describes Louie as an “American restaurant, informed by French and Italian cuisine,” no doubt influenced by his fondness of French bistros and Italian trattorias. Expect small plates, big plates, and sharable items, “so people in the industry can afford to sit at the bar, eat a pizza, and drink a criminal amount of wine while they’re doing it,” McGuire jokes.

“We’re not going after Michelin stars,” he adds. “We’re going after food that people like at a price point that makes sense.”

McGuire has already lined up a chef, a native St. Louisan whom he’s worked with before, though he didn't reveal the person's name.

Jonathan Gayman Matt McGuire Photograph by St. Louis Photographer Jonathan Gayman.

The 46-year-old McGuire (pictured at right) has deep roots in the industry. In 1995, he and a group of investors bought Billy Goat Hill, the landmark saloon at 3800 Chouteau, and renamed it King Louie’s.

“I’ll never forget the day I was on the courthouse steps trying to buy that bar,” McGuire recalls, ”talking to a guy who was also interested in it. He said, ‘You’re actually going to do something with that piece of crap building? I was going to tear it down and sell the land back to the railroad.’ I was like 27 and never felt so small or so stupid. I bought it anyway.”

After King Louie’s, McGuire worked for Jonathan Parker. He helped host dinners in the back of the original Parker’s Table, located on Maryland Avenue in Clayton. When Aaron Teitelbaum and Jeff Orbin opened the much-ballyhooed Monarch in Maplewood, McGuire became its general manager. Afterward, he worked for Gerard Craft at Brasserie by Niche.

In 2013, McGuire left Brasserie to open the 10,000-square-foot Central Table Food Hall (now Central Table)—no small task. Central Table had four separate kitchens, each with a chef who communicated with the others via headsets. Ensuring the items from each kitchen arrived at the tables in unison was McGuire. Despite the logistics, Central Table opened to rave reviews.

After McGuire's contract expired at Central Table, he returned to the Niche Food Group to become its director of service, where his main task was staffing the restaurants with qualified people. “My job was to shake the trees and develop people,” he says. “I really liked my job at Niche and never really had an overriding desire to do a Chez Matt, but this opportunity seemed very right to me. It was the right size, in the right neighborhood, and it’s located in a former grocery store. I wish my grandfather was here to see me do it.”

At the moment, McGuire is familiarizing himself with the space and has yet to determine an architect and designer, as well as a tentative opening date.